SAG Email: Messages of Support and Solidarity

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

Thank you for your dedication and unity.

More than 1,500 rank and file and highly recognizable SAG members have signed on to the Guild’s “Statement of Support” in just the last three days. We are working hard to get all of the names uploaded to our online list.  You can view the first 1,000 names by clicking this link http://www.sag.org/solidarity-list.

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SAG Email: Don’t Be Fooled by AMPTP Fiction

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

Screen Actors Guild today released the following statement in response to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producer’s (AMPTPs) ad scheduled for tomorrow.
“There they go again.  The  AMPTP’s ad is great fiction, with convoluted bullet points and confused messages — and, it’s completely wrong.

Here’s the truth:
*     Under the AMPTP’s current  offer, streaming of new television product on hulu.com and other new media platforms  pays day performers about  $46 for the first year’s use.  Not  per run of the episode, but for the whole year, and that’s  only after a 17-day FREE rerun window.

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AMPTP Advertisement

Jay Leno’s Move Hints at Future of Prime-Time TV

With one sweeping shift this week, the ailing NBC network reordered the playing field of prime-time television. The introduction of a five-night-a-week program starring Jay Leno, beginning next fall, was a concession that TV norms cannot continue, at least not at fourth-place NBC.

“We do have to continue to rethink what a broadcast network is,” Jeffrey Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said at an industry conference Monday, hours before the news of Mr. Leno’s new assignment emerged. He warned that if changes were not undertaken, “the broadcast networks will end up like the newspaper business or, worse, like the car companies.” Maybe Mr. Zucker has seen the future; after all, his network has lost 50 percent of its 10 p.m. audience in the last three years.

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Click here for my article on this

SAG faces dissension from NY board

A faction of SAG called for the union to suspend an upcoming vote to authorize a strike amid stalled negotiations with Hollywood producers.

The announcement represents a major split between the union’s Hollywood leadership and a more moderate group based in New York. The group hopes its opposition will force the union to rethink the timing of its vote scheduled for January.

“Our members and our industry are struggling through the worst economic crisis in memory,” the New York board said in a statement. “While issuing a strike authorization may have been a sensible strategy in October, we believe it is irresponsible to do so now.”

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E-mail sent to SAG Members last night

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

Your union today announced its member solidarity campaign and issued the names of the first 31 signers to the “Statement of Support.”  The list includes leading stage and screen actors among whom are several Academy Award winners and nominees.  SAG members signing the statement so far include Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Martin Sheen, Sandra Oh, Hal Holbrook, Dixie  Carter, John Heard, Jerry O’Connell, Rob Morrow and others as well as Guild secretary treasurer Connie Stevens, 1st national vice president Anne-Marie Johnson, board members Elliott Gould,  Frances Fisher, Valerie Harper, Robert Hays, Justine Bateman, Clancy Brown,  Charles Shaughnessy, Scott Bakula, and Diane Ladd.

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SAG to settle if authorization fails?

From Variety: Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild have admitted they’ll probably have to accept the congloms’ final offer if members don’t approve the strike authorization.

SAG national exec director Doug Allen and president Alan Rosenberg made the disclosure in response to questions Wednesday during a meeting to brief publicists and managers about the authorization campaign. For SAG leaders to be able to call a strike, 75% of those voting would have to vote affirmatively on the authorization.

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Charles Shaughnessy talks about product integration

Remember him? The British guy from ‘The Nanny‘? Here he talks about the AMPTP wanting actors to do product integration… without us having any say in the matter.

Anne-Marie Johnson wants you to vote “Yes”

2008 Golden Globe Nominations Announced

HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION 2008 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS NOMINATIONS FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008

1. BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

a. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures
b. FROST/NIXON
Imagine Entertainment, Working Title, Studio Canal; Universal Pictures
c. THE READER
Mirage Enterprises; The Weinstein Company
d. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
An Evamere Entertainment BBC Films Neal Street Production; DreamWorks Pictures in Association with BBC Films and Paramount Vantage
e. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros.; Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros.

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How important is the truth? Big time Directors discuss

How important is the factual truth? How much risk can a filmmaker take?

The Hollywood Reporter asks these questions and more to Darren Aronofsky (’The Wrestler’), Danny Boyle(Slumdog Millionaire), Clint Eastwood (Changeling, Gran Torino), Ron Howard (”Frost/Nixon”), Gus Van Sant(”Milk”) and Edward Zwick (”Defiance”) in a recent roundtable discussion.

Click here for the Q&A

EW weighs in on why NBC is bringing Leno to primetime

As I wrote here, NBC bringing Jay Leno to primetime is a total game-changing situation.

Entertainment Weekly has their thoughs on the subject: “If there’s one thing NBC needs now, it’s solutions. Viewership is down 11 percent, the fall slate is in shambles, and the network needs to salvage whatever credibility it has left with Madison Avenue.”

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SAG releases statement about the strike authorization vote

Screen Actors Guild today announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to paid-up SAG members on Friday January 2, 2009, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the measure, which would authorize SAG’s national board of directors to call a strike, if and when the board determines it is necessary.

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AMPTP putting the fear out

It’s now official: SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history. We hope that working actors will study our contract offer carefully and come to the conclusion that no strike can solve the problems that have been created by SAG’s own failed negotiation strategy.

Alan Rosenberg on the AMPTP: “Do you trust them?”

Inside the SAG Town Hall Meeting

DHD has the scoop on what happened inside the standing room only meeting last night and it apparently wasn’t much.

Of the 455 SAG members in attendance, most said they were going to vote for a strike authorization.

Read it here.

Were you there? Let us know what happened.

Going to the SAG meeting tonight? Get there early

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

We know many of you plan to attend the informational Town Hall meeting at Harmony Gold Theater tomorrow at 7 pm. While we tried to secure a larger  venue, seasonal parties, award consideration screenings, and our policy to use only union facilities, limited our options.

We will admit the first 450 members who have paid up SAG membership cards to the Town Hall. We are currently looking for an appropriate venue so that we can hold another Town Hall for Hollywood SAG members very soon.

We appreciate your interest in your union and will continue to work around the clock to plan an additional Town Hall in the near future.

Thank you.

Heath Ledger is not making it easy for Warner Brothers

How do you run an Oscar campaign for Heath Ledger, who died last January of an overdose of prescription drugs?

Warner Brothers is trying to tread the line between tribute and exploitation in rallying academy support for the late actor’s maniacal performance as the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight.’

Click here for the story

Hollywood Reporters 100 Most Powerful Women

The Hollywood Reporter has released their 100 most powerful women in Hollywood. Number 1? Oprah.

The actress who placed highest? Angelina Jolie at 24.

100? Miley Cyrus. Yup… I thought the same thing.

Click here for the list

Roger Ebert: The best films of the year

Roger Ebert gives us not 10 but the top 20 films of the year. Admittedly, I haven’t heard of half of them… but this is well worth a look.

Click here for the look

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