Eating Crow For Xmas
Dec. 12 2008, Published 1:10 p.m. ET
This just in: with all the ballyhoo about the upcoming strike authorization vote, the Screen Actors Guild seems to be back-peddling just a little.
If the membership fails to okay a strike -- which requires 75% of the membership, and would effectively shut down the film and TV biz -- management says they would be forced to take the same deal the studios put on the table five months ago.
"I don't think we're gonna pass this resolution," said one SAG member of the January 2 vote. "Not only would it cripple our union and the unions that depend on us, like all the technical crews and caterers and people like that, but it would force the studios to go to cheaper reality shows and animated programs, which aren't covered by SAG.
"In the end, those are jobs that will never come back to us."
Case in point: when hit shows like Heroes and Pushing Daisies returned after a lengthy hiatus due to the writers strike, viewers had lost interest.
The dispute is mostly about the pay for union actors working in on-line projects, and whether non-union actors should appear in webisodes.
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