The Screen Actors Guild has made its strike threat official, announcing it will send out authorization ballots Jan. 2 and reveal the results Jan. 23 — setting the stage for an Oscars boycott and a halt to most production.
SAG announced the timeline Wednesday with the goal of forcing congloms back to the bargaining table, even though the companies declared five months ago they were finished with negotiations. The companies have insisted they won’t change their final offer to SAG, made June 30 as SAG’s contract expired, and they’ve blasted guild leaders for insisting they deserve a sweeter deal than the other Hollywood unions. – from Variety
On Monday night, SAG had SRO for its informational meeting about possibly going AWOL. The embattled actors union held a spirited town hall meeting at the Harmony Gold Theater to discuss its looming strike authorization procedure. Only 450 or so members were able to fit into the venue, but, according to SAG president Alan Rosenberg, nearly all raised their hands for an informal head count of who would vote for strike authorization before the end of the year. – from THR
None of the big Hollywood or NYC management companies showed up like 360 or Brillstein, though half a dozen managers from the boutiques did. But many of the powerful PR firms like PMK/HBH, BWR, BMC, Rogers & Cowan, ID, Sue Patricola, Polaris PR, 42 West, and Wolf Kasteler, sent people. Nevertheless, attendance today at the SAG confab was surprisingly sparse. But the shocking news was that The Oscars didn’t come up once, I’m told.
“I thought about asking about them,” one bigtime flack said to me. “But it just felt too premature to bring that up in this conversation that was so focused on the issue at hand of why a strike authorization is so important to allow SAG to use that as leverage.” – from Deadline Hollywood
