With the SAG contract ratified, will the film business finally get back to normal?

Unfortunately, no. Although we'll see a brief spike in production, the business we once knew may never reappear, for a host of reasons. . . . to read more,...

Trademark protection just got slightly more complicated, but in a good way. Starting now, there's a new step that trademark holders or their attorneys should take to protect their trademarks or service marks.

You probably already know that registering domain names corresponding to your...

In a stunning defeat for the hardline Membership First faction, SAG's TV/theatrical contract passed overwhelmingly, by a 78%-22% margin (almost 4 to 1), those numbers according to the guild. Variety first reported the story, prior to the guild's announcement, with a 1% difference in the numbers....

Several months ago, we learned that pilot season this year was 94% AFTRA (or 87% by some calculations), a complete 180 from its usual 90% SAG. That didn't look good for SAG, but a few Membership First hardliners urged us to wait and see how the...

It's tough to get anything produced in Hollywood, and a conference is no exception. Two years in the making, the two-day Produced By Conference not only got made, it sold out, with over 500 attendees. Bold-face names on the more than 30 panels included Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, producer Mark...

SAG and AFTRA announced yesterday that their combined paid-up membership, about 132,000 members, overwhelmingly ratified the contracts between the unions and the advertising industry. The result was expected, as there was no organized opposition. About 28% returned their ballots, about typical. Of those voting, about 94%...

The referendum on the proposed contract between SAG and the studios began yesterday, as ballot packets were mailed to about 110,000 paid up members of the Screen Actors Guild. The votes are due back June 9. Will the agreement be ratified? SAG President Alan Rosenberg

Where did the Screen Actors Guild go? After months of news--a near daily barrage covered diligently by various journalists and citizen-journalists, including this author--the guild fell off the radar screen. It was as though 5757 Wilshire, SAG's national headquarters, somehow disappeared into the black hole that features...

What if you held a picnic and nobody came? That's almost where Membership First found itself yesterday. A beautiful day, a heavily promoted event, yet the SAG faction was only able to draw about 70 people to its Griffith Park / LA Zoo shindig, reports Variety....

SAG's Hollywood branch, dominated by the hardline Membership First faction, has passed a motion forming a task force to explore "acquisition of actors of AFTRA," reports SAGWatch. The purpose of the awkwardly-phrased motion is evidently to eliminate AFTRA's jurisdiction over television acting (long a stated...

The ballots for SAG's recently approved TV/theatrical contract won't be going out until mid to late May, a source tells me, several weeks later than the early May target that the Guild stated as recently as a week or so ago. That means that ratification,...

Voting on party lines, a sharply divided SAG board approved the tentative deal with the studios yesterday by a vote of about 53% to 47%. The deal now goes to the membership for ratification, with a bruising fight promised by the hardline MembershipFirst faction. Ratification is...

The Screen Actors Guild and the AMPTP (alliance representing studios and producers) reached tentative agreement yesterday on a two-year TV/theatrical contract, potentially ending a ten-month stalemate that halted production of most studio movies and put thousands of people out of work.

The deal...

The Screen Actors Guild stalemate grinds on. Variety says there are back-channel talks with studio heads, but it's hard to know whether talks are actually in progress or, if any, how substantive they are. These rumors have persisted off and on for almost two months...

Last year proved that time is not on SAG's side. Recall that the union's then-leadership wanted better terms in new media than the other Hollywood unions got. Without leverage, all SAG achieved was stalemate, and it's had no contract with the studios since last June. SAG...

Score one for labor. SAG and AFTRA jointly reached a deal late last night with the advertising industry, retaining the current lucrative compensation structure for broadcast network commercials, and largely resisting the industry's attempt to reduce pension and health contributions. Solidarity, it seems, makes a difference. In...

As expected, the membership of IATSE, the union representing Hollywood crew members, ratified that organization's proposed contract with the studios yesterday, although not without significant opposition. The new contract takes effect August 1 and runs for three years, as is usual with

Though it gets less play than the stalled SAG TV/theatrical talks, SAG and AFTRA have been jointly negotiating for several weeks with the advertising industry over the commercials contract. That contract is SAG's second most important, economically, and represents hundreds of millions of...

66 out of 70 TV pilots this year will be shot under AFTRA jurisdiction, reports the Hollywood Reporter today. That's 94% for AFTRA and only 6% for SAG. Meanwhile, I've been told somewhat different numbers that calculate out to about 87% AFTRA. Either way, it's a...

Keeping you up to date on miscellaneous goings-on in the world of Hollywood labor, here's what's happened in the last week or so:

• SAG Commercials Negotiations. These continue in NY under a press blackout. No news to report.