Aieee, it's alive! Remember Phase One? That's the 27 year old joint bargaining arrangement between SAG and AFTRA that collapsed this spring, leading to AFTRA making a separate primetime TV deal with the studios and networks and SAG sliding into a stalemate, leaving it with no...

Fitch Ratings, a leading global rating agency that rates the credit of large businesses, municipal governments, and entire industry sectors (they must be very busy these days), has produced a short analysis of the effect of a possible SAG strike on the credit ratings of media conglomerates....

As I blogged yesterday, SAG's negotiating committee has the power to send a strike authorization referendum to the membership at large, but it instead punted to the national board. In other words, the negotiating committee recommended that the national board send out such a referendum.

SAG moved closer to a strike today, but not quite as far as some predicted. The guild's negotiating committee, which has the power to send a strike authorization referendum to the membership at large, instead elected to recommend to the national board that it...

Lewis Carroll was a master of bizarre fantasy, willful illogic, and headstrong characters. Not surprisingly, that often makes his shape-shifting prose relevant to present-day concerns. Consider Alice's fall down the rabbit hole:

The rabbit-hole ... dipped...

SAG sent the studios a somewhat-gentle nudge today, firing off a letter to the head of the studio alliance and two key studio heads that identified three key issues (force majeure and two new media issues) and concluded with the almost-friendly "What do you say; when can our committees meet...

The SAG elections are over, and the Unite for Strength challenger slate now has a razor-thin majority on the national SAG Board. Indeed, one of MF's three key leaders, David Jolliffe, was bounced off the Board (and the alternate pool) altogether. This result, achieved by UFS...

Sarah Palin may not know what the Bush Doctrine is, but SAG's leadership seems to have forgotten what we might call the (Teddy) Roosevelt Doctrine: speak softly and carry a big stick. (It's actually part of a West African proverb, apparently.) Perhaps the Guild...

Hollywood's labor troubles seemingly haven't been so bad since the days of police brutality at studio gates, when actors, writers and directors were first trying to unionize. That's an exaggeration, of course (and there has been much turbulence in the intervening years), but even...

SAG staggers on, occupied by bitterness and dissension, but with little apparent progress towards a deal with the studios. The last contract expired almost three months ago. Does that mean one's impossible? No. Here's a plan.

(Hats off to Stephen Diamond for his memo...

AFTRA's got a deal, but SAG doesn't. Variety says AFTRA's been signing up new TV shows. What else is going on with this union, a smaller rival to the Screen Actors Guild? To get the scoop, I sat down with AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth. Check out the...

On Look at LA this week, I'm doing a live streaming video interview with AFTRA's National Executive Director, Kim Roberts Hedgpeth.

As you probably know, AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and its relations with the studios and its sister union SAG, have been much in the...

The Screen Actors Guild's Board elections are in process. Last week on Look at LA, I interviewed the two large slates of candidates, Membership First and Unite for Strength. This week, I interviewed many of the independent candidates.

The common theme: frustration -- with the studios...

I don't mind bar codes, at least when they're on books, boxes, and bags of sugar. When I find them on ballots, though, I get more nervous. That turns out to be a legitimate concern in the case of the Screen Actors Guild, which sent out...

Last week, I did live Internet online video interviews on my Look at LA talk show with representatives of Membership First and Unite for Strength, the two slates battling for control of the Screen Actors Guild Board. Those interviews were widely viewed and blogged about.

But - those...

When will there be a new SAG TV/theatrical contract - i.e., when will the studios and SAG close a deal? My guess: not until January or even February of next year. Do the math:

1. If Membership First wins...

What happens if the challengers, Unite for Strength, win control of the SAG National Board? That would effectively happen if UFS (aka U4S) won a certain number of seats, apparently about 6 seats, displacing incumbents who are members of Membership First (MF), the dominant faction. There's...

Last week I conducted interviews with David Jolliffe and Anne-Marie Johnson, leaders of the dominant Membership First faction of the SAG National (and Hollywood) Board, and Ned Vaughn, leader of Unite for Strength, the challengers. An actor-like congeniality reigned, including flirtatiousness in Johnson's case. Clear and convincing...

Yesterday, I did live streaming video interviews with SAG candidates and board members from the incumbent, dominant faction, Membership First (represented by David Jolliffe and Ann-Marie Johnson), and the challengers, Unite for Strength (represented by Ned Vaughn). Watch them at http://digitalmedialaw.blogspot.com/2008/08/archive-video-of-interviews-with-sag.html.

Some highlights from the interviews: Unite for Strength...

There's a fight for control of the Screen Actors Guild. Elections are going on now, and may determine whether and when the Guild finally reaches a deal with the studios. Join me as I interview representatives of Unite for Strength, the challengers in this election, and of of the dominant...