Third Time’s The Charm

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I’m all for positive thinking but me thinks it’s going to be a lean holiday season for those of us in California.

You’ll recall the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and how it fairly leveled what then was a good economy in California. Tumbleweeds blew through the poshest shopping districts of Los Angeles. Institutions that had been open for decades quickly folded. Yours truly had to get a second job. Then they came to an agreement. And thank heavens for that because when that strike was over, only Victoria Beckham and Tom Cruise seemed to have any money left.

We held our breath when the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Arts (AFTRA) also went to the table. We hoped their strike wouldn’t last as long and it didn’t, and before we knew it, we forgot all about the pesky rumor that the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) would also strike.

No, we were too busy celebrating our three seconds of the queers being able to marry. We were immersed in an historical election while watching Wall Street fall apart. Obama won, but we had our rights taken away from us by people who don’t know the first thing about us as human beings and now, yes now, it’s going to get even more interesting.

Because it looks as if SAG will strike after all.

Federally mediated talks between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the AMPTP have failed to satisfy. As a result, SAG released an announcement over the weekend that they are now preparing for a possible strike. By preparing, they mean they will campaign to get the required 75 per cent of their 120,000 members to endorse moving forward with the strike. The Guild has yet to put a due date on the ballot, which further adds to the suspense. SAG stated recently, “Management continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly accept on behalf of our members.”

What was incredibly painful financially when the went on strike will be nothing compared to what will happen in an already battered economy should SAG go through with their plans. It comes as no surprise there are heated debates on both sides as to the wisdom of this move.

Will the Studios agree quickly to SAG’s terms after already having their run in with WGA, DGA, and AFTRA? Or will they quickly fold due to exhaustion? It doesn’t look likely at this point.

the AMPTP has said, “SAG continued unrealistically to insist on a substantially better deal than all of the other major Hollywood guilds and unions have negotiated so far in 2008. In the end, it was clear that SAG was not serious about using the mediation process to make a deal.”

It’s easy to look at the studios vs. the strikers as sort of David and Goliath. But Goliath is in the eye of the beholder it seems. Oil prices alone caused production costs to soar (think of all those equipment trucks driving from location to location.) And with pirating and flagging ticket sales, the studios are not making what they used to. Paying the actors residuals for Internet web series or repeat viewing of shows already airing on TV. might seem to some as actors being greedy.

But then there’s also the fact that not everyone makes Nicole Kidman’s paycheck or works nearly as often as Ms. Kidman does. Acting, whether some people take it seriously or not, is still a livelihood for scores of people who do not feel they are getting paid their due.

There’s been grumblings around town of greed. Namely one side believes the other to be greedy. I’m not so sure it’s that equal. The economy is in the toilet and FOR RENT signs dot so many lawns in Los Angeles, it’s made Craigslist obsolete, or at least it has for now.

Yes, we borrowed when we shouldn’t have, and went in over our heads. But something else has been happening in this country for a little too long. People aren’t getting paid. Or they are getting paid once but are expected to work for free on other things because there’s scores of others out of a job who would be glad for the chance. There’s this sense of deciding when someone’s been paid enough. As if someone has the right to make that decision over someone else.

I for one hope the studios don’t have to learn a lesson for a third time. The longer they take, the longer we will all pay.

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