Actor Negotiations Near Contract Deadline

L O S  A N G E L E S, June 29, 2001 -- As the contract deadline nears for Hollywood

actors, negotiators for performers and studios are trying to

resolve key issues that include residuals and pay for middle-class

actors, the majority of guild membership.

Both sides maintained a news blackout as the 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline approaches. While the state of the talks isn'tpublicly known, a breakdown could devastate the Los Angeles-areaeconomy, costing billions in lost revenue.

The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation ofTelevision and Radio Artists have not called for a strikeauthorization vote, but a breakdown in talks could trigger one.

"People in Los Angeles should be very concerned," said RossDeVol, a chief analyst with The Milken Institute, an economic thinktank in Santa Monica. "There appears to be a false sense ofcomplacency, with many people believing a deal is a foregoneconclusion. It's not."

Among the guilds' top concerns is increasing residual paymentsfor shows rebroadcast on cable and in foreign markets. They alsowant higher initial pay for screen work and assurances that studioswill limit the number of productions filmed outside the UnitedStates.

Middle-Income Actors Looking for Better Pay

SAG negotiator Brian Walton said a new deal also must improvethe lives of middle-income actors whose earnings have been reducedby inflated special-effects budgets and salaries for big-namestars.

"This is really a blue-collar union, and stars now won't alwaysbe stars tomorrow," Walton said before the news blackout. "Theseactors need to know they will be able to pay their rent, theirmortgage and buy their kids school clothes."

Of the nearly 135,000 performers the two guilds represent, onlyabout 2 percent earn more than $100,000 a year, includingmultimillion-dollar celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Julia Robertsand Harrison Ford.

About 75,000 actors earn between $30,000 and $70,000 ayear, and nearly half of the guilds' members are unemployed.

Talks began May 15 with the Alliance of Motion Picture andTelevision Producers, which represents the studios and networks.Actors wanted a pay raise of 5 percent over the last contract, withproducers offering 3.5 percent.

The uncertainty prompted studios to accelerate shooting on filmsin production.

Spielberg Bows Out of Press Tours for ‘A.I.’

Director Steven Spielberg bowed out of press tours for his newfilm "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" because of the scramble tofinish his current project, the futuristic thriller "MinorityReport."

If he left the set for even a few days, producer Bonnie Curtissaid, there's no guarantee he could finish with star Tom Cruisebefore a possible walkout.

Hollywood could grind to a halt with a so-called "de factostrike" even if an agreement is reached in the coming weeks.

That's because producers will not start a new movie until anactors' deal is made final, and then it takes nearly eight weeks tocomplete preproduction work.

Fall TV shows, which begin filming in the summer, also could bedelayed for weeks.

Last year, the unions staged a six-month strike by commercialactors that might have driven as much as dlrs 1 billion worth ofwork overseas. The same thing could happen to the movie industry iftheatrical actors strike.

"If a strike gives producers a bigger incentive to go offshoreand get this work done, it makes it much easier to keep it there,"DeVol said.

A monthlong strike would cost the region more than 21,000 jobsand dlrs 1.3 billion, according to a study by The Milken Instituteand Sebago Associates Inc., an economic and public policyconsulting firm.

Movies and TV shows account for nearly 185,000 jobs in the LosAngeles area.

An earlier contract agreement by the Writers Guild of Americagave analysts hope about the actors union talks. Gains that writersmade were expected to be a template for actors, but the performernegotiations have progressed slowly.