Hollywood’s Civil War (Entertainment)

The deadline for contract negotiations between the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is only three days away, and even though a work stoppage looks eminent, Hollywood still isn’t short on drama.

We are only several months removed from the writers’ strike, but this one is far more interesting, which is odd. Usually Hollywood doesn’t do well with sequels. And if you consider the AMPTP to be the bad guys, then the bad guys are winning.

What’s going on in Hollywood right now is a lesson in military strategy. The AMPTP would never admit it, so what follows is strictly conjecture, but the Hollywood producers have employed the ancient Machiavellian method of divide and conquer.

Sure, that makes the AMPTP look malicious, but since they’re the closest thing there is to “the man” in Tinseltown, you have to assume they’re doing everything they can to keep the actors down.

Here’s how the AMPTP is playing the table.

SAG has roughly 120,000 members according to its Website, but around 44,000 of those members also belong to a second, lesser-known union, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFRTA).

Ok, we’re about to throw around a bunch of initialisms here so just holler if you get confused.

When the WGA went on strike months ago, they had a huge advantage. That’s because the WGA understood the importance of togetherness when achieving a common goal.

But SAG and AFRTA don’t have that luxury, or at least that knowledge. Perhaps it’s close-minded and stereotypical of me to think that an army of actors have slightly more ravenous egos than an army of writers, but then again, actors have two separate yet redundant unions to represent them.

Anyway, instead of working cohesively with SAG, AFRTA negotiated a separate contract with the AMPTP, even though 44,000 AFRTA members are also SAG members and SAG still isn’t happy with how the AMPTP is treating them.

Still with me? Goody.

So even though SAG and AFRTA are sister unions, now the members of SAG are mad the members of AFRTA for making nice with the enemy, except for the 44,000 people who belong to both unions. They’re just mad at themselves, I guess.

We won’t know until July 8 if AFTRA will officially accept their new agreement with the AMPTP, but if they do, it’s going to make SAG look like a bunch of whiners that just need to get on with it.

But if AFTRA rejects the offer, then SAG still has ground to fight on.

Because of this, SAG has to fight a war on two fronts. Not only to they have to keep turning the screws into the producers, but they also have to lobby AFTRA not to accept their offer.

In the meantime, production in Hollywood is already screeching to a halt.

Basically, the actors are more fractured than the Democratic Party right now, and someone should really give them a hand by scripting their next move.

Hey, why not give the WGA a call? I doubt they’re busy.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.