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 Screen Actors Guild has passed the one-year anniversary of the start of its feature-primetime contract negotiations -- without a deal in place, though one's expected soon.

With SAG's feature-primetime contract at its usual stalemate, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA have launched what's expected to be a month of negotiations with the ad industry over the commercials contract.

 Talks began Monday morning at the Crowne Plaza in New York, with both sides presenting their opening statements amid a news blackout.

Strike two for Alan Rosenberg.

A judge on Thursday denied the SAG prexy's second request for a temporary restraining order to overturn the national board's firing of exec director Doug Allen and its abolition of SAG's contract negotiating committee -- meaning SAG's long-stalled feature-primetime negotiations may resume soon with a newly appointed guild task force in place.

WHERE does the Screen Actors Guild go from here?

Hollywood tried to get its head around that question on Tuesday after the firing of Doug Allen, the guild’s executive director and chief architect of its hard-line approach to labor negotiations.

Sources from inside SAG's marathon board meeting blasted Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg as a "corrupt and dirty chair," asserting that he and his Membership First allies repeatedly abused parliamentary rules throughout the "surreal" 28-hour national board meeting earlier this week in order to suppress the SAG board's moderate majority.

Some call it a Hail Mary pass.
Beleaguered Screen Actors Guild Executive Director Doug Allen, who barely survived an effort to oust him from his job at a marathon board meeting this week, is now attempting to make nice with his critics on the board in an apparent last-ditch effort to keep his job.

The worsening U.S. economy hit the nation's work force hard in December, as the unemployment rate climbed to 7.2% and brought the total number of jobs lost last year to just over 2.5 million -- the most since 1945.

Of those, 1.9 million vanished in just the final four months of the year.

Where do SAG contracts go when they expire? Who knows, but wherever it is, it’s getting more crowded by the day. The Guild's got a lot of unfinished business, it turns out. Here’s the tally of contracts that have expired or will do so shortly, in order by expiration date:

Homevid execs don't have quite as much to cheer about at CES this year.

The biz, which had hoped for a turnaround by the end of 2008, is instead headed to the tech confab on a down note. Final year-end results won't start to trickle in for a few more days, but there's little doubt that homevid spending ended down for the year.

Unions are forgoing previously negotiated wage increases and reopening contracts early, as they face pressure to help private and public employers conserve cash in the recession.

The givebacks are setting the stage for what is expected to be one of the toughest years in recent memory for labor negotiations, with several big contracts expiring.

Facing internal strife over stalled contract negotiations, Hollywood’s largest union decided late on Monday to postpone plans for a strike authorization vote and instead called for an emergency meeting of its national board in Los Angeles next month.

...“In light of the sharp and sudden opposition of so many of our members, it would have been reckless to go ahead without thinking twice,” said Ned Vaughn, a leader in the union’s Hollywood-based Unite for Strength faction.

The Screen Actors Guild has delayed sending out the strike authorization ballots until January 14 at the earliest, representing an approximately two-week delay from the originally scheduled mailing date of January 2.

...As reason for the move, the missive cited concerns by unnamed board members (presumably part of the hardline Membership First faction) over opposition that has resulted from over 100 high-profile actors (actually, over 130) and almost 1400 members. I'd guess that the opposition letters from the NY and Chicago boards had an effect as well, and that the Hollywood moderate Unite for Strength faction had an effect also (they met with Allen earlier in the day, per the LA Times).

Shaken by growing internal dissent that is splintering Hollywood's largest union, the Screen Actors Guild has postponed plans for a controversial strike authorization vote until after the union's national board meets to discuss the matter.

Even with much of the town now on vacation, the feverish battle over the SAG strike authorization vote will continue through the holidays.

Over the weekend, opponents added John and Ann Cusack, Jeff Garlin, George Lopez, Virginia Madsen, Susan Sarandon and Charlie Sheen to the roster of stars urging a no vote. As of Sunday afternoon, 1,373 members had endorsed the No SAG Strike petition, written three weeks ago by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.