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HOLLYWOOD--It's business as usual for the 120,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild, even though they've been without a contract as of Monday night.
After 42 days of negotiating without reaching any kind of accord, both SAG and the alliance representing movie and TV producers did agree to abide by terms of the expired contract for the time being.
Late Monday producers presented SAG negotiators with what it called its "final offer"--a 43-page proposal package which was said to be worth an additional $250 million in compensation to guild members over a three-year period.
While the actors guild told its members that it would officially respond to the offer when both sides are scheduled to reconvene this afternoon, the initial reaction from SAG's chief negotiator was that it failed to address key issues important to actors, including those pertaining to new media compensation.
So far a strike vote hasn't been taken by Guild members, although uncertainty over those contract negotiations has already taken its toll on the normally hectic summer film production schedule.
There has also been continuing discord between SAG and its smaller sister union AFTRA, which represents 70,000 TV performers, in the wake of AFTRA making its own deal with producers.
Although ratification results are expected next Tuesday, SAG has been urging AFTRA members--more than half of whom are also SAG members -- to reject the deal and to return to the bargaining table.
With production on the new, hopefully uninterrupted TV season scheduled to begin in a month's time, here's hoping the SAG negotiating team ends up looking more like Heroes than Lost.
Piece of the Walk
What do Robert Downey, Jr., Cameron Diaz, Sir Ben Kingsley and Canada's own RUSH have in common?
They're among the 25 recipients of a shiny new star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year, as diligently selected by a committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce from among hundreds of nominations.
Geddy and the guys will certainly be finding themselves in some illustrious company (take that, dumb Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!), what with Hugh Jackman, Ralph Fiennes, Leslie Caron, Tim Burton, real-life couple William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, Charles Durning, Harry Shearer, Kyra Sedgwick and The Miracles among the lucky honourees.
Mind you, also getting the star treatment are The Village People, Tinkerbell and John Stamos, but we're all about accentuating the positive.
Lost Boys still Lost
Neither Corey Feldman nor Corey Haim has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but they do have their own unscripted series, so there.
The Two Coreys recently unveiled its second season on A&E, and the reality show finds the on-again, off-again friends more messed up than ever, as impossible as that may seem.
To give you an idea, the producers of the show have been actively searching for a recovering addict who could serve as a combination "sober coach" and companion for one of them.
Hmmm ... wonder which of the two Coreys that would be ... ?