It’s been nice not reporting any news from the bowels of Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood blog, but a new item cannot be ignored as she insinuates that the Screen Actors Guild may be targeting the 2009 Oscar awards as a means to get contract negotiations moving. I have been relatively mum on the subject since covering the writers’ strike was a nightmare in and of itself and I just don’t have the time or patience to go another round on the subject, but if the award season is going to be targeted once again I must say that does not make me happy.
Finke reports on an email she was able to obtain sent out by “Jennifer Heater, manager of the Screen Actors Guild’s National Policy & Strategic Planning” and it goes as follows:
RE: Screen Actors Guild Negotiations Update
As part of our ongoing outreach to SAG members and other members of the entertainment community, we are holding a meeting for managers and publicists at Screen Actors Guild Headquarters in Los Angeles, the meeting should last about 1 1/2 hours.
We have received numerous inquires about the status of negotiations, and we’d like to have the opportunity to discuss the situation together. Please join us at this important meeting.
Please RSVP to Jennifer Heater.
In solidarity,
Alan Rosenberg, President
Doug Allen, National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator
Pamm Fair, Deputy National Executive Director
The email was sent to “every Hollywood and New York big-time publicists and talent managers” and Finke’s sources tell her it is with regard to a “strike or boycott” with strike authorization ballots expected to be sent out some time after Christmas.
Considering the time table involved Finke implies last year’s awful Golden Globes ceremony won’t be likely to repeat as the January 11 broadcast date seems safe. However, she says she has heard talk “among the Hollywood CEOs about moving the Oscars’ February 22nd date to later in the event of a strike authorization or boycott by the big actors union.”
The last thing I want is for what I consider to be one of the most enjoyable nights in this industry to get tainted by yet another strike offering up an Oscar presentation filled with clips and boring retrospectives.
