Alan Rosenberg

The Screen Actors Guild's next president is expected to be revealed Thursday, after ballots are counted from union members. The choice could indicate whether actors are ready for another fight over Internet compensation or would rather merge with a smaller union for better bargaining leverage. SAG's election pits union-merger proponent Ken Howard against Anne-Marie Johnson, who promises to seek strike authorization before the next round of negotiations with studios. Those are set to begin in October 2010. SAG's 120,000 members are coming off a tough round of negotiations in which they failed to gain concessions from Hollywood. Now SAG still faces thorny issues in ... Read Full Story

Film News: Unions must decide soon if they are to negotiate together -- The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists are facing a looming deadline within the next few months if they're going to negotiate together on the primetime-feature contract with the majors. Read Full Story

Superior Court Judge tells Rosenberg no deal! A monkey wrench SAG President Alan Rosenberg threw into pending SAG contract talks with producers was tossed back into his lap today by a Superior Court Judge. Alan Rosenberg (SAG Guild President) and Anne-Marie Johnson (Guild 1st Vice President) filed a lawsuit against SAG this past week, seeking to reinstate Doug Allen (who was relieved of his duties as the Union's Chief negotiator) and to reconstitute the Guild's former negotiating committee. The SAG board fired Allen last month on the grounds that he was mishandling negotiations with the studios. Former SAG General Counsel David White was installed ... Read Full Story

Hollywood's biggest actors union approved a new contract with entertainment industry producers, ending a bitter labor dispute that sparked fears of a devastating strike. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) said in a statement its members had voted 78 percent to 22 percent in favor of a two-year contract deal, which had been drawn up in April after closed door negotiations. SAG members had been working without a formal contract after failing to agree a new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to replace a previous agreement that expired on June 30 last year. Multiple attempts to broker a new ... Read Full Story

The Screen Actors Guild has voted to oppose closing a motion picture home where many actors and others have spent their last years. By a slender margin, the SAG board voted Saturday to oppose closing the Motion Picture & Television Fund's long-term care facility in Woodland Hills. SAG has no formal say in the hospital's future but many SAG members financially support it and some actors have vigorously campaigned against what they view as the destruction of a legacy. The motion picture fund, which runs health care centers, assisted living facilities and other services, says the hospital is losing more than $10 million a ... Read Full Story