George Clooney Calls for SAG, AFTRA Truce

LOS ANGELES, June 27: As
the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and
Radio Artists (AFTRA) continue to spar, with each lining up big-name Hollywood
stars to support their causes, George Clooney has issued an open letter calling
for unity.

SAG has been lobbying for
its members who also hold AFTRA cards to reject a tentative agreement inked
with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for a new
contract. SAG, which remains in negotiations with the AMPTP ahead of the
contract expiration on Monday, has issued a “solidarity statement” citing
“unresolved” issues in the AFTRA contract, including new-media residuals,
non-union new-media productions and “protections from product integration
abuses.” The statement has been signed by Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen,
Edward James Olmos, William Petersen and Ed Harris, among others. “We believe
AFTRA should go back to the bargaining table, with SAG, and fight for a better
contract,” the statement notes.

In a statement to its own
members, AFTRA urges: “It’s not about politics, it’s about your paycheck. Don’t
be suckered into a strike.” AFTRA called SAG’s “Vote No” campaign an
“unprecedented attack” that is “politically motivated” and “misguided…designed
to confuse members into voting against their best interests—and AFTRA has
been working to counter these attacks, correct falsehoods, and educate members
about the merits of the deal.” AFTRA’s statement continues: “The new primetime
television contract is a solid deal that achieves gains for every category of
performer and puts real money in actor’s wallets.

“For more than year now,
SAG’s Hollywood leadership has bombarded dual AFTRA-SAG cardholders—and
the entire industry—with misstatements, distortions, and outright lies,
consistently inventing and twisting the facts in a politically-motivated effort
to lead us all on a path to Neverland. The entire industry is now paying the
price for it.”

Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin
are among those calling for an acceptance of the AFTRA contract.

In Clooney’s open letter,
he notes: "What we can't do is pit artist against artist…. Because the one
thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks
only strengthens [the studios’] negotiating power."

Clooney is calling on
Nicholson, Hanks and other key Hollywood players—"people that the
studio heads don't often say 'no' to,"—to sit down with studio heads
on an annual basis to "adjust the pay for actors."

—By Mansha Daswani