New Negotiators, Same Result

No progress on the SAG contract front. Despite the forming of the new negotiating team, there is no sign of ending the bitter dispute between the actors and the studios. What was supposed to be a couple days of ironing out the details and getting an agreement in place has turned into a stalemate once again. The AMPTP came up with their "last, best offer" which was voted down by the SAG board 73% to 27%. The AMPTP threw a couple of small bones in to better their offer from last fall, but the major sticking point was the NEW demand that the new contract run a full 3 years. That once again (in 2011-12) would set up all the guilds to be negotiating at separate times (the old 'divide and conquer' strategy no doubt.)

So, now what? Well, SAG can either decide to send out a strike authorization ballot to the members (which they just voted NOT to do) or they could do nothing. And it looks like nothing is the winner for now. Nikki Finke has the FULL REPORT HERE.

P.S. - Did anybody notice that this year is off to the best start EVER for movie theatre admissions? Seems that in a crummy economy, many, many people think the best bang for their buck is a movie. Yet, heads are still rolling here. Hmmm...

The Upside of Feeling Down

I had almost made it through the entire winter without getting sick. Almost. I ended up getting something of a cough/cold this week, which is more annoying than anything. But, it does have its perks: 1) thanks to my medicine, I haven't been able to sleep much, so I am actually more productive and 2) I have no appetite, so it's turning out to be a great weight loss program - maybe I'll finally shed those extra few Christmas pounds I put on from Mom's Home Cookin'! No doubt both of these 'benefits' are temporary, but at least for now it's less annoying to look at the bright side...

Audition

Audition today for a low-budget indie. The character I was reading for is a coach and a teacher. Since I've dabbled in both of these areas, I thought I could relate pretty well. Seemed like they were reading a lot of folks (judging from the sign-in sheet) but you never know...

It's for 'The Birds'

Through the SAG Foundation, I went to a screening of The Birds at the Arclight this week. It was a part of a promotion for Turner Classic Movies' annual "31 Days of Oscar" programming schedule: free tickets, free popcorn, candy and soda, and free gifts upon leaving = my kind of screening! Robert Osborne from TCM introduced it and then had Tippi Hedren there for a question and answer session.

It was very interesting and insightful. After talking a little about filming the movie, she went into how Hitchcock became "obsessed" with her (his obsession with 'his blondes' has been well-documented, but I had never heard the stories firsthand...) I also appreciated hearing about her devotion to animal rights causes, including her own wild animal sanctuary - SHAMBALA PRESERVE.

The Birds holds up pretty well after 50+ years. Fun to see with a full house, there were some parts that had the theatre chuckling, but it was mostly still spooky - good stuff!

Visiting Oscar

Like many of you probably did, I watched the Academy Awards on Sunday night (thanks to DVR it was only a couple hours ;) I thought the show was pretty cool this year; Hugh Jackman was a good host, and they got rid of most of the lame presenter banter. (Tina Fey and Steve Martin were pretty funny.)

But I always like the big 'upsets' and unfortunately there weren't any... No big party for me though as I was getting ready for this short/webisode series that I have been working on this week -- I'll post more on that later.

Just to get a glimpse of the Oscar hoopla, I went down to Hollywood Saturday evening to walk around the Kodak Theatre a bit. It was pretty much a madhouse around there. Hollywood Blvd. was closed for several blocks, and there was security everywhere. Still it was pretty interesting. Here are a few pics: