Media & Entertainment Law

Pro-Deal Rally at SAG

By Jonathan Handel, Esq.

Over 100 crew members and others rallied in front of SAG HQ in LA today, urging the union and the studios to make a deal. The rally, organized largely by camera operators Jon Philion and Andrew Rowlands and cinematographers Ed Gutentag and Bruce McCleery under the rubric ?Back to Work,? was joined by another gathering consisting of several dozen Membership First supporters, who protested what they anticipate will be an unpalatable deal.

That protest, whose ranks included Scott Wilson and David Clennon, took place even though negotiations have not yet recommenced, let alone a deal negotiated. Back to Work and MF have indicated they both intend to rally again next Tuesday, Feb. 17^th at the AMPTP (studio alliance), when talks are widely expected to start.

In other SAG news, ousted (and re-ousted) National Executive Director Doug Allen is back, not in person, but in the form of an ?open letter? supporting SAG President Alan Rosenberg. The latter, you?ll recall, literally sung Allen?s praises in a self-written song after having also offered an email paean as well.

Now Allen has returned the favor in language only slightly less effusive, asserting that Rosenberg ?deserves to be acknowledged and thanked for his selfless leadership, exercised at great personal cost.? That leadership has come most recently in the form of a lawsuit by Rosenberg against his own union, as well as an interview in which he branded actors generally as ?frightened little children.?

Photos of the rally are here.

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Full post as published by Digital Media Law on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).