Media & Entertainment Law

SAG Awardsgate: Frances Fisher Makes Amends

By Jonathan Handel, Esq.

Last week?s flap over politicization of the SAG Awards seems so, well, last week, what with the marathon SAG Board meeting earlier this week that started on Monday, ground on into the night, and ended 28 hours later as a failed attempt at union democracy, the moderate majority thwarted by an endless filibuster.

In any case, if you still remember the brouhaha, you?ll recall that it revolved around two anonymous emails that were forwarded by Frances Fisher to various people. When I wrote my piece on this incident, I emailed Fisher for comment, but received none as of press time.

Thus, it was almost a blast from the past to finally receive an email from Fisher this morning, responding to my five-day old email by promising that I?d receive yet another email, this one from her publicist. Late in the afternoon, the promised email arrived. Here it is:

Please see the following statement below from Frances Fisher to be released as a statement from her and her publicist, Elizabeth Much.

My intention in forwarding the anonymous emails regarding the SAG Awards was to alert my private email list of opinions and feelings that were circulating. Artistic merit should be the only criteria for award selection. I apologize directly to Josh Brolin, Kevin Spacey, Susan Sarandon, Michael C. Hall, Sally Field, Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell and Tony Shalhoub for any discomfort my actions may have caused. My desire is to serve my Guild in the most professional and upstanding manner that the membership and creative community deserves.

Frances Fisher

????

Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about SAG, or digital media law generally. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or subscribe to my Huffington Post articles.

Full post as published by Digital Media Law on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).