Hollywood Strike?

7:58 pm EST December 3rd, 2008 | News | 7 Comments

The last writer’s strike seems to have given a death sentence to mainstream tv, and that’s when people were sympathetic to the cause. If the actors do the same with the economy in the tank, the indifference to the actors is likely to be huge.

Related Posts

  • No Related Post
«
»

7 Responses to “Hollywood Strike?”

  1. Sean D. Martin says:
    December 3, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    Writers aren’t perceived as making nearly as much money as actors so, yeah, particularly now wouldn’t be a sympathetic time for them to strike.

    Not that they wouldn’t have a case to make about not getting a fair share of the pie (which was the writer’s main gripe).

  2. Thad says:
    December 4, 2008 at 1:45 am

    You say “death sentence to mainstream TV” like it’s a bad thing.

  3. Matthew G. Saroff says:
    December 4, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    The studios are screwing with the livelihoods of actors and writers in ways that make record company executives look ethical, we can all get along with content from other sources, or as my mom was wont to say, go outside and play.

    (Evil thought, with SAG on strike, it’s time for bloggers to make their move on the enormous commercial possibilities)

    Basically, the studio execs sold the unfair deal on DVDs arguing that, “It’s a new medium, and really just promotion for the other stuff,” and screwed both unions, and now they are trying to do the same thing on internet content.

  4. Chris Andersen says:
    December 4, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    One would hope that if SAG does go on strike they avoid the obvious PR mistake of putting big name actors on the picket lines. Yes, that will draw more cameras. But it will just feed into the idea that all actors are just spoiled millionaires who want their lattes made with soy milk. They need to front unknown or lesser known actors to make the point that very few of them actually make a lot of money.

  5. Church Secretary says:
    December 4, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    Good point, Chris Andersen. I hope SAG follows your advice. But refusing to go on strike because of a bad economy is not necessarily a good answer. One of the major points of contention– residuals for ‘new media’ (i.e. web-based content)– is huge, especially considering that some of the lesser-known and lower-paid actors out there stand to lose quite a bit of revenue if they aren’t fairly compensated.

  6. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    December 4, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    I think many would be surprised at the average yearly wage for a SAG actor: less than $5000

    The problem is, it is very, very unevenly spread out. Some actors earn $20 to $30 million a movie, most have to hold down a second job to afford food.

    I would support the strike more if I knew they were fighting more for the average actor, and less for the millionaires.

  7. Matthew G. Saroff says:
    December 8, 2008 at 11:25 am

    They ARE fighting for the average actor.

    It’s the little guys who make their living off of residuals, not the $20 million a picture up front guys.