As SAG begins its 38th day of negotiations with the majors today, the pro-AFTRA forces have added Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey to their list of several hundred endorsers, led by Tom Hanks and Sally Field. ...

SAG announced Tuesday it had added high-profile supporters including Jack Nicholson, Ben Stiller, Josh Brolin, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Viggo Mortensen, Nick Nolte and Martin Sheen. It's also amped up its PR campaign via print ads.

The SAG-AFTRA brawling also raises the key question of clout. SAG has blasted the notion of the AFTRA deal serving as a template, because AFTRA's last primetime contract generated $40 million for members while SAG's last three-year feature-primetime pact generated $4 billion over the same period. Observers say the argument makes little sense, because SAG has so many more members working in the primetime and film arena.

Elsewhere in the paper, the AMPTP gets the backhanded benefit of the doubt: "Studios could stop haggling over pennies, but that's sort of like telling an insurance company to quit low-balling you. That's just what they do — relying on any sane person to give up first." Which suggests to us there's only one solution — a fun, unscripted, winner-take-all slugfest that would conveniently circumvent any potential work stoppage following AFTRA's ratification vote next month: Ladies and gentlemen, let's play the Feud!

• SAG, AFTRA in Spin Cycle [Variety]
• SAG Misses its 'Norma Rae' Moment [Variety]

For starters: "The threat of a SAG [NOUN] reached near-[ADJECTIVE] levels this week as the actor's union [PAST-TENSE VERB] continued its acrimonious stand-off with the [PLURAL NOUN] at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers." Follow the jump for more — the fun (almost) never ends!

The week began with the latest [NOUN] between SAG and its former [GERUND] partners at AFTRA, whose recent prime-time [NOUN] with the studios was the target of a [ADJECTIVE] SAG rally on Monday. "Instead of using every day it has this [NOUN] to aggressively and [ADVERB] negotiate for its members, the SAG committee spends days in internal [NOUN], planning the 'Vote No!' campaign, staging [PLURAL NOUN], putting staff on the marching line and spending our [ADJECTIVE] money trying to defeat it," AFTRA negotiating committee chairman Matt Kimbrough said in a [NOUN].

A day later, SAG executive director Alan Rosenberg told Variety that contract negotiations had been [ADJECTIVE] since AFTRA made its own [NOUN] with the majors. A deal seems unlikely by [PROPER NOUN] 30, he added. Among the continuing [ADJECTIVE] points: new-media jurisdiction, product placement, force majeure and DVD residuals.

Meanwhile, the AMPTP is standing by its [NOUN] that SAG won't get a [ADJECTIVE] deal than AFTRA. The latest reports have the studios [GERUND] the news [NOUN] to accuse SAG of stalling negotiations until July 7, after the results of AFTRA's own vote are [PAST-TENSE VERB]. "We hope that Rosenberg's [NOUN] does not signal the intention of SAG's Hollywood leaders to bring our industry to a [NOUN]. We remain committed to [GERUND] as hard as we can to reach our fifth [ADJECTIVE] agreement of 2008 by June 30," the studios announced in a statement.

Meanwhile, SAG has yet to seek a [ADJECTIVE] authorization from its 120,000 [PLURAL NOUN]. Follow up with us again next week if/when any progress is [PAST-TENSE VERB]!

• Studios accuse SAG of stalling talks [Variety]

The AMPTP apparently relented on the issue of establishing an online clip library, which, as of last weekend, remained one of the negotiations' primary sticking points. AFTRA's members (who still need to ratify the contract) will retain consent over the usage of their work on the Web, though Variety reports that the new deal "calls for [AFTRA] and the companies to 'develop a mechanism' by which performers can provide or withhold consent for non-promotional use of clips from TV libraries."

AFTRA currently represents about a dozen prime-time shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm and 'Til Death, but that number could climb if SAG takes to the picket line this summer. And it's certainly possible: When SAG's previous negotiations broke down earlier this month, leaders cried they were within a few hours of a deal. That was later discovered to be untrue. Listen for more saber-rattling as the parties reconvene in the month ahead.

• AFTRA, majors agree deal [Variety]
• Biz watches AFTRA-studio cliffhanger [THR]

We are confronting a number of challenging issues, and a resolution may not be quick or easy. ... AFTRA members and the Industry should be able, given appropriate safeguards, to satisfy and profit from the consumers' desire to access content through legitimate New Media sources, as opposed to the unlawful and uncompensated piracy that threatens the entire entertainment industry.

There are no easy solutions, which means that our Negotiating Committee must be both innovative and pragmatic, and the Industry must also embrace a realistic approach.

This all comes mere days after one of the new-media sticking points was revealed to be an online "clip library" of SAG/AFTRA members. In what they're calling an effort to curb said piracy, the studios want to make the actors' likenesses available online on a pay-per-use basis. The unions, which maintain they've had the right over that usage for decades, refuse to cede it now.

Leslie Simmons first noted the impasse last week, suggesting SAG's skittishness over AFTRA acquiescing to the producers' demands. Reardon's e-mail implies otherwise, but SAG's national executive director Dave Allen wasn't taking any chances today anyway, complaining in a SAG video quoted on Variety, "We think that's a real problem, and we suspect that the membership will agree with us."

Additionally, the actors are negotiating for the right of refusal with regard to product placement; if Robert Downey Jr. decides around the time of the next Iron Man that he hates Audis or abhors Vanity Fair, then they're as good as gone. We'd like to think that's one for the next contract (SAG returns to the bargaining table May 28), but if they really do plan to dynamite the industry, they might as well get their money's worth.

• AFTRA Negotiations With AMPTP [DHD]
• SAG hip to clip issue [Variety]

"I think it's insanity that we're not able to finish our negotiations and that the unions are being pitted against each other," [Allen] told Daily Variety. "We ought to be able to figure out a way to do this together, particularly since we've done so much of the heavy lifting. It's in the best interests of the memberships." ...

Allen warned the majors at the end of Tuesday's talks that it would become more difficult to make a deal with SAG if the guild were pushed aside in favor of AFTRA. "We'll lose the momentum we have at negotiations, and members' positions will become more entrenched," he explained Wednesday.

Dragging your cross from the prop department to the conference room isn't quite what we'd call "heavy lifting," but we admire Allen's dramatic protestations nonetheless. Especially when Fox chief Peter Chernin was on his first-quarter earnings call across town, spinning himself into a lather over the "de facto actors strike" such SAG uncertainty implies:

"It is difficult for anyone to start a movie now," because a formal strike would interrupt it, he said on his company's earnings call following improved fiscal third-quarter earnings driven by strong TV results. "It's a really bad thing for the industry," especially after an "extremely devastating" writers strike, Chernin said.

Asked about producers' strategy in their AFTRA talks compared with SAG talks, he said they are not looking for quick deals with anyone group over another. Instead, "we seek fair deals for everyone," he added.

And failing that? Get ready for American Idol: The Movie, we guess.

• AFTRA nixes SAG request for delay [Variety]

On Tuesday, as his turn at the bargaining table arrived, Mr. Rosenberg said he remained angry enough over performer compensation levels to bring the entertainment industry to a halt again.

"Aside from my family, I have two great loves in my life: acting and the fight for social justice," he said. "Oh yes, we are very serious." ...

Some in Hollywood say Mr. Rosenberg's move into the role of confrontational guild leader comes less from politics than from personal psychology. His older brother, Mark Rosenberg, was a noted civil rights activist who became president of Warner Brothers before dying of heart failure in 1992 at the age of 44. Leading SAG in its battle to secure a ground-breaking labor contract allows Mr. Rosenberg to continue his brother's work.

"There's no doubt that he cared deeply about content creators, and that I share that with him," Mr. Rosenberg said. While not rich by Hollywood standards, Mr. Rosenberg is not exactly what most people consider middle class, either. He is married to Marg Helgenberger, a millionaire because of her lead role on the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Wait a second — did Rosenberg just allude to a parallel between SAG's stonewalling on new media and... civil rights? Really? That was tasteful. Anyway, Barnes adds that Rosenberg has a more rational advantage as well: Media congloms' upcoming quarterly earnings reports could reflect the damage from the WGA strike, thus establishing new leverage in contract squabbles. And CBS boss Les Moonves earned $36 million in 2007, surely all from CSI's surging Internet revenue. Yes, indeed — "social justice," here we come!

• Guild Chief for Actors Is No Pacifist [NYT]

How does Rosenberg keep it all straight? The same way we do: One enemy at a time.

Take the rebel sect of SAG members including Bacon, Sheen, Sally Field and nearly 1,500 others, who last week petitioned leadership for "qualified voting" — kind of an Animal Farm-lite approach that would consolidate power among members who work more regularly than others. Variety's Dave McNary notes the proposal would likely have lessened the chance for a strike when the contract runs out June 30, and indeed, Rosenberg and Co. barely acknowledged the petition before passing it to what one dissenter called "the committee where things go die."

The SAG boss sought additional leverage over the weekend with a letter to his general membership, laying down the hard line for the negotiations launching Tuesday. Stop us if you've heard this one before:

"We have to negotiate fair payments for all new media formats to help us expand opportunities for middle class actors to get more work, just as the employers are expanding their opportunities to earn even more revenue," Rosenberg said. "We simply can't wait until this boat has sailed. We need to be on the boat—and it's leaving now."

Hence tomorrow's big march to the Port of Los Angeles, right? Well, not really. Both the DGA and striking WGA agreed in February that this "new media boat" was moored enough to settle for something a little less: Regular voyages through the studios' books as new media revenues take shape. Of course, the AMPTP has already put its own foot down emphasizing that's all SAG will get, and even big-shot attorney and DGA adviser Ken Ziffren came out with his own warning for Rosenberg:

"It's better right now to have access to the information that's needed to try to track the new-media industries and their business patterns. ... If the other guilds can understand that concept, then we can get back to work again in full force and follow the trends that the industry may take in new media. And so that is, to me, the major short-term issue and hopefully that will get resolved before June 30, or long before, if possible."

Translation: Please don't embarrass us in front of our membership by negotiating something juicier.

Anyway, assuming AFTRA doesn't come back to the table with SAG, we'd think Rosenberg would settle before AFTRA sits down with the studios April 28. Sure, he'll lose a whole two months of barking about a strike in the press, but it's either that or, as we mentioned a few weeks back, watch AFTRA usurp a share of SAG influence on the job market. And we doubt anyone at SAG wants to see that boat sail.

• SAG spurns proposal to limit voting [Variety]
• Rosenberg sends letter to SAG members [Variety]

We remain committed to ensuring that the rewards of our success are distributed fairly among all of our industry's talent, so that we all have appropriate and meaningful stakes in the outcome of our work.

Fortunately, the three labor agreements already reached — with the DGA, the WGA, and the AFTRA Network Code — provide the new framework for our industry's economic future. We hope that our negotiations with SAG and AFTRA will bolster this new economic framework, enabling all of us to share equitably in the success of new media and to respond with creativity and swiftness to market changes. If our industry relies on this new framework, we can all avoid more harmful and unnecessary strikes.

We obviously take great joy in observing such dick-swinging, gun-pointing swagger in advance of the unions' April 15 talks — particularly the addition of "fortunately," which is the only word left from the original letter draft obtained by Defamer: "Fortunately, because we have an 11 o'clock tee time and plan to screw you anyway, we have attached 'sign-here' stickies where you should just throw your names. We've included a self-addressed, stamped envelope for your convenience. In case you happen to read the contract, please call our lawyers with any questions or impotent, thinly veiled strike threats. We've got a whole season of The Moment of Truth ready to go just in case. See you on the set! xo, AMPTP."

• Open Letter from the AMPTP [AMPTP via Variety]

In the wake of Saturday's decision by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to ditch its longstanding bargaining partnership with SAG on the feature-primetime contract, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers held off Monday on deciding which union it will sit down with first.

SAG, which earlier spurned offers to start negotiations in March, now contends it should be first up because it covers all film work and the lion's share of TV work done by thesps. SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg noted in a message to members that studios want to end the uncertainty over a possible strike, further motivating the AMPTP to start talks as soon as possible as the June 30 contract expiration looms.

The political dynamics here are much uglier than earlier squabbles, and they have potentially dire consequences. AFTRA, which represents a minority of actors on cable and network television, has basically wanted to break off from its SAG partnership for years. Rosenberg, despite warnings from A-list membership like George Clooney and Meryl Streep, delayed negotiating a new deal until producers would be forced to play ball or face a work stoppage. That misfire gave AFTRA the out it needed to both split with SAG and, through what looks like a good-faith gesture toward producers, earn increased presence among SAG-heavy television programs.

How? Rosenberg's arrogance will likely send producers to bed with AFTRA first, and the terms of that settlement will dictate what SAG stands to gain — if anything — as the June 30 deadline approaches. Without the bargaining leverage it shared with AFTRA, SAG's only remaining alternative is a strike — the likelihood of which just boomed as the union awaits the AFTRA deal. So you get a labor stoppage and a thespian civil war all in one.

We're not sprinting for high land just yet, which is probably why we can still hear whispers about sketchy studios preemptively pushing an increasing number of film projects toward development limbo. Be sure to tell us if you've heard the same.

• SAG sees Leverage Lost [Variety]