SAG leaders Doug Allen and Alan Rosenberg had issued a surprise announcement notifying members that the impending strike-authorization vote of Jan. 2 would be delayed two weeks, so that an emergency meeting could be held to "restore the consensus" among their bitterly feuding ranks. But unless they plan on providing members with surprise entertainment Szeles: Master Hypnotist and his amazing feats of induced mass submission, the time for such magical, position-flipping powwows has long since passed. What next? The Hot Blog conjectures:

I think it’s all over. A deal gets signed shortly after The Oscars. Doug Allen is marginalized or gets a settlement allowing him to take all the money and go get a job with some other union that’s going out. Rosenberg resigns.

Resigns? Perhaps, but we doubt a guy like Rosenberg will go down without a fight. Don't be surprised if the 58-year-old union head uses Oscars' legendary audience of one billion to make his final, bold statement on the matter, streaking across the stage during Hugh Jackman's solemn In Memoriam introduction screaming, "YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF PATHETIC PUSSSIEEEEEEEEES!!!"

The full SAG announcement follows:

Notice of Special National Board Meeting

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

A number of National Board members have expressed concern about the organized opposition to SAG’s vote “yes” campaign to encourage members to authorize the National Board to determine whether to call a strike in the TV/Theatrical contracts. While almost 100 high profile members and 2524 total members have endorsed the strike authorization vote mandated by the National Board, more than 100 high profile actors and 1373 actors have lent their names to the opposition campaign. This division does not help our effort to get an agreement from the AMPTP that our members will ratify.

Accordingly, President Rosenberg and I have decided to call a special face-to-face National Board meeting in Los Angeles, during the week of January 12, to discuss how we can address this unfortunate division and restore the consensus demonstrated by the National Board at our October meeting.

The Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and the Commercials Contract W&W plenary in New York the first week of January, preclude scheduling such a meeting before the week of January 12. In accordance with our Constitution, this special meeting will constitute one of our two face-to-face plenary meetings for 2009.

In light of the subject matter of this special meeting, the strike authorization balloting will be re-scheduled to take place over a three-week period immediately following this special board meeting. This will provide us with more time to conduct member education and outreach on the referendum before the balloting.

This meeting will replace the January 24, 2009 plenary and will occur in Los Angeles all day January 12, and part of January 13.

Doug Allen

National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator

• SAG delays strike authorization vote [Variety]
• A Message from Doug Allen [SAG]

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]

[The pair] appeared at a news conference to build awareness for the "March From Hollywood to the Docks" that will start April 15 next to the La Brea Tar Pits and conclude two days later with a rally at the Port of Los Angeles.

During Tuesday's news conference, Rosenberg and Morgan refrained from any attacks and professed the importance of union solidarity in pushing forward on bread-and-butter issues such as wages, health-care coverage and retirement. Morgan, who's also veep of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, noted that AFTRA has already negotiated its network code and sound recordings deals this year.

Asked about the contradiction of professing unity in the wake of the ongoing jurisdictional battle, Morgan said, "This is a really good example of us being civil to each other while trying to do what's best for our members and not attacking each other."

It was the least of the shit-eating Morgan could do as the unions' apocalyptic "jurisdictional battle" also came into sharper relief on Tuesday, when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers shrugged off conventional wisdom and agreed to start contract renegotiations with SAG on April 15. Thus outmaneuvered once more by its glitzier cousin, and without an AMPTP meeting of his own, Morgan quietly assigned an intern to spend the remainder of the day plotting alternate routes to the Port as part of his highly civil new "We'll Get There Faster on Western Ave." strategy.

• SAG to begin talks with majors [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]

· USA buys the cable rights to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (as well as those of the first three Indy installments) in a deal that could cost $40 million, depending on how much Crystal Skull earns in theaters. [Variety]
· The AMPTP says it's ready to start bargaining with SAG on a new contract, but reserves the right to walk away from negotiations in bad faith should they decide at any point that doing would be a good PR move that makes the actors seem "greedy" and "unreasonable." [Variety]

· Mark Burnett teams up with Sony Pictures TV to adapt a Japanese reality show where entrepreneurs beg millionaires to invest in their money-making schemes. And Burnett's already making things happen! He's changed the name of the project from Dragon's Den to The Shark Tank, an application of his much-sought-after golden touch that should be good for at least a million more viewers per episode. [Variety]
· Force majeured writers could be found wandering aimlessly around virtually every studio lot on Back to Work Wednesday, trying to figure out what their post-deal futures might hold. [Variety]
· Meanwhile, those scribes returning to shows marvel anew at kitchens stocked with the free, delicious snacks that will help them survive the incredibly long hours in the Room they face as they scramble to catch up on three months' worth of missed work. [THR]

At least initially, the actors are opting for a minimalist, all-text design for their ads, but should their message not result in the immediate commencement of informal chats, we hope they go for something a little more ambitious: perhaps a two-page spread depicting a laughing Clooney and Iger enjoying some cigars and glasses of whiskey as they watch a streaming Ocean's 13 on a nearby laptop, with the campaign's catchy JUST TALK tagline illustrating how merely getting in the same room for a loosey-goosey bullshit session is a low-stress, crucial first step to hammering out a deal.

[ad via Digital Variety]

· Re-teaming alert! Jim Jarmusch will reunite his Broken Flowers co-stars Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton in The Limits of Control, a thriller/road movie about a "mysterious loner" up to no good. [THR]
· Jericho finally returns from hiatus, but to ratings close to those that earned it the short-lived cancellation that inspired outraged fans to bury short-sighted CBS executives in several tons of peanuts. Meanwhile, American Idol's two-hour Back to Hollywood episode put up the series' best numbers since its premiere. [THR]
· A cheerily delusional FCC chairman Kevin Martin tells the House of Representatives that he expects the coming transition from analog to digital television will be a smooth one, dismissing fears of nationwide riots induced by the unexpected, simultaneous darkening of millions of TV sets as "somewhat unlikely." [Variety]

"We will never know if they would have achieved these things without a strike. I think it's really important now that everybody come back together, and work together. I think that's going to happen. Let's not look backward; let's look forward.

Let's not talk just once every three years but maybe every month. Especially on new media. The rules of our business are changing so rapidly, the ways people are using media and content are changing so rapidly. For our creative partners, relationships and communication are really important. The (WGA) realizes it, and we realize it."

Although relations between guild leaders and AMPTP conglom toppers seemed to be nonexistent during the worst stalemate periods of the strike in December and early January, Moonves said the ill will quickly dissipated once both sides agreed to meet together in small groups and under the cover of a media blackout.

"Once (WGA leaders) got to know some of us (toppers) they realized where we were coming from. Nobody handed us these jobs," Moonves said. And he was quick to praise his colleagues Chernin and Iger for "doing an excellent job in going in with (WGA toppers) and working out the details."

Moonves, we suspect, could have prevented the stoppage back in early November with a mesmerizing flash of his legendary, 150-tooth smile had he not wanted everyone to suffer for three months for his personal amusement. (Indeed, that may seem cruel and selfish, but a guy bent on eventual intergalactic domination has to get his jollies somewhere.) But as the executive notes above, it's unproductive to look backward when there is so much work to be done; rather than fret about what could or couldn't have been achieved without the near-total shutdown, he'll be personally overseeing the most important concession he and his troika of power players gained during their face-to-face negotiations: the construction of a Mt. Rushmore-inspired monument on the land above the Hollywood sign commemorating their heroic efforts to save the industry from total destruction, from which the faces of Moonves, Iger and Chernin will smile upon the beautiful city they saved for all time.

• It's official: WGA strike is over [Variety]
• Writers Guild Members Vote to End Strike [WGA.org]

If all goes as planned, the producers will begin talking about stories with the writers on Wednesday, Lindelof said. The difficulties, he added, might lie in remembering all of the characters, mysteries and island secrets.

Like the Dharma Initiative? (If you don't know what this is, it will take the length of another strike to explain.)

"Everything I've forgotten about the Dharma Initiative is best left forgotten," Lindelof said. "The good news about time away from the show is that you remember the good stuff. If you've forgotten about it, it's probably best not to be reminded. We're looking forward to executing the resolution of Season 4. Who are all the members of Oceanic 6? What happened to everybody else? What is the secret the Oceanic 6 are keeping and why are they keeping it? And who are these freighter folk?"

Though the show's hardcore fans might be a little disappointed that Lindelof seems so cavalier about allowing some of the Dharma Initiative's superfluous backstory to dissipate into the ether of their strike-induced hiatus (really, does anyone care about the shadowy organization's bio-engineering of top-hat-wearing turtles anymore?), the accidental wiping clean of the LOST SECRETS: DO NOT ERASE!!! whiteboard in their writers room by a studio custodian could be a creatively liberating turning point. Freed from the already-loose shackles of consistency, they can now take the series anywhere they please going forward, quietly dropping characters without explanation (would anyone really notice if the Scottish guy disappeared?), or have the Oceanic survivors that have more firmly implanted themselves in the producers' memories re-explore promising elements of the past, like having mysteriously healed quadruple-amputee Skip Locke lead an expedition back down The Hole.

• For show runners, time to write a new beginning [LAT]

· Behind one of the lowest-rated Grammys of all time (which managed a meager average of 17.5 million viewers—not even the red-hot Andy Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard could save them!), CBS manages a Sunday night Nielsen win. [Variety]
· The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. estimates that the strike cost the local economy $2 billion, about four times more than the 1998 walkout that lasted six weeks longer. [THR]
· The Visual Effects Society rewards the genius of Michael Bay's Giant Fucking Robots vision, handing Transformers (and the Industrial Light & Magic team who put those creepily realistic lips on Optimus Prime) four awards. [Variety]

Those who don't want to kick their gloom habit cold-turkey can feel free to fret about the June 30th expiration of SAG's contract with the studios and the possible (if increasingly unlikely) walkout that could follow, or spend some time perusing today's "Was the strike worth it?" piece in Variety, which attempts to throw a sobering bucket of cold water upon those still drunk on this weekend's good news by making them consider the "here and now" losses incurred while achieving "victories in new media that may pay big dividends in the future." (Example: Did you know that some of the aforementioned showrunners may have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of dollars during the stoppage to help save writers' livelihoods in the internet age? They must be crazy!) In the interest of preserving the first days of positive feelings the industry has experienced in about fourteen weeks, can't we all go back to swigging champagne and not picking though the wreckage of the post-strike landscape, at least for the next 48 hours or so? No one wants his Monday morning hangover exascerbated by the tsk-tsking pal who insists you move the car you've parked on his lawn before your headache begins to subside.

• Showrunners back to work Monday [Variety]
• Dealmakers spurred by fear, loathing [Variety]
• TV's new developments [Variety]

· Perhaps hoping that going the biopic route might help her find her way back into the Academy's good graces, directionless two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank agrees to play Amelia Earhart in Mira Nair's Amelia. [Variety]
· Sadly, network abomination The CW and purveyor of scripted, sports-related entertainment The WWE have decided to end their decade-long SmackDown partnership, one that dates back all the way to the bastard netlet's UPN days. [Variety]
· Martin Scorsese selects Bob Marley as the next object of his music-documentary affection, but has yet to choose the Marley lyric or song that will serve as the project's title. [THR]

"It's over," Eisner said. "They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general."

Eisner, speaking live on CNBC's "Fast Money," seemed to hesitate initially about whether it was possible that the writers could still reject the agreement, but finally suggested the deal's acceptance was inevitable.

"A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon," Eisner said, adding, "I know a deal's been made. I know it's over."

So there you have it: Hands have been shaken! Crucial Guild meetings have been dismissed as mere formalities! Everyone should get ready to head back to work as soon as five minutes from now, undeterred by the inevitable WGA e-mail blast suggesting that Eisner should probably go back to keeping himself busy dreaming up new Prom Queen plotlines instead of trying to call off the picket lines.

• Deal Has Been Reached to End Writers' Strike: Eisner [CNBC.com]

· Hard-to-kill Heroes cheerleader and Official Friend of the Dolphins Hayden Panettiere joins the cast of teen comedy Daydream Nation, possibly opposite a Culkin. [Variety]
· FX has abruptly decided not to order any more episodes of Dirt or The Riches because of the strike's interruption of their production, but hasn't yet ruled out the possibility that they might renew the shows for third seasons that will have to awkwardly resolve all the plot threads cut in the middle of this abbreviated run. [THR]
· CBS is its moving Survivor brand into fitness products, starting with something called "Supercharged Sunflower Seeds," a snack undoubtedly rich in the nutrients one needs to live while stranded on a deserted island or trapped in a remote part of China. [Variety]

· Enchanted star and America's Current Sweetheart Amy Adams is in talks to join the cast of Night at the Museum 2 as the "undetermined historical figure" (Ann Boleyn? Catherine The Great?) love-interest of Ben Stiller. [Variety]
· Resisting the impulse to join in the upfront-canceling fad sweeping some of its network competitors, Fox pledges that it's committed to putting on the wasteful, inefficient dog-and-pony show media buyers in search of open bars so cherish. [THR]
· Cautious OptimismWatch, Part II: The WGA announces a general membership meeting for Saturday, during which writers will get the details of the proposed contract with the studios. [Variety]

Time is of the essence in getting the board to sign off on a deal with the upcoming television pilot season, and the Feb. 24 Academy Awards show, hanging in the balance.

While the negotiating committee, headed by John Bowman, is expected to recommend the pending contract, approval by the board is not necessarily a slam-dunk because it is composed of several hard-liners who may be tougher to win over.

Furthermore, any approval would come only after a formal accord is drawn up by lawyers on both sides.

Attorneys are putting in writing what guild negotiators and studio representatives verbally agreed to Friday when they bridged key differences over how much writers should earn for work distributed over the Internet.

To help thousands of still-fragile WGA members survive the emotionally harrowing week to come, United Hollywood urges writers to take a deep breath, head back to the picket lines, and hope for the best; after all, Friday's reported gains could easily be lawyered out of existence if the Guild allows itself to be distracted by premature dreams of the strike's end—or, in a far more distressing scenario, if AMPTP bogeyman Nick Counter, enraged by the speedy undoing of months of his hard work in negotiations-avoidance, somehow chews through his restraints in time to scuttle the seemingly imminent deal.

• Guild board favors deal, with caution [LAT]
• Previously: The Strike Is Over! Or Over In A Week! Or Everyone's Being Set Up For Another Crushing Letdown! [Defamer]

But despite the widespread, media-blackout-defying leaks (and mogul-supplied proclamations issued from a luxury suite at the big game in Arizona) indicating that a deal could be reached sometime this week (huzzah!), the Guild quickly cautioned its members not to blow the remainder of their strike funds on lavish going-back-to-work parties based on "rumors about either the existence of an agreement or its terms" (muted huzzah!). So until WGA leadership issues its official announcement of a new contract (to be accompanied by a photo of president Patric Verrone hugging a weeping trio of Les Moonves, Peter Chernin, and Bob Iger), everyone should resume their still-important picketing responsibilities, resisting the impulse to indulge in the occasional high-five recognizing that the end might be in sight.

• Progress Toward Ending Writers' Strike [NY TImes]
• Contract outlined in Hollywood writers strike [LAT]
• Strike: An end in sight? [Variety
• [THR]

· The producer of Broadway's Young Frankenstein answers for a string of unpopular business decisions, admitting that he may have made a teensy mistake in deciding to charge an obscene $450 for an outrage-inspiring "premier" ticket. [Variety]
· Continuing to resist the temptation to cash in on easy romantic comedy roles that once seemed part of his career trajectory, Josh Hartnett signs on for Bunraku, a live-action, martial arts adventure that "draws from a mixed bag of genres including puppets, origami, comic books, video games and German expressionism." [THR]
· The Screen Actors Guild stakes out a date for the 2009 SAGgies, which, barring a total strike disaster, will be of much less interest than '08's. [Variety]