Gawker
-
hollywood strikewatch
SAGpocalypse Now: All Hope is Lost
Let's hope James Cameron's Thespbot 2000 technology works, because from the looks of how things are progressing on the SAG deal front, the sun could be setting on the Age of the Human Hollywood Actor. More »
2,408
32
By SethComment by TheSometimesWhy: As sad as it is to read, it is eerily refreshing to see a piece that so accurately characterizes the... 18 Responses | Other threads
-
jay leno
WGA Still Weighing Their Jay Leno Scab-Flogging Options
A number of notable talk show hosts made the controversial choice to cross picket lines and not grow out a strike beard during last year's WGA strike, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres among them. More »
1,537
By SethComment by SinisterBark: If Leno had not done an intro or whatever and the show suffered, would the Writers Guild have paid for... more » | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
SAG To Renew Kinder, Gentler Saber-Rattling Feb. 17
After finally turning down the volume on Alan Rosenberg's bluesy twang, SAG leadership plans to return next week to relatively quiet — and hopefully swift — negotiations with the major studios. More » -
hollywood strikewatch
Alan Rosenberg Strikes Out In Court
SAG president Alan Rosenberg's final opportunity to preserve his strike-hungry executive director and negotiating committee fizzled this morning in Superior Court. More » -
hollywood strikewatch
Torture-Defending GOP Pal Rushes To Alan Rosenberg's Legal Aid
No wonder Alan Rosenberg's rejected restraining-order appeal yesterday included a few errors: Any lawyer moving to SAG squabbles from a career in right-wing crisis management would encounter a severe learning curve at some point. More » -
hollywood strikewatch
Judge Blocks Alan Rosenberg's Restraining Order Against His Own Union
SAG president Alan Rosenberg's ploy to halt contract talks and reinstate his closest strike-friendly ally could be going better, with a judge this afternoon rejecting his petition for a temporary restraining order. More » -
hollywood strikewatch
Blues singer to sue for SAG exec's reinstatement. [The Wrap]
-
hollywood strikewatch
Defiant Alan Rosenberg Calls For Sympathy-Vote Resolution
This whole SAG presidency thing may not be working out so well for Alan Rosenberg, but so what? His blues-career Plan B is taking off before our eyes — have a listen after the jump! More »
2,788
By STVComment by TheSometimesWhy: It's a sad reflection of the times when a man serves honorably and with great passion, only to be thrown... 2 Responses | Other threads
-
-
hollywood strikewatch
Rosenberg: Fired Doug Allen "too good" for SAG. [The Wrap]
-
hollywood strikewatch
Doug Allen avoids banishment after marathon 30-hour SAG meeting. [DML]
-
hollywood strikewatch
Chief Negotiator In Limbo as SAG Board Implodes
Conflicting reports emerged late Monday from SAG's emergency national board meeting, where at least one member says Doug Allen is out as the union's chief negotiator. More »
1,139
By STVComment by Tiger_Tanaka: Maybe they should hire a restaurant manager; somebody they're used to taking orders from. more » | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
Actors at Each Others' Throats as SAG Strike Threat Fades
SAG's protracted pursuit of a strike authorization vote may end as early as tomorrow, with the bitter aftertaste of a secret awards blacklist lingering in an emergency meeting underway at union HQ. More »
2,885
By STVComment by taco-flavored-kisses: I understand that many Defamer readers are probably starving actors....so I'm going to try to word this sensitively... ...its really hard... 4 Responses | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
SAG Celebrity-Standoff Holiday Cards: Joyeux No-el and Happy Yea-nukkah!
We thought a fun way to keep track of where celebrities stand on the impending SAG strike would be with some printable holiday greeting cards!
1,749
By SethComment by kookla: How can you decorate a Christmas trees with shiny balls and not include Scott Caan!! 1 Responses | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
Fox To Dump High-Maintenance SAG For Cheaper, Sluttier AFTRA
A rumor that Twentieth Century Fox Television—producers of some of your most beloved stories, including 24, My Name is Earl, and Family Guy—would be switching over to an all-AFTRA format got this official response:
3,987
By SethComment by gaycurmudgeon: I'm not quite sure what Scott Caan's private parts have to do with either SAG or AFTRA, but I suppose... 2 Responses | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
NY SAG Insurgents Call For Leaders' Heads
Hollywood awoke Tuesday to more graphic evidence of sectarian violence in the SAG ranks, with namecalling, dogma and even allegations of brainwashing feeding the union's race to strike-fueled self-destruction.
1,338
By STVComment by Tiger_Tanaka: I kine of like the idea of David Caruso not being on camera for a while. 2 Responses | Other threads
-
hollywood strikewatch
A-List Faction Kindly Asks SAG Not to Totally Destroy Hollywood
A sturdy cross-section of topline Hollywood talent from Tom Hanks to George Clooney to René Auberjonois today urged SAG leadership to back down from its '09 strike threat. Maybe even more noteworthy: Who's missing?
3,474
By STVComment by academyscreamer: I've still got a few Alan Rosenberg voodoo dolls left...Makes a perfect Holiday Gift for the below-the-liners in your family. 2 Responses | Other threads
-
sag
SAG Schedules Strike D-Day for Jan. 2
"Happy 2009 — let's take the year off," will come the refrain from SAG HQ next month, as they today announced Jan. 2 as the date strike authorization ballots go out to its 120,000 members.
2,034
By STVComment by Marjory Stewart-Baxter: It's nice to know that actors--those people who stand in front of a camera and "act," followed by telling the... 6 Responses | Other threads
-
jay leno
Dear SAG: Strike Away! Love, NBC
So SAG's fucked. Wait—did we say "fucked?" There we go again—needless doomsday prophesying where Obaman cool-headedness is clearly required. What we meant to say is: "SAG's probably fucked." Yesterday brought a confluence of Pop Culture Doomsday events that not even a walrus blowing like Bird could have foretold:
3,375
By SethComment by CatherineTrammell: I love the fact that the waiters in Los Angeles are going to bring this town to a screeching halt.... 7 Responses | Other threads
-
feuds
SAG Vs. Studios Getting Nearly As Ugly As Waxman Vs. Finke
Just days after we learned the kinda-sorta true details of a secret summit called by SAG president Alan Rosenberg and attended by the A-list dons of Hollywood's acting Cosa Nostra, tensions between the union and producers have reached a rolling boil. With 120,000 strike-authorization ballots being readied for mailing—each sealed individually by the scarred, arid tongue of Rosenberg himself—both sides have issued blistering written attacks accusing the other of the kind of selfishness typically associated with junket reporters asking innocuous questions of Philip Seymour Hoffman. First came a Rosenberg-penned missive on Thanksgiving eve, in which the blustery thespians' rights crusader rebuked producers for relying on that old "there's a gigantic recession coming" excuse:
2,787
By SethComment by KittyCarlisle: @strega@decebal are you shitting me? Yeah, whatevs..."it's not 10 years,just 3...bhah, blah, blah.." Sure, the amptp will pony up just as... 6 Responses | Other threads
-
sag
Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty Implicated in A-List SAG Strike Warm-Up: UPDATE
Just when we thought nothing much had changed in the narcoleptic parallel universe of SAG contract negotiations, we're hearing now that the union's saber-rattlers are finally bringing the heavy weaponry to bear on their studio nemeses: A recent dinner hosting Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty and other influential legends reportedly gave the blessing for a crippling actor's strike. (UPDATE: Not at this meeting, anyway — Sharon Waxman has retracted her original story. More after the jump.) More »
2,475
By STVComment by KittyCarlisle: Not to get all preachy, but fuck it. Yes, the high pro's mentioned won't starve or move back to Des Moines... 4 Responses | Other threads
-
trade roundup
Helen Mirren's House Of Ill-Repute
· Taylor Hackford is shopping around Love Ranch—a brothel drama starring wife Helen Mirren (oooh!) and Joe Pesci (ewww!)—to studios in search of a distribution partner. [Variety] More » -
sag
A Slow Burn. Time now to check in on how those pesky, protracted SAG talks are going. Hey, News Corp. president Peter Chernin—what's the latest? He told a conference in New York today that talks are going "horribly," and a strike would be "devastating to the creative community...I think it's genuinely foolhardy to think this is an appropriate time for actors to go out on strike." We doubt union blowhard Alan Rosenberg is going to sit idly for long. Look for the the remainder of the SAG strike campaign funds to be blown on a skywriting campaign announcing "CHERNIN CAN SUCK ME" above Fox headquarters [TV Week] -
wga
Unruly WGA Mob Protest 'Project Runway' Rodeo Drive Shoot
A Defamer operative going about his daily Rodeo Drive chores let us know about a standoff that went down this morning between the forces of good (underpaid and undervalued reality show writer-producers) and evil (Heidi Klum, and anything—sorry Tim Gunn fans!—Heidi Klum-adjacent). He writes: More »
5,666
By SethComment by unclevanya: Next time I walk by Parsons on my way home from work, I'll be able to crook a slight smile... more » | Other threads
-
sag
SAG Insurrection Introduces Brave New Levels of Seething Internecine Hatred
In a savage coup of upstart infidels, the Unite for Strength ticket outlasted incumbent Alan Rosenberg's MembershipFirst slate in Thursday's SAG board election, thus opening a new era of moderation, peace and progress in Hollywood's rancorous labor wars. Or... not. Maybe? It's too soon to tell, frankly, with new leadership including Amy Brenneman, Scott Bakula, Adam Arkin, '05 loser Morgan Fairchild and Assaf "Brother of Sacha Baron" Cohen making up only a theoretical majority at best; studio-friendly Variety says the SAG/AMPTP squabble's days are numbered, union flunky Nikki Finke says that's "simpleton" piffle, and here in the middle, we can't help but notice that SAG's contract-negotiating team isn't changing at all. Still, we look to the future with cautious optimism perhaps best evoked by Rosenberg's concession on Thursday: More »
858
By STVComment by KittyCarlisle: @FuriousD1 They have a 30million + warchest, thank you very much. The divided has to do with what actors always do...screw... more » | Other threads
-
90210
SAG is Not Afraid of '90210' or the Rest of Those Dirty AFTRA Freaks
Variety reminds us today that a major! labor! crisis! remains in effect at the Screen Actors Guild, which after three months has still made exactly no progress in settling its contract quibbles with the networks and major studios. Still, if those producers aren't worried, then you shouldn't be either — especially now that AFTRA is reportedly taking over where SAG can't necessarily be counted on. To wit, after securing its own three-year deal with the majors over the summer, the union has nabbed some high-profile new recruits for the primetime season to come. More » -
trade roundup
'Mad Men' Gives AMC Gains In Attractive 'Anyone Watching At All' Demo
· Mad Men's second season opened to a strong start for AMC, pulling in 1.9 million aspiring womanizers and the pregnant secretaries who love them. [Variety] More »
530
By SethComment by gwendemarco: Cue theme music Stripes Guest starring that underrated character actor who you know his face but just can't remember the name, that... more » | Other threads
-
trade roundup
The Chrome Knight Returns
· The rumors are true! Darren Aronofsky will write and direct a sequel to RoboCop for MGM, with both parties hoping they can score a piece of this guy-in-a-stupid-costume-noir mania currently gripping the planet. [Variety] More » -
sag
Bloody SAG Coup Could Result In Banana Actor Republic
With the studios' post-final-offer, post-AFTRA-vote concession of $10 million in pay raises to SAG still having failed to bring the two sides together in a starry-eyed embrace, nervous Guild delegates are beginning to wonder if their president Alan Rosenberg—"The kind of guy that would trade heated words with his own clown mother, if it meant pushing his resolutions through!" whispered some—is really the man for the job. Now, a small resistance has sprouted from inside; calling themselves United for Strength, the celebrity freedom fighters spend all night mimeographing manifestos in the basement of a Fairfax Ave. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. From the LAT: More »
832
By SethComment by SteamyMcFirecrotch: @sanyucat: (Reference to Christian Bale.) more » | Other threads
-
sacha baron cohen
Hellos and Goodbyes
· Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno exploits took him from Israel to Arkansas; his Sherlock Holmes adventures to come may or may not include the missus. More » -
defamer
Majors' 'Final Offer' Includes 10 Million New Reasons For SAG to Reject It
It's not quadrupled DVD residuals, regular cocaine rations and guaranteed work for all. However, the major studios' new concession to SAG — $10 million worth of new pay raises — is exactly what we thought might happen after SAG bludgeoned nearly 38% of AFTRA voters into opposing its primetime contract. The deal was ratified anyway, but the majors aren't taking any chances, notes Variety: More »
874
By STVComment by SteamyMcFirecrotch: @Shumina: Wasn't that a play with Gretchen Cryer? more » | Other threads
-
defamer
Strike Fears Allayed, SAG/AFTRA Now Just in It For the Slap Fights
The nuclear labor plume at left is presented a little closer to actual size this morning, the start of the first full day without the specter of strike hell exhaling waves of rancid breath over Hollywood. Not that AFTRA's ratification of its prime-time contract Monday evening vanquishes the SAG threat altogether; the 62.4% tally in favor of AFTRA's deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers suggests that while a strike vote might fail, SAG leadership convinced probably upwards of 10,000 AFTRA members to stand down in the pitched battle between unions. More »
946
By STVComment by KittyCarlisle: @hummingpenguin you tell 'em. Believe you me, Tom Hanks et al don't ever sweat if their scale plus 10 will make their... more » | Other threads
-
robert de niro
Robert De Niro Calls Out SAG Leadership In Terrifying, Apostrophe-Free Missive
It's time to break out your SAG vs AFTRA Celebrity Turf War Map™ for an update, albeit a bit of a confusing one: Robert De Niro is the latest star to come out in opposition of a SAG strike, asserting during a press conference Saturday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that Hollywood has suffered enough bloodshed this year in the bargaining trenches to implode once more over residuals: More »
2,287
By STVComment by WGARefugee: I do not know if it is the right time to be doing this at all with the economy the... more » | Other threads
-
defamer
SAG Asks For More Time To Consider The Deal They've Already Decided They Hate
With the Hollywood StrikeWatch 2: The Actoring doomsday clock clicking into overtime, Team SAGgy (Jack! Rainn! Ben!) has reportedly asked for more time to analyze the AMPTP "final offer" they've already gone on record as saying they really, really, really hate. Team ACTRAvision (Tom! Alec! Susan!), meanwhile, are set to vote in the virtually identical contract offered their guild, the results of which will be announced Tuesday. From THR: More » -
defamer
Your SAG Vs. AFTRA Celebrity Turf War Map
You could slog, like we did, through Variety's mind-numbing accounting of which actors sided with the AFTRA agreement reached several weeks ago, which are aligning themselves with the cantankerously unbending SAG, and why. But wouldn't it be easier just to look at their accompanying Venn diagram, and get some instant bearings on where your favorite stars' guild loyalties lie? To spice things up, you can also pit the two sides in a variety of competitive scenarios far sexier than squabbling over pension and health contributions and terms. Which side would win a beach volleyball tournament? A kill-or-be-killed island survival week? A dance-off? A bathing-suit pageant? (George Clooney can either be applied to both teams, or neither. Peter Bart can only participate inasmuch as he likens any particularly satisfying victories to famous U.S. wartime battles.) Have fun! More » -
defamer
Potential SAG Strike Causes Blog Baby Peter Bart To Invoke Godwin's Law Of Nazi Analogism
We'll admit we've been avoiding addressing the big, white, internet-clip-consent-seeking elephant in the room, so let's just get this out of the way: Today is Tuesday, July 1, 2008. Ring any bells? Yes, it's Canada Day, but the celebration of the day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec fused into one maple-syrup-slurping nation isn't important right now. Rather, today is SAG-contract-expiration day. The AMPTP made their final offer—"worth more than $250 million" said they—and lusciously coiffed SAG-head Alan Rosenberg announced the union would be taking the day to look at all 43 of its sumptuous, residuals-detailing pages. Some characterize the mood as calm—perhaps "eerily calm," suggests the NY Times, as not a single network executive has doused themselves in gasoline and lowered a lit Zippo to their heads in slow motion, mouthing, "But weeee were jusssst makinnng gains in Girrrrls 9-15 demooooo..." before erupting into a ball of skin-searing flames. We turn now to blogger newbie Peter Bart for his showbiz veteran's take on the highly precarious situation: More » -
george clooney
From High Atop His Lake Como Villa, George Clooney Preaches Solidarity In Looming SAG Non-Crisis
Like clusters of onlookers awaiting the Vatican smoke signals that announce a new pope, all of Hollywood stirred abuzz today learning that George Clooney would finally weigh in with a letter addressing the conflict between SAG and AFTRA. And weigh in he... didn't, instead choosing a neutral stand essentially saying everyone's right and would they please just sit down and try hammering out something constructive for once? Seriously, folks: More » -
sag
Stars Choose Sides as SAG Strike Apocalypse Descends
Everywhere we've been around the LA Film Festival this week, the chatter du jour is either oversexed studio minions or how folks plan to spend their off-days during the increasingly inevitable-looking SAG strike. The latter conflict came into even sharper relief today in Variety, which published a SAG-AFTRA Bullshit Scorecard (hardly an improvement over our SAG Strike Mad Libs™, but whatever) breaking down the lies, celebrity endorsees and various other spin the unions are wielding in their steel-cage labor war: More » -
trade roundup
Set-Mule William Hurt Makes The Leap To TV
· Anhedonic The Incredible Hulk star William Hurt brings his unparalleled work ethic to FX's Damages for his first-ever regular TV series role. [Variety] More » -
trade roundup
Unencumbered By Boob-Job Drama, George Clooney Mulls His Next Step
· Warner Bros. is developing the spy thriller novel The Tourist as a potential George Clooney vehicle which will explode in the first reel and set the entire plot in motion. What about the goat movie? When does that one come out? [Variety] More »
1,660
By SethComment by WGARefugee: "Jack Black has fallen out of 'Man-Witch'" This isn't such a bad thing if you can creep away before she notices. more » | Other threads
-
trade roundup
SAG The Alexis To AFTRA's Krystle
· The 24th day of negotiations brings us no closer to SAG-deal closure, as the actors' union refuses to endorse the AFTRA deal signed last week. (And that despite all the sexy progress AFTRA made in negotiating "online clip consent and jurisdiction over low-budget made-for-Internet productions!") Meanwhile, time is running out for SAG to petition its 120,000 members for strike approval in time for the June 30 deadline. [Variety] More »
346
By SethComment by MartiniShark: After those numbers for the Stanley Cup Final studio execs are looking at the debut of MVP on the SoapNet... more » | Other threads
defamer
Hollywood, 1:42 AM
Sat Jul 11
48 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@defamer.com
Managing Editor:
Gabriel Snyder | Email
Night Editor:
Ryan Tate | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
- ValleywagField Guide
- GawkerInterviews
- Jezebelclose encounters
- Deadspin2008 Shoty
- DefamerGaffes
- io92009 Movie preview
- Gizmodoces 2009
- KotakuWii
- JalopnikDetroit Auto Show
- ConsumeristCircuit city death watch
- LifehackerFeatured Download
