An Actors Strike Inches Closer To Reality

Remember the Writer's Strike that caused many of your favorite TV shows to air short seasons, be delayed, interrupted or postponed last year? Well, another strike may be about to happen in Hollywood. This time it's the actor's turn.

The Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee has called for its board to support a strike authorization vote. They are saying it "is necessary to overcome the employers' intransigence."

Contract talks have been going nowhere since the last contract expired on June 30th. Currently actors are working under the terms of the old deal.

A strike authorization vote needs the approval of 75 percent of the guild's approximately 120,000 members.

Most of us learned what the WGA were striking over, but what is SAG threatening to strike over?

Similar to the WGA strike, the big issue is how royalties from sales through new media methods are being handled. But it isn't just royalties from online distribution services like iTunes, but also DVD sales. None of these are currently written into actors' contracts.

I don't think I need to tell you how a strike would affect the film industry. The 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike lasted four months and cost the Los Angeles economy somewhere between $380 million to as high as $2.1 billion (depending upon which report you read).

Lets hope that things get worked out before another strike happens.