The Foxes at Fox You'll feel like you were there with this Fox Rally Video By Rico You’’ll love this photo from the LA Times. Also here it is Thursday 3/5/09 and Scott’s still there Wild You got to see these Rally Photos Just in a Short Video from todays Fox Rally ; Update Wednesday (3/4/09) The Big Rally at Fox!! Also guess who else is protesting over the screwing they are getting by the AMPTP? Also, another record breaking weekend for Producers Scott’s & his SAG Stalwarts prepare for the big rally Wednesday. More photos *058 New Interim SAG NED, David Whites, "Conflict of Interest" with the AMPTP
.: . Date: Saturday 2/28/2009
Here's Scott: (Video provided by Raul Reformina)
The Ol' Dog has got to call this one The "Foxes at Fox." Whoof! Whoof!
Scott and his SAG Stalwarts vigil continues into its Sixth week at 5757 Wilshire (3/6/09.) Scott and the guys and gals will be there well into the afternoon if you’d like to join them.
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Hmmm...yeah, the Ol' Dog has definitly got to join them
You gotta love this photo in the business section of today's LA Times. (3/5/09) The photo is of one of Scott Wilson's SAG Stalwarts, Brogee, at yesterday's Fox Rally.
I have entitled it...
"SAG Actor Wrestles with Loss of Residuals "
The latest from McNary:
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Posted: Wed., Mar. 4, 2009, 7:44pm PT
SAG dissidents rally outside Fox
Ed Asner, Sally Kirkland lead protest
By DAVE MCNARY
SAG's staying silent about its latest stalemate with the congloms even as there's no sign of movement toward a feature-primetime deal -- nine months after that pact expired.
With negotiations stuck over the issue of the date for contract expiration, about 50 opponents of the companies' final offer rallied Wednesday in the drizzle outside 20th Century Fox.
The three-hour event, aimed at urging SAG members to vote down the ratification if it's ever sent out, featured sidewalk speeches at a half-hour news conference by former SAG president Ed Asner, former board member Sally Kirkland and veteran actors Larry Gelman and Scott Wilson. The quartet blasted the final offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, alleging its new-media provisions will destroy SAG by making it impossible for middle-class actors to make a living.
"We have enough economic problems in the world without putting this union out of business," Kirkland said. "I'm just asking the CEOs to think humanely."
Negotiations between SAG and the AMPTP cratered two weeks ago over the issue of when SAG's contract would expire, with the guild pushing for a two-year deal and the congloms insisting on a three-year term. SAG's indicated it wants back-channel meetings with the moguls to hammer out a compromise, but the only recent development has been the confirmation that AMPTP prexy Nick Counter will retire on March 31.
Wilson, who served on the now-abolished negotiating committee, noted that the current SAG leadership has agreed to the rest of the final offer.
"It's still the same lousy deal in every other respect," Wilson said. "The members of the SAG board don't understand what's in the best interests of actors."
Asner, who served as guild president between 1981 and 1985, said the national board should send out a strike authorization to members -- a step that's been opposed by the board's moderate majority and a significant number of high-profile actors including Matt Damon, George Clooney and Tom Hanks. The moderates fired national exec director Doug Allen and replaced the negotiating committee in late January out of frustration with Allen's strategy of pushing for an authorization vote.
"It's a shame that we don't see more of our high-profile members against this," Asner added.
Wilson said the rally marked the first in a series of similar events that will be targeted at the congloms.
Attendees at the rally also hammered the tentative deal before members of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, especially over a proposed tightening of eligibility for health and pension benefits.
SAG's board decided on Feb. 21 on a split vote against sending out a strike authorization to members, which would have needed a steep 75% endorsement from those voting to pass. Over the objections of the hardline Membership First faction, the moderates have contended that seeking the authorization would be counter-productive at a time that the economy continues to fall apart.
SAG's website, however, still endorses a strike authorization and blasts the AMPTP's offer. And in a message to Hollywood members sent Wednesday in the Hollywood Call Sheet, First VP Anne-Marie Johnson blistered the moderates, accusing them of "disparaging and undermining the hard work" by Allen and the negotiating committee.
Johnson also asserted that the AMPTP's "last, best, final" offer should be sent out in its current form and then voted down by the members.
"What are we waiting for?" she said. "In my opinion, the deal is not going to improve. Please log onto AMPTP.org to read the AMPTP’s LBF offer, if you haven’t done so already. It is a BAD DEAL. Forty-four days of actual negotiations, two days of mediation and three days of resumed negotiations with the revamped task force proved that the AMPTP had/has no intention of working with SAG to create an acceptable deal, potentially securing labor peace for years to come–regardless of who was sitting across the negotiating table."
For its part, the AMPTP's website still contains a counter that calculates how much money SAG members have lost by failing to accept the congloms' three-year offer on June 30, including $250 million in pay gains. As of Wednesday, the loss figure had topped $56.6 million.
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Here are some more photos from the Fox Rally!
Thanks, guys, for all the pics. I'll put more up tomorrow.
Nice turnout for the rally today at Fox with members joining Scott Wilson and former SAG Prez Ed Asner. The turnout was good, especially since once again, rain seems to be following Scott around.
Apparently, the sun has emerged finally, and more members should be showing up. They’ll be out there until at least 2PM, if you happen t be in the area and would like to join them. (Check in later for pics)
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Don't forget the big rally in front of Fox Studios today Wed.(3/4/09)to protest the rollback final offer that studios and producers are using to screw SAG and other guild members. It will be led by Ralph Morgan Award winner Scott Wilson, see details below.
And if you don't believe they are screwing other guilds, this from today's LA Times. (You IATSE folks, and the rest of the guilds, might want to join Scott and his SAG Stalwarts in saying enough, is enough!
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Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 10:28 PM
LABOR
Conflict erupts inside theatrical stage employees union
Leaders defend benefit cuts in a proposed pact with Hollywood film and TV studios, but critics say they go too far.
By Richard Verrier
March 4, 2009
Although much of the entertainment industry has focused on the civil war inside the Screen Actors Guild, another powerful Hollywood union is wrestling with its own internal conflict over a proposed contract with the studios.
Leaders of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, whose members include 35,000 who work behind the scenes on film and television sets, are facing a high level of dissent from the rank and file over a contract that includes modest pay increases but also deep cuts in the union's coveted health and pension benefits.
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The union's brass says the cuts are necessary to plug a projected $580-million deficit in the health plans largely due to rising medical costs.
Critics say the cuts go too far and will force thousands of union members and their families to lose their health insurance. Under the proposed three-year contract, members would be required to work 400 hours every six months, up from the current 300 hours, to keep their benefits.
Concerns about work hours have grown as production activity has slowed to a crawl.
Many of the union's members are still struggling to recover from the losses sustained in the writers strike last year and by the uncertainty caused by the SAG contract talks.
Last year, the studios rushed to wrap feature films by June 30, causing a severe drop in production during the second half of 2008. The credit crunch has caused studios to further scale back production.
"At a time when our nation is increasingly concerned about the growing number of people who don't have health insurance, this is the wrong direction to be going in," said Doug Knapp, a camera operator with the union's Local 600, who helped launch a website called 400hours.com to fight ratification of the contract.
Knapp estimates that roughly 10% of the union's film and TV members -- 3,500 -- will lose health coverage as a result of the 400-hour requirement.
The new threshold is a divisive issue for many union members, who've tended to accept lower pay increases in exchange for preserving their health benefits, for which enrollees don't pay premiums.
Unlike most actors and writers, the union's members don't earn direct payments from prior work on TV shows and movies. Instead, payments that would be earmarked for residuals are funneled into a fund for health and pension plans.
Union President Matt Loeb declined to comment. In a message accompanying the "memorandum of agreement" mailed to members last week, Loeb strongly urged members to support the contract, warning that a "vote against ratification is a vote to authorize a strike." Ballots are due back March 18.
Despite the opposition, it is unlikely the contract will be shot down. The leaders of the union's various locals have given their blessing to the contract. Indeed, the union is known for having friendly relations with the studios and has long advocated early contract talks, reasoning that it helps foster labor peace.
So few were surprised when the union announced an agreement in November -- eight months before the current contract expires. But when details of the agreement dribbled out, guild leaders faced a hostile reaction from union members such as Knapp.
"I only had 287 hours in the last six months," said the camera operator, who worked on the Warner Bros. TV series "Moonlight" before it was canceled and the TV movie "Merry Christmas Drake & Josh."
richard.verrier@latimes.com
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Just got off the phone with Scott Wilson; Even though he is ailing, he is once again standing up for the SAG membership in today’s lone vigil at 5757 Wilshire. He say’s he will be there until 3 P.M. when he has to leave for a doctors appointment. In The meantime he is hoping that, perhaps, other concerned members will join him.
But, Scott stresses that more importantly he will see you all at the big rally tomorrow in front of Fox Studios on Pico: (More details at the bottom of this post)
Even though employers continue to try and get SAG members to agree to their egregious rollback final offer because of the failing economy, they continue to benefit from it with a rise in TV viewing and record breaking box office returns.
The following from the LA Times which reports that box office for this weekend is up plus 14.8% over the same weekend in record breaking 2008, and up 17.30 percent for the year to date over 2008.
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Tyler Perry’s ‘Madea Goes to Jail’ is the top-grossing movie for the second week in a row as comedies take five of the top 10 spots.
By Alex Pham
March 02, 2009
When it comes to curing the economic blues, laughter still is the best medicine.
Moviegoers this weekend took a break from the drumbeat of layoffs and bankruptcies, heading to theaters to watch comedies such as Tyler Perry’s “Madea Goes to Jail,” the top-grossing film for the second week in a row.
“In down times like this, people want to be entertained, and they want to laugh,” said Steve Rothenberg, president of domestic distribution at Lionsgate, the studio that released “Madea.” “It’s no surprise that the only two films this year that have repeated their No. 1 rank in the weekly charts have been comedies.”
“Madea” garnered estimated receipts of $16.5 million over the weekend, bringing its two-week total to $64.9 million, according to box office tracker Media by Numbers.
The other film that maintained its No. 1 rank in ticket sales for more than a week this year was “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” The lighthearted comedy from Sony/Columbia landed in the No. 6 spot with an estimated $5.6 million. The weekend brought its total box office to $128.1 million over seven weeks.
Other funny flicks to hit the Top 10 chart include “He’s Just Not That Into You,” a comedy of romantic errors from Warner Bros. that took in $5.9 million this weekend for the fifth spot, and “Confessions of a Shopaholic” from Walt Disney Studios, which was ninth with $4.5 million. “Fired Up,” a spoof about two high school football players who crash a cheerleading camp, rounded out the comedy list at No. 10 overall with $3.8 million.
Although comedies took five of the top 10 spots, other genres also fared well this weekend.
“Slumdog Millionaire” continued to win over filmgoers. The Fox Searchlight movie about a pauper in Mumbai who attains fame during his appearance on a quiz show took third place with $12.2 million in ticket sales. Boosted by seven Academy Awards, including best picture, “Slumdog” went to a wider audience, appearing in 31% more theaters than the previous week. In 16 weeks, it has accumulated $115.1 million in receipts.
Also in the top five was “Taken,” a thriller from Fox starring Liam Neeson that landed in fourth place. It scored $10 million, bringing its U.S. total to $107.9 million.
Audiences seeking an escape have bolstered the industry’s U.S. box office revenue to $1.8 billion this year, up more than 17% from the same period last year. Some of that increase came from higher ticket prices, but much of the bump came from a 15.4% uptick in attendance, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers.
Though the average ticket price is $7.29, the highest in history, not adjusted for inflation, movies are still considered a bargain compared with leisure travel, live concerts and amusement parks.
The reemergence of 3-D movies also is drawing filmgoers. Tickets for 3-D movies generally cost a few dollars more, but that didn’t deter fans who saw “Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience.”
The Walt Disney Studios film debuted this weekend in second place, ringing up $12.7 million, the second highest opening for a concert movie after “Hannah Montana/Mylie Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour,” another 3-D film from Disney that opened last year with $31.1 million.
“It’s an experience above and beyond the norm,” said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. “A 3-D movie may cost you more, but it also brings you to a place you haven’t been before.”
Several studios are banking on digital 3-D to help maintain this year’s box office momentum. Disney, for example, has 15 3-D films in the works, including the planned November release of “A Christmas Carol,” directed by Robert Zemeckis. DreamWorks Animation Studios is releasing “Monsters vs. Aliens” this month. James Cameron’s “Avatar” from 20th Century Fox is scheduled to hit 3-D screens in December.
“If we keep going at this pace, we will be looking at an amazing year,” Dergarabedian said. “A $10-billion year for the box office is within reach. It’s just part of human nature to seek escape from reality when times are tough.”
But, but, don't forget we are supposed to sign their contract and give up our futures because of the failing economy. Yeah, right!
alex.pham@latimes.com
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Just got off the phone with Scott, who is well into the fifth week of his vigil at 5757 Wilshire in front of SAG headquarters.
Apparently, it has just begun to rain there, and hopefully I was able to convince Scott, who has a bad cold, to at least get take a break during the rain. I tried to convince him that he, and his SAG Stalwarts, had done enough for today. I don’t know how successful the Ol’ Dog was; Scott and his Stalwarts, are a pretty determined group of SAG members.
Here is a photo of Scott and four of his most steadfast Stalwarts.
Pictured left to right; Dan Kelpine, "Brogee," Henry Kinji, Scott and Thomas Furlano! Thanks guys for standing up for all of us.
Hopefully we’ll all get to thank you at the big rally Wednesday in front of Fox Studios, on Pico. Scroll to the bottom if this post for more details and a video message from Scott.
Now, if only, I can get a photo of one of the loveliest of the Stalwarts, Michelle.
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The following article was published on The Wrap (http://www.thewrap.com) as usual the Ol’ Dog will add a few comments.
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February 25, 2009, 12:46PM PST
Category: BIZ MOVES
By: Lauren Horwitch -
Updated: SAG's White Responds to TheWrap
TheWrap investigates: Why didn't the board vet the new executive director, whose consulting company was shut down because of its ties to Marc Dreier, a lawyer accused of a $380 million hedge fund scheme?
The consulting company belonging to the Screen Actors Guild’s new national executive director, David White, shut down shortly before he was hired because of his ties to a New York lawyer accused of a $380 million fraud scheme, Marc Dreier.
Dreier, who remains under house arrest in Manhattan, was arrested on December 7. White’s company Entertainment Strategies Group appears to have ceased operations that month.
A SAG official said that the guild was aware of this connection when White was hired.
But the new national executive director was not vetted until last Saturday at a board meeting, according to one member who was present but declined to be identified. White’s $400,000 contract was approved by a majority of the SAG board on Saturday.
White, a former general counsel at SAG, was hired precipitously by the guild on January 26 in the wake of the ouster of national executive director Doug Allen.
According to documents filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission 11 days before White’s appointment, his consulting company Entertainment Strategies Group is among 10 companies that were “in whole or in part, or controlled by, related to, or associated or affiliated with” Dreier.
Brown Woods George and Pitta & Giblin, the firm that represented SAG president Alan Rosenberg and Co. in its defunct suit to impede Doug Allen’s firing, are also among the ten companies associated with Dreier. Dreier’s assets have been frozen, including his interests in the affiliated businesses such as White’s.
White’s connection to Dreier does not mean that he was involved in any alleged fraud with the lawyer. But the timing of the closing of ESG, so near to White’s overnight hiring in the wake of Allen’s ouster, suggests that it might be something SAG members may have wanted to know.
White sent the following statement to TheWrap about his ties to Dreier, noting that he disclosed the tie before his engagement at SAG.
"ESG was a consulting firm established to help lawyers, talent representatives, producers and other entertainment industry professionals who struggle with the complexities of collective bargaining agreements.
"In addition to responding openly to questions asked about ESG and its investor, Marc Dreier, during the most recent Hollywood Board meeting, I shared this and other information about ESG with the National Board of Directors prior to its approval of my employment contract. ESG has ceased operations and I am focused on my job at SAG, which certainly requires all of my attention.'"
Asked why SAG had not publicly disclosed this information about White, SAG spokeswoman Pam Greenwalt declined to comment.
The board member who was at the closed executive session said the board did not have the opportunity to question White about his involvement with Dreier – or about a list of ESG’s clients, which included the MPAA.
Hmmm…
The Wrap: White was not present at the meeting, though members of Membership First asked he be brought in for vetting. Instead opposing SAG factions debated how long the vetting should go on.
Former SAG president Richard Masur proposed the board question him for 15 minutes, but Membership First found 15 minutes to be unacceptable. Time ran out to approve Masur’s proposal and, according to new board rules, voting had to take place.
A Whole Fifteen minutes? Hey, why not just take a few seconds to anoint him with Holy Water. Oh, wait the USAN/UFS “go-along-to-get-alongs” already did that with Richard.
The Wrap: “We were denied the opportunity to do a full vetting of [White’s] business and his link to Dreier,” the board member told TheWrap. “We saw [ESG’s client list] as a huge conflict of interest.”
The process of vetting usually takes a day, the board member said. “[Robert] Pisano took a day and a half. Steve Diamond took a full day. We go through the contract without the candidate in the room, then would have an all day Q&A with the candidate.”
Another board member said that the board did not have a problem with White’s association with Dreier. “It doesn’t imply that David did anything shady,” said that member.
ESG, which White established in 2006 with former SAG chief negotiator Sallie Weaver, consulted producers and other industry professionals how to navigate the guild’s labyrinthine collective bargaining contracts.
Two SAG members who called ESG in recent weeks told TheWrap that the business was still running as recently as two weeks ago. The group’s website has since been taken down.
Rank and file guild members have long criticized the guild for its lack of transparency and communication.
White declined to comment to TheWrap for this article, but he has gone on record about his involvement with Dreier.
In an article published a week after Dreier’s Dec. 7 arrest, White explained to the National Law Journal that Dreier was a “passive investor” in ESG and received a percentage of the company’s profits, but was “not involved in the operations at all.”
White said he was in the dark about Dreier’s backdoor dealings, as were hundreds of others who worked for the companies implicated in his schemes. “It's pretty safe to say that anybody who was involved in any way, with this guy, either as a passive investor or any other way, was pretty shocked and outraged by the events that are unfolding.” He added that has ESG’s attorneys will investigate how Dreier’s charges could impact the company.
But according to John Provenzano, former controller of Dreier LLP, Dreier was more than a “passive investor” in the 10 companies. In fact, he might have paid White and Weaver’s salaries. In a declaration forwarded to TheWrap, Provenzano said the companies deposited their profits into an account over which Dreier shared control. In exchange, Dreier would pay each of the “partners” or “principals” fixed salaries and predetermined bonuses.
Look, I think there’s a chance that David White could be a victim in the Dreier thing. Of course, no one knows until the whole thing is vetted, unlike David White?
Yes, he should be vetted for there’s a good chance that he will soon be permanent NED. Especially, if UFS does well in the next election.
Now, Peter Frank was not vetted on Hessinger’s departure when he became Interim NED, but he was a current employer, and it was made clear that he was to serve only on a temporary basis; in that it was immediately announced that a Search Committee would be formed to find a new NED. This hasn’t happened in regards to Mr. White.
To me, the important revelation was not the Dreier association, but rather the revelation that one of Mr. White's clients was the MPAA. So, let’s see, we now have an NED, who until a few weeks ago, had as a client the MPAA, run by his old SAG boss and mentor, MPAA Head, former SAG CEO Bob Pisano.
Look, the MPAA and the AMPTP are joined at the waste, and run by the Studio/Entertainment conglomerate power bosses; the very same employers that we are currently negotiating with. And now, we have a Interim NED, David White, who will be right in there with John McGuire negotiating on behalf of SAG (Or will he?) against the same employers, who until only a couple of weeks ago, were his clients. (It would be sort of like hiring a lawyer to represent you in a case against an HMO, ah, the same HMO as he counted as one of his clients. One might say there was a conflict of interest there, you think?)
Now, under those circumstances, is anyone going to tell me with a straight face there is not a conflict of interest involved. Okay, Richard and his gang, but, then, they don’t have straight faces anyway, do they?
And, they are the New York USAN/Branches AMPTP shills, who along with their UFS Hollywood Counterparts, have hijacked this union while giving aid and comfort to the MPAA/AMPTP, by repeating their propaganda, and hiring their guy.
Oh, the irony, SAG CEO Pisano agrees to be fired by SAG for $1.5 million in severance pay, and immediately goes to the MPAA---and now his protégé, who he hired from his old law firm, O’Melveny and Meyers, to SAG as chief counsel, will be returning to SAG in Pisano's old position…ah, after shutting down his firm which counted Pisano and the MPAA as one of their clients.
It seems clear to the Ol’ Dog that with David “MPAA” White at the helm at SAG, and the USAN/UFS/AMPTP Firsters’ in control of the national board that producers will finally get their wish made back when SAG was formed over 70 years ago….A Company controlled guild… SAG, the Screen AMPTP Guild.
So, what to do? Well, if you were like SAG’s Ralph Morgan Award Winner, Scott Wilson, you’d know what to do. You’d stand up to this New York and AMPTP takeover of SAG, and you’d join him next Wednesday ‘picketing’ at Fox studio--the studio that has been run by Peter Chernin.
You remember him, the guy who proclaimed that network reruns will be replaced by Internet reruns; which will, at best, give actors, both day players and series regulars, between $ 44/105 dollars for a years worth of unlimited reruns.
Here are a couple of messages from Scott both written, and on the Internet.
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There is a RALLY this Wednesday, March 4, 2009 from 11am-2pm at Fox Studios, 10201 Pico Blvd at Motor Avenue. Unvalidated free parking across the street at Rancho Park.
Peter Chernin, CEO of Fox, has stated that there will be no reruns on Fox network, all programs will go directly to streaming on the internet, eliminating our residuals, contributions to health coverage and pensions. We must express our concern at this attack on our ability to earn a living and make it clear that we intend to vote NO on the contract.
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The Foxes at Fox 
You'll feel like you were there with this Fox Rally Video By Rico 
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But, but, don't forget we are supposed to sign their contract and give up our futures because of the failing economy. Yeah, right!
|