SAG Award nominee, Actress Glenn Close is nominated

for her starring role on an AFTRA basic cable dramatic show poached from SAG!

Actress Glenn Close, currently starring in “Damages” an AFTRA show poached from SAG’s jurisdiction, has been nominated for a SAG AWARD.

Now I think Ms. Close is a terrific actress, but when I heard the news, I called out, “No! I don’t believe it! This is a joke, right?”

And, yes, it is a joke, a pathetic one, especially for some of our name SAG actors and actresses that have put themselves on withdrawal from AFTRA, to protest their poaching of SAG contracts–and giving away actors residuals.

Like I said, a joke, but it is also true.

Hey, folks, think about it! SAG has just taken away another reason for stars to insist on working on shows under SAG’s jurisdiction, The SAG Awards! Brilliant! Now, they can work on shows poached from SAG–and still get a SAG Award. Brilliant Again!

Look, I like Glenn Close, she’s a marvelous actress, but I ain’t gonna vote for her for a SAG Award. I’ll be damn that I’ll condone the act of poaching SAG shows, no matter how much I admire the person enabling it. Ms. Close, or any other major star, could stop this sort of poaching–that takes money out of the little guys pocket by just saying:

“No! I am a proud member of the great Screen Actors Guild, and I will not enable AFTRA, or any other union, to poach work from my guild and fellow guild members with inferior contracts and residual giveaways.”

And least, you not believe “Damages” is an AFTRA show take a gander at this.

So, here’s how it goes kiddies. AFTRA has poached nearly half of SAG’s Basic Cable shows by undercutting SAG Contracts with residual giveaways and inferior rates, and continues to bad mouth SAG in emails and, now, anti SAG propaganda mailed with AFTRA members checks.

SAG’s Leadership immediately springs into action and retaliates by putting the leading actress in one of these POACHED shows up for a SAG Award.

Are you beginning to get the idea that our union is in a lot of trouble?

Our NED Doug Allen sends out another email of his petition preaching cooperation with AFTRA, including an expansion of the Phase One agreement–a move that will concede jurisdiction to AFTRA. President Rosenberg acknowledges the following in the current SAG Screen Actor Magazine; this action would give AFTRA close to 50/50 split on cable.

By doing the above, SAG would be acceding jurisdiction to AFTRA. It would be giving credence to AFTRA’s bogus claim that it has as much a right to basic cable scripted dramatic shows as SAG.

This in spite of the fact that the 4A’s Charter–mandated after Federal elections–gives SAG jurisdiction over all acting done on TV except that done in the manner of a LIVE broadcast. (Someone please explain why SAG’s leadership stands around doing nothing while allowing a digitally, filmed show like “Damages,”–which is definitely not done in a LIVE manner–to be taken over by AFTRA? And why, instead aren’t they protecting SAG’s members from these interlopers intent on giving away residuals, something those who came before us, sacrificed to get!

Like I said, SAG continues to send out emails and statements trying to make nice with AFTRA’s leadership –while AFTRA’s leaders are now including, with members’ checks, bogus propaganda bad mouthing SAG’s leaders and staff.

Those of you who are regular readers of this website have seen enough documentation to realize that AFTRA President Reardon’s missive is nothing more than a compilation of distortions and omissions made to confuse the membership into believing that it is looking out for themwhile, at the same time, it continues to deny membes copies of inferior agreements made with employers, in order to put money in AFTRA coffers at actors expense.

I won’t comment on her distortions at this time, since I have supplied documentation to disproved most of them in previous posts. I will, however, comment on one of Ms. Reardon’s statements about this “being a time of great change.”

On this she is right. It is a time of great change. Until AFTRA started poaching SAG contracts, actors were use to getting residuals when they worked these shows.

A.L. Miller SW Editor & Chief

I joked in a previous post that if SAG didn’t enforce its jurisdiction, it wouldn’t be long until we’d be watching the AFTRA Awards, instead of the SAG awardswhat, come on Ol’ Dog, it’s only one show. Hmmm, it wasn’t that long ago that AFTRA had only one basic cable scripted dramatic show! Now they have, a last count, over twenty, pushing toward a 50/50 split.