Duncan Crabtree Ireland Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Los Angeles unions rallied on Friday evening in a show of support for the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike for the last four weeks. The unions — representing hotel workers, teachers and state employees — shared the stage across from Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A. with representatives from the Hollywood guilds. “It’s going to be a hot labor summer,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of SAG-AFTRA. “Your fight is our fight. Our fight is your fight. We are all in this together.” SAG-AFTRA has called a strike authorization vote as it looks to gain leverage for its negotiations, which begin on June 7. The SAG-AFTRA contract expires on June 30.

SAG-AFTRA and Cameo for Business (C4B), the celebrity digital marketplace that connects talent with fans and brands, have reached what the guild is calling a “groundbreaking” agreement that allows its members to work under a SAG-AFTRA contract and count their C4B earnings toward their pension and health benefits.

SAG-AFTRA’s leadership, although often divided along internal party lines, presented a united front at the Los Angeles local’s annual membership meeting yesterday. They stressed the importance of solidarity in advance of the guild’s upcoming contract negotiations, sources tell Deadline.

Hollywood labor presented a united front last night at the Shrine Auditorium in support of the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike, which is now in its third day. That included Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399, whose secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator Lindsay Dougherty had the biggest mic-drop moment in front of the crowd of 1,800 WGA West members.

SAG-AFTRA will no longer be the only Hollywood union that leases building space for its headquarters, as the actors guild announced that it has closed a deal for a $46.6 million purchase of a new headquarters in North Hollywood. “After multiple sessions with my executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and CFO Arianna Ozzanto, it was determined that SAG-AFTRA was now in a financially sound position to pursue this goal,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a statement. “National secretary-treasurer and finance committee chair Joely Fisher next took the lead in pursuit of a worthwhile real estate investment,” Drescher continued.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA announced Tuesday that it has bought an office building in North Hollywood for $46.6 million and plans to relocate its headquarters there in the next few years. The performers’ union has been renting its headquarters in the Museum Square building in the mid-Wilshire area. In 2015, the guild extended its lease into 2026. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, said in a statement that the new building will provide more space and better facilities, and that the union will save money over the long run by owning instead of renting. The new building is at 12020 Chandler Blvd., adjacent to a stop on the Orange Line busway and a few blocks from the NoHo Arts District. The building is currently home to Pilgrim Media Group and Screen Engine/ASI.

SAG-AFTRA has bought an office building in the San Fernando Valley for $46.6 million that will serve as its new national headquarters. Located at 12020 Chandler Blvd. in North Hollywood, the property features more than 118,000 square feet of commercial office space and includes the building on 1.22 acres and a nearby 0.71-acre vacant lot.

Although Hollywood’s Covid return-to-work protocols are set to expire on May 12, performers and background actors involved in intimate scenes – and those involving extreme physical exertion – will be allowed through July to request self-administered Covid testing of performers with whom they will be working in close or intimate contact.

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 showed their support for the WGA on Monday, posing with WGA leaders shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the Writers Guild’s contract negotiations with producers at the AMPTP’s headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, which honors both movies and TV shows, is here.  Nominees for the SAG Awards were announced in January – including the recipient for this year's lifetime achievement award: Sally Field.  Here's how to watch, who's nominated and what else to know ahead of this year's SAG Awards. How to watch Rather than air on a traditional network, this year's award show will stream on Netflix's official YouTube channel.

SAG-AFTRA announced on Friday that it has renewed the contract of National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland through June 2028, approving the new four-year contract during a meeting of the actors guild’s national board with 87% of the vote. “I am very excited to continue fighting for the members of SAG-AFTRA,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

SAG-AFTRA’s Corporate/Educational and Non-Broadcast Contract has been ratified by the guild’s national executive committee. According to the guild, it was negotiated with “the industry bargaining group that traditionally negotiates this agreement.” A ratification vote of the members was not required for this contract.

SAG-AFTRA today applauded the enactment of the Respect for Marriage Act, which was signed into law today by President Joe Biden. The bipartisan legislation was passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, and concerns that the court might next rule that states can make same-sex and interracial marriages illegal.

SAG-AFTRA is staffing up and gearing up to reopen its offices on January 30 after having been closed to in-person gatherings since the onset of the Covid pandemic nearly three years ago.

SAG-AFTRA, in partnership with the AFL-CIO, is offering new SAG-AFTRA Senior Benefit Plans for all Medicare-eligible members and their Medicare-eligible spouses/partners, which includes a $0 premium option. The new plans are available to all of SAG-AFTRA’s Medicare-eligible members, regardless of their qualification for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.   

Members of SAG-AFTRA have voted resoundingly to ratify a new contract with Netflix. According to the guild, the vote was 89.03% in favor of ratification, although it didn’t release the actual vote count or how many of its 171,000+ members voted.

SAG-AFTRA‘s national board voted overwhelmingly today to approve a new agreement with the AMPTP that will sharply limit exclusivity terms in actors’ personal service agreements that hold series regulars off the market and unable to work for unreasonably long periods of time. The vote was 95.5% in favor, 4.5% opposed, and does not require membership ratification as this was a mid-term modification of the guild’s existing film and TV contract.

A federal judge has dismissed Frances Fisher’s lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA, in which the actress accused the union and several of its former and current leaders of breaching their duty of fair representation over the raising of eligibility requirements for coverage under the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan

SAG-AFTRA’s national board has approved a resolution to create a path to membership for intimacy coordinators, who serve as advocates and liaisons between performers and productions when nudity and intimate scenes are being filmed.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board has voted overwhelmingly (84.54% to 15.46%) to approve a tentative new agreement for its Network Television Code, which was recently negotiated with the major television broadcast networks and other producers. It will now be sent to SAG-AFTRA members for ratification.

Shelby Scott, the former president of AFTRA who helped spearhead the 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA, has died. She was 86. Scott, a longtime television news broadcaster, served as AFTRA’s national president from 1993-2001. She was a member of the “Group for One Union” of SAG and AFTRA leaders who spearheaded the 2012 merger effort and co-led a merger workgroup, one of only ten elected leaders to do so.

SAG-AFTRA members have overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new $1 billion-a-year set of commercials contracts that the union says is valued at an additional $120 million for members over the three-year span of the contracts.

Despite the pandemic, SAG-AFTRA member’s earnings hit a record high in 2021, even when adjusted for inflation, the union said following its national board meeting on Saturday. The union’s made-for new media, animation, sound recordings and audiobook contracts all set inflation-adjusted records.

With their commercials contracts set to expire tonight, SAG-AFTRA and the advertising industry’s Joint Policy Committee have agreed to extend them on a day-to-day basis to allow negotiations to continue.

SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Policy Committee of the advertising industry have begun negotiations for a new set of commercials contracts. The current contracts expire March 31. Three years ago, the union said that its commercials contracts “cover an estimated $1 billion in annual earnings.”

Hollywood’s Covid safety protocols have been extended to April 30 and updated to redefine “fully vaccinated” to include booster shots, effective March 15.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board, meeting on Saturday, has approved proposals for a new commercials contract. Negotiations with the Joint Policy Committee of the advertising industry are set to begin Feb. 15. The current contract expires March 31.

SAG-AFTRA has expanded its equity and inclusion department, promoting Franklin Sablan to the newly created position of executive director of equity & inclusion and upping Ellen Huang to national director of equity & inclusion programming and engagement and Grace Allen to senior manager of equity & inclusion policy compliance.

In the wake of IATSE’s historic strike authorization vote, SAG-AFTRA leaders are calling on Hollywood’s employers to hear the complaints of their workers and adopt “a more conscious capitalism.”

After Deadline broke the news Monday that CAA said was acquiring ICM Partners in the first major Hollywood agency tie-up since the WMA-Endeavor deal in 2009, the bombshell news has began sinking in around the industry.

Jobs and earnings for SAG-AFTRA members have “rebounded and reached a new high in the first months of 2021, with streaming and commercials showing significant growth,” the union said Saturday night following an all-day meeting of its national board of directors.

David White is stepping down as SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief contract negotiator. He’ll be staying on at the union until later this spring.

Dave McNary Film ReporterSAG-AFTRA has tapped Jonathan Handel, a longtime labor journalist and entertainment/technology attorney, as an outside special counsel.Handel, who covered the labor beat at The Hollywood Reporter for the past decade, will work on special projects and cutting-edge issues.SAG-AFTRA chief operating officer and general counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said, “We are thrilled to have Jonathan working with SAG-AFTRA and look forward to engaging his talents on a number of