SAG-AFTRA Contract Set to Expire at Midnight as Talks Continue

SAG-AFTRA strike, with just a day to go before the contract deadline. A group of CEOs and senior executives, including Disney chief Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, gathered by conference call Monday evening to discuss the urgent situation with SAG-AFTRA poised to go on strike as soon as Thursday. In addition to the executives discussing efforts to bring in a federal mediator, talent agency chieftains including Ari Emanuel of WME and Bryan Lourd of CAA have reached out to SAG-AFTRA leaders in recent days to offer assistance that could stave off a second Hollywood work stoppage this summer.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion premiere at Disneyland this Saturday will turn into a fan event should the SAG-AFTRA strike occur.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Disney’s red carpet premiere for “Haunted Mansion,” held on July 15 at Disneyland, will take place even if there is a SAG-AFTRA strike. If the actors guild does call a strike, the premiere will pivot to a “fan event,” according to a source. It is the first major world premiere set to take place after the strike deadline. The stars of the movie, including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Daniel Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Marilu Henner and Lindsay Lamb, would no longer be able to take part in the festivities in the case of a strike.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Buckle up for a busy 72 hours. SAG-AFTRA’s already-extended contract talks will come to a head one way or another by the July 12 midnight PT expiration deadline. And as goes SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations with the major studios and streamers goes the rest of Hollywood’s year. By multiple accounts, progress in the negotiating room has been negligible since SAG-AFTRA granted a 12-day extension of talks hours before the contract expired June 30. The mood across town is grim with the expectation that Hollywood will soon endure its first “double strike” in more than 60 years. The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May 2, stands ready to help SAG-AFTRA execute its first industry-wide work stoppage since Jimmy Carter was in the White House. SAG-AFTRA’s move would bring a burst of energy to the WGA’s public efforts at a time when union members privately acknowledge that strike fatigue is setting in. With little diminution in the resolve of WGA members to back their union, polite discussions of “what’s the endgame” are nonetheless rising among writers and showrunners who were busy juggling multiple projects for 2023 and 2024 before scribes went pencils down.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher came under fire for attending Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda fashion show with Kim Kardashian ahead of the union’s negotiation with major studios.

If you didn’t know, Fran Drescher is the president of SAG-AFTRA and the organization is on the verge of launching a strike.

But on Monday the guild sent strike rules out to members, a sign it believes the extended talks may not succeed.And whether the negotiating committee was aware of the trip, it seems it wasn’t widely known to rank and file SAG-AFTRA members, judging from the reactions online from those who at best considered the trip in poor taste.This is a joke right? The deadline for a union that she is President of has a deadline to strike Wed at midnight. Livelihoods are on the line. I’m hoping this is not true.

William Earl SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher has come in for criticism at a tense moment in the union’s contract talks with the major studios after she took a weekend trip to Italy to participate in a Dolce & Gabbana promotional event. SAG-AFTRA emphasized that Drescher was still engaged in negotiations despite her international travel. A picture of Drescher posing with Kim Kardashian surfaced Monday on social media via Kardashian’s Instagram account. That sparked heated responses from members of Hollywood’s creative community who are on pins and needles this week as the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers face a deadline of midnight PT on July 12 to hammer out a new three-year contract or the union is expected to begin its first industry-wide strike since 1980.

EXCLUSIVE: The computers are taking over.

After getting flamed by writers on social media for posting about being on the set of American Horror Story while striking WGA writers were outside picketing, Kim Kardashian’s at it again.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Leadership from the performers guild SAG-AFTRA held a conference call with top Hollywood publicity agencies on Monday, bracing the powerful gatekeepers of A-list stars for a strike. The objective of the call, according to sources, was to brief the reps on protocols and how talent can best serve the union if and when a strike takes place. “SAG-AFTRA’s National Board has the option to call a strike if the AMPTP won’t agree on a deal that bolsters performer’s careers and ensures their profession remains one that can support a dignified livelihood,” leadership wrote to the PR agencies ahead of the meeting. During the call, which one participant described as panicked, the publicists asked varied questions — including if their clients would be allowed to sit for panels at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, and if promotional obligations outside the United States would be kosherˆ.

William Earl With five days to go, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up its efforts to prepare for going on strike even as contract negotiations with Hollywood’s major studios intensify. On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA distributed a survey to its 160,000 members and alerted them that the union would be calling for volunteers to help make signs, work phone banks, distribute T-shirts and generally support a mobilization of pickets on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and selected other locations. The email message includes a survey of members’ availability to picket outside studio gates, New York offices and other key locations. SAG-AFTRA members have already been out in force on picketing efforts mounted by the Writers Guild of America, which went on strike May 2. Many rank-and-file SAG-AFTRA members are fired up about issues on the table in this difficult season of Hollywood labor negotiations. By contrast, the Directors Guild of America has ratified a new three-year contract in a deal reached last month without much drama.

Seth Rogen is teasing the Sausage Party sequel series and talking about an “unbelievably shocking” scene that even caught co-star Kristen Wiig off guard.

The Writer Guild of America said Wednesday that “we stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they bargain for a contract that truly works for all their members.” It’s the first comment the WGA has made on the SAG-AFTRA talks since the actors’ union last week extended its contract until July 12 to allow negotiations for a new film and TV contract to continue.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA and the studios will keep talking beyond the midnight Friday contract deadline, as they remain at odds on issues like streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. The union has agreed to extend the contract to July 12. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA made the announcement in a joint statement just before 7 p.m. Friday. In a message to its membership, SAG-AFTRA said the leadership had decided unanimously to extend the contract “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”

UPDATED with joint statement: SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract until July 12 to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue, both sides said this evening. The current contract had been set to expire tonight at midnight PT, after which it would have likely meant a second major Hollywood guild would be on strike against the studios.

SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations for a new contract are making headway “in some areas” but not in others, Fran Drescher, the guild’s president, said in an interview today on ABC’s Good Morning America.  

EXCLUSIVE: With 54 hours to go before SAG-AFTRA’s current contract with the studios expires on June 30, both sides are considering extending their negotiations until next week or slightly later.

Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and over 400 other actors have addressed SAG-AFTRA leaders in an open letter — and are threatening to strike if a harder line is not drawn regarding contact deals.   

More than 300 actors including many big names have signed a letter to SAG-AFTRA leadership urging them to take a hard line in the negotiations for a new film and TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.