From Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood comes the most recent missives between, around, and betwixt the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) groups. Let’s summarize in a much more simpler way, shall we?
AMPTP: Yo, SAG? We totally wanna make deal with you, which is why we’re telling you that if you just ratify the contract, we’ll make give you retroactive back pay to July 1. Fer sure! But listen up, if you don’t ratify the contract by August 15, we’re going to make you wait till your next pay period. And considering that some of you might not actually be working actors, who knows when that will be? (Ed. Note: They didn’t say that in the statement, but everybody’s thinking it.) Listen, we’re giving you $250 million more and actually trying to do something about this new-fangled Intarweb thing, so just freaking ratify it already, would ya?
SAG: Chill out, dudes. We wanna talk to you guys in person rather than jump the gun and let the media vultures pick apart our statements like they are probably already doing right now.
AMPTP: Oh, and btw, California state legislators? We totally did our part in giving the SAG folks fair demands and time frames and whatnot, and if this draws out any longer, it’s totally their fault, not ours. Neener-neener!
SAG: Fuck that! It’s so totally not a fair enough deal, and we totally don’t like the fact that the meanie-head producers are trying to diss us to you O benevolent legislators who we may want to turn to later on. It’s their fault for not giving us every single thing we asked for, and if there is a slowdown in one of California’s biggest exports, it’s because they’re not negotiating with us and giving us everything we want.
Update: Variety reports that SAG nixed the final offer and is also refusing to send it to its 120,000 members for a vote. They did, however, also present a counter-offer.
The AMPTP responded — and I paraphrase — “Dude, we’re just giving you what we gave the writer dudes, the director dudes, and the TV and radio dudes, so why you film folks gotta give us such problems? It’s totally your fault if you make this bad economy even worse for us Hollywood folks.”
No word yet on what the next step is going to be.