Actors Ask for More Time to Study Final Offer

The Screen Actors Guild is asking for more time to study the final contract offer made by major Hollywood studios.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, said both sides met Wednesday for four hours to discuss the offer. The meeting was held a day after the contract between SAG and [...]

Actors’ Union, Theater Producers Reach Agreement

The actors’ union and Broadway theater producers have reached a tentative agreement for a new 39-month contract that covers Broadway shows and touring productions.
Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League, which represents both producers and theater owners, had been negotiating past the deadline of midnight Sunday, when the last contract expired.
The contract agreement, announced Wednesday [...]

George Clooney Plays Peacemaker

George Clooney just wants actors to get along instead of choosing between sparring unions.
In a two-page letter, Clooney is neutral in the dispute between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild.
He says “What we can’t do is pit artist against artist.”
AFTRA has already reached a tentative [...]

SAG says Studios Offered More to Sister Union

The Screen Actors Guild is accusing the major Hollywood studios of offering a contract deal worth less than an agreement tentatively approved by the leaders of a smaller actors union.
SAG executive director Doug Allen told The Associated Press on Wednesday the offer is worth millions of dollars less over the life of the proposed three-year [...]

Dying Is Hard. Comedy Is Harder.

I’m still in shock and saddened over this weekend’s death of George Carlin. I found this op-ed by Jerry Seinfeld in today’s New York Times and wanted to share it.
My parents always watched George Carlin’s specials…so I basically grew up on his jokes.
I’m assuming he’s in a better place now and is looking down and [...]

How George Carlin Changed Comedy

From Time Magazine
Monday, Jun. 23, 2008
By Richard Zoglin
 
When the culture began to change in the late 1960s — when the old one-liner comics on the Ed Sullivan Show were looking pretty tired and irrelevant to a younger generation experimenting with drugs and protesting the war in Vietnam — George Carlin was the most important stand-up [...]

Screen Actors Guild says Contract Talks Could Last into July

The Screen Actors Guild says negotiations with Hollywood studios could extend beyond June 30, the day its contract is set to expire.
SAG executive director Doug Allen says in a Thursday e-mail to The Associated Press the union is hoping for an agreement soon but is prepared to keep negotiating into July.
The union has yet to [...]

Fire Destroys Buildings at Universal Studios

A massive fire broke out at the Universal Studios film and TV studio on Sunday, damaging a sound stage, movie sets and a video vault, but plans to host the MTV movie awards there were still going ahead.
A total of 400 firefighters from several Los Angeles-area fire departments battled the blaze, and three were treated [...]

My Own Personal Woodstock Experience

I remember it was very hot and humid that day. And the pavement was even hotter at around 120-degrees.
Twenty years ago today my parents and I (12 at the time) crossed the state line into California to watch my third ever concert - INXS at Cal-Expo in Sacramento. (For the record, Run DMC and the [...]

How Much ‘Sex’ Can One Person Take?

If you haven’t heard ‘Sex and the City’ opens in theatres nationwide today.
Ask any college aged girl (or any woman on Earth for that matter) if they’re excited about the movie, they’ll squeal your ear off in a pitch only recognizable to pom-pomed poodles.
They’ll tell you they loooooooove the show and that it’s [...]