Emmy nominees warn against actors strike

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Hollywood's leading actors union got a kick in the rear end Thursday from several Emmy nominees worried about the threat of a strike.

Contenders such as Ted Danson and Kevin Spacey spoke out as the stalemate over contract talks between the Screen Actors Guild and the studios' bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, dragged into its third week with no final act in sight.

The contract covers the work of 120,000 SAG members in prime-time TV and movies, an industry still reeling from a 14-week screenwriters strike that ended in February.

An actors strike is widely seen as unlikely, for now. But the industry is in a de facto strike mode, as major studios have halted most of their film productions to avoid costly labor disruptions.

"I am a union man," said Danson, nominated for his supporting role in FX's "Damages." "But I hope for the sake of the town that we do not have a strike, that this is settled. The town is hurting way too much as a result of the writers strike. I'm keeping my fingers crossed."

Spacey, nominated for his lead role in HBO's "Recount," said SAG members could renegotiate sticking points in another three years. "But right now, let's get back to work," he said.

"If the issues are DVD and new media, no one's going to be making billions of dollars in new media in the next three years," he added.

If there is no deal by September, one of the issues will be whether actors cross the picket lines to attend the Emmy awards show at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles on September 21.

Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother") said he would not attend the Emmys if there were a SAG strike. "Obviously we wouldn't be able to do any of it. It would be weird to cross the picket lines to go to an awards show."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter