Off The Set: Hollywood Goes On Strike

"I'm really gratified that some of our better-known brothers and sisters are putting their names out there so others can see and follow it. It energizes us. It gives us hope and courage."

Actor Elliott Gould
speaking to Steven Sato about the SAG/AFTRA strike

The A-List
With all the stars' names, it could have been the guest list for the Academy Awards, but it wasn't. It was something far more telling.

On May 9, the Hollywood Reporter carried a full-page ad listing 200 major celebrities who supported the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television & Radio Artists strike against television commercial production.

They are names that you know:

Dennis Hopper, Mary Tyler Moore, Rita Moreno, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Jason Alexander, Jennifer Aniston, Michael Jackson, Steven Seagal, Tom Selleck, Dan Aykroyd, Harvey Keitel, Richard Dreyfuss, Carroll O'Connor, Olympia Dukakis, Alec Baldwin, Gregory Peck, Angela Bassett, Martin Landau, Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Jack Lemmon, Tracey Ulman, Morgan Freeman, Julianna Margulies, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Orbach, Rene Russo, Dustin Hoffman, Dixie Carter, Noah Wyle, William Baldwin, Glenn Close, Charlton Heston, Antonio Banderas and dozens of others.

This week, several actors crusading for this labor issue, Elliott Gould, Sally Kirkland, Joe Pantoliano and others, tell me why they have put their time -- and reputations -- on the line for their fellow actors.

Commercial Building
When most of us think about Hollywood actors, it is often the well-known celebrities who come to mind -- stars who live life glamorously and command fat paychecks. And while some top actors do enjoy these privileges, the majority of working actors live their lives closer to yours and mine.

The truth is, of the 100,000 members of SAG, roughly 3,000 are working actors, and only 5 percent garner the kind of financial rewards that accompany stardom.

So when the Joint Policy Committee that represents the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies sought to cut the pay of television commercial actors, SAG and its sister organization, AFTRA, balked.

On April 18, the unions voted to institute a commercial strike against the advertising industry.

SAG/AFTRA asked members not to audition for, or accept, any commercial work unless it's being produced under a SAG/AFTRA interim agreement. But because the strike did not directly affect other kinds of acting work, it looked like commercial actors would stand on their own.

And then a curious thing happened, something that has surprised the advertising industry and more than a few union members: Big-name stars stepped forward, many who do not even make commercials, to join the working-class actors in their cause. Even a few sports stars, like golfer Tiger Woods, have agreed not to cross the picket lines.

Striking The Set
Veteran Golden Globe Award-winning actress Sally Kirkland is no stranger to Hollywood or to SAG.

"My union has been very good to me. I'm going on 38 years as a member of SAG and a little less for AFTRA," Kirkland tells me.

And despite the fact that Kirkland does not depend on commercial work for a living, she has been instrumental in rallying fellow celebrities into action.

It has clearly made a difference.

Karen Austin, SAG's national recording secretary, tells me, "It's heartening to the entire membership that those with the highest visibility are willing to support this cause, which will benefit the middle-class journeyman the most."

Austin herself is a working actress, perhaps best known as John Candy's onscreen mom in "Summer Rental."

Austin says stars like Kirkland are coming forward because they understand "that the (workers') demands are just."

Kirkland has certainly put her time in, sometimes spending eight hours a day calling her fellow actors from a phone in SAG president William Daniels' office in Los Angeles.

"I understand the importance of people who are making a living doing commercials and having residuals come in, because I did that in the '70s," Kirkland says. "I no longer have to, by nature of the fact that (the film) 'Anna' happened in 1988."

The actress refers to her Academy Award nomination for best actress, which gave a tremendous boost to her television and feature film career. Among many roles, Kirkland most recently starred in "EdTV" and on the WB series "Felicity."

In the end, Kirkland says, her active participation in the strike comes down to doing the right thing: "It's fair, and my life is about fairness."

And according to Kirkland, what the Joint Policy Committee wants is not about fairness.

"It's a multibillion-dollar business, and the actors only figure into 2 percent of that budget," she says. "And all we're saying is, can't we have the dignity of having (on cable) what we have at network?"

What the actors have "at network" is a structured pay scale -- a scale that the union claims is an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

But the advertising industry wants to change the pay-scale approach (an approach that's been used for 40 years) and offer actors a flat-rate amount for commercials that are produced for cable and the Internet.

Currently, actors booking network commercials can earn several thousand dollars plus residual payments every time the commercial is aired.

Under the proposed plan, there would be a cap of $2,000 for a commercial job and no residual payments. After standard taxes and agent commissions, union members argue, only one-third of that amount would go into the actor's pocket at the end of the day.

Moreover, the cable network could air the commercial as many times as it wishes. And according to the union, this puts the actor at risk of losing his or her livelihood altogether.

Commercial actor Todd Amorde, who is serving as chairman of the SAG/AFTRA Strike Committee, tells me that one real-life example is when a cable company ran a commercial up to 5,000 times in 13 weeks. The actor who starred in the commercial never received any residual payments for the use of his image, and the actor's chances to secure future commercial work were greatly diminished.

"(Overexposure) is the death of the commercial actor," Amorde says. "If you are too associated with one product, that is going to stay with (you). Producers may be reluctant to hire an actor that is associated with another product."

Amorde tells me that the issues behind the strike come down to good old-fashioned greed by the advertising industry.

"In one of the most incredible boom times, this multibillion-dollar ad industry is coming to the actors in the SAG/AFTRA (and saying) they can't afford to pay our salaries the way they have paid them for 40 years," he says. "What that means is a 30 percent pay cut. They made us an offer we had to refuse."

Joe Pantoliano agrees. The actor, who has starred in a string of blockbuster movies including "The Matrix" and "The Fugitive," says that even though he is not a commercial actor, the strike should concern all actors.

"The one thing we have in common is the struggle that we all remember (making it in show business)," Pantoliano tells me.

I ask him how it feels to have his name literally on the line in the Hollywood Reporter.

"I think it's terrific," he says. "I'm proud that my name's on that list. Everybody is pretty proud of being a member of SAG. It's the guys like James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, these privileged guys, who started this union for the little guy."

Veteran actor Elliott Gould has not only put his name on the line, but, like Kirkland, has been instrumental in motivating his fellow big-name stars into action.

And why has he chosen to put his time and energy into the strike?

"I believe in the integrity of my union. I believe in the purpose of my union. And I think that solidarity is really important," the star of dozens of feature films and television shows says.

"It's the purpose of stardom to put light on where we come from. To put light on the rank and file ... I believe it's the responsibility of each and every one of us to support our brothers and sisters.

"I consider myself to be 'one of us,' you know. I think one of the greatest problems we have, as a species, is our ego and our vanity. I also believe that a grain of pride is good for the heart, but not more than that. We are fighting against pride; the union is as important as our country."

United They Stand
So where do they stand? Clearly, the union is making inroads.

Daily Variety reported on May 9 that SAG has signed 300 interim agreements with smaller, boutique advertising agencies. The interim agreements allow union talent to work on those projects through those agencies.

And while the biggest advertising agencies aren't budging, the union says the agreements heavily undermine the advertising industry's solidarity. Two of the highest-profile interim agreements were signed with the media consulting firms for presidential hopefuls Al Gore and George W. Bush.

SAG/AFTRA have also gotten support from our neighbors to the north. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, which is the Canadian counterpart to SAG/AFTRA, has officially pledged its full support for the strike, even sending notices to all ACTRA members, television and radio producers and casting directors.

How long the strike will last isn't clear, but what is certain is the commitment of SAG/AFTRA to fight for their very survival.

Pantoliano put it best: "If we don't win, we're out of business."

Just Teasing

• He co-starred in the Sundance smash "Girl Fight" and in the CBS Movie "Murder, She Wrote: A Story To Die For," which airs next week. Meet one of Hollywood's freshest young actors: Santiago Douglas.

• Past On The Set columns.

Note: "On The Set" appears every week in our Entertainment section. To have this column delivered right to your e-mail box, click here. Have a question about your favorite celebrity? Let Steven know.

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