The Screen Actors Guild and the congloms may be nearing a feature-primetime deal, but they're probably going to need more time to reach the finish line.
SAG and the companies held a second consecutive day of contract talks Wednesday lasting into the evening, with both sides adhering to a news blackout. That means there probably won't be any official announcement until negotiators reach a tentative agreement or break off talks.
As of Wednesday evening, SAG and the majors had not scheduled any future talks after meeting for 10 hours on Tuesday and at least that much on Wednesday. The clock's ticking this week because SAG officials are skedded to fly to New York on Monday to begin a week of talks with the ad industry on a new contract covering commercials.
Expectations in the biz have been growing that a tentative agreement could emerge soon -- particularly after SAG's moderate coalition of board members ousted Doug Allen as national exec director, installed John McGuire as chief negotiator and replaced the negotiating committee that had been at an impasse with the majors for many months.
For SAG to reach a deal, it would have to agree to the congloms' demand that the guild accept the new-media framework contained in the DGA, WGA and AFTRA deals. The companies have indicated they may allow a few adjustments to the 8-month-old final offer -- meaning that complex issues such as force majeure, product placement, retroactivity and term of the contract have to be sorted out.
Still, if a tentative deal on the feature-primetime pact emerges this week, SAG's national board meeting could approve it at its meeting Saturday. The pact could then be sent to SAG's 120,000 members for ratification as early as next week, with a three-week period to return the ballots.
This week's meetings are the first since SAG and the congloms held two days of talks in November, when negotiations cratered over SAG demands for a hike in DVD residuals, product placement approval language and retroactivity.
Allen was fired last month due to growing anger among the moderates over his perceived intransigence in pursuing a strike authorization rather than making a realistic deal. The AMPTP's contended repeatedly that it won't budge from the basic terms of its final offer, made June 30 as SAG's contract expired.
About 50 members of the Membership First faction, which strongly backed Allen but lost control of the guild's national board last fall, staged a second day of picketing outside the negotiations at the headquarters of the AMPTP in Sherman Oaks. Membership First is demanding that Allen be rehired, is seeking a strike authorization vote and is promising it will oppose any deal that emerges.
"This is not a negotiation -- it's a presentation of what we're going to have to settle for," said SAG member Scott Wilson, who has organized the protests.
Membership First also plans to picket at the Saturday national board meeting at SAG headquarters in Hollywood.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com