Actors Guild Ousts Chief

Newly elected leaders of the Screen Actors Guild flexed their muscles Sunday, firing Chief Executive Greg Hessinger and voiding his recent hiring of three other executives.

Hessinger’s ouster, on a split vote by the SAG national board, signaled continuing upheaval and infighting in the 120,000-member union, which last month elected a slate of candidates who promised to get tougher in negotiations with studios and advertisers.

SAG President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement that SAG members expected “concrete results” in collective bargaining and organizing efforts.

“After much consideration and debate, the national board has decided to make a change in our staff leadership that will allow us to focus our resources more intensely in these areas,” he said. “We have great respect for Greg and are grateful to him for his service to the guild. We wish him well.”

Peter Frank, the union’s chief financial officer, will fill Hessinger’s spot as national executive director during a search for a permanent replacement.

The union’s announcement did not specify reasons for firing Hessinger, and a SAG spokesman said Rosenberg had no further comment. Nor would the union say whether it would honor the 3 1/2 years remaining on Hessinger’s contract, which pays him $450,000 a year.

However, people familiar with the board’s action said that members of Rosenberg’s faction cited Hessinger’s recent hiring of three executives, including two who had been his colleagues at the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which he formerly headed. They said the board voted to pay his salary for the rest of the year, but not for the remainder of his contract.

Hessinger declined to discuss his dismissal, but issued a statement threatening legal action.

“While the board may have the right to choose its own chief executive, that right does not include the ability to repudiate a legally binding contract entered into in good faith,” he said. “SAG members, who depend upon the enforcement of their own contractual protections for their very livelihood, should understand the sanctity of a contract. If their elected leaders choose not to do so, I will take all steps necessary to enforce my rights.”

September’s election of the Membership First slate prompted speculation that Hessinger’s days were numbered, just months after he succeeded A. Robert Pisano in May.

Rosenberg and others had criticized Pisano as not firm enough with the giant media companies that employ SAG members. Among other things, Rosenberg had contended that SAG, in its last round of negotiations, did not fight hard enough for a bigger share of DVD sales. Rosenberg and others also criticized Hessinger, who was viewed as closely allied with the old regime.

SAG board members who supported Hessinger walked out of the session after Sunday’s vote.

“It is probably the most unethical and dishonorable thing I’ve ever seen done here,” said actor Paul Christie, a national vice president and head of SAG’s New York branch. “I find it absolutely ironic that an organization that is set up to protect the contracts of its members would make a decision to turn around and declare null and void the contract it signed with its employee.”

Other SAG members said they also were outraged by Hessinger’s dismissal.

“It is an ugly, brutal development, and it is only unexpected in its having happened so soon,” said former “M*A*S*H” star Mike Farrell, who described Hessinger as “a good and smart and decent professional” who proved himself capable during his short tenure. He called the Membership First faction “a group of angry, destructive, mean-spirited dissidents” who were putting the union’s future in jeopardy.

“To insist that this kind of bombshell-and-hand-grenade approach is the appropriate way to go forward is, I think, utterly self destructive if not utterly, completely suicidal,” he said.

SAG’s firing of Hessinger comes in the wake of a similar move by the Writers Guild of America, West. Its newly elected leadership, which also has pushed for toughening its negotiations with Hollywood studios, canned Executive Director John McLean last month.

The SAG board also scrapped Hessinger’s hiring of Rebecca Rhine, John Russum and JoAnne Kessler. Rhine and Russum had worked with Hessinger when he headed AFTRA before taking the SAG post.

SAG’s relationship with AFTRA has been a point of contention, including a failed merger attempt that occurred under Pisano while Hessinger was AFTRA’s chief executive.