Actors’ Guild Officials Reject Pay Waiver for Pro-Peace TV Ad

The executive committee of the Screen Actors Guild, voting in a hurried telephone poll Wednesday, rejected a request that would have allowed about 50 members to waive their salaries in order to appear in a TV commercial for Pro-Peace, a nonprofit group planning a cross-country anti-war march next spring.

The vote of the 15-member executive committee was seen as a victory for Charlton Heston and members of the dissident Actors Working for an Actors Guild (AWAG), which charged earlier this week that the actors in the Pro-Peace commercial were working for a guild non-signatory.

Pro-Peace filmed the commercial Saturday, using about 2,000 marchers, including Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Madonna and Leonard Nimoy. According to SAG spokesman Stephen Waddell, if the commercial is to be shown, about 50 SAG members who participated will have to be paid the guild minimum of $333.25 each.

In addition, Waddell said, Pro-Peace will have to contribute the equivalent of 11% of its total SAG payroll to the guild for pension and health and welfare benefits.

Pro-Peace was not a guild signatory when it began recruiting actors for the commercial, Waddell said. Since then, the group has signed a contract with SAG and requested a retroactive waiver. Denial of that request Wednesday set a precedent that Waddell said should discourage Pro-Peace from trying again.

Depending on the number of SAG members actually involved, the decision could cost Pro-Peace $18,000 or more in guild fees.

Waddell said that waivers are frequently requested and granted for SAG members performing professionally for political candidates, but the Pro-Peace march was deemed “too political.”