Equity Will Join Vanessa Redgrave in Complaint

Actors’ Equity on Friday sided with actress Vanessa Redgrave in a dispute in which she claims she was barred for political reasons from appearing in the national tour of a hit Broadway play.

The executive council of the actors’ union decided to file a grievance against the producers of “Lettice and Lovage” based on Redgrave’s “submission that she was not hired for the proposed tour . . . as a direct result of political statements she made,” according to an Equity statement.

Equity’s spokeswoman Helaine Feldman said she did not know what the union can do to the producers if Redgrave’s complaint is upheld. She said the complaint will go to a union-management grievance committee within 30 days. If the committee fails to reach an agreement, the matter would go to binding arbitration.

In a speech made at a Spanish peace rally before the Persian Gulf War, Redgrave was quoted as saying “we must unconditionally defend Iraq against American, British or Israeli troops.” She later bought a New York Times ad in which she contended that her call for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, in the same speech, had been ignored.

The collective bargaining agreement between Equity and the League of American Theatre Owners and Producers prohibits discrimination against any actor “on the basis of . . . political persuasion or belief.”

The producers of the proposed “Lettice and Lovage” tour are the Shubert Organization, Roger Berlind and Robert Fox--who is married to Redgrave’s daughter Natasha Richardson. They did not return telephone calls about the Redgrave matter by press time.