Actors Union OKs Mormon Restrictions

The Screen Actors Guild has agreed to allow the audiovisual arm of the Mormon Church to give hiring priority to Mormon actors and those outside the church who pledge to behave like Mormons.

The two-year deal with Deseret Media Productions is awaiting signatures of officials at the union and at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, church spokesman Dale Bills said.

Under the agreement, non-Mormons who work on church productions must be willing “to commit in writing to live their lives in accordance with church standards during the production.”

Those standards are not spelled out, but Bills said they would be similar to the honor code signed by all students at church-owned Brigham Young University. Students promise to abstain from coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, sex outside marriage, profanity, shorts above the knee, beards and earrings on men.

“The emphasis is on-set behavior--that’s what’s going to be visible, therefore that’s what’s going to be monitored,” Bills said. “We’re not going to challenge people’s privacy.”