Vote Tally Drags Out in Race for Head of SAG

The bitter election for president of the Screen Actors Guild remained in doubt early this morning as a record turnout dragged Friday’s vote count past midnight.

At stake is the post that actress Melissa Gilbert won in November from fellow 1970s TV star Valerie Harper, but was forced to seek again. A SAG committee overturned the results in January, citing election irregularities.

The union said that 41.1%, or 37,742, of the 91,054 members whose dues are paid, cast votes in the mail-in election. Two other offices, the treasurer’s post held by actor Kent McCord and the office of recording secretary held by Elliott Gould, also were rerun. Results were expected to be revealed Friday evening, but the announcement was repeatedly rescheduled.

The election to the two-year term has been one of the nastiest battles in the history of Hollywood unions, marked by accusations and name-calling involving some of the industry’s best-known actors. At one point, Gould, a Harper supporter, called actor Mike Farrell, a Gilbert partisan, “a slug” during a rally.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before and I’ve been around 30 years,” said labor lawyer Alan Brunswick of the Los Angeles law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. “No matter what decision is reached there is going to be vitriol coming from the other side.”

Best known for playing Laura Ingalls in “Little House on the Prairie,” Gilbert has been serving as president of the 98,000-member guild since November.

In January, a SAG elections committee upheld a challenge from Harper and others, who complained that the vote was tainted because New York members were given two extra days to vote and ballot envelopes contained no line for a signature.

Gilbert’s supporters decried the decision as a coup attempt by a committee packed with Harper supporters. Dubbing Harper and her supporters as “the refuse to lose” group, her opponents argued that the violations were inconsequential, followed past procedures and that Gilbert would have won anyway.

Harper and Gilbert represent two factions that have been at odds for nearly three years.

Best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its “Rhoda” spinoff, Harper vowed to carry on the aggressive policies of former President William Daniels, who led SAG on a six-month walkout against advertisers. Harper argued that the strike, the longest in Hollywood history, was a success and galvanized the union.

Gilbert and her supporters argued that the strike was a failure, costing SAG members tens of millions of dollars in lost pay.

A volunteer position, SAG’s president is the most visible face in Hollywood representing actors. Past presidents have included such stars as Charlton Heston, Patty Duke, James Cagney and Ronald Reagan.

Whoever wins will have the challenge of trying to heal a union that many longtime SAG members believe is so bitterly divided that it will be unwieldy to lead and will take years to unite.

“We have to get out of this cycle of acting like the Hatfields and McCoys,” said Oscar-nominated actress Tess Harper, who is not related to Valerie Harper.

Tess Harper also said she worries that the partisan attacks of the past SAG elections will discourage good candidates from running.

“You get no pay, no power and half the membership hates you the day you are elected,” she said.

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Times staff writer Richard Verrier contributed to this report.