Gilbert Won’t Seek 3rd Term at SAG

Casting has begun for one of the most thankless roles in Hollywood: president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Tired of infighting and what she called an “untenable” situation, actress Melissa Gilbert said Thursday that she wouldn’t seek a third term as SAG president. Her departure sets the stage for what history suggests could be another contentious battle for control of Hollywood’s biggest and, many say, most dysfunctional union.

Three actors have declared their intention to run for Gilbert’s post: Morgan Fairchild, a Gilbert ally who starred in the 1980s TV drama “Falcon Crest”; Alan Rosenberg, who has appeared on “L.A. Law” and “The Guardian” and represents a more militant SAG faction that held power before Gilbert was elected in 2001; and Robert Conrad, best known for playing James West in the 1960s series “The Wild Wild West.”

On Thursday, two of those candidates vowed not to sink to the depths of earlier campaigns, which were marked by backbiting, name-calling, accusations of corruption and, in 2002, allegations of voting irregularities that led to a new election. Voting will begin next month.

“We have to quit fighting each other and fight for our members,” said Fairchild, 55, who is a member of SAG’s national board. “I’m trying to get unity back into this union.”

Rosenberg, 54, who is married to Marg Helgenberger, a star of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” struck a similarly conciliatory tone.

“It might be a dogfight, but I will do my best to keep things civil,” said Rosenberg, who has also served on the SAG board. “It’s impossible to get anything accomplished unless we speak with one voice.”

Conrad, 70, could not be reached for comment.

Although the guild’s board members run the union, the SAG presidency -- an unpaid, two-year term -- is a high-profile position that carries considerable clout in Hollywood. The union, whose former presidents include Charlton Heston, James Cagney and Ronald Reagan, represents nearly 120,000 actors in TV, film, commercials and music videos. SAG’s president sets the tone for negotiations with the major media firms upon which actors depend for work.

Gilbert, the 23rd president of the 72-year-old-guild and its third female president, sought to use the position to make the union more efficient -- a goal, she acknowledged Thursday, that was difficult to achieve. “We should be focusing on organizing and legislation, but because of the infighting and wrangling, our focus is elsewhere,” said Gilbert, who will step down when a new president is announced Sept. 23. “It’s reached a point for me where I need to remove myself from the situation because it’s become untenable.”

The 41-year-old actress, best known as Laura Ingalls in TV’s “Little House on the Prairie,” had tried to heal the wounds that divided the guild after a six-month strike against advertisers in 2000.

But from the moment she took the helm in 2001, Gilbert became a target.

Two months into her presidency, a SAG elections committee upheld a challenge from her opponent, 1970s TV star Valerie Harper, and others who alleged that the election was tainted.

Gilbert supporters dubbed Harper backers as “Val’s Pals” and the “Refuse to Lose Ticket” while Harper’s side suggested in a mass fax that Gilbert and her team would “sell out this union at the bargaining table.”

After a campaign in which both sides resorted to name-calling, Gilbert won the revote in 2002. Then in 2003, she was overwhelmingly reelected.

But she continued to lock horns with the more strident wing of the guild on several issues, including a proposed merger with the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and a proposed agreement with the nation’s two talent agents organizations. Both measures failed to get sufficient members’ support.

The latest flare-up occurred last month, when critics accused Gilbert of being too soft in contract negotiations with video game publishers. Gilbert defended her approach Thursday, saying her critics believed that “a strike is a weapon to be used or threatened at every turn. I believe a strike is a failure of negotiation and is the last ... resort.”

Among her accomplishments, she said, were gains to the guild’s health and benefit plans and helping to pass federal tax incentive legislation to curb runaway production. Gilbert also sought to strengthen protections for child actors.

A former child actor herself, Gilbert grew up to become an award-winning actor, director and producer -- pursuits she will have more time for now. But she doesn’t plan to disengage from SAG entirely, she said. “I want the future leaders of my beloved union to know that I will be watching them ... like a hawk,” she said.