Actors Guild to Elect New Leader

They’ve played a glamorous vixen, a soulful attorney and a secret service agent in the Old West.

Now they are auditioning for the role of a lifetime: leading the Screen Actors Guild when Hollywood’s already fractious performers’ union is threatening to splinter into warring camps.

On Friday, television, film and commercial actors will choose a new president from veteran performers Morgan Fairchild, Alan Rosenberg and Robert Conrad to succeed Melissa Gilbert, who after four years declared the job “untenable” because of the union’s chronic infighting.

More important, the balance of power on the guild’s national board is in play with 24 of the 69 seats up for grabs.

Although the guild’s president is the public face of the union in negotiations with the major studios, it is board members who hold the real power in representing nearly 120,000 actors in TV, film, commercials and music videos. Friday’s results will set the tone for negotiations, with contracts with advertisers and studios expiring within three years.

“If the militants win, the studios are more likely to prepare for a possible strike,” said Los Angeles labor attorney Bernard Gold, who teaches a course on guild contracts at the UCLA School of Law.

SAG’s president serves a two-year, unpaid term. Past presidents include such notables as James Cagney, Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston.

Rosenberg is leading an aggressive slate of actors who have long complained that Gilbert’s group was too accommodating in negotiations.

Rosenberg said it was a bum rap to call his coalition militant. He said his group wasn’t looking to strike but merely believed that the union should take a tougher stance in negotiations with studios to give working actors their fair share. He especially criticizes union leadership for not trying harder to secure gains in DVD residuals in the last round of negotiations.

“They want to form partnerships with our employers rather than stand up and fight for our fair share,” Rosenberg said. “What we want to do is stay at the bargaining table and go for the best deal we can get.”

The 54-year-old actor and SAG board member has appeared in such shows as “L.A. Law,” “ER” and “The Guardian” and has long been politically active on civil rights issues. Some of the well-known actors lining up behind him include former SAG President Ed Asner, Elliott Gould, Peter Gallagher and Rosenberg’s wife, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” star Marg Helgenberger.

Fairchild also vows to improve conditions and pay for working-class actors, including securing residuals for actors whose work appears on new media such as cellphones. She said the difference between her group and Rosenberg’s camp is that she favors a more moderate approach to negotiations.

“They always want everything, but when you are in a labor organization, the odds are you aren’t going to get everything,” Fairchild said. “At some point, you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them for the long-term benefit of your members.”

Fairchild, 55, also on SAG’s board, is probably best known for starring in such TV shows as “Falcon Crest” and “Flamingo Road” and as one of Hollywood’s earliest AIDS activists. Her supporters include actors Danny Glover, Willie Nelson, Stephen Collins and Peter Coyote.

For his part, Conrad is staking out a position as an independent. The 70-year-old actor, who starred in TV shows “The Wild, Wild West” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” says the union is in “disarray.” He wants to “commit to bringing the guild back to her glory days.”

The differences between the Rosenberg and Fairchild backers underscore philosophical differences that sharply divided the guild in recent years.

Rosenberg’s supporters, who call themselves Membership First, repeatedly clashed with Gilbert on such issues as a proposed SAG merger with its smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, and a proposed agreement with talent agents governing relations between actors and their representatives.

Both measures failed to get sufficient member support. In June, Membership First supporters accused Gilbert of being too soft in contract negotiations with video game makers. The contract, which included a pay hike but no residual payments for actors whose voices are used in games, was overwhelmingly approved by members in July.

Now, Membership First has launched a full-court press to gain control of SAG’s board positions, running 33 candidates from the Hollywood branch, nearly three times the number Fairchild’s group is putting up.

“You could see a completely different direction for the board,” said David Jolliffe, a Rosenberg supporter and Membership First leader. “That doesn’t mean we’d be bullies. We’d try to look for consensus.”

Fairchild supporters aren’t so sure their opponents will offer an olive branch if they win.

“If they do that, it would be a very big change in their tactics,” said former “MASH” star Mike Farrell, who has battled with Membership First.

SAG’s elections typically get more attention than any other labor contest in Hollywood, since they often involve celebrities and because actors can immediately shut down productions when they strike. Indeed, the current vote is overshadowing the election this week for president of the Writers Guild of America, West, involving scribes Patric M. Verrone and Ted Elliott.

Actors last called a walkout in 2000, when they struck advertisers for six months. The following year, studios ramped up production, fearing that actors might strike film and TV production. Even though there was no walkout, studios significantly slowed film production for months after a deal was reached because they already had plenty of movies on the shelf.

For all the infighting, the SAG election has been relatively tame compared with previous bitter campaigns, which have been marked by backbiting, name-calling, accusations of corruption and, in 2002, allegations of voting irregularities that led to a new election.

Still, the election hasn’t been acrimony free. In dueling messages, the Rosenberg and Fairchild camps have accused each other of misstating their views and positions on various issues. They even accused each other of ducking out of a proposed candidate debate when neither side could agree on a format.

Nonetheless, all three candidates believe they can restore harmony. Conrad said the union had become dysfunctional, and Rosenberg said SAG needed to “unify behind strength.”

Said Fairchild: “I’m tired of all the nastiness.... We need to sit down together and find some consensus.”