Actors Guild Leaders Fight Internal Battle

A year ago, Alan Rosenberg was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild with a simple pledge: “I will fight like hell to get actors their fair share.”

A lot of the fighting Rosenberg is doing today isn’t the kind he envisioned. The veteran character actor is finding himself pitted against some of the very people who voted him into office. An internal political fight has created a new level of instability at what already is a famously dysfunctional union.

“I do see this as a struggle for power over who is going to control the Screen Actors Guild,” Rosenberg said. “There’s a growing number of people who want to be reasonable and think and vote with their consciences, and there are those with a more fundamentalist point of view that is entrenched and inflexible.”

Today, SAG directors will meet in Los Angeles for what is expected to be yet another raucous gathering. Unlike the usual infighting, which is typically along ideological lines between more strident and moderate members, the latest involves actors who appeared to be on the same side.

Specifically, Rosenberg is at odds with Kent McCord -- best known for starring in the police drama “Adam-12” -- a former SAG treasurer who backed Rosenberg’s election. Their breach erupted into the open recently when SAG’s Hollywood branch elected McCord by a one-vote margin as the union’s first national vice president.

In doing so, it passed over one of Rosenberg’s strongest allies, Anne-Marie Johnson. Among SAG’s highest-ranking African Americans, she appeared in the television series “In the Heat of the Night.”

Livid, Rosenberg accused those who voted against Johnson of being racially insensitive and called McCord a polarizing figure.

“They stabbed her in the back,” he said.

The power struggle has come as Hollywood’s largest union, with nearly 120,000 members, has been plagued by a nearly clean sweep of its executive suites, with several top administrators leaving in frustration.

SAG’s board has gone for a year without naming a new top administrator to replace Greg Hessinger, who was fired as chief executive shortly after Rosenberg was elected. A replacement could be named as early as today, which would make that person SAG’s third top executive in five years.

For Rosenberg, the infighting threatens to weaken his agenda and his standing as the union’s chief negotiator during a crucial period. Tensions with studios have been high, fueled by such disputes as how talent is paid when movies and TV shows are distributed via the Internet. The contract for actors has less than two years to go, although major studios already are preparing for possible strikes by writers next year and actors in 2008.

“The only people who benefit from this kind of divide are our employers,” Rosenberg said.

McCord is a patriarch of the Membership First faction that currently dominates the union and counted Johnson as one of its most ardent advocates.

Critics say McCord is often unyielding and occasionally volatile, once challenging a board member to a fight. Supporters tout his deep knowledge of the union and his willingness to stand up to studios on behalf of working actors.

McCord declined an interview request.

The current feuding began last year when the new board fired Hessinger, who was unpopular because of his ties to the old regime led by former President Melissa Gilbert that today’s SAG leadership viewed as too accommodating to the industry. His firing, however, sparked a near rebellion among SAG branches outside of Hollywood, stoking fears that the new leadership was bent on waging a costly strike.

To stem the crisis, Rosenberg and Johnson moved quickly to mend fences, visiting with SAG leaders in New York, Atlanta and Chicago to reassure them. But those overtures to New York only intensified concerns among some in Hollywood that actors in Los Angeles were losing influence within the union. Rosenberg disputes that he has neglected Hollywood members and contends that building a stronger union ultimately serves all members when it comes to negotiating contracts.

Rosenberg campaigned vigorously for reelection of Johnson and took her loss as a rebuke of their accomplishments in mending fences. Johnson said she felt betrayed and blindsided by her election loss because she had been assured that she had the backing of most Hollywood board members. Others saw it as further evidence that SAG was its own worst enemy.

“This suggests the union is headed toward a cliff,” said former “MASH” star Mike Farrell, a onetime SAG first national vice president.

Even some of Johnson’s former political enemies were stunned by her ouster.

“This is a woman who came in and did an almost impossible job,” said Paul Christie, president of the New York branch. “Do you want a real solution or is chaos the ultimate goal?”

McCord’s supporters fired back, citing his longtime service to the union, and accused Rosenberg of petulance.

“He has disgraced us all by playing the race card in a political dispute because he didn’t get his way,” McCord supporter Arlin Miller wrote about Rosenberg on his SAG Watchdog website. “He needs to resign.”

McCord has previously denied to The Times that his election was part of any plot to undermine Rosenberg or Johnson and pledged his readiness to work with the union president.

Rosenberg, whose work includes “L.A. Law” and an Emmy-nominated appearance on “ER,” was elected with the backing of the more strident wing of the union.

Being president of SAG means holding the highest-profile union job in Hollywood, but it can test an actor’s nerves.

Recently, Rosenberg teed off on one member in an e-mail after the actor complained that a two-year extension of SAG’s commercials contract was inadequate.

“You realize, I hope, that you are not terribly bright,” Rosenberg wrote the member. “Nobody cares about you or what you think. Go find a place to molt, you sorry excuse for a human being.”

The actor embarrassed Rosenberg by copying his e-mail to thousands of members. Rosenberg later apologized.

Rosenberg even found himself refereeing a potential fight between New York’s Christie and one of the leaders of the Hollywood division, David Joliffe. During a recent meeting in New York, Rosenberg kept Joliffe from lunging at Christie when the two got into a heated argument involving the commercials contract.

“It was totally inappropriate and just plain sad,” Christie said.

Joliffe declined to comment on the incident but said he supported Rosenberg’s efforts to promote unity.

“We all want to move this union forward,” he said.

Rosenberg said that he wasn’t bothered by the incident and that he respected Joliffe.

A proposed dues increase is among the issues that will be addressed during today’s board meeting, which will be a litmus test of Rosenberg’s leadership.

Even with tensions rising, Rosenberg said he was optimistic that the infighting would blow over. Meanwhile, some of the union’s higher-profile actors are speaking out, urging its leaders to end the bickering.

“With so many critical issues facing our guild,” former “NYPD Blue” star Esai Morales said, “it is long overdue for artists to get past personal differences, identify priorities and move forward.”

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richard.verrier@latimes.com