Now the spotlight is on the actors

Re “Strike’s over, but viewers may be looking elsewhere,” Feb. 13

Our unions -- the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists -- are a contentious bunch, you bet. On the other side of the 2008 labor divide are the studios and television networks owned by billion-dollar corporations, each in never-ending competition with the other.

With those realities duly noted, a new three-year contract is to be negotiated between the two. Talks between the actors and the producers should begin now. Why? It’s obvious: Hollywood -- the industry and the town -- took a savage beating during the writers strike but is now heading back to work.

The actors are next up in the negotiation barrel. Some might think the agreements ratified by the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America are useful templates for the actors to follow. But the issues facing the actors are patently different, both of the bread-and-butter variety and the paradigm-shifting new-media realities that are affecting everyone in professional entertainment.

A strike by the actors is certainly a possibility this summer, but it is by no means inevitable. Talks between the producers and actors should begin as soon as possible so that those negotiations will produce the fair, progressive and responsible contract the actors deserve. Perhaps then our town -- and everyone in the business of show -- will be spared another work stoppage.

Tom Hanks

George Clooney

Los Angeles