Tonight the AMPTP issued this statement on something they call “final offer retroactivity.” (But if you ask me, it just sounds like the Hollywood moguls don’t want their summer vacations interrupted…):

“The Producers remain committed to making a deal with SAG as soon as possible, which is why the AMPTP’s final offer would make the wage and salary increases retroactive to July 1, 2008 if the agreement is ratified by SAG’s membership no later than August 15, 2008. Under the final offer, if the new agreement is not ratified by August 15, 2008, all changes in terms and conditions would become effective in the first payroll period after ratification. The Producers have included this traditional incentive in the final offer in order to get everyone back to work and end the de facto strike. The Producers’ final offer includes more than $250 million in additional compensation over the course of the three year contract, as well as groundbreaking new media terms.  We remain hopeful that SAG will accept our final offer and that its members will ratify the new agreement so that these economic gains can go into effect at the earliest possible period.”

And SAG shot back:

“As management knows, and as we have often stated, the Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee’s goal is to bargain a fair contract for our members. Our committee is at this very moment finalizing its response to the employers’ proposal of June 30. SAG’s national negotiating committee is scheduled to deliver that response at AMPTP headquarters tomorrow and prefers to do so in person rather than in the press.”

Meanwhile the AMPTP and SAG today sparred over a letter which the negotiating group representing the Big Media cartel circulated to 120 California state legislators today as well as the full Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board Of  Supervisors blaming SAG for the current “de facto strike” that has Hollywood at a standstill.

Here’s AMPTP president Nick Counter’s letter to legislators:

And here is SAG’s response from deputy national executive director Pamm Fair:

“We don’t think any legislators will be surprised that multi-billion dollar global companies engaged in negotiations with a union have resorted to rhetoric and mischaracterizations regarding union workers. While we have not yet seen evidence of a slowdown in production, any decrease in film and television production would be a result of the studios and networks that control the industry, not the actors they hire. Screen Actors Guild remains committed to bargaining a fair contract, and is available 24- hours a day, seven-days a week. If anyone is stalling, it’s the AMPTP by suggesting that bargaining is over, when we clearly haven’t achieved an agreement that is fair for actors and the industry.“

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.