Today, SAG responded to the 8 studio and network moguls’ ad placed in the Los Angeles Times this morning. (See my previous, Hollywood CEOS To SAG: We Tell You What The Deal Is, Not Other Way Around.) UPDATE: AMPTP gives SAG an economic reality lecture. First, here’s SAG:

Los Angeles, CA (December  01, 2008) – Today’s open letter, full-page ad from the eight entertainment industry moguls is confirmation of their continued refusal to bargain with Screen Actors Guild.  In an effort to push negotiations forward in the face of AMPTP stonewalling, we asked two of the CEO’s who signed this letter to get involved in the talks in September. They refused. We wish they had taken us up on our offer. It better serves the industry to negotiate than to buy and respond to $100,000 newspaper ads.

We are still waiting for the CEO’s or their AMPTP negotiators to make a good faith effort at bargaining with us.  Agreements with other guilds and unions can’t dictate actors’ terms just because they are part of a pattern set by the DGA.  Actors issues are different and must be heard and addressed.

We are still waiting for our turn.  We want exactly what the DGA got – the chance to negotiate an agreement that addresses the needs of our members. No other guild or union can negotiate a pattern deal that fits the industry and SAG members, any more than ABC can negotiate license fees for NBC. No one has our proxy.

Our issues are different – not better, but different and we deserve to have our unique issues and very valid concerns resolved in negotiation. Agreeing to fairly negotiate the unique needs of actors would mean that the CEO’s are honorably engaging in the negotiations process rather than continuing to stonewall.

Our message to the CEOs is this, “Gentlemen, please understand, the pattern does not fit.  Now that you have at least acknowledged our effort to achieve a fair contract for actors, perhaps you would be willing to sit down with our negotiating committee and resolve our issues?”

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About 5 minutes later, the AMPTP responded:

“SAG’s press release proves that SAG is now officially out of touch with reality. The Producers negotiated with SAG for 46 days – and over that entire time SAG failed to justify why it deserves a better deal than the six other agreements negotiated so far this year. On a day when the United States was officially declared to be in a recession, when Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for California, and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 680 points, SAG continues to demand more and better than everyone else. Unfortunately, the chasm between reality and SAG seems to widen by the day.”

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

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