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UPDATE: This just in — SAG sources claim arrangements have been made for Ken Howard to participate for part of Sunday’s meeting with membership via video conference. As of Friday night, Ken Howard was not attending or chairing his first National Plenary as SAG’s newly elected president. He told SAG leadership he had a previous charity engagement that he couldn’t break. He also was not attending or chairing the annual membership meeting Sunday afternoon. One of the issues when Howard was running for the presidency was that he didn’t attend enough SAG board meetings.
And David White will be offered a 2-year contract to move from interim to permanent as SAG’s National Executive Director and take on the additional title of Chief Negotiator. This, even though he’s always claimed to the board and media that he didn’t want the gig on a permanent basis. I guess he’s changed his mind since SAG is paying him at least $400,000+ annually. And, to date, he still hasn’t ever been vetted by the board since that was deliberately bypassed when he was put in the job temporarily. And the SAG leadership majority also will ignore the fact that traditionally a search committee is constituted for this job. There’s even less transparency now then ever at SAG.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Seriously, is this news? I’m kidding, sort of, not really. Ken Howard was predicted to be an empty suit, and he misses the first NATIONAL BOARD MEETING as SAG president. Because of a “charity obligation?”
I always predicted the “Frankenstein” nature of this odd group of “anti-strength” militants would quickly fall apart: NY (we HATE Hollywood, we LOATHE MF), RBD (we do WHATEVER NY says), UFS (“we are ‘working actors’ and would like very much for everyone to please let us run everything.”) and then, of course, “the A-list” “hey, YOU, get offa my gravy train.”
Well, here we go with the monster beginning to reject various parts of its anatomy.
Howard gets elected? First order of business? “Sorry, can’t make it to the first coupla meetings – Aquino knows what she’s doing, and Masur is a cell phone away.”
Of course AMJ IS the first National VP, so, correct me if I’m wrong, but she’ll be CHAIRING the meeting, right?
The problem with “Frankenstein” is, there’s no “there” there. They’ll just start dropping body parts and not getting it together in SO many ways.
SO much ANGER at MF! If I heard it once I heard it a thousand times. “yeah, I want a good contract, but these MF people are sorta out of control, don’t you think?”
Then, I’d patiently explain why that was not true, and they’d been electorally subject to an end-run, cutting them off from any real action or leadership, and I’d explain the issues, and the actor I was talking to would ALWAYS say “well, that makes sense…” and I could see, they hadn’t the FOGGIEST notion what the issues actually were, what was at stake, what the “Frankenstein” coalition actually was trying to do, and, that they’d just HEARD (Frankenstein voice) “MF – BAAAAAD!!!!! GRRRRR!!!!!!!!”
What to say? A membership, most of whom don’t vote, because most of them don’t work, because there are no jobs, except for the same ten people (anybody notice the cast of “Flash Forward” is the cast of “Lost?”) led by people, many of whom haven’t a single film or TV credit – David Hartley Margolin former HEAD of the Regional Branch Division of SAG, Todd Hissong, former head of Chicago branch who had the balls to DEMAND Alan Rosenberg resign!!! – hey – how about Roberta Reardon PRESIDENT OF AFTRA? NO CREDITS! – facing the most important issues, arguably in the history of the Screen Actors Guild, and most of them are either completely out to lunch, or dumb as a bag of hammers.
Now THAT’S a group worth fighting for!
SAG deserves what it gets. And here’s what it’s gotten and will get: LESS.
Current SAG members are a disgrace to the fokls that put their careers on the line to form SAG.
What the hell does SAG cover now anyway? It’s really the end of an era.
…Why do these UFS people hate actors so much?… I just don’t get it…
Ahhh, SAG. When will you learn that you get the leadership you pay for?
The days of SAG reigning are over. A merger is inevitable. Older and more established actors have failed the next generation of talent in favor of themselves. It is greed at its finest.
While I didn’t agree with the sharpness of Membership First, every single one of their talking points were right on.
My union has failed me and will continue to fail me — a downward slope.
Ken is cut from the same cloth as Roberta Reardon, which means actors’ requests will fall on deaf ears. Instead, the union will exist for the union’s sake, not its members.
The only good thing for the short term is that a 2011 strike is highly unlikely.
You got the leadership you deserve SAG. It’s the Bush administration with actors.
Congrats on such an inspired choice.
At Alan Rosenberg’s first National Board meeting as President of SAG, in October of 2005,
Anne-Marie Johnson sat next to Rosenberg and ran the entire meeting – and she wasn’t even Secretary/Treasurer.
The dais being in stark disarray, a Board member stood to inquire as to “Who’s chairing this meeting?”
Anne-Marie Johnson answered “What difference does it make? What do you care?”
You voted for this, SAG… now you’re stuck with it. Enjoy.
As with all unions, it not about the constituency. Hugo Chavez helps the poor from the comfort of his castle and Dave White will help struggling actors from the back booth at Spago.
And so the light begins to come on for so many. Just you wait, folks. Just you wait.
Terrible. But not surprising. SAG is turning into an every man/woman for themselves. Mr. Howard is the President of the organization so why is he not addressing the membership? As far as David White I’ve talked to him several times in years past before he was involved with SAG; very cordial, sharp individual, but I am no fan of his SAG work and he should be vetted like any other individual being considered for that position; simply as a matter of proper procedure. The membership deserves better than what is going on.
The question all along was which Ken Howard were we electing – the White Shadow father figure or the douche from Michael Clayton. I’m smelling vinegar.
The membership voted largely on psychology. Ken was portrayed as the lovable Dad — very little details, lots of “it’ll be okay” in a warm, fuzzy voice.
SAG’s membership has been dumbed down for years (the dark side of vouchers, allowing membership in exchange for picketing, etc.); combine this with the quadruple crisis of the writer’s strike, SAG de facto strike, economy, and AFTRA’s show steeling that drove down quote rates, then you have too many desperate and (in many cases) inexperienced actors who just didn’t want a repeat of the last 2 years any time soon.
I voted for MF because their platform was the right thing for actors. But, I never liked the sharpness and the non-answers of how to realistically solve the heated competition with AFTRA — <– because of these two issues and the fuzzy bear positioning, this is why I believe Ken was elected. He was certainly not elected on a detailed, strong platform.
The pendulum will swing the Ken direction for a while but then will swing back at some point — when enough people get mad.
Sour grapes. GIve the guy a fair chance. He just got elected.
Of course Ken Howard isn’t going to be there- and it went something like this:
HOWARD
Well Amy, I actually have an event already
scheduled that day- do I really have to go?
AQUINO
Well gosh Ken… not really no. I mean we don’t
really need you for “Show & Tell” that day.
I mean we ARE Unite For Strength! The membership
already voted you in and that was the point,
so you can even take a vacation now if you like…
I can handle the meeting myself with David.
The plenary too for that matter!
HOWARD
Really? Oh that is just wonderful!
Are you sure Amy? I mean we’ve barely gotten out of
that media fiasco with Finke and my back surgery…
maybe I shouldn’t miss just this first Town Hall?
AQUINO
No, really Ken. It’s all good, you go right ahead.
Oh! by the way, I bought you a belated “Congrats
you’re the new SAG president prezzy!”
I hope you like it!”
SFX: Cellophane unwrapping and :GASP:
HOWARD
Oh Amy! Thank you! The Director’s Cut of Pinocchio!
You shouldn’t have…I think I’m going to cry.
AQUINO
Now, now Ken, you’re entirely welcome.
Save the tears for your next Emmy.
FADE TO BLACK.
Having checked out Faye Fiore’s link, I can tell you we disagree on a LOT of things, but interestingly, not Ken Howard.
Ken Howard’s absence and the NED hiring process (or lack thereof) should come as no surprise to anyone who was paying any attention during the recent election.
The argument in favor of simply hiring David White permanently is easy – he’s a known quantity who’s worked for SAG before. What’s to vet? But to bypass a search committee? They’re not even going through the motions of pretending to feign interest in finding out if there aren’t some amazing people who’d line up for a shot at being SAG’s NED.
Relax everybody. We are actually making rapid progress despite all the naysaying and sour grapes. The elections are over, time to work together in solidarity.
Hey, Matt Mulhern, don’t worry about this part -
“…A membership, most of whom don’t vote, because most of them don’t work…”
THAT won’t be a problem much longer, because Mr. Howard has big plans to dramatically cut the number of members permitted to vote – told me so himself. He explained that, “These people who only work once or twice a year on a SAG project, they’re not REAL actors. They’re waiters, or office supply salespeople, or whatever they do.”
He said, “If they were actors, they would be acting.”
See, if you’re not on the primetime TV, and/or in a movie more than a couple of times a year, you’re not an ACTOR. So why should you be able to vote in the actors union elections?
I don’t remember him saying this in his election “video” (he didn’t), but he sure as hell said it to my face.
This actually made me laugh. My God we live in an obvious age don’t we? And the fact that so many people, the majority of them in this case, seem to have no clue. Well majority, I don’t want to hear any complaints about this union and where it ends up. You have who you elected. You are the majority. I choose to be a part of the quartet that played a little music as the Titanic went down.
Goodbye SAG. Sincerely, United For Nothing.
Ken Howard was the DEFINITION of “could not get ARRESTED” for… 20 years? 25?
“The White Shadow” what, the ’70′s?
Lately, the glorified extra in “Michael Clayton” and he’s got the fucking BALLS to tell the SAG membership “, if they were actors they’d be acting?
So “qualified voting” is a viable, defensible necessity? HOW many periods in Ken Howard’s career do you think he would have fallen into the “can’t vote” category he’s got in mind for the rest of us?
What a fucking asshole.
SAG is ready to openly revolt. The caucus system for the next contract is undemocratic, but then Ken Howard is running SAG like a fascist.