The studios' contract with the Screen Actors Guild expires June 30, and talks are getting contentious. Already, film and television producers are holding back on new projects, fearing the talks will fail, even as they rush to complete existing projects before the end of the month.
The two sides have made little progress on key issues including compensation for actors when their work is used on DVD or new media such as the Internet. The actors guild says it's prepared to negotiate even after the contract expires. However, the studios may refuse to keep talking. So long as there is no contract, the de facto stoppage in new productions is likely to continue.
''Honestly, I think a lot of actors are kind of terrified,'' said Sandra Dee Ferguson, a 40-year-old television actress. ''Last year was really difficult for a lot of people and I'm sensing overwhelming fear in the community.''
Ferguson had recently bought a home with her husband when the writers struck. A month away from foreclosure, she approached the Actors Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps entertainers, and it paid her mortgage for a month.
The financial pressure on both sides means there's still a chance they'll reach a deal by June 30.
Another wild card is that a smaller actors' union is voting on its already-agreed contract with the industry. If that contract is approved, the Screen Actors Guild may be more willing to make concessions. The screen actors have not taken a strike authorization vote, which takes about three weeks to execute before any walkout could occur. It isn't clear whether the guild's 120,000 members would support a strike. People close to the matter say the studios have discussed the possibility of a lockout, though that is a step they are reluctant to take.
A strike or production stoppage could once again leave viewers without some popular shows. Several television series, such as ''Dirty Sexy Money'' from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Studios and the teen soap ''Gossip Girl'' from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Television are either in production or will be starting up soon. If actors walk out, those productions would stall in the midst of shooting. In Hollywood, the hangover from the writers' strike - which shut down almost all film and TV production for about 100 days - is still intense. The strike took a toll on the California economy, according to a report issued this month by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica, Calif., economic think tank. The report estimated the state would lose about $2.1 billion in output as well as 37,000 jobs by the end of the year.
''Even if the actors strike doesn't happen, there is already an economic impact going on that is affecting production schedules,'' says an author of the study, Milken Institute economist Kevin Klowden. ''Even a smaller strike would slow down the recovery.''
The screen actors are seeking higher compensation for ''middle-class actors'' - mostly those making enough to qualify for health insurance but less than $100,000 a year - and adjustments to the framework for new-media compensation established in earlier contracts.
