Remember the writers strike earlier this year that put Hollywood in a vise?

Well, an upcoming actors strike could make the last work stoppage look like a whine session around the water cooler.

Last weekend, contract talks with a federal mediator between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) broke down.

Now, SAG is discussing having a strike authorization vote to determine if they should take the next step to a work stoppage. If at least 75 percent agree to a strike, it then goes to the union's national board, which decides if they should go ahead and stop working.

If that happens -- and it very well could at the start of next year -- the first industry that's going to get slaughtered by a strike will be television.

Just like the writers strike, if the actors walk out, your favorite sitcoms and dramas could shut down production. This season's storylines that we've all invested our time and energy in could leave us hanging until perhaps the next season.

If actors stop working, it could cost California's economy a lot of heartache. The writers strike dealt the Golden State a $2.1 billion blow. An actors strike would be devastating to an economy already crippled by a global financial meltdown.

And it doesn't just affect Tinseltown. Utah's filmmaking industry -- which is fairly substantial -- took a big hit in film and television productions in the late summer due to the writers strike. In those months, the number of films shot here almost dropped to none.

An actors strike could leave a bigger wake.

The answer isn't going on strike. The solution to ending this mess is having Hollywood's producers give in to the union's demands and securing a contract that all working actors can live with.

And I'm not talking about the George Clooneys and Brad Pitts of the world, who could survive through a strike by vacationing at their Italian villas. I'm talking about the other 99 percent of the nation's film and television thespians who struggle to make ends meet.

The issue, like it was over all the other producer-union negotiations this year, is about residuals from digital media like DVDs and the Internet. The actors want a piece of that revenue.

They deserve it. The financial crisis that has befallen us now affects everyone from the extras on the set to the chief executives of your Viacoms and NBC/Universals. But it will hurt media conglomerates much less. All they have to do is cut down on the private jets and Armani suits.