Steel Yourself: Actor’s Strike Likely

Oh, George (Clooney, that is), looks like your desperate plea in February to avert an actor’s strike hasn’t really helped the situation.

Despite the suave one’s attempts at a liaison — along with fellow Oscar winners Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — the two Hollywood unions representing performers suddenly split this weekend. It came as a shock to those hoping for a meeting of the minds.

Read more about this real-life soap opera…

On Saturday, right before they were supposed to go into a negotiating meeting, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) suspended its bargaining alliance with the larger Screen Actors Guild (SAG), The New York Times reports.

The actors’ current contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expires on June 30. AFTRA, which has 70,000 members (120,000 actors belong to SAG), intends to begin talks with producers as soon as possible.

But don’t get your hopes up. Daily Variety reports that the split between the two unions will likely “muddy the town’s labor outlook.” What reportedly prompted the split was SAG’s alleged attempt to step into AFTRA’s waters and negotiate on behalf of the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

“We can’t trust SAG,” AFTRA president Roberta Reardon told Variety. “Their leaders have engaged in a concerted effort to tarnish AFTRA’s reputation and diminish our standing.”

SAG president Alan Rosenberg responded: “I think what AFTRA’s done is unconscionable, and I’m sick of getting lectures about trust from them. I’m furious about what they’ve done.”

Oh my. Sounds like a great murder mystery for a Lifetime movie. Come on, people! You’re yanking our chains with all these strikes. Enough with the strikes. Can’t we all just get along? Hire me. I’m really a great peace-maker. Ok?

Image: George Clooney, Michael Clayton, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007