Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Strike Threat Looms Over 2012—Or Does It?

Will a strike shut down the film and television industry next year? You would think so, if you read The New York Times last weekend. Citing statements made to members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees at a series of town hall–style meetings, the Times asserts that IATSE and allied craft unions covering behind-the-scenes personnel are facing a $500 million pension and health shortfall by 2015. The unions, which will bargain jointly on pension and health issues in the spring, are already tossing around tough talk about next year’s negotiations. “We’re going to be asking for a lot of money, lots of it,” the Times quotes IATSE president Matthew Loeb as telling Los Angeles Local 80 members in September.

City Ballet Media Suite Collecting Dust Since 2009

Even after a $107 million renovation, a part of New York City Ballet’s David H. Koch Theater sits unused? That’s right.  A media control room, which was planned to help increase audience attendance, make footage easily accessible on-line, and aid the company in recording performances for archives and broadcasts, has been collecting dust since 2009, according to The New York Times.

The Case Against the Case Against Video on Demand

In between his reviews of “Tower Heist” and “Melancholia,” New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane goes off on a rant this week against the creeping menace of video on demand, treating the emerging film-distribution trend as if he were Greece and VOD were a German-backed bailout program. For those of you just tuning in, Universal last month announced plans to make “Tower Heist” available to half a million households in the Atlanta and Portland, Ore., areas for home viewing at $59.99 a pop, beginning three weeks after the film’s theatrical release. Theater owners threatened revolt, saying they would refuse to screen the film if Universal followed through on its plan. The studio blinked, ensuring that Georgia’s and Oregon’s laziest Eddie Murphy fans will now have to wait for the DVD (or for someone to upload a copy to the Web).

SAG P&H Whistleblower Steered Cash to Husband

An ex-employee of SAG’s pension and health plans who leveled accusations of wrongdoing against his former employer has admitted to hiring his husband’s marketing firm to do work for the plans. Citing internal documents and emails, the Los Angeles Times reported that Craig E. Simmons, former human resources director for SAG-Producers Pension and Health Plans, funneled close to $25,000 in payments to his husband’s company, Fortress Communications. Simmons told the Times in an interview that he had approved the hiring of Fortress to work on SAG-PPHP’s 50th anniversary campaign, saying, “We were encouraged to hire people we knew well.”

New Recording Contract; Altercation at 'Newsies'

•An altercation involving six girls and three women, not even a week after the official opening of "Newsies" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, left even the protesting paperboys impressed. Theater-goers complained that the women were rude and demonstrating rowdy behavior. Eventually the nine were escorted out. Who said the news[ies] is always boring? Read the story at Playbill.

•The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has been discussing a new sound recordings contract with all major labels, according to The Wrap. The current contract covers singers, royalty and non-royalty artists, announcers, actors, comedians, narrators and sound effects artists who work on recordings in new and traditional media, and all music formats. It will expire on Dec. 31.

•Deadline reported that Netflix will soon host shows such as "House of Cards" and "Arrested Development" in order to both launch an original programming subcategory and to proceed to advertise for the long-awaited "Arrested Development" movie. 

Pictured: Cast of "Arrested Development” at The New Yorker Festival (Photo: Getty Images)

Daylong Theater Strike in Philadelphia Ends

The Philadelphia chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents stagehands, ushers, box office personnel and wardrobe workers, has ended its all-day strike that began on Oct. 1, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Kimmel Center cancelled all Saturday events due to the strike. The union has announced a one-week respite, during which time, events from Oct. 2 through at least next Sunday, Oct. 9 will go on as planned. Negotiations between the employees and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will reportedly resume no sooner than Oct. 10.

Taymor, 'Spider-Man' Producers to Square Off

Though stream of broken actors flowing from "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" appears to have stopped, the Broadway musical is still generating off-stage drama. The New York times reported today that the show's producers will face former director Julie Taymor next week in an arbitration hearing. The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society filed an arbitration claim in June on behalf of Taymor, who asserts that she is owed $500,000 in unpaid royalties. Taymor was dismissed from the production in March. In addition to directing, she co-wrote the show's original book.

Big Day for Net Neutrality, Cold War Metaphors

The Federal Register today published the Federal Communication Commission's much agonized-over net neutrality rules, signaling that the new regulations will go into effect Nov. 20. At last, our long national nightmare is over.

Upload, Me Hearties, Yo Ho: 'Black Swan' Leak Proves Need to Educate Artists on Piracy

Entertainment industry types hate piracy—not just the act, but the word itself. “Piracy,” the thinking goes, calls to mind Johnny Depp, two-time People magazine Sexiest Man Alive. The preferred term, “content theft,” presumably evokes less sensual thoughts. (Unless, of course, those thoughts are of the thieves in “Ocean’s Eleven,” whose cast includes not one but three former Sexiest Men Alive.)

Embezzlement Accusation Against SAG P&H Plans

Craig E. Simmons, the former human resources director for the Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension and Health Plans, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor Requesting an investigation into alleged embezzlement at the plans. The story was first reported at TheWrap.com. According to the website, Simmons claimed that he was instructed by pension-and-health CEO Bruce Dow "not to discuss an alleged embezzlement scheme by former chief information officer Nader Karimi and to lie to authorities about other questionable financial activity."