Striking Hollywood actors resume contract talks with studios, networks

AFP

Negotiators for placing Hollywood actors resumed contract talks on Monday with representatives of main studios, tv networks and streaming companies, marking the primary time the 2 sides have returned to the bargaining desk since mid-July.

Renewed talks between the SAG-AFTRA actors union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) got here eight days after the producers clinched a separate contract take care of Hollywood writers, who launched their very own strike on May 2, about 10 weeks earlier than the actors.

“SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP met for a full day bargaining session and have concluded,” the 2 sides mentioned in a joint assertion on the finish of the day. It mentioned negotiations would resume on Wednesday.

No additional particulars had been instantly out there. Both sides agreed to watch a news “blackout” throughout their talks.

The tentative accord reached Sept 24 between the producers and the 11,500-member Writers Guild of America not solely paved the way in which for ending their labor dispute three days later, it might function a template for settling the actors strike.

SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest union, representing 160,000 tv and movie performers, walked off the job on July 14 demanding larger base wages and residual pay from streaming TV in addition to restrictions on the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) in leisure.

The identical points had been on the heart of the writers strike.

In the world of synthetic intelligence, actors wish to defend their photographs and work from being changed by computer-generated “digital replicas.”

At the identical time, they’re searching for compensation that displays the worth they convey to the comparatively new frontier of streaming, particularly within the type of income sharing.

Other calls for from actors embody limits on self-taped auditions utilized in casting, which they argue are extra pricey to them than in-person readings. They additionally demanding assurances of larger racial fairness on the set, together with provision of hair and make-up artists able to working with assorted hair textures and pores and skin tones.

The resumption of contract talks between the actors and studios additionally coincided with community tv’s late-night hosts – Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel – bringing their exhibits again to tv on Monday. Comedian John Oliver returned to HBO’s Last Week Tonight on Sunday.