Actors' guild holds emergency meeting

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Screen Actors Guild has called an emergency meeting in Los Angeles on whether to cancel a strike authorization vote, observers said.

With a moderate faction of actors' union members saying the nation's economic crisis has made a strike vote a bad idea, the union's leadership met Monday to discuss replacing its negotiating committee and ousting SAG National Executive Director Doug Allen, Variety reported.

The show business trade journal said the two-day meeting was likely to be contentious, with SAG moderates becoming increasingly frustrated over the failure of Allen to reach a contract deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

More than 20 demonstrators outside SAG's Hollywood headquarters handed out leaflets supporting an strike authorization vote, including former SAG presidents Ed Asner and William Daniels, Variety said. They contend that AMPTP's current proposal would lead to the elimination of residuals, something the producers strongly dispute.