Court denies SAG injunction

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday denied the Screen Actors Guild's request for an injunction to restore Doug Allen to his leadership post.

Allen was ousted last month.

"After hearing from attorneys for plaintiffs Alan Rosenberg, Anne-Marie Johnson, Diane Ladd, and Kent McCord, as well as SAG counsel, the court held that the notice and application for the injunction, as well as the underlying complaint, were procedurally defective and refused to issue the injunction at this time," a statement posted on the SAG Web site said Tuesday. "Plaintiffs' counsel stated in court that they intend to amend their documents and notice a new hearing for Thursday morning."

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Monday that its planned meetings with SAG for this week were postponed because the guild had a court proceeding that would conflict with its scheduled sessions with AMPTP.

The two entities -- which have not been able to hammer out a new contract since their last one expired June 30 -- were to have resumed talks Tuesday and Wednesday after months away from the bargaining table.

The announcement that SAG and AMPTP would start negotiating again came last week after SAG replaced Allen, its national executive director and chief negotiator, who was widely criticized for standing in the way of a new AMPTP-SAG deal.

With the injunction, Rosenberg is fighting to have Allen restored to his post and to prevent his current replacements "from taking any actions on SAG's behalf," The Hollywood Reporter said.