YESSSSSSSS!

Nikki Finke is doing her best to fan the flames over on her blog. Her take is that SAG will demand $60 million in force majeure payments. I don’t know if that amount is actually what is owed. My understanding is that Membership First took an interpretation of force majeure that was not shared by the AMPTP and then tried to demand the maximum amount under that interpretation. AMPTP reportedly responded “If you’re going to demand that much when it isn’t owed, why don’t we just remove it from the contract completely?” Which left everything at a stalemate. I’d be curious to hear if anyone can clarify what happened here - my source for this is reliable but may have gotten the numbers wrong.

My notes from the 9/23 Town Hall meeting indicate that Doug Allen described the Force Majeure claims as involving 80 different casts, with AT LEAST $60 million in exposure, potentially reaching $400 million. SAG made a proposal to AMPTP on August 15th on how to handle these claims and how to interpret the clause going forward. The AMPTP was supposed to respond but as of 9/23 it had said nothing.

I recall that Doug Allen characterized the Force Majeure discussion as having been introduced into these negotiations by the AMPTP. The studios want the clause removed and to leave Force Majeure provisions to individual negotiation (which essentially means that most actors won’t get anything of the kind). The studios also want the current claims to be waived.

VG