A Hollywood Marriage Torn Apart

For those interested, there is a bitterly hostile divorce that happened just this last weekend in the "Land of Two-Minute to Two-Month Marriages," Los Angeles, California. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) split over the weekend.

The reason for the split between the two actors unions seemed reminiscent of a tawdry extra-marital affair from a soap opera. Actors were lured away from from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists by what the AFTRA President, Roberta Reardon, calls a "relentless campaign of disinformation and disparagement" by the Screen Actors Guild. It is quite ironic that this situation mirrors a storyline from a soap opera, because it just happens to involve actors fro the daytime drama, "The Bold and The Beautiful."

Reardon may be jumping to conclusions by blaming the SAG. Alan Rosenberg, President of the Screen Actors Guild, told CNN that Reardon's statement was "calculated" and "cynical" and that the SAG had "no desire" to lure actors away from another actors union, especially one that had a partnership with the SAG. He believes this was Reardon's way of hastily dissolving the partnership. "They wanted to be out of this relationship for a long time," said Rosenberg. It seems, according to the SAG President, that veteran actors of the soap drama, John McCook and Susan Flannery invited Rosenberg and other executives to a lunch meeting one month ago.

And, of course, it's always the children who are the most hurt by a divorce. "The breakup hurts the actors, who will now begin negotiations with CBS, Fox, NBC Universal and other producers with a divided front," Rosenberg said.

I personally hope this crap smoothes over REAL soon. We are already hot off the heels of the Hollywood writer's strike. We don't need the actors going on strike for any reason. I would just go insane if I was forced to endure an actors' strike and couldn't see any new episodes of CSI and Dexter.