Getty/John Salangsang
Last minute calls are being made by Hollywood bosses to try and stop the actors from going on strike.
Deadline understands that Endeavor President Ari Emanuel and CAA President Bryan Lourd have made an offer to help find a path to a deal between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP.
Emanuel called SAG-AFTRA leadership last week to prevent a total shutdown if actors joined the striking writers, and Lord made similar calls.
“It wasn’t just about stopping the strike, it was about finding a way forward for everyone,” a source close to events told Deadline.
The federation has been responsive to senior agent Emmanuel’s outreach and has sought to bring him at least close to the process with talks beginning in the final hours before the current extended contract expires at midnight on 12 July.
“These are reasonable people,” said an insider of the comments on Emanuel’s call.
The idea of helping senior agency heads pave the way to a deal with actors, rather than writers, makes sense as there is still tension between many agents and writers as a result of the standoff between the WGA and ATA.
Early Monday, we heard that AMPTP, which is run by Carole Lombardini, suggested bringing in federal mediators to help with the situation.
The move was then passed on to studio heads including Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros.’s David Zaslav. Discovery to bless them. They signed off on the plan.
“If it takes the introduction of a third-party perspective, so be it,” the source added.
The move comes as Hollywood is focused almost entirely on whether the actors will strike a deal or join the writers for Thursday morning picket lines.
Bringing in the federal mediators – the Federal Mediation and Reconciliation Service – could lead to another extension after both sides had already agreed to extend the talks beyond the initial deadline. However, as we understand, nothing has been agreed with SAG-AFTRA regarding intermediaries.
It comes after an uproar involving SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, who was photographed at an Italian fashion show alongside Kim Kardashian, days before the deadline.
As Deadline wrote yesterday, AI seems to be one of the main sticking points between the two sides, along with the flow of transparency.
Variety broke the news.
“Lifelong beer expert. General travel enthusiast. Social media buff. Zombie maven. Communicator.”