Jason Priestly Joins AFTRA Leadership Team Slate
A-Lister Jason Priestly joins incumbent Gabrielle Carteris as the highest visibility dual card members working to fight off Membership First’s attempted incursion into the AFTRA National and Los Angeles Local board rooms, as well as at the AFTRA National Convention. They’re both listed on the AFTRA Leadership Team slate, which is led by incumbent Los Angeles Local President Ron Morgan.
Membership First is fielding a few candidates for AFTRA posts, including Hollywood Division leader Anne-Marie Johnson.
Ballots for AFTRA’s election cycle went into the mail today.
do you have a list of the other MFers who are trying for AFTRA seats. I think we should all alert our list of fellow actors regarding this vote.
Jason Priestly or a Priest with a Jesus on the cross … AFTRA remains AFTRA … the producer’s alternative to SAG … just keep the two entities separate.
“the producer’s alternative to SAG… just keep the two separate.” Could somebody tell me how or why that makes sense?
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Admin. Comment – It only makes sense to someone from Membership First, for whom it would be intended as a slur against AFTRA. Their whole schtick has been that AFTRA is (in their words, not at all reflective of the opinion of anyone who actually understands the business) more “compliant” as opposed to we don’t know what – perhaps unemployable.
It is the inane comments like that provide the comedy here.
Great! And Vote No…we’re gonna merge so you’d better get used to it. WE want to survive together as one union with AFTRA. You can go ahead and form your own union….call it MF…Me First or HAS: Hollywood Association of Selves
The only people who still see the benefits in keeping the guilds separate are those who don’t work IN EITHER.
(See #3 for confirmation of this).
A lister.Now that was funny.Maybe 12 years ago.
Neil,
The one group who knows the benefits of keeping the unions separate is the AMPTP.
During the last merger campaign, it was a management-side Pension Fund trustee who suggested the merger would not be good for SAG members (despite the contrary conclusions of the Mercer report.) It was MF who not only accepted that trustee’s opinion as the gospel truth, but continue to trumpet it to this day, even while otherwise claiming that producers are the spawn of the devil and cannot be trusted.
The AMPTP knows that MF can be trusted to do their dirty work and keep SAG divided. A fragmented union is the only one where MF can exert control, and a fragmented union serves ownership interests. Whether VoteNo appreciates it or not, MF is carrying the AMPTP’s water on this, and his own comments, intentionally or not, go to the same end.
I do not think MF is consciously working hand in glove with the AMPTP. A judge once told me “Don’t presume cupidity exists where simple stupidity creates the same results.” That principle still applies.
MF’s full agenda goes no further than attaining and maintaining power within the union. That statement is based strictly on a review of their “accomplishments” since taking control. There has been nothing positive gained, and most of their time and effort has been spent in promoting conflict with those that do not adhere to their views. MF’s limited goals, and scorched earth tactics, assure the AMPTP that they will have a weakened advocate for performers when it comes to dealing with them on theatricals.
MF is fond of calling AFTRA a “compliant” union, echoing Lew Wasserman’s “A good union is a compliant union.” What Wasserman never dreamed of was the alternative possibility of a self-immolating union. As long as MF exists as a viable political entity, that alternative exists at SAG.
All that being said, I would love for Robert Amico and David Hilberg to get to the AFTRA convention one way or another. I attended a couple in my day and found them dull beyond belief. Amico’s penchant for portraying those who disagree with him as Nazis and Hilberg’s native incoherence (I keep hearing Professor Irwin Corey without the punchlines) would certainly liven things up a bit.
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WW Comment – I’d disagree that Membership First’s agenda “goes no further than attaining and maintaining power within the union.” Their agenda goes farther, a lot farther – and has some very positive goals. Their problem is that they’re utterly inept at accomplishing those goals, apparently believing that bludgeoning people into submission is the only effective technique.
It hasn’t worked for them so far. I don’t think it will in the future.
Fred, as always, you’re spot on.
And, ED, even I thought calling Jason an “A Lister” was rather funny!!!! Even 12 years ago, he would’ve been a B at best….
But keep up the great work. My “old eyes” appreciate the switch back to black text on white background.
There’s so much competition out there for work….why would I want to split myself and compete against me?..Thats just one of many reasons I want one union to cover all my work.
WW
There are goals, and there are goals.
You are going to have to distinguish between what is simply being said by MF and what can be observed as their handiwork. If MF has goals beyond the usual platitudes (“preserving the middle class actor”), you’re going to have to identify them and, while you’re at it, point to a single action MF has taken that has advanced the union toward any one of those goals. Name one legitimate goal MF has that differs philosophically and fundamentally from one put forth by anyone else in SAG, and point out what they’ve done positively to promote that goal. I don’t think you can do it.
(And just so we’re clear on it, I consider “dollar one” new media jurisdiction at this time and place to NOT be a legitimate goal, as there is absolutely nothing in evidence to even suggest that would make any difference during the term of the new contract.)
On the other hand, if you start with the premise that their only objective is to achieve and maintain MF control of the union, everything they’ve done makes perfect sense, from turning the magazine into a propaganda outlet to using that magazine as a forum for bashing another union to spending union assets on a meaningless postcard poll to running a 28 hour filibuster to prevent the union majority from taking legal actions to pursuing (and continuing to pursue past all point of reason) litigation to challenge the majority exercise of legitimate power.
The record appears to indicated quite clearly that MF exists only as a vehicle by which certain individuals can prey upon the natural and normal discontents of the membership and channel those discontents into a means by which those individuals take and maintain control of the union by promising solutions to the membership they cannot deliver. MF’s basic political strategy is set themselves up as the only true believers in the current union (if Jimmy Cagney were subject to the same rules of invocation as Beetlejuice, there would be a dozen of him stalking the halls of 5757 right now), and to marginalize and discredit any one who does not stand with them, turning legitimate dissenters and doubters into blameworthy scapegoats and traitors. This grand scheme permits tens of thousands of unsuccessful performers to blame their failures and limitations on others; the evil producers who won’t pay them what they deserve, the satanic other union that undercuts their own noble leadership at every turn, and those yellow dog fellow travelers in their own midst who, having achieved the success that has evaded them, now betray their union brothers.
It’s cold. It’s crass. It’s disingenuous. Mostly, it’s supremely self-serving. And it doesn’t stand a chance in hell of improving the lot of performers. Show me something that says I’m wrong about this.
dropped post
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Admin. Comment – Actually, one big thing HAS changed – dropped posts now are not sent into some mysterious never-never land where we can’t see them. They now seem to find their way to a spam folder, from which they can be retrieved. That’s a big improvement, in that – if this actually is happening consistently – we can simply un-spam them and post them where appropriate.
So, do we write you when a post drops, or do we count on you to find it?
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Admin. Response – At the moment, keep writing if it seems to have disappeared. So far yours is the only “drop” message we’ve had, even though perhaps half a dozen others have landed in the spam folder and have been rescued. I’m looking in both places to monitor what’s going on the new database system.
Marisa: just wait until HAS merges with the new Brotherhood of Entertainers in Electronic New Services.
Stuart
I’m so glad you’re on “our side”.
H.A.S.B.E.E.N.S.
ROFLMAO
Regarding Jason Priestly. He is a reasonable guy(I’ve met him). I think he would make a better AFTRA board member that most. I think new blood is what is needed on both SAG and AFTRA boards.
Vote out the incumbents!
P.S. I wonder how he feels about his old show “90210″, which was a SAG show, having its spinoff “90210″ under AFTRA jurisdiction? Isn’t that kinda like raiding? BTW the SAG “Melrose Place” spinoff, the new CW series “Melrose Place” was raided by AFTRA too.
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Admin. Comment – Raiding? No.
Considering that, thanks to Membership First, this year SAG pretty much went out of the new television business and there will be practically nothing but AFTRA shows, it’s really hard to take a position that blames anyone but the Allens and their crew for where all this has gone.
“Their agenda goes farther, a lot farther – and has some very positive goals. Their problem is that they’re utterly inept at accomplishing those goals, apparently believing that bludgeoning people into submission is the only effective technique.”
In a nutshell, that is the sad conclusion I reached last Winter. The lack of planning, the inept execution of said plan, and the flailing that has followed has done nothing to change that opinion. I had heard rumors regarding their approach to dissent, but the tenor of the debate during the AFTRA contract ratification process (in which I played a minor role by commenting here and in Finkeland and by donating my time to make calls on behalf of the contract) was shockingly vicious. I don’t doubt their dedication. I agree with many of their goals. But I don’t respect their approach, and I doubt they have either the competence or the discipline to achieve much of anything.
On a personal note, there are plenty of has-beens and never-wases on both sides of this question. Probably best to leave that alone.
Leave it to stuart to put the icing on the cake!! Well done
Marisa
The candidates we need to vote for are simple.
In NY – AFTRANow …
In LA – AFTRA Leadership Team.
http://www.aftranow.com
http://www.aftraleadershipteam.com/
Let’s not let MF, by any other name, do the same to AFTRA that they have done to our beloved SAG.
Fellows, lay off Jason Priestly. He’s a fine actor and has a good career. So he made the mistake of becoming famous on 90210? Don’t hold it against him. He’s personable, smart, pro-union and is high-profile.
What many in NY or LA fail to remember is that, to a lot of people, Priestly IS an A-lister, and always will be. It really isn’t a matter of how long his IMDB credits are, or when the last one was, no matter how prevalent that attitude may be in LA or even NY. What should count, and what DOES count outside the petty fraternity of egos that tries to define itself by diminishing the accomplishment of others, is that Priestly is a proven professional performer. Period. To 99.9% of the population, that makes him an A-lister.