Bateman: “I Quit” – updated
In a bitter and petulant letter dated July first, Membership First stalwart Justine Bateman, best known for her use of the word “scumbag” in reference to AFTRA, has  resigned from the SAG National Board and says she will not run for a second term. In her letter, Bateman again uses the word “scumbag” in reference to AFTRA, and compares SAG to Communist China and criticizes the members for ratifying the TV-Theatrical contract, which she opposed.
To All,
I am resigning my position as SAG National Board member and withdrawing my bid for re-election effective immediately.
I initially ran for the Board 3 years ago to affect a change in three areas: the almost non-functioning web-site, the poor agent-relations, and the seeming absence of jurisdictional lines between SAG and AFTRA.
I am happy to have been able to effect the change in the web-site with the help of that committee, Doug Allan, and Pamela Greenwald, but the other goals have alluded me and have just become worse.
Agents are now not only owned in part by organizations that would create conflict of interest, but acting as the production company themselves and nobody saw fit to stop that. Now, though, we’re very far on the other side of that and I suppose actors have not really given thought to to the concept of being represented by an advocate with no conflicting alliances.
AFTRA has just basically, after years of trying to get SAG’s attention by lighting the newspapers on the porch on fire, have finally succeeded in partially burning the place down. And all we dual-card members be damned.
We should have bought that scumbag organization years ago and shut that duplicitous leadership up instead of submitting to this “non-disparagement agreement” by which I am, happily, no longer bound.
And our own SAG leadership gagging Alan Rosenberg and Connie Stevens? What is this? Communist China or tumultuous Iran? I can’t a part of a union leadership that strips it’s elected leadership of its voice. If we can’t speak up about injustices in union matters, how are we being effective at all in office? No, better to not be a part of it and to be able to speak freely against what I see as irresponsibility, fear, greed, and ego-driven decision-making.
And then there is the membership itself. They rarely expressed the correct anger at AFTRA low-balling contracts over the years that affected their ability to provide for themselves. They then ignored, seemingly, ALL the news about the migration from Old Media to New Media and recently took from the AMPTP the worst deal I have ever seen. For nothing.
This is not the make up of membership that could have gotten us Health and Pension or Residuals like our older members struck and fought for years ago. We have all enjoyed those benefits, but when it was our turn to protect them, we blew it. AFTRA blew it. And then we blew it by not expressing absolute outrage over their tactic of GREATLY encouraging their newscasters and weathermen to vote up that AFTRA TV/Theatrical contract “even if you do not work this contract and never will”. Yeah, that was in an e-mail that went around. Some of these weathermen even made YouTube videos celebrating their vote, thumbing their noses at us. CLASSY.
SAG’s members themselves have now voted up a contract that will cause about 50% of the WORKING members to leave the business, but now that you’re all “back to work” you’re probably too busy to read this. Congratulations.
Thank you for allowing me to serve and to represent the membership. I hope I honored the sacrifices of past Board Members who created such wonderful benefits for me and my family like Pension & Health, Basic Minimums, and Residuals. To those members I am truly, truly grateful. Words cannot express my appreciation of your sacrifices for future generations of actors.
Thank You,
Justine Bateman
Curiously, and perhaps in an oversight, Bateman appears not to have resigned from the Hollywood Board, which means that her line about being no longer subject to the Non Disparagement Agreement is wrong.
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Update: Here’s Variety on the story, which points out – as we should have – that the departure of Batemen will not change the balance of power at SAG, because her replacement will be appointed by the Hollywood Board, which is still dominated by Membership First. However, the effect in the election could be more important, since Bateman’s name recognition may be hard to replace.
Variety also says: “SAG First VP Anne-Marie Johnson told Daily Variety that Bateman was speaking for herself and not on behalf of Membership First.”
Maybe she “eluded” to her Hollywood Board membership somewhere else.
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Ed. Comment – Maybe we should start a contest: spot the grammar errors in the Bateman letter. Special points for identifying the most errors in any one paragraph. (We’re talking grammar…spotting the factual errors is a whole different problem.)
Our count is: 13 in the 11 paragraph note. Most in any paragraph is 3 (twice).
She’s the Sarah Palin of SAG.
Breathtaking. And here we thought her portrayal of Mallory involved acting. The credit should have been given as “herself.”
VG
If this person believes even 10% of what she has written, she is delusional!
How could someone so horribly wrong about such important issues ever have been given Board responsibility? It simply boggles the mind!
Wendell
The only phrase I can think of is chicken— t -
but that’s not going to make it through the filters, is it?
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Ed. Response: Not even close. But we appreciate the sentiment.
She worked with Pamela Greenwalt for more than a year on the website. Spelled that wrong.
Y’know, I like Justine’s passion, and I honestly admire that she does right as she see it for her community. I admit it. And, really, I see a ton of value in having “bad cop” around, snarling on the leash, straining to rip the throat out of AMPTP. I just prefer to have “good cop” with a tight hold on that leash, sweating profusing, telling AMPTP, “Woah, you better help me out here or I don’t know how long I can hold her back!”
Good cop/bad cop has become a cultural stereotype because *it works*.
Having said that, what a mess some of that letter is. Who is against merger with AFTRA? MF. Who wishes that merger with AFTRA had already happened? MF. Who is violently dismissive of the non-disparagement agreement? MF. Who negotiated and signed the non-disparagement agreement? MF.
Come on, guys. I respect your heart, I really do, but please.
Good riddance to bad rubbish…and this gal is
real-as-you-get-garbage.
“Some of these weathermen even made YouTube videos celebrating their vote, thumbing their noses at us. CLASSY.”
About as classy as those middle fingers Bateman flicks at New York in videoconference. Or some of the crude comments she side-talks when New Yorkers speak in face-to-face meetings.
So, I take it that Justine is NOT in favor of merger? J-u-s-t wanted to be clear on that.
And, it’s late late late (even though this news adds something to celebrating independence day)and I don’t have time to double-check, but isn’t Alan Rosenberg on the agents committee?
Come on Rosenberg. Follow Bateman’s example and let’s have a great weekend.
Any chance this non-event is related to the pending umpire’s decision and potential internal penalties; a jump-before-you-get-pushed scenario?
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Ed. Response – I don’t think so. Her original “scumbag” comment pre-dated the Non Disparagement Agreement. The positive spin one could offer is that she got frustrated and decided to take the marbles she has and go home. The negative spin is that she threw another hissy fit when she figured out that she wasn’t getting her way and that her views are in a small minority.
I’ve always like her as an actress, but omigod! So much, so wrong. It’s astonishing. Grammar is horrible, but the blinders and the lack of conceptual grasp is even more depressing. I’m not even sure what planet she’s operating from.
The irony is, I always thought she came across as much more New Yawk than Hollywood anyway, y’know?
She’s actually a New York native, right? Sorry, New York, you can not disclaim her entirely!
that belligerent, us-and-them mindset is so last century. If Justine feels it is time to step down, here’s hoping that it’s because her way of doing things is becoming less welcome– we have serious things to solve and they won’t be solved with disrespect and animosity. Maybe others with that same belligerent mindset will also decide it’s time to go — here’s hoping…
Real tantrum of a resignation letter. She fails miserably and of course blames everone else in a letter proving her illiteracy – classic Hollywood c-list behaviour.
And if I remember the blogs correctly, wasn’t Justine part of the debacle where Angel Tompkins voted with Justine’s and Diane Ladd’s voter sticks while they slept in the other room during the 30 hour filibuster meeting last January?!?
I think its best that she takes her rants and rhetoric and goes home;
yet, I gotta give her credit for at least resigning her seat instead of being absentee for its duration.
Who they gonna draft in her place, David Jolliffe??
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Ed. Note – We have never identified her as being connected with that incident.
How dare the membership vote differently than her way?
Merger? No, Justine is in favor of a takeover. As she said in her weird, rambling missive,
“We should have bought that scumbag organization years ago …”
BOUGHT?! When exactly was AFTRA for SALE?
Scary. And BTW – she was one of the NB members caught in the voting scandal during the 28+ hour marathon.
She’s made the assumption/statement that with this resignation she’s now free to spew, but if she’s still on the Hollywood board she just committed a boner, and possible legal problem for SAG.
My money’s on the fact that she never asked any attorneys if she was now “free to speak her (tiny, tiny) mind.”
V.
Yes, she was.
By the way, the cost of the Bateman-run website?….over $1 million…the cost of MF gagging the voices of the NY VP’s Paul Christie and Sam Free?….immeasurable….the cost of Bateman resigning?…priceless.
I recall an exchange I had with Justine on Stinke’s site. She was civil with me because I was civil with her, yet she was calling for an out and out strike…she WANTED it, she said. Not just an authorization but an actual strike. I never forgot that. Regardless of whether we NEEDed to strike, actually spoiling for one is something else entirely. Such views just further illustrate the scorched earth policies of the MF contingent. Get your way or burn everything to the ground. Speaking of which, no one has commented thus far on how quick AMJ abandoned Justine (according to Variety’s report that the Ed. noted). I’m sure they are not happy she took her toys and went home. Not exactly politically helpful to them, one would surmise.
Ummm…
Thanks for your service?
I had observed this 18 motnhs ago…that it a strike was the goal, and not a contract…which is why we were plunged into a stalemate costing us millions.
And if you’ve been listening and reading carefully, AMJ has already been telling people to be prepared for a stike at the end of this contract.
It’s really sad that that those empowered to protect us and fight for us are all about the fight, and not the results or effect.
What a horrible, classless, ignorant woman.
I wonder when she’s going to get her Ralph Morgan award?
Marbles? More like petrified peas….
I guess this means she won’t get the Ralph Morgan award next year.
Bought/merged. Semantics that only make an emotional difference in the flavor of the rhetoric, not the result. In a democratic institution it wouldn’t have made much of a difference after a few years how the original combination came to happen. A lot of people don’t seem to really grasp that point.
Wow…just….wow…
MG
“Thank you for allowing me to serve and to represent the membership.”
Would that be the membership that “[has] now voted up a contract that will cause about 50% of the WORKING members to leave the business, but now that you’re all ‘back to work’ you’re probably too busy to read this”?
If one’s idea of service and representation involves disrespect and contempt for those one serves and represents, perhaps it’s best that one resigns from one’s position of service and representation.
Does anyone know if Justine has an enlargement of the lateral ventricles, decreased brain tissue, decreased volume of the temporal lobe and thalamus, a large cavum septum pellucidi, or hypofrontality? Well, regardless . . . perhaps being off the Board will bring her to full premorbid functioning. Best of luck JB.
On Finke’s site she actually said F-U to all the members who voted the contract up.
That’s right…F-U to the members….
Talk about classless. Talk about a rabid Cult member…
Marisa
It’s interesting to me that AFTRA is the union of record for “Family Ties,’ which is the show that launched her career. And I’ve heard no grumbling from cast members regarding how that was handled.
What is she so angry about?
V
AFTRA is the union of record for “Family Ties”
No it is not.
Justine Bateman — so much disdain
For members and AFTRA, but in the main:
She hates the Branches and New York
Unite for Strength too, what a dork.
I know this rhyme is juvenile doggerel
yes, it’s apt-named silly twattle…
Still I confess I’m glad she’s gone
Her bile and rancor good and done –
‘Cause Justine Bateman smells like soup
And “her” SAG website’s a pile of poop.
The TRUE irony is that the ‘Editor’ here (whomever she or he may be) sets up this story by feigning outrage that Ms. Bateman “compares SAG to Communist China”.
Yet RIGHT HERE SagWatch mockingly calls AMJ, AR, Kent McCord and Diane Ladd the “GANG OF FOUR” after the infamous group in Communist China.
Also, USAN powerhouse Richard Masur wrote a letter in a SAG NY newsletter calling the so-called censoring of NY Prexy Freed–entitled “The Devil Wears Pravda” a communistic slur at SAG in MY opinion, no? (Google or Blackle PRAVDA to get reference–but I assume all here ARE smart enough.)
(And then USAN/UFS gags SAG President Rosenberg from communicating AS PRESIDENT to members and media? WOW!)
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Admin. Comment: This part of Bateman’s spew must have been too complicated for you:
No one feigned outrage at Bateman’s comment. We found her foolishness amusing.
Also, Rosenberg isn’t prohibited from speaking as President of SAG. He’s prohibited from speaking on behalf of the union. Maybe you don’t understand that distinction, either.
Erik,
“Feigning outrage?”
Over-react very much? Project very much?
Bateman’s letter WAS bitter and petulant. It was also classless and poorly written.
I think the general reaction here is more one of pity than outrage, that this is the best she can do for an exit speech.
Hey everybody,
Ease off the SAG website.
While Justine chaired that committee, I and many more reasonable members populate that committee.
Is it a perfect website? No.
Is it better than what we had before? Yes.
In solidarity,
Rik Deskin