Hollywood actors union faces internal rift

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An insurgent faction within the Screen Actors Guild has launched a campaign to wrest control of the powerful union from leaders they blame for stalemated contract talks with major Hollywood studios.

A bloc of SAG members calling itself Unite for Strength unveiled a slate of 31 candidates on Wednesday seeking to gain a majority on the national governing board in elections scheduled for September 18.

The emergence of a serious challenge to SAG's ruling coalition, a Hollywood-based group of moderates known as Membership First, likely means that the 3 1/2-week-old standoff between the union and studios will drag on for at least two more months.

Candidates running on the Unite for Strength slate include two stars from TV's "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff "Private Practice" -- Kate Walsh and Amy Brenneman -- as well as Doug Savant from "Desperate Housewives" and "Chicago Hope" veteran Adam Arkin.

They accuse the current leadership of mishandling labor talks and straining relations with SAG's smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, through SAG's failed campaign to scuttle a contract negotiated separately between AFTRA and the studios.

Veteran character actor Ned Vaughn, a Unite for Strength candidate and spokesman for the group, said on Thursday his slate could win a majority on the board with a net gain of five or six seats among the 33 at stake in the Hollywood branch.

"We hope very much to do a lot better than that," he said.

The Membership First coalition, led by SAG President Alan Rosenberg, the husband of "CSI" star Marg Helgenberger, was swept to power in 2005 after pledging to get tougher with the studios in contract negotiations.