A "solidarity" rally staged by the Screen Actors Guild on Monday reportedly drew a modest crowd of a few hundred, who heard speakers denounce the recent agreement between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "AFTRA has now abandoned us to make their own deal to the potential detriment of actors," SAG President Alan Rosenberg told the crowd. To some, Rosenberg's speech appeared to be contrived to blame AFTRA if SAG negotiators are unable to secure an agreement that is substantially more favorable to the union than the ones negotiated between the AMPTA and AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America. Daily Variety quoted an AFTRA spokeswoman as saying, "It is unfortunate that SAG's primary negotiating tactic seems to be to vote down its sister union's contract on a prayer of achieving a better deal with the AMPTP." Apparently noting that fewer than 500 persons attended the SAG rally despite a membership total of more than 120,000, the AFTRA spokesperson said, "Today's event only further demonstrates that they have little support for their misguided strategy. SAG members should encourage guild leadership to spend more time at the table and less time, effort and member resources undermining AFTRA." In an interview with Variety New York SAG President Sam Freed called the rally "an irresponsible embarrassment."
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