A breath of hope: SAG talks extended with progress

Friday ended with some good news: progress on the primetime contract talks between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the producers. These already extended talks had been scheduled to end yesterday, and there were ominous signs of deadlock. However the end of talks on Friday brought the good news that progress had indeed been made, and under this circumstance, both sides agreed to extend the bargaining again, through this weekend until Tuesday.

The first sign of give-and-take bargaining was that SAG finally dropped its ironclad demand for a doubling of DVD payment, shifting reimbursement to other methods. Although a deal is still not certain, the good-faith move by SAG has opened a door of promise and hope that a deal may be cut by next Tuesday. The sister actors union, AFTRA, has agreed to delay the start of its own talks until after Tuesday. In case you haven't been reading up, the actors' contract expires on June 30, and Lost (like the vast majority of primetime shows) works under a SAG contract.