EMBRACE - SAG, WGA STAGE PROTEST AT BEVERLY HILLS CONFERENCE

Displaying a militant activism eschewed by their predecessors, the leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America led a protest over product-placement ads outside a conference on "branded entertainment" at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday. Both guild leaders claimed that they had been excluded from what was billed as an entertainment industry debate about product placement ads in movies and TV shows. In a statement, WGA President Patric Verrone said, "For actors and writers who are being forced to shoehorn products into their work whether they fit or not, there are critical issues of creative rights, consultation, and fair compensation. For the public there is the serious matter of disclosure - consumers, parents, and all viewers have the right to be told when we are being sold." Added SAG President Alan Rosenberg: "The fact that we must hold a demonstration to be heard on this key issue affecting artists is sad evidence that the industry continues to refuse to engage us. Rather than meeting alone behind the ivory walls of a five-star hotel, producers ought to embrace artists in a conversation on this issue of mutual concern."

09/02/2006