Tentative deal in Hollywood row

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/entertainment/8005340.stm

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The threat of a damaging strike in Hollywood has receded with negotiators for the studios and actors announcing a deal to end their pay dispute.

A tentative deal was reached and will now be examined by the board of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the two sides said in a joint statement.

Details of the deal in Los Angeles were not given.

The threat of strike action had been hanging over Hollywood since the last contract with SAG ran out in June 2008.

The union, which has 120,000 members, was objecting to plans to make one-off, not residual payments, to actors for made-for-internet shows.

While progress was reported earlier on that issue, there was still contention over when the new contract would take effect.

Producers had wanted the three-year contract to start when it was signed but SAG - in keeping with past practice - had wanted the contract to begin when the last one expired.

By taking the start date back to 1 July 2008, the contract would expire at a similar time to those of the writers' and directors' guilds, thereby increasing the union's bargaining power in 2011.