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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Ron Silver

Aired March 09, 2002 - 08:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In a political drama befitting Hollywood, actress Melissa Gilbert has won the bitterly contested election for president of the Screen Actors Guild. The race, marked by accusations and name calling, was a rerun of the November election, which Gilbert also won.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA GILBERT, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD PRESIDENT: I'm still kind of in a state of shock, truly amazed at the way this went down. And I was kind of dismayed that the results were somewhat the same. But I have to say -- and that we're doing this again and that we had to go through all of this to hear what we heard a few months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Gilbert is best known for playing Laura Ingalls in "Little House On The Prairie." She beat fellow '70s TV icon Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda on the "Mary Tyler Moore" show.

Well, actor Ron Silver is a friend of both actresses. He joins us from New York to talk about the election and the impact on the union.

Hi, Ron.

RON SILVER, ACTOR: Hi, Kyra. How are you?

PHILLIPS: Oh my gosh, it was like Florida all over again. Did you have flashbacks?

SILVER: Well, no. Florida we didn't rerun, did we?

PHILLIPS: Yes, that's true.

SILVER: We reran it in our union.

PHILLIPS: And this didn't go as long, either, thank goodness, you know?

SILVER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: So, OK, you know both ladies.

SILVER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: How are they doing? Is everything OK? Did they shake hands and...

SILVER: Everything is more than OK. It wasn't about the two personalities. It was more about different approaches to a very changing business and industry in which a lot is up in the air right now and people don't quite know how to negotiate and what's the best interests of the actors because everything is in such flux and there's so much volatility in terms of the technology, how actors are going to be paid for their work, agreements with agents who want to have some ownership interest in industries that may employ them and present a conflict of interest.

So there's a lot of issues around and both ladies, I think, had different ways of approaching the issues. But they both had the Guild's best interests at heart because it, you have to understand, it's a very difficult proposition. You have 98,000 people. At any one time, 70 percent of your membership is unemployed. So it's different than most unions.

It's a very diverse constituency. You have, you represent five year olds, you represent 80-year-old people. You have multi-employers working in different states. It has impact on health care, on tax situations.

So it's a pretty complicated process and right now there's a lot of volatility.

PHILLIPS: Well, do you think that the voting irregularities and all this kind of nastiness and, you know, it's been described as a cat fight and the biggest battle in history in Hollywood with regard to the union. Is this going to put a bad taste in the mouths of members and folks there in...

SILVER: No. I, no, I really don't think so.

PHILLIPS: Was this healthy?

SILVER: There's just a tremendous amount of -- well, it's healthy in that people were very candid with one another. They realized there's a great deal of insecurity and uncertainty among actors in terms of confronting this new world that's confronting them. And they were just trying to figure out the best way to confront management and protect the actors' best interests.

But I think it's momentary. Look, the Guild's been around 69 years. Melissa's the 23rd president. It's only a two year term. It's unpaid. And whatever bitterness may have resulted, I think will wash away when everybody confronts the issues.

PHILLIPS: Well, what, tell me about Melissa and as a leader. And you know her well. What do you expect from her?

SILVER: Well, I don't know Melissa as well as I do Valerie. I worked with Valerie on "Rhoda" when I was a child and I... PHILLIPS: Wow.

SILVER: .... just had become an actor. But I...

PHILLIPS: I was a child when I was watching that show, Ron.

SILVER: There you are.

PHILLIPS: Sorry.

SILVER: That's quite all right. That threw me off for a moment. I'm just reviewing my life now on camera here.

PHILLIPS: Oh, I know. You and I could go way back. All right...

SILVER: I don't know Melissa as well, but I know of Melissa and I know her approach. Bill Daniels was there for two years and it was a pretty exciting and dramatic two years. There was a commercial strike that allegedly cost the Los Angeles area over $125 million in lost production, runaway production, a lot of productions being done in Canada and other places. That became an issue that everybody tried to focus on.

And Melissa came in and needed to negotiate what they call the ATA and ART agreement about a new deal that actors have with their agents where the agencies now want to have some people like advertising agencies or other industries come in and own part of the agencies, which inherently can represent a conflict of interest if your agent is also your employer and you want your representation to be uncompromised.

So Melissa took a more moderate approach of saying we can allow some of this as long as the, we protect the actors' interest and the actor has an interest in picking his agent and being represented by whom he wants, but also being protected and having uncompromised representation.

I think Valerie's approach was a little more forceful that we have to be very cautious when we do something like this.

So it was more a difference of degrees. And I think Melissa right now has an approach that -- it will go to the board of directors on Monday, this particular agreement that the negotiating committee worked out and they will send it and there'll be a referendum on this particular issue. And this was one of the sticking issues between Melissa and Valerie.

But the board of directors will vote on Monday. They'll probably send it to the membership and there'll be a referendum at the end of the month. So by the end of the month, the issue that seems so dramatic and bitter will have been voted on by the membership.

But Valerie, I do know Valerie. She's a very passionate, committed member of the board. She continue to function in that capacity. Two of her allies on the ticket were elected. Elliott Gould was reelected, I guess, from November. He won in November, as well, recording treasurer, I think. And Kent McCord won.

So everybody will be working together. Our interest is in working together because we're all actors.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. And we'll be following what happens on Monday, too.

Ron Silver, I'm a big fan of yours. Thank you so much for getting up early and being with me.

SILVER: Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Bye-bye.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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