In a Jan. 25 brief to reporters described as "talking points," the Screen Actors Guild's (SAG) Los Angeles office has released a first official insight on the status of the pre-negotiation sit-down now underway between actors, writers and producers from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). While the union says that non-residual issues could be discussed as early as the end of February, committee work remains to be done inside the union in order to clarify labor's position. SAG also points out that it must digest partial "residuals information" that was provided to the union. This is just part of what the union says it must have in order to negotiate. The residuals data was promised by producers "during the 1998 negotiations," SAG says. "If the producers had provided this residuals information on the schedule they originally promised, it would have allowed early negotiations to proceed. It's the producers, not actors who are making early negotiations impossible."

—By Murdoch McBride