Ladies and Gentlemen, the following is from the incomparable Claudette Sutherland. Incisive and very thought provoking...

There is hardly anything new under the hot Hollywood sun, except that the Hollywood-centric voice has claimed the day, something in the works for many years. How any of us could be surprised is surprising to me. You could take almost any of the postings from the past campaigns and simply change the names.

Which leads me to say, if you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.

We need new conversations. We need to stop re-treading the tires. There are reasons that Hollywood is different and will stay that way, not just because of how the work is, but more, how the voting membership is. Everything we are suffering right now, is a result of having taken over the extras jurisdiction. From that time forward, there was no turning back and that was even before the politics got dicey. But it was all waiting here like a land mine.

No matter the campaigning, the money spent, no matter the rights and wrongs it is only a small group of us who have the most at stake in our contracts. Actors like us. Working actors. But in Hollywood we are truly only a handful. I believe that from the outside this gets overlooked and that's a big mistake which can keep us spinning our wheels. Because the toxicity is lodged here, it is only natural to look right back here to solve it. It won't get solved here.

Why can't we engage the celebs? Because frankly, they have no need for the union. Oh sure, they may have fond memories of when they started out and the struggle to get where they are, but once there, they are busy. Not kidding, either. They are insulated by managers and agents and by their own important need for privacy. They are off the radar screen. Sure, often enough someone big comes along to do the right thing, but it seldom turns out to be more than a mercy f**k and they have to leave to do another big film in another country. So the stars have nothing at stake. Besides, there aren't that many of them.

Then we have the legions of extras which make good eating for the wannabes, the ones who have seen better days, and, (my all time favorites) the fellows just behind me in age who think THEY should have gotten the same share of the golden years when money was real money. When advertisers poured it out of their budgets like confetti on parade day, when quotes were numbers that climbed upwards, when everything was shot in our backyard and you could walk to work. These boys love to whine. I'm glad I'm not their Mommy. These boys have little to lose because they never had much to begin. They look at those of us in my generation and easily hate what we had only because they don't. I say, go be born in 1939 then. This group is the largest and has the most voting power. They also have NOTHING TO LOSE so it doesn't matter if they torch it all. (Besides it feels sooooo good. Almost like having a big old dramatic role where you get to emote and then people notice you...and so on, and so on.) Well, if they had half a brain and could think even as far as the new year, they would be able to figure out that their precious pension and health benefits are what will warm them in their old age and their illnesses, much more than a resume. And their precious pension and health benefits are what they are slowly but surely laying waste to. Nothing is carved in stone, even with the Federal Government insuring it.

So that leaves us. The working actors here in Hollywood whose numbers are miniscule, and the rest of the branches. That is the population that has the most to lose. The population that has ANYTHING to lose.

What am I after? Something I don't even know how to begin thinking about. A new union? A fragmenting of our existing structure? A walk to AFTRA, (back to numbers because there aren't that many cross-overs to begin with.) Financial core? What? But I would by far welcome this dialogue. I would like to sit down with somebody....anyone, and have a place to ask questions, to brainstorm.

We cannot, and I bet will not unify Hollywood. I am convinced it’s a hopeless endeavor. Costly beyond belief. It doesn't work and we have given it a big shot. Doing the same things, the same things, the same things expecting different results. (sigh)

I realize this letter is without conclusion. If someone can show me the box, I would be happy to step outside it.

Thanks for the use of the hall.

Claudette Sutherland