EXCL: Knowing pic!

Please excuse the offtopic, but it is current film news, if that makes it better-- and feel free to file this under the topic about the actors strike, whenever you guys get to posting anything about it... I just felt the need to rant and express my feelings now...

Screw them-- Im honestly shocked they even agreed to have the vote -- With an enormous recession affecting the entire world, and much less than a year after the end of the writers strike, the actors think they should be asking for more money, and threatening to squelch the industry entirely if they dont get it?.... Big surprise... not really, as actors are known for being the epitome of self-centered. But this is like an inverted microcosm, or a huge, larger-than-life model, synechdoche-type version of the actors mentality, in that, as the single actor puts himself above the single other, the entire lot of actors put themselves above the whole world, and specifically the industry and their co-workers (who theyre basically firing), and whose spouse or significant other is just as likely to be unemployed due to the recession...

To the actors--get a grip, and when will you all learn that youre really just glorified props-- Props who, on average, already get paid WAY better than anyone else on the set.

And finally, even if I were in the guild, and FOR the strike, Id still think its a stupid time to vote, as a recession will obviously pull people toward saying nay-- Although Im making some grand generalizations, Im sure there are MANY others in the actors guilds that see my way of thinking, and are probably NOT going to vote for the strike, simply due to the economy... not because they dont agree with their cause.... but because they dont want to worsen the economy,and more than likely, theyre in need of money already (so they dont want to strike and not get paid for months on end)....

And weirdly, honestly, it almost seems like blackmail to me, because frankly, I have to think the majority of the big film studios, who happen to be publicly traded, would see a severe hit to their stocks if it were announced that the actors have gone on strike.... And maybe Im paranoid, but I have to think the actors guild knows the effect a strike would have on the majority of film studios/companies... They would probably, almost instantly, lose a shitload of money, and most people would acknowledge that.... In the past few months, mere whispers of bad news have bankrupted many companies, and even the true giants are going down weekly-- And yet the actors think they should be getting a raise, and a bonus on top? ... No, thats not really right... Its more like their company's firing people, and yet the actors are in the bosses office shoving a picture of him and a prostitute in his face, and blackmailing him into a raise....

Either way you look at it, this is a dumb and obnoxious move by the actors guild... almost as bad a move as the writers signing their new, pathetic, [link] contracts after forcing the majority of the business to shut down for half a year....

This one is starring Nic "Elvis Claw" Cage?!?

I'll wait until DVD.