Melissa Gilbert Elected SAG President
Tiny Dancer
there could be trouble ahead with the contested ballots. Hmmm ....
definite deja vu thing going on here!
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011103/en/actors_election_2.html
Gilbert Elected SAG President
By LOUINN LOTA, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - ``Little House on the Prairie'' star Melissa Gilbert was
elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in a hotly contested race, but
the results could be challenged because of a flaw on thousands of ballots.
Gilbert got 45.3 percent of the vote to beat Valerie Harper, who had 39.4 percent,
according to Friday's count.
``I'm thrilled and honored to have been elected SAG president and am
extremely grateful to everyone who worked on or contributed to my campaign,''
Gilbert said in a statement.
Gilbert, 37, played frontier girl Laura Ingalls on the popular 1970s television
series. She received 12,280 votes, according to union spokesman Greg Krizman.
Harper, 61, who was the wisecracking Rhoda Morgenstern on TV's ``The
Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ``Rhoda,'' received 10,692 votes.
Eugene Boggs finished third with 2,553 votes and Angeltompkins was fourth
with 1,613 votes, Krizman said late Friday night.
``M A S H'' movie star Elliott Gould was elected SAG secretary, and ``M A S H''
television star Mike Farrell was elected first vice president.
``Mike Farrell and I are looking forward to embracing and working with all the
different voices in the guild and its leadership,'' Gilbert said in her prepared
statement. ``We're also looking forward to working with our fellow unions to
bring film and TV production back to the United States.''
The voting took place during a time of discord within the union's ranks, following
a lengthy commercial actors' strike last year and a barely averted walkout by
movie and TV actors earlier this year.
The results came just a day after SAG's election committee decided to defer
a decision on whether to impound the ballots because of a missing signature
line on nearly a third of them.
Nearly 24,000 ballots sent to SAG members in New York failed to include the
signature line, which critics said could allow their validity to be challenged.
Some 74,000 sent around the country include a line that states: ``Voter: Print
and sign your name on the back of this envelope.''
None of the candidates had raised serious objections to the ballot flaw, and
Guild officials downplayed it, saying in a written statement that each ballot
envelope is already affixed with a printed member identity label that verifies
its legitimacy.
``If somebody wants to bring a challenge they are free to do so. The constitution
says they have to wait until after the election,'' Krizman said.
The trade paper Variety reported Thursday that Hollywood SAG member
Gordon Drake planned to challenge the results.
``I respect the decision of the elections committee, but I will move forward with
my challenge. The issue is credibility to the members. They need to know that
the election is valid under the rules of the constitution and bylaws,'' Drake said.
On the Net:
Screen Actors Guild: http://www.sag.org
Cheers,
TD
If you're doing fine, boy, you got my vote
But step out of line, boy, and I'll go for your throat
from Elton John's "Heart In The Right Place"
For a good time call
http://the70s.cjb.net
The Sesame Street Lyrics and Sounds Archive
http://members.tripod.com/Tiny_Dancer/index.html
Dixon Hayes
Dixon
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"I'm not standing in the stag line with Old Man Perkins and a bunch of
slumped-over teenaged boys!"
--Barney Fife
Classic Hollywood Squares: http://www.classicsquares.com