Updated: SAG's White Responds to TheWrap

Hollywood “not Anne-Marie” Actor wrote: “I have a news flash for you; There are a lot more people than Ann, Allen, Justine and whoever else in the Hollywood Branch that think like they do. In fact their (sic) in the majority here in Hollywood, you know, where we do 75% percent of the work under this contract?”

I’ve got a news flash for you, too: in the most recent Hollywood Division election (Unite for Strength’s first), UFS won 19 seats to MF’s 13. Only a Membership First supporter could see a 19-13 loss as representing the majority.

As previously discussed, your group simply can’t read a room. They are ALWAYS convinced they’re right, and that they must represent the majority, even when numbers as simple as 19-13 clearly show otherwise. Do you think for minute that MF would have gotten beaten like that if Hollywood members thought they were doing a great job? Of course not! Look for much more of the same in the next election.

Here’s another simple set of numbers you should commit to memory: 50 out of 70.

Once again: 50 out of 70… which is the number of this season’s pilots being shot under AFTRA contracts.

THAT is the kind of damage brought to SAG by Membership First. It’s exactly what was warned against when they torpedoed merger in 2003 and now it’s here in spades and getting worse. It’s bad enough that they were so fundamentally wrong then, but to pretend now that SAG can still get whatever it wants, regardless of the fact that AFTRA has a signed contract and is organizing an overwhelming majority of work (for BETTER PAY, in fact) that was previously SAG’s alone… well, that’s just childish.

And Eric Hughes, keep ‘em coming. All that nothing is bound to add up to something if you just post it often enough, right?

Eric George’s law firm, Browne Woods George merged with
Dreier Stein Kahan, on 1.02.08.

Last month, a year later, on 1.06.09, George and about 20 other lawyers announced that they were leaving to reconstitute Browne Woods George.

Eric George did not conceal his escape from the Dreier fiasco.

As Marc Dreier was the only equity partner in Dreier, Stein, Kahan, Browne, Woods, George, the firm’s partners sent a letter to Dreier, saying he breached their employment contract, which guaranteed a certain compensation for three years, and filed a multimillion dollar arbitration claim against Dreier.

When fellow Dreier employee David White was announced as SAG NED, allegedly as an interim NED, the implication was that he was setting aside his business to Come to the Aid of SAG, which also implied that he was bailing on his lease, his employees, his investors, and his clients.

There was, and remains, no disclosure from David White of the truth that his firm ENTERTAINMENT STRATEGIES GROUP had gone kaput.

The question regarding Alan Rosenberg’s recent hire of Eric George is whether Rosenberg was aware of George’s ties to fellow Dreier employee David White.

For details of White’s activities during the Dreier December detonation, check out MEET THE Ws!: FEDERAL NOTICE TO DREIER ENTITIES at www.screenrights.net.

Uh Drysale? ... :) ...I'm not Anne Marie or those other names. I have a news flash for you; There are a lot more people than Ann, Allen, Justine and whoever else in the Hollywood Branch that think like they do. In fact their in the majority here in Hollywood, you know, where we do 75% percent of the work under this contract? I love the way you spent a whole page of words not talking about how your guys walked in, gave away everything the old Neg.Com. still had on the table and walked out with less. :-D You don't seem to get me. I don't give a crap which team brings me something I can sign. If your boys can do it I'm good to go but from where I'm sitting their 0 steps forward and 4 steps back. I do my own thinking. I went to the AMPTP web site and read the contract for myself and uh, in the words of your golden boy White "It Sucks"!

And to- Anonymous and sick to death of this, You're still here? I thought that you were going fi core, strong unionist that you are. Oh and guess what? If it looks like poo and it smells like poo, most don't need to taste it to know it's poo. But by all means, if you don't agree vote the contract up and eat the poo-

Hey Eric Hughes, why don't you post the same information a couple dozen more times and maybe it will actually start to mean something? NOT!

Since he seems to be so fond of them, I have three question about those legal documents for obsessive compulsive poster Eric Hughes:

1. Are there ANY allegations of wrongdoing against David White?

Answer: NOPE. And there won't be.

2. Are there ANY allegations of wrongdoing against Entertainment Strategies Group?

Answer: NOPE. And there won't be.

3. If association with Marc Dreier means someone is tainted, clearly that extends to Alan Rosenberg's lawyer Eric George, who was a MAIN PARTNER in Dreier's Santa Monica law firm, Dreier Stein Kahan Brown Woods George LLP. Are you telling us that Alan Rosenberg used a crooked lawyer to stupidly and petulantly sue the Screen Actors Guild?

Answer: Well, Mr. Hughes?

You will resort to any lame smear or distraction you can concoct to distract from the fact that you've spent the last 18 months running this union off a cliff. Your solution? Make the damage even worse by slinging ridiculous guilt-by-association mud at those who are willing to clean up the wreckage you've left.

You folks may not know your *ss from your elbow when it comes to leading SAG, but when it comes to the politics of destruction, you have no equals.

ENTERTAINMENT STRATEGIES GROUP, the firm in which David White was Managing Principal, and which went kaput in December, was one of Marc Dreier’s Dreier Entities.

Marc Dreier has been sanctioned several times in state and federal court.

The evidence obtained by a Disciplinary Committee in 2004 included “…sworn declarations from a number of attorneys at, and affiliated with, Dreier LLP attesting to the fact that the firm’s escrow accounts, to which respondent was the sole signatory, had repeated shortfalls amounting to tens of millions of dollars; …”.

Last March, Dreier sued his client Judith Regan, the former publishing executive, claiming she owed the firm fees in connection with her $100 million defamation and breach of contract suit against her former employer, News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers LLC.

On December 9, Regan claimed Dreier tried to extort a settlement from her and improperly disclosed her $10.75 million settlement with HarperCollins.

For insight into David White’s busy Holiday season, check out:
MEET THE Ws!: FEDERAL NOTICE TO DREIER ENTITES at www.screenrights.net.

To "hollywood actor'

Sorry bub...MF did all of this To themselves and By themselves.

Undermining leadership? They were leading us into a void. We let them try for 8 months. MF did not one positive thing in this negotiation. Not one successful strategy.

Off Topic Question: MFers keep calling the contract a "turd" or a "cat turd" (btw, it's so disgusting they way they keep saying that. Big turnoff. Makes the whole union look like 2nd graders)

So, why is MF so obsessed with cat poop? Or shit in general?

LIGHT BULB...nevermind, oh of course. Because they are FULL of it!!

In response to Hollywood Actor, AKA Beth from Silverlake, AKA Union Advocate, AKA Anne-Marie Johnson’s comment:

Doug Allen in the room most certainly WAS a problem – a huge one, but only one of several.

The Pottery Barn Rule? Oh, Anne-Marie, surely you’re not going to go there? ‘Cause by that standard, Membership First owns this contract lock, stock and barrel. The same goes for all the tremendous damage caused to SAG over the last three years – and the last 18 months especially. You and Alan and Kent and David and Frances and Justine and the whole lot of you broke this thing profoundly, long before Ned Vaughn and Unite for Strength ever showed up – and THANK GOD they did!

You broke it when you stupidly kept trying to muscle AFTRA even after they made it clear that they weren’t receptive to Doug Allen’s “genius” ideas. (The man could not read a room to save his life.) But that never matters to people like you, and certainly not to someone like Doug Allen. You’re always so convinced you’re right that you plow full speed ahead no matter how much negative feedback you’re getting – until it blows up in your face and you’re miserably stuck in a position from which you can’t recover. You told everyone that this would be the fight of our lives, then chopped off an arm and a leg and said “Okay, LET’S FIGHT!”

But somehow, you and Doug and Alan were always too scared to send out that SAV you keep carping about -- even though you had COMPLETE authority to do so (not to mention a years-old governing majority). Why didn’t you send it in June? Or July? There was no such thing as UFS then, so you can’t blame them! How about August or September? Oh, the elections… so what?! You were there to lead, not watch an election right? Wasn’t it crucial to get that strike authorization then? Why wasn’t it sent immediately in November, after you predictably failed to seize an opportunity to salvage something from the negotiations your crew botched from the outset? Or early in December, before thousands of members made it crystal clear that they simply weren’t behind your lame brained game of chicken?

It was ALWAYS somebody else’s fault, right? Before UFS even existed, even when you were still solidly in control, it was always someone else’s fault. In your world, it always is. But you’ll never get it… you can’t hear anything other than the delusional heroic soundtrack playing in your head.

Anne-Marie, here’s the simple fact: YOU BROKE IT, well over a year ago – and YOU OWN IT, now and forevermore. You want so badly to pretend that David White and John McGuire have failed because in 4 weeks they haven’t yet salvaged anything from the God-awful mess you and yours spent 18 solid months making – but the idea is absurd on its face.

If you hadn’t done so much damage to this union, I’d actually feel kind of sorry for you.

To; Anonymous and sick to death of this ,
Please, do go Fi Core.
I really thought that the one good thing that would come out of this debacle of the "Moderates" creation and the bag of cat turds they brought back from the AMPTP, would be that everyone would see the truth of what the MF's have been saying all along- The ENEMY is the AMPTP not MF!

Really now; all I've been hearing coming out of the mouths of the U4S's, RBD's and NYBD's the entire time since our contract expired was Doug Allen in the room is the problem. Allen Rosenberg our president, speaking for the guild is the problem. Membership First in the majority is the problem. If we "Moderates" were in the room this shit would not be going on. Now we have a changing of the guard and the Moderates have gotten everything they asked the membership for; The "Moderates" have gained the majority on the National Board. Doug Allen is fired, replaced by their hand picked NED, White. Our president has been muzzled and can no longer speak for the membership that elected him. And just to make sure the deck is stacked their way for negotiations they suspend SAG rules and disband the proportionally representative Negotiating Committee and appoint their own "Task Force" to farce off with the AMPTP. Well? What happened? ...What's that you have their in your hand Ned Vaughn? -Oh, it's a bag of cat turds. Did the MF's give you that bag of cat turds Ned? -No, it was Nick Counter and the AMPTP. Yeah, their, bad guys, out to destroy our union. -No, their alright, I blame Membership First... Are You Freaking Kidding Me!?! Pottery Barn rules Clowns; you broke it you bought it. You "Moderates" did everything you could to undermine SAG leadership when it was the other guys and they were trying to get a deal we could all live with. When they made mistakes and screwed up, it wasn't the AMPTP that was all over them it was you! You sowed the wind and now you're reaping the whirl wind. You're in charge! Where are your buddies Tom Hanks, Danny Devito and the rest now? Stop blaming the minority. Get your butts in there and get us actors who actually work the contract a deal. If it's got Internet coverage from dollar one and move over residuals I'll sign it, if not, I'll vote against it. Then if other members feel like me let us have our SAV. One way or the other lets go! Crap or get off of the pot you damn Bobo's.

The funny thing is that many of the people who are against this new timeline were the same ones back in 2004 who were for the 1 year extention that would bring SAG in line with IATSE's contract. Well this new timeline will do just that as IATSE next contract will end in 2012.

When will this end? The Members Firsters have made SAG a laughing stock and are like the Republicans in trying to engage in character assassination of this fabulous new NED.

They care nothing about SAG, nothing about the members and less than nothing about the rest of the industry being hurt by the INCREDIBLE stupidity of every move they make.

It makes all of us good, hardworking actors sick and very embarrassed that this is what has become of SAG. I'm truly thinking of going fi core just because i don't want to be associated with them a moment longer.

The Wrap and this "reporter" should retract this thing and get some facts. The wrap looks like a rag by printing an unsubstantiated rumor

I was one of those actors (honestly, I wasn't on one side or the other) that really didn't want a strike and couldn't understand what was going on with Rosenberg's and Allen's negotiations with AMPTP. Obviously, it's only gotten more complicated since December, and while I hate for anyone else to be affected by a potential actors' strike (that's if the current leadership ever sends out an SAV), I'm not so sure anymore that a strike isn't what needs to happen.

Putting aside all of the other issues (new media, resids, etc) for a second, I've got one BIG question: why are the producers so dead set against SAG's next contract expiring around the same time as the WGA's?

“As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.”
Moliere

“If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well.”
Moliere

MEET THE Ws!: FEDERAL NOTICE TO DREIER ENTITIES, posted on www.screenrights.net provides understanding of those whose words fail to give us that, and evidence that can be anonymously read.

I suppose that Alan Rosenberg, and MF are willing to say anything to draw attention away from their own failures.

One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others." ~Moliere

"Those whose conduct gives room for talk are always the first to attack their neighbors." ~Jean Baptiste Molière, Tartuffe

The time has come for Screen Actors Guild members to unite,
and for Membership First to cease designing distractions from the true business at hand:
obtaining a half-dozen expired (or expiring) contracts
that determine minimum wages and working conditions
and that provide benefits for those of us who have spent decades of our lives working as actors.
These "fighters" and their sideline commentator/supporters should retire -
knowing that their activities have brought and are bringing many good people to ruin.

There has been a great deal of concern, expressed here, anonymously, wanting “… to read the evidence of that assertion in your heading and first paragraph that says White closed his business because of ties to Dreier…”

That “assertion,” the correct terminology being reporting, is based on the financial devastation that hit all 10 Dreier Entities two months ago, in December, and left them kaput.

MEET THE Ws!: FEDERAL NOTICE TO DREIER ENTITIES, posted on www.screenrights.net provides evidence that can be anonymously read.

For example, there’s the statement, in the affidavit of federally appointed Receiver Mark F. Pomerantz, that all 10 Dreier Entities, including the soon-to-be infamous ENTERTAINMENT STRATEGIES GROUP, are either wholly-owned or controlled by Marc Dreier.

I'm just a regular member, not someone who devotes their life to the fight between Membership First and Unite For Strength. I voted for Membership First last time round, and then when I percieved they were blowing the negotiations I voted for the UFS slate, because it had also become apparent to me that the split between SAG and AFTRA (which appears to have been a fight picked by our president and Doug Allen) had screwed us in these negotiations.

There is only one UAW, there should be only one actors union, period.

Every pilot I've even heard about this year is AFTRA. That tells you why the companies are thrilled to death with our civil war. For God's sake, our own President is suing his own union.

SAG is a joke that only the AMPTP is laughing at. Everyone else in town just feels the slowdown of production, in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression.

So we finally get a competant, entertainment experienced NED, and then this ridiculous non-issue comes up. Get it straight, saying that David White is somehow implicated in this scandal is like saying that someone who worked for a company Bernie Madoff invested in is in any way involved with fraud.

The SEC has not implicated David White. His company was not in any way involved in this guy's scandal.

But bravo to my fellow members for once again starting up a new round of pointless fighting as we have no contract and the companies save millions.

And by all means, let's go on strike over three minute webisodes, shall we?

Sheesh. You can never underestimate the ability of actors to sabotage themselves.

It is nice to see yet another Anonymous poster who doesn't know the difference between slander and lible. A hint, Lible deals with the written form.

Also nice to see that I am willing to put my name to my words, and yet another coward won't stand up for his words.

I think there were better and less costly choices than David White. He may be a fine person and capable, but making such a contentious choice at this point and time, seems radical and unnecessary. It just widens the wounds that keep the bad blood flowing. I think Pamm Fair would have done exactly what the National Board told her to do and quite well. Too late now.

That being said, linking David White to the troubles Marc Drier is in, is as irrelevant as linking Doug Allen to the troubles at NFL Players Inc., because neither has been charged with any crime. However, that hasn't stopped both sides of the factional divide at SAG from mounting hatchet attacks on these two men. The amount of time and energy spent attacking people is shocking.

I agree with Ms Gilbert, that the political climate within Screen Actors Guild is toxic. The back and forth hiring and firing of NEDs has cost our members millions of dollars. Wasted so much money and for what purpose?

It's extremely damaging, but I don't agree it's doing more damage than anything else, only that is a very costly symptom of the bigger problem.

The NED is supposed to follow the majority rule of the National Board.

The members elect other members to serve and based on the number of votes these members get, a National Board is chosen. These people are supposed to vote on issues and then allow the majority to rule, but it doesn't usually work that way.

More time is spent positioning and manipulating the constitution and Robert's Rules, then spent dealing with issues. The majority is constantly at battle with the minority and this wrangling takes up all of the time and energy. Nothing gets done and things get stuck in a vacuum.

When some action is forced through to a referendum, it's either stopped, as it was with the recent Strike Authorization, or a campaign is mounted to kill a referendum, as it was with Merger and the ATA agreement. It doesn't seem to matter that these actions keep us stuck, and waste millions of dollars. It becomes a "life or death" struggle and in the process we, as a collective, stagnate. Both sides are culpable and continue this practice,

At some point we must allow the majority to rule or we will witness total destruction of our unions. Our Pension and Health Plans will disappear and everything that's taken 75 years to build will all be gone.

Worse than making a "bad" decision is staying stuck by making no decision and our Guild is very stuck on almost every issue we face.

The question is how do we move beyond this?

I think our governance has failed. Not for trying, but because our issues effect different members different ways, based on geography and demographics and the split has come down to two factions very equally balanced in numbers.

I think we are in need of a system that allows (affected) members to vote more often, and especially when there is a stalemate within the National Board. This would move us by force, because when the membership votes it is the final word. I think it's time for our autonomy to take over. What else is going to work?

Referendum voting is extremely expensive, but given technology today, there is surely a way to create highly secure voting systems that allow members to vote very inexpensively. This is a radical thing I know, but I see no other way.

No matter what position one takes on any issue, there will be those who will fight to the end to discredit the individual and kill whatever is proposed. When we have governance divided so evenly, as we do now, where the majority shifts back and forth between factions, we cannot move.

I know there will be lots of disagreement with me over this, and I'm open to it. But I've served on the Hollywood Board and on a number of committees. I even got caught up in the battles and took sides. I have strong opinions too about most of the issues. None of that matters now. I'm worried about losing my union and we are at the bottom looking up.

Yosemite Stokesberry posted: "Each of these affiliates generally operated under essentially the same agreement with Marc Dreier"

What kind of proof is that? Unless you can say that White's company definitely opperated under the agreement you discribe, you are telling tales and spreading a big fat spinning rumor.

"Essentially the same agreement" is not at all the same as showing us the ACTUAL ESG agreement.

More smear tactics by one of MF's slanderers

To those Anonymous who can't seem to read deeper.

And now thanks to Lauren Horwitch's article it looks like David was not as forthcoming about his association with Marc Dreier.
This is from the S.E.C. filing against Marc Dreier.

[quote]Directing Defendant (Marc Dreier) to provide a verified accounting immediately including, but not limited to, a verified written accounting of Defendant's interests in Dreier LLP and all other entities owned, in whole or in part, or controlled by, related to, or associated or affiliated with Dehdant, including, but not Limited to, Schlesinger Gannon & Lazetera LLP, Berry Block & Bernstein LLC, Dreier LLP (Stamford, CT), Dreier LLP
(Pittsburgh, PA), Pitta & Dreier LLP, Pitta Bishop, Dcl Giorno & Dreier
LLP, Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George LLP, Mason Miller,
LLP, [u]Entertainment Strategies Group[/u], Dreier Sports Opportunities Group LLC (the "Affiliated Entities"), a verified written accounting of the
amounts deposited by or at the direction of the Defendant in and
withdrawn by or at the direction of Defendant from the amounts of the
Dreier LLP and the Affiliated Entities; and a verified written accounting of
the disposition of all funds raised from investors through the conduct
described in the Commission's complaint as well as through any
transactions not specifically identified in the complaint;

c. [u]freezing the assets of the Defendant, including the Defendant's interests in Dreier LLP and the Affiliated Entities[/u];[/quote]

Also this from her article.

[quote]In an article published a week after Dreier’s Dec. 7 arrest, White explained to the National Law Journal that Dreier was a “passive investor” in ESG and received a percentage of the company’s profits, but was “not involved in the operations at all.”
[/quote]

Yet in a declaration according to John Provenzano:

[quote]Dreier LLP is affiliated with the following ten entities:

Schlesinger, Gannon & Lazetera LLP
Berry Block & Bernstein LLC
Dreier LLP (Stamford, CT)
Dreier LLP (Pittsburgh PA)
Pitta & Dreier LLP
Pitta, Bishop, Del Giorno & Dreier LLP
Dreier Stein Kahan Brown Woods George LLP
Mason Miller, ::P
[u]Enterainment Strategies Group[/u]
Dreier Sports Opporunities Group LLP

Each of these affiliates generally operated under essentially the same agreement with Marc Dreier. Pursuant to the typical affiliate agreement with Mr. Dreier, the affiliates deposited their revenues into an account over which Mr. Dreier had shared control, and Mr. Dreier would pay their expenses. In return, Mr. Dreier agreed to pay each of the "partners" or "principals" of the affiliates both (1) a fixed salary; and (2) incentive compensation determined by the amount by which each "partner" or "prinipal" exceeded his or her agreed upon revenue target.[/quote]

This does not look like Mr. Dreier was just a "passive invester" and that any money David put into the account is now frozen.

That doesn't look like an investment but more like a partnership where ESG would put their money in a account controlled by Dreier.

So the question is just how much assets of ESG were in the interest of Dreier's? Was it enough to harm ESG's operating costs therefore causing the company to close?

Another good question would be, was David really the owner of ESG or did he sell a major stake to Mr. Dreier?

Is it a common practice for a owner of a company to receive a salary from someone else?

I am so surprised that this article has no factual basis. It is a smear on a brilliant man who has the cajones to get into this mud bath that MF has created for working SAG members.

MF has caused nothing but strife, suing SAG, filibuster when they are supposed to be discussing David White and then screaming he wasn't "vetted" properly, spending countless thousands on trying to destroy another union's contract and now this?

What kind of a site is this? I mean where are your facts? What sources were double checked. Shame on you.

you should correct this piece of garbage at the very least.

I'd love to read the evidence of that assertion in your heading and first paragraph that says White closed his business because of ties to Dreier, but you seem to have left it out of the rest of the article.

Melissa Gilbert, I wish that you hadn't said those things. You are one of the worst, do nothing presidents after Richard Masur our guild has ever had. Doug Allen did not leave he was fired. MF is not on this site attacking your guy White, you are attacking MF. Your as bad as Mike Farrell. You both want the "cannibalism" as Mike puts it, to stop, now that you've eaten the others. You both represent the minority in the Hollywood branch and the majority of those outside of Hollywood i.e. those who don't work the contract. But let us leave all of that, your guy White and your U4S's, RBD's and NYBD's hand picked task force went into the negotiations with the AMPTP, gave them EVERYTHING and walked out three days later with nothing but a bag of shit! You like White so much? He said the offer "sucked". Now what's your plan? Your boys (and girls) won't send out the contract for a vote, they won't take a strike vote. I guess it's just sit around and whine about who's attacking you, but why break a habit, huh?

MEMBERSHIP-LAST STINK ALERT!!!
First MF'ers whine & dine Mizz Finke at DHD, now they must be sending caviar & dandelions to The Wrap before they plant their libelous crap on Hollywood's lawn once more.
Wrap, next time you have to listen to their heavy breathing over the phone, or, God forbid, actually sit across a table at Marie Callendar's from one of membershiplast's volunteer dirt-flacks, look deep. Because their prime operating motive is basically fascistic and wrong. Woking members of SAG are sick of smelling their effluvium and watching their parliamentarian gee-whiz-bank antics waste our union dues in the James Cagney Board Room.
Mizz Finke is now bashing both SAG and AFTRA in her biz-dirt column and has clearly been mesmerized by those bitter out-of-work clowns who comprise the lessening ranks of membershipfirst. Don't let it happen to this fine site which is showing intelligence & reportorial smarts rather than the self-advertising snarky web-gook ad DHD.
David White has had a successful and well-thought-of tenure already at SAG and those of who actually work for a living in the acting business were sorry to see him go.
Tarring him in this nonsense is like the reactionaries baying for Obama's neck who say he's implicated for knowing Blagojavich.
Don't fall for it.

An Unfortunate Situation

It is no secret that the political climate within Screen Actors Guild is toxic to say the very least. The wrangling and maneuvering is decades old and rooted in the Guild’s history.

One particularly unfortunate by-product of this political climate has been the back and forth hiring and firing of NED/CEOs.
Beginning as far back as ten years ago, there have been five NED/CEOs at SAG.

Ken Orsatti left, John Cook was hired. He quit within days and Bob Pisano was hired. He left and Greg Hessinger was brought in. A short time later Hessinger was fired and Doug Allen was hired. Now Doug has left and David White is in the position.

For ten years, there has been no consistency in the top executive office at SAG.

I am not going to analyze the how’s a whys of this situation but to say that SAG’s inability to maintain continuity in its NED/CEO is absolutely due to the internal political wrangling of its leadership.

It is my opinion that this “Rotating NED/CEO” situation at SAG is doing more damage than anything else going on at the Guild today.

Particularly dismaying is the vitriol and viciousness used to attack those NED/CEOs. The faction within the Guild that calls itself Membership First has unquestionably driven this practice. They research and dig and find any and all ways to attack professionally and personally whomever doesn’t go along with their ideals.

Now they have set their sights on David White. They are going after him in full attack mode and trying to tie him to the scandal involving Marc Drier. I have one question for those so ready to link David to Marc Drier.

It is true that Marc Drier has been accused of many crimes. He is being sued by many former clients and associates, investigated by the federal government and looks to be in a great deal of trouble. Why is it that with all of the charges, accusations and investigations going on against Drier, David White has not been deposed or questioned by any federal organization or law firm involved in the actions against Drier? Why?

David White is a big boy. As are Ken Orsatti, John Cook, Bob Pisano, Greg Hessinger and Doug Allen. All of these men can handle whatever comes their way. I know David surely can as he and I sat side-by-side at many board meetings and negotiations.

What I don’t understand is why the leaders of Membership First cannot grasp the depth of the damage they are doing to the very members they represent. They expound on their virtues as the great protectors of the membership and yet, at the same time, they undermine the clout of our NED/CEO with unsubstantiated innuendo and accusation.

The call themselves Membership First.
Based on their actions, they should be called
Membership Last, Personal Power First.

Melissa Gilbert

Blogs need attention to bring bloggers to their site, this site included. The Wrap is attracting viewers to justify the ad space revenues for their site. So dribble like this makes good fooder, but serves no other purpose than to feed The Wrap.

I, for one - and many other members - have grown very weary of Membership First's continued propaganda. They don't use facts - they use insinuations and quote parts of a story to create doubt and argument. They like to put people in the position of proving a negative. When did you stop beating your wife?

These continued attacks are a reason why SAG has gone through so many NED's....MF wants one that will take orders from them, as opposed to a neutral NED (as the law requires). Ergo, the praise and defense of Doug Allen and new attack on David White. The only think MF is achieving is ... prevent SAG from moving forward., and that hurts each and everyone of us.

The Board (all the Board) was given ample time to review and vett David White, who was a respect past employee of this union. I think David is very brave because he knew from experience exactly what he was stepping into by taking on the job. Full disclosure of this was given; additionally, MF gave David the third degree at a Hollywood Board meeting.

His contract was made available to everyone on the Board long before the meeting was held to discuss it. The first meeting to do that MF did their usual boardroom games to prevent the discussion. The second meeting they tried again but this time the vote was done. Then they like to cry they didn't have an opportunity but it was their own actions that prevented it. Same as with the firing of Doug Allen.

Is the Dreier issue an issue at all? No. It is MF feeding vile to some sites that are trying to get more eyes to look at them.

I, for the first time in several years, am optimistic about what SAG is doing. I hope this optimism grows within our ranks...that all members...ALL members....start insisting we move forward.

ENOUGH!! When are you going to get it that this cannibalism has to stop?

The Screen Actors Guild is racing toward the rocks and the quibblers, the anonymous and the gutless critics can't seem to quit flailing about, blades drawn, apparently unaware that they're only stabbing themselves and destroying the union they claim to care so much about.

David White is a man of integrity. His willingness to step into the SAG maelstrom has surprised many, but those who know him bless him for caring so much about the union he served fairly and honorably as its general counsel that he is willing to set aside his own business and step back into the fray to help sort things out.

As David White clearly knows, the Screen Actors Guild is more than the frustrated, wounded egos that have turned it into the industry's laughingstock. It is an honorable union with a storied history. It represents the hopes and dreams of thousands of men and women of all ages, types, races, creeds, genders and belief systems who want the chance to express themselves and have their shot at the brass ring.

The membership is not served by this back-stabbing and blood-letting. They want to work. They want to be represented by reasonable, thoughtful people interested in creating the conditions in which that can happen. They are sickened by the continued chorus of whining, screaming, name-calling, back-biting, bickering and smearing. They want the Screen Actors Guild to regain the stature and respect it once enjoyed so they can get on with their careers.

David White represents exactly that hope.

ENOUGH!!

Mike Farrell

So, Andrew, do you agree with the opening paragraph of Ms. Horwitch's story that White closed his office because of his ties to Dreier, or do you find that claim unsubstantiated by any evidence her "investigation" happened to turn up?

Lauren Horwitch may be all the wonderful things you say she is, but do you think that kind of baseless allegation is the sign of responsible journalism?

Like I didn't see all this, about David White, coming!
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE SAG MEMBERS!
David White had a company with the current AMPTP mouthpiece Seth Oster.
David White's buddy is Robert Pisano.
Need I say more?
Who is initiating all this crap at SAG?
You can probally bet on King Richard The Turd.
He's BACK making trouble at the Screen Actors Guild.
Better keep an eye on ANY National Executive Committee voting ballots with him around!

Lauren Horwitch did not get fired from Back Stage. She was caught up in a tsunami of layoffs at Nielsen Business Media in mid-December due to the economic meltdown. During her tenure, she routinely distinguished herself not only as a reporter, but as an editor, saving me more times than I would like to count. I don't speak for my bosses, but I suspect that they feel as I do: They WOULD GLADLY have her back if economic circumstances would allow.

Andrew Salomon
News Editor, Back Stage

P.S.: It's fine, I suppose, to perceive bias in a story and then scream to the world about the injustice of it all. We'll call that "recreation." It's NOT fine to personally attack someone and then not sign your name to it. We'll call the condition such a person suffers from "castration."

Your story starts with a flat out assertion that White closed his firm because of the Dreier connection.

That's reprehensible. Only if you read the whole thing do you realize there’s no evidence of that other than the closing happened in the same month that Dreier was arrested, and that you admit as much way down in Paragraph #8. Don’t be surprised to see folks quote that first paragraph quoted as a statement of “fact” for years to come. When a self-proclaimed "investigation" starts with an unsubstantiated slur like that, Lauren Horwitch has managed to make Nikki Finke look like a responsible journalist rather than a mouthpiece for one SAG faction, and that ain't easy.

DR. GIGGLES asks: “Gee, I don't [see] you[r] story pointing out that the lawyer handling the lawsuit of Alan Rosenberg, et al, vs SAG....was a named partner in Mark Dreier's law firm?”

ANONYMOUS #1 states: “…the law firm used by SAG President Alan Rosenberg… also had ties to Dreier.”

But didn’t Eriq Gardner, over on THR, Esq., a Hollywood Reporter blog “focusing on how the entertainment and media industries are impacted and influenced by the law,” already embarrass himself with this, on 2.03.09, under the title WAIT...ALAN ROSENBERG HIRED WHO?

Gardner is, according to THR, Esq., “a New York-based veteran writer and legal journalist.”

However, he writes that “We found it interesting” that the complaint filed by Alan Rosenberg “was co-authored by Eric George at Browne Woods & George.”

THR, Esq. finds this interesting because “when George made name partner at his firm four years ago,” the SAN FRANCISCO DAILY JOURNAL noted that he’s "best known for his political work, including advising Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Orrin Hatch, and former President George Bush.

“All Republicans.

“George is the son of California Supreme Court Chief Judge Ronald George and once represented former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo when he was sued by alleged terrorist Jose Padilla for authoring the legal opinions that formed the basis for the Bush administration's handling of terrorism suspects."

Gardner reveals that not only has Rosenberg hired a possible Republican-sympathizer, but that "George was also a partner at the west coast outpost of Dreier LLP, the firm that imploded in December in the wake of owner Marc Dreier's arrest and jailing on fraud charges in New York."

Notice Gardner’s use of “the west coast outpost of Dreier LLP,” instead of the official name of one of Marc Dreier’s largest affiliates, the Santa Monica-based Dreier, Stein, Kahan, Browne, Woods, George.

Stein is Stanton "Larry" Stein, an attorney who specializes in representing celebrities. Stein, in early 2007, brought along 35 other lawyers to form Dreier, Stein & Kahan, telling the Hollywood Reporter’s Leslie Simmons, "Every single client is coming with me, without exception. I'm very happy."

Stein is also presently on THR, Esq.’s list of the TOP 100 POWER LAWYERS, the Hollywood Reporter’s “exclusive” list of “the 100 most influential attorneys in entertainment.”

It was later, in early 2008, that Dreier brought in alleged Republican-sympathizer Eric George, and it became Dreier, Stein, Kahan, Browne, Woods, George.

Although he became a name partner at the firm of one of the Hollywood Reporter’s TOP 100 POWER LAWYERS, George making name partner, in this instance, is not relevant to Gardner’s “expose” of Rosenberg hiring a possible Republican-sympathizer.

Nor is there a peep from Gardner about David White’s firm which also, to borrow Gardner’s words, “imploded in December in the wake of owner Marc Dreier's arrest and jailing on fraud charges in New York."

The arrest and jailing of Dreier seriously impacted on White's company, White's employees, and any of White's clients whose monies are in the Dreier City National Bank account.

How does anything connected with Dreier reflect on Rosenberg when he hires Eric George?

(Doubtless, Rosenberg must be unaware of George’s ties to
David White.)

George was, like Stein and David White, until two months ago,
a Dreier employee, but neither White nor Stein is in Gardner’s
equation.

Consider that Entertainment Strategies Group sponsored the power breakfast for the 100 power lawyers at the Peninsula Hotel in July, which means that David White bought breakfast, big-time, for Larry Stein, who, at the time, was a partner of a suspected Republican-sympathizer.

Wait… since it was, in actuality, Marc Dreier’s funding that David White used for that sponsorship, this means that Marc Dreier and THR, Esq.’s Eriq Gardner himself are financially connected.

There is, however, no information, yet available, as to whether Dreier is a Republican or a Republican-sympathizer.

Also named as one of the alleged TOP 100 is Neville L. Johnson, so cited because “This year the plaintiff-side litigator took on SAG, the WGA and the DGA over the millions he alleges are owed to guild members from the collection of foreign levies.”

Which means that David White used Marc Dreier’s money to feed the guy who is suing SAG.

In 2006, Dreier began his rapid expansion in California, luring
lawyers with promises of autonomy, seven-figure salaries, and hefty bonuses.

By 2007, Dreier was paying more than $300,000 a month for Los
Angeles office rent.

In 2008, Dreier’s Headhunter was still recruiting lawyers in California, and Dreier was guaranteeing several of them between $2 million and $2.5 million a year.

Dreier told one L.A. attorney who explored going to work for him that “Expenditures don't matter, it's the revenue side that matters."

The big question, both intriguing and a real head-scratcher,
is how could a labor consulting firm like David White’s Entertainment Strategies Group generate the kind of revenues that would attract Marc Dreier?

Wow, what a lot of pro producer, anti Hollywood comments on this blog and most are posted by "anonymous"... shills anyone? The proof is in the pudding as they say. This clown White, just brought us back one of the worst contracts we've ever seen but he won't send it to the membership because the "new majority" campaigned on not sending out a contract they couldn't support. They also voted down sending out the the strike auth. at the same time because they campaigned against that also. Conveniently they have forgotten or maybe they're hoping we have, that they also stated during their campaign that they would return from negotiations in no more than two days, deal in hand. So what's their plan now? They're just going to walk away? With the lame excuse that they have another contract to screw up... er, negotiate? Oh, and just because you say some nice things about someone as you're showing them the door ? That doesn't mean that you want them back-

Great article Lauren. This is the type of investigative journalism that will keep me coming back to this website.

David White might turn out to be a very good SAG NED, but only allowing 15 minutes to vet the man is ridiculous. How are SAG members to know if he will be looking out for the best interests of the guild. How do we know that he hasn't been brought on to carry out the hidden agenda of the so called "new majority"? Which is merger with AFTRA at all costs.

If its true that his company was still doing business, after he assumed the NED position, that would be a blatant conflict of interest.

BTW, this article was linked on a wacko website run by some very aggressive New York announcers. Some of the people that run this site are rumored to be AFTRA board members or staff. The site is a hardcore partisan AFTRA site. The major focus of this wacko site was to bring down the former SAG NED. Writing anything that questions the new SAG NED, handpicked by the merger obsessed East coasters will generate a slew of angry comments. It messes with their strategy. Just thought I'd let you know, so you'd know where all the kooky comments came from.

What, no barking dogs on this site?

David White was a respected staff member of SAG not very long ago, and even Alan Rosenberg wrote a solid note of thanks for his service back then.

Gee, I don't you story pointing out that the lawyer handling the lawsuit of Alan Rosenberg, et al, vs SAG....was a named partner in Mark Dreier's law firm? Did MF bother vetting him?

If MF was not so focused on upsetting meetings by playing with Robets Rules (and filibustering for 28+ hours) they would have had ample time to debate Doug Allen's firing...and to learn all about David White.

But since a majority of the National Board signed the assent appointing David White, then later a larger marjority voted to uphold that same assent, and at another board meeting the majority approved David White's contract, then what we have here are an uhappy few just want to continue dividing our union and waste our time and money.

This site had such promise when it premiered but with crap like this on it (Bill Ayers, anyone?) I think I've given it quite enough of a test-drive, back to Nikki Finke for me. Good luck, Sharon.

Is this kind of story the reason you got fired from BackStage?

Maybe the board relied on his references, like his past boss at SAG, Alan Rosenberg who was said to be disappointed with White’s exit.

“(I) am grateful that he will always remain a friend of this organization,” Rosenberg said. “He has been committed to our cause, an asset to our union and a valued member of the senior staff. He will truly be missed.”

Added interim NED/CEO Peter Frank: “His contributions to the guild have been tremendous and will be long-lasting. Needless (to say), he’ll be hard to replace and greatly missed.”

The entire article:

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/unions/article_display.jsp?vnu...

"Hi, Doug! You were Gene Upshaw's gofer, weren't you?"

"Well, um, yes, I was....uh..."

"Well, thanks for coming in. We'll let you know."

Vetted - and damned well, too!

NED Doug Allen was absolutely vetted- The new U4S's are moron's they probably didn't bother to know any of this stuff until they were in up to their eyeballs.

Former NED Doug Allen's being a prime player in a court case that ended up costing his former employers 28 MILLION DOLLARS was not "vetted" with the National Board.

The fact that he was a scab during a 1974 NFLPA strike was not vetted.

Ironically, the law firm used by SAG President Alan Rosenberg and three other Membership First directors in their so far unsuccessful lawsuit against SAG, in an effort to undo the firing of White’s predecessor Doug Allen, also had ties to Dreier. White was SAG’s General Counsel prior to the arrival of Allen.

Food for thought.

Um, not really.

Nice stretch but it doesn't reach.