Just after an announcement of unity and support for contract proposals to be made to the major media congloms, film actors and television actors will split and negotiate separately with producers. The board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted Saturday, deciding to cut the ties between the two guilds. This announcement comes only three months before the expiration of the SAG contract. 

Yahoo News is reporting that though the two guilds have worked together for almost 30 years, the meeting Saturday, meant to set a start date for negotiations, dissolved into arguing and accusation. 

The split is a result of, as Nikki Finke puts it, "a blown-way-out-of-proportion incident" between AFTRA, SAG, and the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." Bloomberg reports that SAG was trying to convince actors on the soap to "decertify" AFTRA and make SAG the representative for the actors on the soap. Visit Finke's site for all of the communication from SAG, AFTRA, and the AMPTP concerning the recent split.

In the interest of avoiding a repeat of the 100-day writer's strike, A-list actors like Tom Hanks, George Clooney, and Robert De Niro are pushing for negotiations to start as early as this coming week. According to SAG President Alan Rosenberg, "AFTRA's refusal now to bargain together with us and their last-second abandonment of the joint process is calculated, cynical and may serve the interests of their institution, but not its members."

The Screen Actors Guild possesses 120,000 members representing actors in movies, TV, and other media. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists holds claim to 70,000 members, including actors, singers, announcers, and journalists. There are many dual members, so it will certainly be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

The AMPTP has announced, meanwhile, that they are "pleased to learn that AFTRA is also ready to being talks immediately." No such mention for SAG.