SAG goes with Rosenberg *

For the second time this week, a Hollywood guild elected a new president who is expected to take a harder line in union negotiations. Alan Rosenberg won the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild with nearly 40% of the vote, compared to 34.7% for Morgan Fairchild and 25.3% for Robert Conrad. Richard Verrier, reporting in tomorrow's LAT:

The victory portends what some observers have predicted will be a more confrontational relationship between the 120,000-member actors union and the giant media companies that control the business. It follows the election on Tuesday of writer Patric M. Verrone as president of the Writers Guild of America, West. Verrone also pledged to take a firmer stand in negotiations.

In his campaign, Rosenberg complained that SAG gave in too easily during its last negotiations on the issue of better residuals for DVD sales, pledging to fight harder.

"Actors have real value," he said in an interview after his victory. "We are the product in this town, and we have to stand up and start behaving like it."

* Just guessing now: Rosenberg is probably the first white SAG president who claims to have been in the Black Panthers.

Previously: Storm of change at WGA