Shallow and superficial I may be, but when a bunch of prominent Hollywood actors signed a petition opposing the authorization of a Screen Actors’ Guild Strike, the thing I was most interested in was not their arguments why a strike would be a bad idea at this point in time, but which actors signed the letter.
Some of the bigger names on the list have already turned up in news stories about actors who are urging a “no” vote on a strike authorization: George Clooney, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Glenn Close, Alec Baldwin. But it’s fun to look at which names turn up on the list and in which combinations. Alan Alda and Mike Farrell are on the list — but not Wayne Rogers! Donald Sutherland, but not Kiefer! You’ve even got your married couples who both affixed their names, like Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. And then there are the people who used to be kind of famous, like Heather Graham, star of the tremendous hit Emily’s Reasons Why Not, and, as the subject says, Marcia Strassman of Welcome Back Kotter. But I didn’t see a single Sweathog’s name on that petition.
Being ignorant about such things, I wonder exactly how these names get there — do they just send it around to anybody who’s interested and might be famous enough to sway a rank-and-file SAG member, or is there a method to which names wind up on the document? Well, whatever the process, any document signed by Helen Mirren and Marilu Henner must be treated with a certain respect.