actors strike

• It's true: Dakota Fanning has been offered a role in New Moon. — Entertainment Weekly
• Samantha Who? has been bumped for The Bachelor but will have Angie Harmon in the cast when it returns. — TV Guide
• Tom Wilkinson and Jim Belushi are rounding out the cast of Roman Polanski's The Ghost. — ComingSoon
• Hooray, an actors' strike is looking way, way less likely. — AP
• ABC has piked up a pilot based on The Witches of Eastwick, while NBC has ordered a medical pilot called Mercy. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Tom Hanks and Oprah are producing a film adaptation of the bestselling book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. — Variety
• 13: Fear is Real is moving to Fridays, and Privileged repeats will take its spot on Wednesdays. — The Futon Critic
• Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell are set to star in London Boulevard, a crime drama that marks the directing debut of The Departed screenwriter William Monahan. — ComingSoon
• Steve Martin's banjo album The Crow: New Songs For the Five-String Banjo will be available Jan. 27. — Billboard

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• Clive Owen is in talks to star in a movie titled Cartagena as an undercover agent amid Colombian drug cartels. — Hollywood Reporter
• The Screen Actors Guild has delayed a vote that could call for a strike until at least Jan. 14. — The New York Times
• Tina Fey has been voted the AP's entertainer of the year. — AP
• America's Best Dance Crew will return to MTV on Jan. 15 for season three. — The Futon Critic
• Citing "cultural sensitivities," Warner Bros. has decided not to release The Dark Knight in China. — Variety
• Dexter co-star Lauren Velez has been cast for multiple episodes on Ugly Betty, but the details of her character might be spoilery. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Kelly Clarkson's new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You," will hit U.S. radio outlets Jan. 19. — Billboard
• HBO has picked up a series based on the documentary Cocaine Cowboys, to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay. — Zap2it

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• The stage musical version of Irving Berlin's White Christmas will come to Broadway this Winter, offering seasonal competition to The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. — Variety
• Shopgirl director Anand Tucker will direct Amy Adams in the Dublin-set romantic comedy Leap Year. — ComingSoon
• The Screen Actors Guild will ask its members to authorize a possible strike. — Zap2it
• Another one joins George Clooney in the cast of Jason Reitman's (director of Juno) next project, Up in the Air: Vera Farmiga will play the romantic interest for Clooney's character. — Variety
• Horatio Sanz and Jessica St. Clair have joined the cast of ABC's In the Motherhood. — TV Guide
• Jay-Z and Coldplay will play a few tour dates together next year. — Pitchfork
• Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Notes From the Underbelly) has joined Grey's Anatomy as a patient for a multiepisode arc. — Entertainment Weekly
• Screenwriter John Michael Hayes, nominated for Academy Awards for the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window and for Peyton Place, has died at age 89. — AP

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I've been trying to ignore reports that the Screen Actors Guild, which represents 120,000 actors, could go on strike. Just not listening. If I don't pay attention, they'll go away, right? La la la . . .

Except, well, those reports just keep rolling in. Come Monday (June 30), SAG's contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (yup, the same group the writers struck against earlier this year) is up. And that means we could once again be punching our tickets to picket-land.

If the contract expires on Monday with no deal, that doesn't automatically mean a strike is in the works. The SAG membership would have to vote to authorize one, and they haven't been asked to do that yet. Plus, there's a smaller union that represents actors that will vote on a contract July 8, and the thought is that SAG won't do anything official till the results of that vote are in. But already, Hollywood is getting ready for work to stop again. To see what's happening right now, just read more