If you’re a SAG member, please click below, and read more.
If you’re not a SAG member, you can read it, but it probably won’t make much sense to you.
I support Valerie Harper for President of the Screen Actor’s Guild, and I hope that, if you’re a SAG member who cares about your union, you will, too.

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[PAID POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT]
This email message is not an official communication of the Screen Actors
Guild and has not been transmitted at Guild expense. The Guild is
required by federal law to provide candidates with the opportunity to
send you e-mail messages. The following has been prepared by the
candidate(s) and is not endorsed or reviewed by the Guild in any manner.
The candidate(s) have not been provided with your e-mail address. The
messages are being transmitted by an independent electronic communications
firm.
A LETTER TO YOU
FROM VALERIE HARPER
I have been endorsed by five previous SAG Presidents:
Charlton Heston, Dennis Weaver, Kathleen Nolan,
Ed Asner, William Daniels.
I have earned their confidence, their respect and their votes…I’m asking
for yours.
I have also earned their trust.
Like you, I have received a despicable e-mail from Mike Farrell. Shame
on you, Mike, for lying to the membership and for illegally using SAG’s
email to spread those lies.
You should know that Mike’s illegal use of SAG’s email has prompted an
investigation by SAG’s newly appointed Election Committee, co-chaired by
Paul Napier and Eileen Henry. Mike may have put this entire election
into jeopardy and it may have been deliberate.
Here’s why:
There is an urgent issue before us all: contract negotiations with talent
agents. Melissa Gilbert, who is on the negotiating committee, believes
that it is not a conflict-of-interest if a talent agency can be sold to
an advertising agency. She has said publicly that selling anywhere from
10% to 49% of a talent agency to an advertising agency is acceptable.
For decades, it has been SAG’s position that agents cannot serve your
best interest and the interests of your employer at the same time.
This is my position, as well.
Melissa Gilbert doesn’t want you to know what’s going on, so that’s why
someone like Mike Farrell has been chosen to be her spokesperson. Mike
has gone out of his way through e-mails and media appearances to divert
attention from the talent agency issue and try to focus your attention
on the election itself.
You will notice in Mike’s e-mail that when he lists “the truly important
issues” facing the union, he makes no mention whatsoever of the agency
negotiations.
You will notice that my opponents aren’t allowing Melissa to speak for
herself, for fear that she might have to defend her brief record as
President. In just three months in office, Melissa has become a pawn of
the producers, the agents, Canadian interests and even other unions.
While I have been a leader in human and workers’ rights causes for many
years, I am not a politician.
Consequently, during the November election, I made some mistakes and I
should have challenged Melissa Gilbert when she and her supporters told
some of the most unsubstantiated lies in the history of the Guild. The
lies continue.
For this election I challenged Melissa to a debate and she refused
because she knows that she would be unable to defend her campaign lies
before the Guild membership.
I would like you to know more about the issues facing us all and why I
feel this election will determine whether or not there is a future for
the Screen Actors Guild.
To read about the pledges I’ve made and to read the mission statements
of my running mates Elliott Gould and Kent McCord, please visit our
website at http://www.actorsmovingforward.org
Please check your mailbox for your new SAG Ballot. It must be RECEIVED
by March 8th or your vote will not be counted.
In solidarity,
Valerie Harper
P.S. If you have friends in the union, please forward this e-mail. They
may not have gotten it.