Carol Lombardini: Last News

Carol Lombardini is preparing to step down from her role as chief negotiator of labor contracts for Hollywood’s major studios and streamers. Lombardini had long planned to retire in 2025, AMPTP confirmed. She will remain at the helm as the organization conducts a search for her successor.

SAG-AFTRA has weighed in on the appointment of new leadership at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ahead of the union’s negotiations with the major Hollywood studios next year.

Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers since 2009, is stepping down from the role.After 15 years in the top spot at the studio and streamer rep, she will be moving to an advisory role, we hear. An AMPTP spokesperson said Thursday that Lombardini had long planned to retire in 2025.

Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien may be wanting to make friends with Donald Trump, but Local 399 want to secure a new deal for their entertainment industry members, and are extending talks with the studios into next week. The Hollywood Teamsters and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will back at the table next week in hopes of crafting a deal before the Teamsters’ current contract expires on July 31.

The Teamsters say they are willing to extend bargaining with the studios deeper into the month, but the AMPTP needs to step it up if they really want a deal.

EXCLUSIVE: Members of the Hollywood guilds are throwing their weight behind IATSE and the Basic Crafts as the below-the-line unions continue to chip away at new three-year deals with the studios.

With IATSE’s deal still up in the air, Teamsters Local 399 is taking up the mantle Monday to negotiate on a new three-year contract with the studios.

The writers strike ended seven months ago, but memories of the picket lines were fresh at the WGA Awards tonight.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer IATSE resumed negotiations with the major studios on Monday, with a day spent focused on items relevant to the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. IATSE began talks earlier this month, as it seeks to address artificial intelligence, see wage increases to make up for inflation, and close a significant shortfall in its pension and health fund. With more than 9,000 active members, the ICG is the largest of the IATSE locals involved in bargaining.

From one “hot labor summer” to the next: Below-the-line workers will sit down with the Hollywood studios Monday to begin talks for new film and TV contracts.

In many ways, longtime International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees president Matthew Loeb is the personification of that Teddy Roosevelt adage of “speak softly, and carry a big stick” …well, maybe except for the speak softly part.

The studios, which spent more than 100 days talking tough at the negotiating table with the actors, have congratulated SAG-AFTRA on ratifying its new contract.

For a Friday that is time for reflection and giving thanks, host Billy Ray and returning original host Todd Garner welcomes WGA president Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. They talk with the guys about the lessons learned from the long and brutal six month strike that is finally and mercifully over. The guild leaders advise IATSE and Teamsters negotiators what to expect when their deals expire next July. They also review a negotiation that in their minds never had to turn into such a protracted process. The gains made by their guilds could have been achieved if only the signatories had sent in the CEOs earlier to the bargaining table, and stopped trying to work from a contract and negotiating moves that were hopelessly outdated in the streaming age. Coming in for particular criticism here is AMPTP negotiator Carol Lombardini. After Billy Ray recalled watching Lombardini cancel catering and then announce that the WGA walked away from the table in 2017, Stiehm said this time the head negotiator for studios responded to rejection of an offer by the WGA negotiating committee by presenting the contract to membership and releasing the full offer to the media. Ray and Garner will do one more Strike Talk by the way, and to the editors, that is another thing to give thanks for.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

The lead negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the studios are set to meet later today in what could be the final phase to sealing a new deal and the end to the 117-day actors guild strike.

EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.

EXCLUSIVE: It was all quiet on the SAG-AFTRA negotiations front Thursday.

EXCLUSIVE: There’s real movement in talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios for a new three-year contract,

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA is set to meet again on Wednesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a “productive” day of talks on Tuesday. The sides continue to project “cautious optimism” about resolving the strike, which is now on Day 110. The studios have warned that they must get a deal this week in order to be able to produce partial seasons of scripted network TV series.

EXCLUSIVE: It will be neither trick nor treat tonight as SAG-AFTRA and the studios plan to continue talking over the next few days in search of a deal to end the 110-day strike that has become a Hollywood nightmare.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA leadership continued to bargain with the major studios on Sunday, but despite growing optimism around the industry, no deal has been reached yet. The union presented its latest proposal to the studios on Saturday. The two sides were said to be engaged in “productive” talks through the weekend.