(October 31, 2000) – Good news everyone: the strike is over and you won’t see celebrities’ meager acting skills anymore because the actors are going back to work! The 25-week long strike in Hollywood came to a close Monday Oct. 23, as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) came to an agreement with advertising corporations to end the commercial actors’ strike. These two entertainment unions had been striking about residual fees that the advertisement companies pay to commercial actors. These actors get paid every time the commercial that they’ve acted in is aired. Since it’s nearly impossible to count the number of times a commercial plays nationwide, the actors were arguing with the advertiser’s estimates, saying that they were not paid enough. Mind you that these were not the big name stars, but actors whom you’ve never heard of. These actors work for a living, just like other people. About 80% of these actors make less than $5,000 dollars a year. The entertainment unions were not alone in their protests; other entertainment unions, individual actors and everyday people supported them. The protestors also gained support from several top Hollywood celebrities including Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, Susan Sarandon and Sally Field. “Artists have a right to strike,” said Field in an interview with the SAG strike website, “It’s such a tiny bubble of actors that really makes all this money. I grew up in a working class family [of actors]…we made zip-a-dee-doo-dah!” Negotiations had been going on between SAG and AFTRA and the agencies since Sept. 15. It was not until Oct. 23 that the corporations and the SAG/AFTRA Board of Directors settled upon an agreement. For television commercials, advertising corporations must commit to meet and report on commercial identification approaches to make monitoring easier within six months time and the corporations must improve payments for Spanish programs. They must also increase the actors’ payments by 100% in the third year of the contract. The joint boards met Saturday to approve the new three-year contract.