Uh-oh! Following the breakdown of federally mediated negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood studios this week, the union is asking its 120,000 members to vote for the authorization of an actors' strike. SAG's contract expired in June, and talks on Thursday and Friday were the first between the two sides in four months, though "neither side budged significantly … with negotiators spending much of the time reiterating previous positions," according to Variety. The sticking point is, among other really boring things, the studios' insistence on the right to use nonunion actors for new-media productions without paying them residuals. If you're still awake after reading the previous sentence, you'll likely also be interested to know that no timetable has been set for a vote, but, hypothetically, a strike could happen soon enough to prevent the Golden Globe Awards from taking place on January 11, though we'd imagine there would also be a downside.

SAG to seek strike authorization [Variety]