LATEST: Hollywood actors have reached a "tentative" contract agreement with film studios to avert a strike.

The two sides had been in talks for over seven weeks, and the existing contracts for 135,000 acting union members had expired on Saturday night (30JUN01).

The deal, which was reached by negotiators last night (03JUL01), must be approved by a majority of the SCREEN ACTORS GUILD and AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS unions' members.

A final deal was expected to include increases to performers' minimum salary scale and in residual payments - the compensation paid for secondary markets like reruns, cable TV and foreign distribution.

One of the last hurdles was believed to involve a proposal to give actors more pay from basic cable TV residuals by reducing pension and health plan contributions. An original threat to strike if a deal was not struck had faded, but film sources insist it will be several months before the industry can return to normal. (RP/WNWCCB/KMW)

Source: WENN