With the TV networks still struggling to recover from the writers strike,  a possible strike by the Screen Actors Guild has been a dark cloud over the entertainment industry. SAG has announced a strike vote (not a strike, but a strike vote) in January that would authorize leadership to call a strike if negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an impasse.

Unlike the writers strike, which hurt TV but let movies (with scripts completed) continue production, a strike by actors would bring everything to a halt except TV shows produced under contracts with AFTRA, the other actors union, which has already signed a contract with the studios. But with the economy going deeper and deeper into the tank, some actors believe the strike vote is a bad idea. More than 100 of them, described as A-listers including Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Sally Field, sent a petition to SAG leaders on Monday asking them to call off the vote. Other prominent actors think the issues involved (mainly the same as with the writers, compensation for work in new media) are too important to let them slide.

I am oversimplifying, of course. Here is the most recent story from the Hollywood Reporter for more details. My sense of this, though, is that although actors realize they could be screwing themselves in the long run, even if the strike vote proceeds, it won’t win the necessary 75 percent approval. The economy is just too scary right now, and a strike would put too many people in Hollywood out of work, including so many (from hairdressers and makeup people to caterers) who suffered during the writers strike.