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In what could charitably called a polite preemptive blast against SAG and AFTRA, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers yesterday issued an open letter affirming its rightful position in the driver's seat of upcoming negotiations with the recently split actors unions. "Driver's seat" is probably also too kind; perhaps "bending its receivers over a barrel of new media revenues" is more like it:

We remain committed to ensuring that the rewards of our success are distributed fairly among all of our industry's talent, so that we all have appropriate and meaningful stakes in the outcome of our work.

Fortunately, the three labor agreements already reached — with the DGA, the WGA, and the AFTRA Network Code — provide the new framework for our industry's economic future. We hope that our negotiations with SAG and AFTRA will bolster this new economic framework, enabling all of us to share equitably in the success of new media and to respond with creativity and swiftness to market changes. If our industry relies on this new framework, we can all avoid more harmful and unnecessary strikes.

We obviously take great joy in observing such dick-swinging, gun-pointing swagger in advance of the unions' April 15 talks — particularly the addition of "fortunately," which is the only word left from the original letter draft obtained by Defamer: "Fortunately, because we have an 11 o'clock tee time and plan to screw you anyway, we have attached 'sign-here' stickies where you should just throw your names. We've included a self-addressed, stamped envelope for your convenience. In case you happen to read the contract, please call our lawyers with any questions or impotent, thinly veiled strike threats. We've got a whole season of The Moment of Truth ready to go just in case. See you on the set! xo, AMPTP."