Hail George, the peacemaker

That suave old popinjay George Clooney is attempting to broker a peace deal between the two warring actors’ unions involved in the threatened Hollywood strike, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild. "At the risk of being yet another actor giving his opinion about the ongoing fight between SAG and AFTRA, I'm hoping that there might be a way out of this. Rather than pitting artist against artist, maybe we could find a way to get what both unions are looking for."

The dispute is beginning to turn nasty. Yesterday Jack Nicholson and Ben Stiller damned Tom Hanks for his support of AFTRA, who, unlike SAG, want to accept the offer made by the studio bosses on a raft of issues that include payments for web-based content.

Peacemaker Clooney said: "What we can't do is pit artist against artist, because the one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power of the studios." (Continued below)

Clooney, who comes from a family of entertainers, concludes: "To be sure, I'm not the brightest bulb out there. So maybe someone has a lot better idea. I just happen to believe so strongly in both unions my father, my mother, aunt, uncle, even cousins were all members of."