But while filmmakers, TV producers, casts and crews are holding their collective breaths with the Screen Actors Guild contract due to expire at midnight, union president Alan Rosenberg says there is no immediate work stoppage in the, um, works.

"We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of the Screen Actors Guild," he says in a statement. "Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction."

Right now, SAG has a seemily bigger headache to deal with first—the very real threat of all out civil war with its sister union, the American Federal of Television & Radio Artists. AFTRA reached a separate agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers weeks ago, triggering infighting among the thespian set.

While denying suggestions that SAG is attacking AFTRA, many of the former's most high-profile members—including Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern, Jack Nicholson, and Holly Hunter—issued a "solidarity statement" urging the approximately 44,000 joint members of SAG and AFTRA to vote down the latter union's deal, arguing it undercuts much of the Screen Actors Guild's own agenda.

SAG's priorities include union coverage for all new media productions (i.e., webisodes and mobisodes), residual payments for all new media programs, an increase in DVD residuals and more say over the rapidly growing practice of product placement in scripted programs.

SAG is ponying up $150,000 worth of advertisements, robo-calls and email blasts to persuade AFTRA folks to just say no to the contract.

AFTRA's national executive director, Kim Roberts Hedgepeth, called such tactics "appalling" and "divisive."

"Whether the attempts by a sister union to interfere in the ratification of your contract are motivated by politics, fear, naïveté, inexperience, or the intention to do harm to your union, there is an undeniable reality: it is a disgrace to any observer who believes in the integrity and importance of the labor movement and your rights as union members," she said in a message posted on the union's website.

"It is appalling for anyone who truly cares about the welfare of AFTRA members to witness. It is certainly a disservice to every AFTRA member. And the most shameful part of this negative campaign is the attempt to mislead you about the nature of the choice before you."

Unlike the Screen Actors Guild, which covers actors in film and television, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represents thesps in live events (a remnant of its history repping radio acts) and video, which includes some cable and reality shows. However, with the advent of series shot in digital video, the two unions have been squabbling over jurisdictional rights.

Hedgepeth argues that AFTRA's new deal will lead to increased job opportunities for many of its members as show runners are better able to keep their budget costs under control.

She has received backing from joint SAG-AFTRA members like Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin.

Other A-listers, led by the Peacemaker star himself, George Clooney, have urged both groups to reach an 11th hour accord, noting that the majority of members who'd be hurt by a strike are the ones struggling to make ends meet. Clooney even encouraged Nicholson and Hanks to sit down as part of a 10-person panel and hash out an arrangement both unions can live with instead of pitting "arist against artist."

But with both SAG and AFTRA's contracts set to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the question remains: Will the industry once again see another walkout like the crippling three-month Writers Guild of America strike that ended in February?

As the unions battle it out over whose terms will ultimately prevail, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is trying to head any potential work stoppage off at the pass, taking out ads in Monday's trades calling a strike "harmful and unnecessary."

"We've completed four equitable and forward-thinking labor agreements. Let's get the fifth one done," read a message from the Alliance, noting that such an action would result in $2.3 billion in lost wages and more than 37,000 men and women out of work.

AMPTP spokesman Jesse Hiestand cautioned that the costs of not fielding a new agreement could rebound against the guild should it choose infighting over compromise.

"The industry is shutting down because SAG's Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking AFTRA," the rep said in a statement.

SAG says it will continue negotiating with producers for "as many hours as it takes" to make sure its concerns left out of the AFTRA deal are satisfied.