HANDICAPPED ACTORS ASK FOR RECOGNITION "'We are virtually invisible,' Robert David Hall, a regular on 'CSI,' said at a news conference on Monday announcing a plan to expand media-industry employment of people with disabilities. Mr. Hall, who walks on prosthetics and plays Dr. Al Robbins on 'CSI,' said he played one of only three disabled characters in recurring television roles. At briefings in Los Angeles, New York and Washington leaders of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors’ Equity Association said they were planning a broad push to increase … roles for the disabled … A presentation estimated that fewer than 2 percent of film and television characters are disabled, while 20 percent of the nation’s population has a disability of some kind."

SAG GETS CLOSER TO STRIKE "The Screen Actors Guild's negotiating committee voted Wednesday to support a strike authorization vote, a tactic meant to break stalled contract talks with Hollywood studios. The recommendation, approved 11-2, now goes to the guild's national board for review, and would ultimately need approval of 75 percent of the some 120,000 voting guild members. 'My personal opinion is, yes, we will achieve a strike authorization,' said Anne Marie Johnson, a spokeswoman for Membership First, a faction of actors that had controlled SAG's national board until it narrowly lost its majority in elections last month."

SAG NOT YET COMPLETELY STAGNANT "With SAG's contract stalemate continuing, the Screen Actors Guild has granted more than 100 waivers to indie feature films over the past month, pushing the total to 620. The waivers have kept a modicum of feature production going. Studios have mostly stopped shooting features since SAG's contract expired on June 30 due to the uncertainty over whether the guild will be able to hammer out a new deal."

Because Heath Ledger simply cannot rest in peace, a lawsuit was filed today alleging the late actor was set up in 2006 by two photographers who offered him cocaine and secretly videotaped the exchange for profit. (Remember the little video that Entertainment Tonight promoted but never ran after Heath's death?)

The suit was filed by "Jane Doe," who was a freelance reporter for People at the time of the incident. Her then-boyfriend, Splash photographer Darren Banks, met up with Heath after the SAG awards and brought him to Doe's room at the Chateau Marmont.

Problem is, Heath wasn't aware that he was hanging out with Splash photogs, and they quickly offered him cocaine. After the men began snorting, one of the Splash guys left the room to secretly film Ledger from the room's balcony. Once Heath caught on to what was happening, he became angry but was assured the tape would be destroyed — except we obviously know it wasn't, because it was sold to Entertainment Tonight back in January for $200,000.

So why the lawsuit? Jane Doe is seeking unspecified damages on charges of fraud, intrusion, infliction of emotional distress and privacy violations because her voice is on the tape and she is afraid people will think she was doing coke. Because if anyone is the victim in all this, it's Jane Doe.

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COPYCATS "Four of Hollywood's most influential thesps — George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — are pressuring the Screen Actors Guild to launch its contract talks as soon as possible to avert a strike."