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Actors like Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are poised to join the writers on the picket line

By Regan Morris

BBC News, Los Angeles

Hollywood's writers have been on strike for two months and soon the actors may join them, swapping the red carpet for the picket lines.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) contract expires at midnight local time on 12 July, following a deadline extension that delayed the possibility of a mega-strike by almost two weeks.

They would join the Writers Guild of America, which went on strike on 2 May after failing to reach a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), an umbrella group representing studios like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

Both SAG-AFTRA and AMPTO have said they will not comment while contract negotiations are ongoing.

It would be the first time that unions representing both writers and actors would strike at the same time since 1960, when future US President Ronald Regan was president of the actors' union.