As the Screen Actors Guild prepares for tomorrow’s meeting to determine if there will be a vote to strike, News Corp’s C.E.O. Peter Chernin thinks that the current economic state is enough reason not to ask for wage increases. From Variety:

“I think it’s genuinely foolhardy to think this is an appropriate time to go out on strike,” said Chernin on Thursday at a TV Week media conference in New York. “It would be devastating for the entire creative community for the actors to go out on strike.”

Chernin also reiterated the congloms’ stance that they won’t sweeten their final offer to the Screen Actors Guild, which has been insisting that it deserves better terms than those in the WGA, DGA and AFTRA pacts. The two sides haven’t met since July 16, and SAG members are working under terms of a feature-primetime deal that expired June 30.

“We have now made successful deals with virtually the entire Hollywood creative community,” he added. “SAG has come in and basically said: ‘The deal you made with everyone else is not good enough for us.’ We’ve made our final offer. We don’t want to send a false message that there is room for negotiation. We’re done.”

And by “entire Hollywood creative community,” we think you should be aware he means the heads of studios and the valet parking crew. They now get $5 tips instead of $2, thanks to studios tightening their belts on ordering creative projects and mass-releasing otherwise crap through DVD while taking home a majority share of rentals and online media. Also, the above quote’s sheer audacity is proof that when you mess with the writers’ guild, they clearly never forget.