The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) have postponed a strike that would have crippled Hollywood for the second award season in a row.

The row comes as the SAG are trying to negotiate a new contract with Hollywood studios, negotiations stalled back in July, and there has been the threat of a strike ever since.

The union were set to send of ballot on January 2nd but need 75% of their union members for the strike to go ahead. But earlier in the month more than 130 stars, including George Clooney and Tom Hanks, spoke out against the planned strikes.

However SAG Executive Director Doug Allen revealed yesterday that the strike vote had been pushed back to January 14th at the very earliest.

The current strike threat that hangs over Hollywood mirrors the issues of this time last year when more than 12,000 writers went on strike between November 5th 2007 and February 12th 2008 over royalty pay.

The strike crippled Hollywood as television shows and movie sets were forced to stop shooting throwing television schedules into turmoil.

But when the actors backed the actions of the writers and refused to cross their pickets at the Golden Globes the ceremony was forced to be cancelled. This new issue once again throws the biggest nights on the awards calander, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, into jeopardy.