It's like surfing between Nick at Nite and TV Land: Will the next president of the fractious Screen Actors Guild be Little House on the Prairie's Melissa Gilbert or Rhoda's Valerie Harper? (And can we still write in outgoing prez and former Knight Rider voice William Daniels?) Not that there's a tax cut on the line, but here's a guide for November.
MELISSA GILBERT
AGE 37 HEIGHT 5'3'' LIKELY PLATFORM Subsidies for farmers,
blacksmiths, wheelwrights; a bounty on rival prairie-dweller Jane
Seymour POSSIBLE ALLIES Lifetime TV, Log Cabin Republicans, the
powerful Scarecrow and Mrs. King fan club of hubby Bruce
Boxleitner STRIKE EXPERIENCE She's a pioneer negotiator: By the
end of Little House, she earned a hefty $75,000 per week.
REVEALING QUOTE Laura Ingalls once noted, ''Home is the nicest
word there is.'' MESSAGE Family values = mandatory hoopskirts.
VALERIE HARPER
AGE 60 HEIGHT 5'6'' LIKELY PLATFORM ''Head Scarf'' program for the
coif-challenged; ban on actors as window dressing POSSIBLE ALLIES
Daniels has endorsed her. But when asked about Harper, Mary Tyler
Moore said, ''Is she running?'' STRIKE EXPERIENCE After going MIA
from ''Valerie'' over pay, she was replaced with Sandy Duncan (but
later won $1.4 million in damages). REVEALING QUOTE Rhoda once
noted: ''Why am I bothering to eat this? I should just apply it
directly to my hips.'' MESSAGE Caterers beware.
