Who's in charge at the Screen Actors Guild?

It looks as if it's going to be Melissa Gilbert for the next three months despite questions that flared up Tuesday -- a day after SAG's elections committee set aside Gilbert's Nov. 2 victory as president, along with Elliott Gould's and Kent McCord's wins as secretary and treasurer, respectively.

In a move that perplexed and angered several elected officers and challengers, SAG staff reiterated its finding that Gilbert, Gould and McCord should remain in their slots until at least the re-running of the election is concluded on April 10.

On Tuesday, members of SAG's national executive committee squared off against SAG attorneys who had delivered a written opinion that Gilbert, Gould and McCord should not be removed.

``To avoid the undesirable consequence of a void in leadership during the interim period, the affairs of the organization are to be conducted by the officers elected in the election under challenge,'' said election committee attorneys George Cohen and Jeffrey Freund.

They cited the need to be ``consistent'' with federal labor law and also said that SAG's constitution does not provide for the circumstance of an overturned election.

``I don't see how they can stay in office when the election has been invalidated,'' said board member and presidential candidate Eugene Boggs. ``The ruling is unfair because it gives those candidates the power of incumbency during the next three months.''

Treasurer candidate Kathleen Haigney agreed, adding, ``Melissa Gilbert is not the legitimate president of SAG. This is just one more wrong-headed move by SAG staff.''

Gilbert ran on a platform that was highly critical of now-retired president Bill Daniels, who had endorsed Valerie Harper. Gould and McCord were part of Harper's slate.

The SAG elections committee singled out a trio of top SAG staffers on Monday for blame, citing a combination of bungled rules and high-handed conduct that bypassed scrutiny from members.

Jeff Gitomer, who administers rules in the Labor Dept.'s Los Angeles district office, told Daily Variety that part of the reason for allowing incumbents in a disputed election to continue serving stems from the acknowledgement that those candidates might have won the election if there had been no violations. But Boggs said the Labor Dept. rules deal specifically with elections that the federal government has ordered re-run rather than elections that a union overturns on its own.

SAG national executive committee members also pointed out to attorneys that the SAG Constitution's Article V specifically says the 1st VP (in this case, Mike Farrell) would become acting president in case of a vacancy.

``I am baffled that the people who won a messed-up election are seated for the next three months,'' committee member David Jolliffe said.

Jolliffe opened the executive committee meeting by challenging Gilbert's authority to chair the event, arguing that the election committee's action had voided the contest for the three officers, thus creating three vacancies. He said either Farrell or previous president William Daniels should become acting president for the next three months.

But despite the arguments, no vote was taken at Tuesday's meeting, meaning that Gilbert, Gould and McCord will be able to campaign as incumbents during the next three months.

It was not the first time that SAG attorneys and elected officers have clashed. The elections committee had considered stopping the election on Nov. 1 when reports of the violations surfaced, but SAG attorneys had told them that they could not do so and said they would instruct staff to override such an action.

The 10 affected candidates have until Jan. 17 to notify the Guild whether they want to seek re-election.

Boggs, who finished third out of four candidates, said he has not yet decided, but board member Valerie Harper, who finished second to Gilbert, indicated she plans to run again and took an upbeat tone in reacting to the election committee's ruling.

``I am so thrilled over the committee's decision because it returns dignity and integrity to the process,'' she said. ``It's a real step in the right direction.''

Harper said she will continue to perform on Broadway in ``The Tale of the Allergist's Wife,'' as she did throughout the previous campaign. ``When I lost the first election, I signed to do the play into March,'' she explained.