LOS ANGELS (Dispatches) -- Around 160,000 Hollywood performers went on strike at midnight Thursday in Los Angeles, halting most U.S. film and television productions. The leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing television and movie actors, announced the strike after negotiations with studios over a new contract failed. “This is a moment of history, a moment of truth -- if we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble,” SAG president Fran Drescher told a press conference, following the union board’s unanimous vote to strike.