By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two things helped Hollywood actors avert a debilitating strike against the TV and movie industries: a painful rehearsal and being upstaged.

Last year's devastating commercial actors walkout and a deal struck a month ago by screenwriters motivated the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to forge a tentative contract Tuesday without a work stoppage.

"The commercial actors strike hurt, but I think it actually strengthened the unions because it showed that a strike was possible," said K Callan, an actress and former SAG board member who has written advice books for aspiring performers. "When the writers guild settled, it helped the actors by setting up guidelines."

Many of the gains made in the actors' settlement, which must be approved by a majority of the guilds' 135,000 members, mirror those in the contract for the Writers Guild of America, which was ratified June 4.

The writers secured a 3.5 percent raise in minimum pay for movies and TV shows, and SAG spokesman Greg Krizman said the actors' deal "was in that ballpark," although specifics were not released.

Like the writers, the actors also won higher pay for work in programs rebroadcast on cable and, in limited cases, shows sold to overseas markets. In addition, both writers and actors contracts now require the Fox network to pay full residual amounts for rebroadcasts, rather than a discount rate for fledgling networks.

SAG negotiator Brian Walton said he repeatedly looked at elements of the writers' settlement and asked "Did that work for us?"

The performer guilds never called for a strike authorization vote, but fears of a walkout rumbled through the entertainment industry for much of last year when the robust economy fueled speculation that union demands would be steep.

A strike would have severely damaged the Southern California and New York economies, costing billions of dollars in lost revenue and thousands of lost jobs.

The sinking U.S. economy cooled that sentiment earlier this year and was credited with pressuring the writers guild to settle. Although the actors never came close to a walkout, the writers guild had spent months preparing for one.

Walton downplayed the economy's influence on the talks. "It had no impact on the actors side of the table. We don't sell stock," he said.

If the writers hadn't settled, their walkout could have triggered back-to-back strikes from the actors and divided the efforts of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represented studio and network management.

While writers were willing to hit picket lines, actors remained weary from last year's rancorous six-month commercial actors strike, the longest in guild history. Analysts estimate that strike may have driven as much as $1 billion worth of work overseas.

"It would be silly not to say that people weren't tired at the end of it," said John Connolly, a chief negotiator for AFTRA. "It had a daunting effect on people's psychology."

Ultimately, he added, the strike may have helped in the theatrical negotiations by showing management "our determination and solidarity."

Union negotiators said their top concern was increasing pay for the nearly 75,000 members who secure acting work in any given year. Only about 2 percent of the guilds' membership earn more than $100,000 a year, including multimillion-dollar celebrities.

About 6 percent of SAG members, the larger of the two unions, earn regular middle-class pay between $30,000 and $70,000 annually. About 71 percent earn less than $7,500 a year or nothing at all.

Many of these theatrical actors also appear in commercials and are still smarting from last year's walkout.

Shelley Malil, (www.malil.com)  of Los Angeles, played a "Whazzup!?" guy in recent Budweiser commercials and said it is difficult enough to find work as an actor without the added frustration of another strike.

"We came into these talks wounded from war," Malil said. "Coming out of the commercial strike and right into this caused an uneasy feeling everywhere in town."

Many actors now believe the previous strike helped prevent a much more damaging work stoppage this time.

Nick Counter, president of the producers alliance, decline to comment about the specifics of the negotiations.

It will take eight weeks to complete preproduction work on new movies before shooting begins. TV shows begin filming in midsummer and probably won't be delayed.

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On the Net:

Screen Actors Guild: http://www.sag.org

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists: http://www.aftra.org/

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television: http://www.amptp.org