Some members of the Government can hardly believe their good fortune at the utter mess the union movement has got itself into over the Hobbit saga.
Every time Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee appears on television on the issue, barely suppressed glee contorts his features. Should the $675 million productions remain to be made in New Zealand, it will be seen as a measure of the respect that Sir Peter Jackson has in Hollywood, but also, once again, of Prime Minister John Key heroically riding to the rescue.
His ratings will rocket - if that's possible given their historically high standing.
Should the production be lost to locations elsewhere, the opprobrium the unions have already incurred will be multiplied several times over.
The Government cannot lose.
This is hardly their fault.
No opportunity has been lost to underscore either the actions of the unions or to hint at a more sinister intent; but however sincere their intentions, the unions have, through ill-judged actions, brought it upon themselves.
This has been the public relations debacle of the decade for organised labour: with a claimed membership nearing 600, New Zealand Actors' Equity's very own charge of the light brigade.
As Tennyson wrote in his famous poem:Cannon to right of them,Cannon to left of them,Cannon in front of themVolley'd and thunder'd;Storm'd at with shot and shell,Boldly they rode and well,Into the jaws of Death,Into the mouth of hellRode the six hundred.
In the recriminatory fallout to date there has been more heat than light.
Even the actors left to carry the can and front the Equity position seemed at a loss to explain how it "came to this" - when all they ever wanted was a sit-down and a chat.
And as much as I respect and admire the talents of Robyn Malcolm and Jennifer Ward-Lealand, and the sincerity of their views - even the justice of their cause - there is a degree of naivete abroad in the actors' camp as to the motives and machinations inherent in high-octane industrial relations.
Here's a theory - in a nutshell - as to how it happened.
New Zealand Actors' Equity, down at heel over recent years, has sought to reassert itself and provide a voice for local actors.
Good on them.
But at some point it tied its lot in with the Australia-based Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance - presumably on a strength-in-numbers basis.
Someone - possibly the much-maligned head of said organisation, Simon Whipp - saw the huge-budget Hobbit productions coming and the opportunity to make a little headway by demanding negotiations with the producers: Sir Peter Jackson et al.
Meanwhile, and potentially catastrophically, a notice was posted to Equity, which was passed on to affiliated actors' unions in the United States and Britain, urging members not to sign on to the film.
And the stage was set for an almighty fracas - with international dimensions.
With some legal justification - that of "price-fixing" - Sir Peter argued he could not negotiate and that the actors' arguments had to be channelled through Spada, the Screen Production and Development Association.
At the same time, evidently deeply wounded by the damage the threat of industrial action might do to the production - which already had a tortuous history - he revealed just how generous the payments to actors on the Hobbit productions actually were.
Sir Peter Jackson is a genuine New Zealand hero - who began with nothing and by dint of hard work and creative talent rose to become a world-beating film-maker, building an industry around his endeavours and bringing livelihoods to so many in other related fields as a result.
Strategically, the attempt to confront or undermine him was suicidal.
How could Actors' Equity not have known in what peerless regard Sir Peter is held and, regardless of the merits of their cause, that this was not the battle in which to test it.
It looks as if they have met their Waterloo.
Actors should not be taken for granted; they should be able to speak to their employment conditions rather than being forced to take whatever dregs are on offer.
But for the moment they - or forces beyond their control - have delivered a priceless gift to anti-unionists.
Given a climate in which workers' rights are already under threat, this is doubly unfortunate.
Simon Cunliffe is assistant editor at the Otago Daily Times.