Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007: strike day 23

Movies: Striking writers take their fight against studios to the Web (Salt Lake Tribune)

Hard to believe that Hollywood's studios and networks - the esteemed minds who thought the world would flock to see "Nancy Drew" and watch "Viva Laughlin" - could be wrong about anything.

But the "suits," the big-media corporations that make up the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), seem to have underestimated the support for the writers who went on strike three weeks ago.

Here's how it was supposed to go down: The Writers Guild of America would threaten a little, go on strike for a day or two, then get cold feet and come crawling back to the bargaining table and accept AMPTP's terms.

The public won't sympathize with a bunch of overpaid pen-scratchers who make an average of $200,000 a year, the media honchos thought - not when their daily dose of Leno and Letterman was at stake. The bosses also thought the Hollywood crews, the working stiffs who build the sets and run the copiers, won't support a strike that will put them out of work. Meanwhile, the studios had a stockpile of scripts written in preparation for a strike, so the studios thought they could wait out those greedy writers.

But guess what? The WGA members stayed firm, while the crew members and public opinion sided with the writers. And those scripts? Turned out some of them (such as "Angels & Demons," the now-delayed prequel to "The Da Vinci Code") needed rewrites - and there wasn't anyone willing to do that.

Laugh Lines in the Hollywood Strike

“The studios think we are having a horrible time out here,” said Richard Potter, a screenwriter who made “Strike Dancing,” a YouTube video showing pickets bebopping in formation to “Play That Funky Music.”

“What’s actually happening is we’re having a great time.”

The video is one of dozens on YouTube — most of them humorous, or trying to be — that are helping the union win the public relations war. A nationwide poll released on Nov. 14 by Pepperdine University found that 63 percent of Americans sided with the writers.

Broadway Talks Break Up Without A Deal (NY Times)

But in a sign that this might have been more of a break than a breakdown, the League of American Theaters and Producers announced that it was canceling performances only through Wednesday’s matinees. Two weekends ago, when the talks fell apart, the league canceled all of Thanksgiving week.

Two marathon negotiating sessions over the last two nights were considered promising signs that an end was in sight to the 18-day stagehands strike, which has darkened most of Broadway during a very important time of year for the theater business.

Monday, Nov. 26, 2007: strike day 22

International Day of Support for the Writers Guild of America: Ireland (Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild Newsletter)

When your kids want to know "Where were you in the great Writers Strike of 2007?" you'll be able to say that you walked the line with writers from all over the world in support of the principle that, if they use our work, we get paid for it and that, however modest, you contributed to the victory that's coming for our fellow writers in the Writers' Guild of America.

...Irish writers can demonstrate their solidarity with the WGA by arriving at the Guild office at Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar in Dublin on Wednesday 28th November at 3.00 pm.

We'll have t-shirts, placards, a photographer, and a videographer, and with colleagues in Sydney, Auckland, Paris, Mexico City, London, Brussels, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, we will demonstrating world-wide support for the writers' strike in the USA.

(Info on other support demonstrations in London, Toronto, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and elsewhere is here, courtesy of the "Fans for the WGA" LiveJournal community.)

Hollywood Studios Resume Talks With Writers Amid Program Delays (Bloomberg)

"A lot of the spin on the management side, that they had stockpiled scripts and wouldn't be affected by a strike, is coming undone," Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney at TroyGould in Los Angeles, said in an interview. "We're seeing television shows go dark much faster than we were told. We're seeing movies canceled much faster than we were told."

Let The Real Bargaining Begin (LA Times>

The wannabes especially worry whether the big companies will try to squeeze them out of their just returns from the Web. The guild has made its case forcefully on this issue, but management has not.

"The industry has already paid millions of dollars in residuals for permanent and pay-for-view downloads," the companies have declared, but they have not offered a coherent formula to assure continued and expanded payments. The dilemma faced by the Time Warners and Disneys of the world is that they have to assure investors that their new media ventures will become hugely profitable even as they tell writers that they will not.

In view of all this, it's reasonable to ask, why hasn't an accommodation been reached? After all, this is all about numbers. No one is closing the coal mines or moving away the only factory in town.

Talk to the small group of professional arbiters -- those gurus who have helped resolve Hollywood's major disputes over the years -- and you get a common answer: Both sides have displayed equal clumsiness and heavy-handedness that has left the community both baffled and divided.

Showrunners are running the show (Baltimore Sun)

Which leaves us with the show runners, the one force in town whose power is unquestionably on the ascendancy. Why is that? Because show runners make - and often create - the shows, and shows are the only things that matter. Viewers don't watch networks. They watch shows. And they don't care how they get them.

That takes a lot of power from the networks and hands it to show runners. True, the studios still own the shows. But in the new economy, show runners have extra leverage.

Ninety percent of guild members may have authorized this strike, but you can be sure it never would have started without at least a wink and nudge from the few dozen show runners who matter.

Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007: strike day 17

High Profile Actors Star in Internet "Speechless" PSAs for Striking Writers (via Deadline Hollywood Daily)

On Thanksgiving Day (November 22), a group of Writers Guild Of America members will begin posting Public Service Announcements featuring A-list Screen Actors Guild talent as part of an independent WGA membership's "Speechless" campaign conceived by director/writer George Hickenlooper and writer Alan Sereboff. For the first time in the TV and movie industry, high-profile SAG actors will be taking their talents directly and exclusively to the Internet -- the very medium which is at the center of the current WGA labor strike against the Alliance Of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

The spots will begin appearing on Thursday morning which will begin posting Thanksgiving Day and run exclusively on DeadlineHollywood.com through Sunday night. Beginning Monday, they can be found on SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com with links on UnitedHollywood.com and every day thereafter during the duration of the strike.

Included are SAG talent such as Sean Penn, Holly Hunter, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Jay Leno, Harvey Keitel, Kate Beckinsale, Tina Fey, Tim Robbins, Gary Marshall, David Schwimmer, Patricia Clarkson, James Franco, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Andre 3000, Chazz Palminteri, Jason Bateman, Christine Lahti, Patricia Arquette, Jenna Elfman, Olivia Wilde, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Eva Longoria, Justine Bateman, Joshua Jackson, Rosanna Arquette, Diane Ladd, Rebecca Romjin, Minnie Driver, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick, Matthew Perry, Ed Asner, and America Ferrera and the cast of Ugly Betty. Arrangements have been made to also shoot Woody Allen, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke, Jason Alexander, Charlize Therone, Minnie Driver, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Many, many more are also in the works.

Striking writers and networks in U.S. to resume talks next week (International Herald Tribune)

In an e-mail message last week, Peter Lefcourt, who is on the board of the West Coast writers guild, told writers who also belong to the directors guild that any near-term move by companies to talk with directors would be like "Hitler dangling a separate peace in front of Stalin."

Gil Cates, who will lead the directors guild in its negotiations, told Lefcourt that his fellow members could do without the writers' advice. "It will be the membership and the membership only who will make the decision" about accepting any deal, he wrote.

Progress on any front would be welcomed by many of the directors, production managers, actors, assistants and others who are being shut out of work. In a grass-roots movement, hundreds of such workers are now trying to organize their own "Strike a Deal" demonstration in Hollywood on Dec. 2.

"It was born out of frustration by people who were working on films and television shows," said Christopher Griffin, a producer of the "Nip/Tuck" series. "There's a general sense of desperation and helplessness."

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007: strike day 11

Quote of the day: "You want to steal DVD money from a little black girl?"

Writers Supporting Writers As Strike Continues (Galleycat)

"The Horror Writers Association, on behalf of its writer members, stands in support of the Writers Guild of America strike in seeking appropriate compensation for writers when their work is distributed digitally, either via DVD or Internet downloads," writes HWA president Deborah LeBlanc in a statement sent to me yesterday afternoon. "Although HWA is not a union, it is an organization of writers that advocates for authors' rights. Writers Guild of America and its demands fall solidly into this category. All writers will be affected by the outcome of this strike, and we stand in solidarity, resisting those who seek to distribute our work on the Internet, DVD, or any format without fair compensation."

Writers are winning over the public

It certainly helps the writers that the companies with which they are at war have CEOs that have to talk out of both sides of their mouths. On the one hand, they have to claim everything is financially rosy so shareholders are happy. That includes profit forecasts from downloads and other digital platforms. Problem is, when it comes to the strike, that’s the very area which they claim isn’t monetizable at all.

...The WGA and supporters have also stayed on point during the past four months on the key issue of new media, in which bigwigs finding themselves infected with the mixed messaging bug.

On one hand CEOs of major media congloms are selling Wall Streeters on the fact that their digital offerings are growing like gangbusters and driving the bottom line. On the other hand, those same execs are holding out their hands and saying, a viable business model just doesn’t exist and profits just aren’t rolling in yet to give striking scribes what they want.

The problem is the congloms are stuck in the precarious position of angering shareholders: tell them that your company isn’t growing and the stock plummets. Let the strike continue for six months or more and you anger those same shareholders, because in reality, companies will be losing revenue, as a result.

WGA, please take note: Geoffrey Chaucer plans to be scabbing (from Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog)

Ich do thynk that the writers of Holy-Wood are goode folk and trewe and sholde continue their protest, but Philippa hath toold me that thys coud be an greet opportunitee for myn owene writinge (for alwey ich am scribling sum poem or anothir or having some idea). So ich am going ayeinst myn owene conscience to propose sum shewes of televisioun. Peraventure the mightie corporaciouns and compaignynes of produccion wil choose me to be an writere of televisioun ones see my wondirful conceptes heere on thys poost of blog. (It peyneth me soore to be an scabbe and an protest-lyne crosser, but my sone wisheth to goon to Oxford and my wyf desireth a patio. Forgive me, o ye merveillous writers of Holly-Wood: Chaucer nedeth a newe payre of shoes!)

We're taking a dark day

TV Blogs Go Dark in Solidarity with the Writers Guild of America

On November 13th, this blog and the blogs listed below will be on strike for the day in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America. As fellow writers and as TV fans, we are coming together to express our strong support for the writers and their goals. We believe that when a writer's work makes money for a company, that writer deserves to be paid.

Many writers depend on residuals for a stable income, and that income shouldn't be based on an outdated formula which ignores the existence of new media and all but a tiny percentage of DVD sales. The talented writers responsible for so much of what we love about television should and must be paid fairly and equitably, and we will stand with them until they reach that goal. For everyone's sake, and for the sake of television, we hope both sides can come to an agreement quickly.

To further that goal, we are calling on our readers to sign this petition and to contact the following television networks, voicing support for the writers and for a return to the negotiating table:

ABC
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
(818) 460-7777

FOX
10201 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 369-1000

CBS
7800 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 575-2345

NBC / Universal
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
(818) 777-1000

After the blackout, we intend to continue our campaign to support the WGA until the dispute has been resolved fairly. Since we will not be posting any new content on the 13th, we encourage our readers to visit United Hollywood instead for frequent updates about the strike.

In solidarity-

The CineManiac
Daemon’s TV
Ducky Does TV
Gabby Babble
Give Me My Remote
Glowy Box
I am a TV Junkie
The Media Pundit
Mikey Likes TV
Pass the Remote
The Pie Maker
Ramblings of a TV Whore
Seriously? OMG! WTF?
Silly Pipe Dreams
Tapeworthy
Televisionary
TiFaux
Tube Talk
The TV Addict
TV Series Finale
Watch with Intelligence

Monday, Nov. 12, 2007: strike day 8

Quote of the day: "How can you make a movie without a writer?" asks manager Patty Detroit. "You can't!"

Studios: What to shoot amid strike? (Variety)

Studios that scrambled to stockpile scripts in advance of the writers strike are now forced into a Darwinian dilemma: They must pick the fittest projects, and perhaps scuttle the rest.

...Every production chief faces the anxiety-filled challenge of actually proceeding with greenlit projects that will shoot under unprecedented duress, and "bubble" projects that have solid scripts but incomplete casting.

...A producer who has five films on the bubble, however, estimates that as many as 75% of the "go" projects are actually "up in the air." Inevitably, some will end up on hold or the chopping block.

How Mr. Burns would Handle The Strike (from Ken Levine via writers-strike.blogspot.com)

BURNS: Smithers! What is that infernal racket outside?

SMITHERS: There’s a big rally. The writers are striking.

BURNS: Writers?! I have writers?

SMITHERS: Yes, sir. Remember you bought that network and studio so you’d get invited to David Geffen’s Passover Seder?...

SMITHERS: We could perhaps negotiate with them?

BURNS: What?! When I could let them suffer, lose their saving and homes instead? What good is busting the anti-trust laws if I can’t squash the defenseless?...

Solidarity (from Digby's Hullabaloo)

The derisive tone much of the media has taken to the strike is nothing new, by the way. Just a few weeks back when the UAW went on strike against GM, Jim Cramer was apoplectic on Hardball screaming, "They have to break this union! They have to break this union!"(and Chris Salt-Of-The-Earth Matthews nodded in agreement.)

And they have always been especially hostile to the Hollywood unions, which were forged back in the day with battles in the streets. The right to organize in the entertainment business was extremely hard won and in many cases those who fought it were later blacklisted as commies for their trouble. It's never been frivolous...

Perhaps the seminal event in Hollywood organizing history is called "The War for Warner Brothers"...

Why We Strike (The New Yorker)

We are not cogs in some machine. While many of today’s blockbusters are written by that machine, we are not cogs in it, despite having originally written all the dialogue and characters and plot that this machine endlessly recombines and maximizes. When a bitter cop with a shattered family and a monkey on his back flees a narco-terrorist’s fireball while cracking that he’s getting too old for this, some writer wrote some parts of that, some time back.

Nor are we trained chimps. The last decent show written by chimps was “Jojo’s Poop Party,” which was largely improvised.

OUR DEMANDS: An end to the lying. Just kidding. We recognize that, without lying, Management would be unable to exhale and would thus perish. However, we are asking for a manifold increase in White Lies about how we are brilliant geniuses and the like, and a corresponding decrease in Brown Lies, about what might happen in the future.

Piracy and the Writers' Strike (from the blog "Philosopher's Playground")

When you illegally download something and the network doesn't get any money for it, they call it piracy. But when you download something or watch streaming video with commercials and the writers don't get any money for it, the networks call it promotion.

Writers' strike: Will it scuttle press tour? (from TV Barn)

The reason the networks want out, according to Ben Grossman in Broadcasting & Cable, is that presenting midseason shows is "not worth the costs that can total anywhere from $250,000-$500,000 per broadcast network for each one-day event."

Hollywood strike underlines bleak outlook for movie business

...the pot of money that the producers and writers are fighting over may have already been pocketed by the entertainment industry's biggest talent.

That is the conclusion of a surprisingly bleak new assessment of financial dynamics in the movie industry titled "Do Movies Make Money?" The researchers' answer: not any more.

The report, by the research company Global Media Intelligence in association with its partner Merrill Lynch, concludes that much of the income - past and future - that studios and writers have been fighting about has already gone to the biggest stars, directors and producers in the form of ballooning participation deals. A participation is a share in the gross revenue, not the profit, of a movie.

And a pointed comment on the above at muditajournal.com:

Translation: If the stars who are so “sympathetic” to the writers want to help the writers’ plight, they should offer to take a pay cut themselves. If anybody can afford to trim their bottom line, it’s the stars making $20 million for each movie they appear in.

Sunday, Nov. 11. 2007: strike day 7

Quote of the day: "...the third stage of grief is bargaining."

---

Tired of working for (Internet) peanuts (via writers-strike.blogspot.com)

Glamor belongs to only part of Hollywood (Associated Press)

Most WGA members lead far from glamorous lives, and seldom earn beyond five figures each year. Yet like their colleagues who build sets, apply makeup and lay cable, they're the ones who keep Hollywood cranking the content.

Or not.

Writers strike could mean big changes in advertising (Reuters)

"Marketers have more alternatives than ever before on how and where to spend their money," said Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media, an independent media services company. "There's more than the 30-second TV spot. There are opportunities out there and dollars are going to follow the eyeballs."

He added: "While television still remains the entertaining center of your living room, there is some concern that the longer this strike stretches out people's habits will change."

Schwarzenegger urges end to Hollywood writers strike (International Herald Tribune)

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, known best in his pre-politics days for roles as "The Terminator," said he is talking to both the writers and the studios, urging them to settle the strike that began Monday and has already forced several network shows to stop filming.

Another strike! Broadway goes dark (Entertainment Weekly)

More than two-dozen Broadway shows are going dark Saturday, as stagehands went on strike. For the past three months, stagehands have been in contract negotiations with producers; the two sides have been at odds over work rules and staffing requirements. The strike will affect 25 shows, including such tourist favorites as Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, and The Color Purple. Off Broadway shows are unaffected, and eight shows will go on as normal because those theaters, some of them nonprofits, have separate contracts with stagehands.

Hollywood cliffhanger: will militant writers leave Tinseltown in the dark? (Independent, UK)

One intriguing victim of the dispute has been a new show, originally slated to air on a Time Warner cable channel, called Scabs. A press release announcing the show said it was about "two people whose lives didn't pan out as they had hoped and seek out companies with employees striking to find jobs as line-crossing scabs". The producers initially thought they would air the show anyway, but by Thursday they had changed their minds and decided the topic was just too provocative.

The material never goes on strike (SFGate)

I'm not diminishing the value of professional writers - of any kind - but it would have been interesting, if even for a night or two, to see how David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and all the other alleged quick wits of late-night television performed without a script.

It's not as if there's a shortage of material out there. Just read the news. Sometimes the punch line comes included.

TV Writers' Strike Leaves Jilted Authors Looking For A Bully Pulpit(NY Times)

When the chemistry is right, an appearance on "The Colbert Report" or "The Daily Show" can help propel a book to best-seller status. Shortly after Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, first appeared on "The Daily Show" to promote "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower" in March, the book hit the New York Times best-seller list and rose to No. 5 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list, said David Steinberger, president and chief executive of Perseus Books, whose Basic Books imprint published "Second Chance."

The writers' strike as imagined on the series they created (Miami Herald)

How The Daily Show With Jon Stewart would handle the strike: By eviscerating the producers' bitter hypocrisy in preaching belt-tightening while personally getting richer.

How The Sopranos would handle the strike: In the middle of a scene, the screen would go black, and that would be it.

How House would handle the writers' strike: Despite seeming progress, negotiations break down suddenly, violently and mysteriously just before every act break, until the strike is miraculously resolved in the show's finale. Along the way, House makes a number of sexist remarks to Cuddy that sound mean-spirited but actually mean, "Let's get it on already!"