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THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Hollywood Writers Strike Called; Timing Announcement To Come Friday; Actors Agree To Walk WGA Picket Lines
I’ve obtained instructions issued tonight to WGA contract captains who turn into strike captains once the Writers Guild of America calls its walkout. That’s right: it’s not “if”, but “when”. Since there will be no bargaining talks on Thursday, a strike call could come Thursday night when the leadership meets with the general membership at 7 pm inside the incredibly inconvenient downtown location of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Picketing could start Friday or Monday. (See my previous: URGENT: Talks Come To An Abrupt Halt; Thursday Night’s WGA Meeting A Strike Call?) Here are memo excerpts:
Show captains need to compile a personal contact list for everyone who could participate in pickets (including actors, writers’ assistants, staff and crew, etc) or other strike actions.
Showrunners and all WGA members should assemble drafts of every unproduced script and other literary material for the so-called “Script Validation Program”. (Details here.)
Showrunners, hyphenates with projects in development, and other hyphenates may want to speak to or write letters to the Producers they are working with “to make clear that our mutual goal is to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract. We welcome their support toward that goal.”
Before leaving their offices on Thursday, all Writers guild members should take their personal items home. “If you have an office on a studio lot, you may want to box up your personal items when you leave work on Thursday.”
There will be a WGA West membership meeting in Los Angeles tomorrow night at 7 pm. At the meeting, the Negotiating Committee will update members regarding the negotiations and make their recommendation as to how to proceed. The WGAW will send out another e-mail following the meeting with up-to-the-minute information.
There will be a captains meeting Saturday November 3rd at 1 pm. Agenda to follow. captains should plan to be on call this weekend. There will be a captains orientation session Saturday November 3rd at 11 am.
“If there is a strike, submit your scripts for validation. You have 4 days from the commencement of a strike to do this. Contract/show captains become picket captains immediately. Show up for your picket shift. Your captain will advise you where/when. Report any re-writing of your material, illegal demands, pressure to cross picket lines, etc to your picket captain.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Right on, Anne. The reason Hollywood has a hard time filling seats in theaters and at home is because of the anti-American, anti-Christian crap the writers and producers (as a whole) are foisting on the public.
They can strike all they wish, it really doesn’t affect my family, as we stick to taking walks, watching a handful of quality shows, and playing video games.
Anne, how do you get DSL service from your bunker?
You are espousing typical Midwestern prejudice. First of all, most executives and agents and assistants in Hollywood are Ivy League educated (which may be part of the problem) and not everyone in Hollywood is an extreme wacko champagne socialist, Mercedes driving leftist.
Writers are hard working, the backbone of the industry, and completely underappreciated. That said, both sides are being myopic and have inflated their own importance.
As for wishing we fall off into the ocean, please don’t wish that. Those in entertainment may be off at times, the quality may not always be there, but it sure beats the hell out of working for some multi-national corporation which is what the Midwest is filled with. What, and sitting in a cube with a job you got off Monster.com is so superior?
We may be “Hollyweird” but at least we’re not Square State shoot-me-now-from-boredom-conventional square.
First of all, as someone who also works behind the scenes in H’wood, I’d like to educate Works for a Living: Dude (or dudette), as someone else said above, without a SCRIPT the hair and makeup people, the drivers, the gaffers and grips and assistants wouldn’t have a job. It all, ALL comes down to the script.
And Anne? Feel free to entertain your fellow midwesterners with preachings from the Bible or Boy Scout campfire scary stories told by uncle Bob or however it is you feel would be better than what Hollywood currently has to offer. We honestly could care less about you fly-over states and we’re happy you’ve noticed. Now crawl back to your double-wide and your Rush Limbaugh and bowl of Cheetos for breakfast and let us carry on about our business.
I’m laughing about the ‘creative’ issues being bandied about and looking at the upcoming movie rosters from long before any strike was mentioned and I’m seeing a lot of rehashing of old movies and TV. A ‘Dirty Dozen’ re-make? Remaking ‘Near Dark’? Seeing how Hollywood won’t stick to source material for anything, how can you be relied upon to make a previous release better?
Stacycy wrote: “Aspiring writers thinking this is their opportunity to get “into” the business will be sorely disappointed if they try, and end up being blacklisted.”
Exactly. Total thuggery and bullying.
Stacycy> you need to read up on your history.
Chris, that’s exactly the reason the WGA doesn’t have support outside the union right now — you value writing above all else. It’s important but so are the other positions on a production.
Oh, and for the other suggestive comment up above that the annual writers income is way below that of even a PA, sorry to tell you that’s falsely inaccurate. 50,000 is the average annual income of a writer (yes, low), but a PAs is much lower. Can you do the math – what’s 600 week even if they were to work more than half the year?
if and when the strike happens it will show you how far the traditonal entertainment industry has fallen i am a college student who lives and breaths the tech world and i know many of my follow college students have told me that if the strike happens they will never turn a tv set back on to watch tv the nature of entertainment has changed with programs like joost and websites like youtube and the advent of advanced generation video games if the strike happens in my opinion the realm of tv will forever be changed the audience levels will drop immediately and they will never return the four major networks have already seen over the last 15 years a slow but steady decline in viewership due to cable and other entertainment options this strike will at least destroy one major network and it will shrink the other 3 network’s audiences
I don’t even watch tv (except the NFL). I’m not saying that writers suck in anyway, I’m saying the programming does. Keep one thing in mind though, compared to the median income in the U.S., most tv writers are highly paid and therefore can’t expect too much in terms of sympathy. Sure, producers and actors/actresses make too much money as well, but as long as people keep tuning into mindless drivel, this will continue (yes, yes. I know I am supporting another medium for people paid too much money – professional sports).
Just the mention of ‘blacklisting’ those who wish to pursue their careers at a wage and benefit level that they believe is adequate makes me sick to my stomach. How can that be tolerated in America? Have we no freedom of choice?
There’s a fat strike fund that will pay my mortgage? That’s good news. Where exactly is it? Thanks, rich gaffer, in advance.
The writers are not the caues of the strike. The studios are.
And, by the way, everyone below the line is next for rollbacks. The studios in the WGA negotiations are trying to raise thehigh budget thresholds by a huge amount. They will then do that with IATSE. Shows and movies currently paying you high budget minimums will soon pay you low budget minimums for the same work.
This is not about writers vs. studios or writers vs. the rest of showbiz. This is everyone who works in TV and film being screwed by the studios. The writers are just first in line.
You can certainly tell that this blog is hosting comments by writers — everything said on this page, whether its agreeable or not, is very nicely written! No spelling mistakes (except from Argentina guy, and he’s excused), no grammar issues.
Well said!
Rich Gaffer,
Just because a writer hasn’t sold scripts doesn’t mean they’re not working. We’re working – often for years -to get a script written, developed and sold. Having optioned a script and done a rewrite for a studio, I can tell you in all confidence that there are a lot of writers who aren’t making enough doing their jobs to pay their rent. It would be one thing if we weren’t talented enough to write in this business, but there are many other obstacles out there for talented writers – including cheap studios who throw low ball offers at us because we are not A-list writers. It would be nice if the WGA had support from other union workers, but the Teamsters are the only ones who have stepped up. I guess the WGA will remember this when the other guilds’ deals exoire.
I sympathize with Rich Gaffer, but just because you’re talking about potentially large sums of money doesn’t mean you should abandon basic principles of fairness. In this case, it is the producers who are being obstinate and unreasonable, and the writers who are working towards a just resolution of this. So Gaffer’s anger is misplaced — he should be railing against greedy producers. In three to five years, we’ll all be downloading entertainment direct to our HDTVs, and unless Gaffer feels that writers shouldn’t have the right to in the success of their successful creation, he should be with them, not the producers. His guild is.
The WGA should know that those of us in the “real world” are fine with watching football, dumb reality shows, using the internet, and watching On Demand. The other side probably knows this. Kid Nation is stupid, but is “Two and A Half Men” or “How I met Your Mother”, or “CSI WHATEVER” important? The Networks will be making BANK from the last half of football, cheap reality, and Political Ads. Time is NOT on your side!
Dear writes for a living, Boo freaking hoo. So none of these people would have jobs if it wasn’t for the glorious writers. Well I am a member of the WGA and I happen to make my living as a writer. I also produce so I actually know how much those “rich” below the line people make. Your condescending attitude is the reason that they will be out of work. Now go back and finish that spec script for The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.
With all the terrible shows out now who the hell even cares. Most of you guys deserved to be fired. Any retard could write the cheesey crap on TV right now. Even the hit shows like, “Ugly Betty” were just ripped from “Fella Mas Bella” and another spanish soap before that. All of the other highest rated shows are reality, Dancing With Anyone… I don’t think there are any shows out there with good original material, and the last well written show I can recall was Arrested Development. All the new shows out I have seen are very unimpressive. “Don’t give me some MD with a degree from the Phillipines.” Oh, how terribly witty and controversial, you radical free thinkers you. Or how about Cuban Sopranos AKA Cane…fuggedaboutit vato!!!!!
Are you guys high…or higher than normal?
No one cares if you go out on strike…really. Get out of California once in awhile and perhaps you’ll figure that out.
At least the weather will be nice while your out there striking in your self-deluding “unfairness” of it all.
WGA, guess what–no one cares if you strike or not. Why? If you strike, the networks just put the same tripe you wrote last year on the tube. If you don’t, we have to block our kids from watching nearly everything because of your morally and ethically bankrupt “shock” drivel that you put on nearly every show.
So, shove it, hope your kids starve, and maybe you’ll get an honest job later.
“We honestly could care less about you fly-over states and we’re happy you’ve noticed”
First of all, mr. “supporting the strike,” the correct expression is “couldn’t care less,” not “could.” You call yourself a writer?
And second, I was hoping you’d say something like that, you egotistical, overpaid, no-talent hack. Perhaps in your next message you could inform Anne of something you’ve done as a freakin TEEVEE WRITER that’s going to mean jack a year from now. Hope you lose.
To the person who automatically thought I live in the midwest, listen to Rush Limbaugh and am a bible thumper….I’m a hopeful agnostic (hope the hopeful isn’t too much for you), never listen to Rush L., and haven’t gone to church in a decade. The point I’m trying to make is that you guys/girls are truly out of touch and disgustingly amoral even for someone who truly questions religion in the first place (that would be me). But that’s always your knee jerk reaction to any criticism. I don’t even live in the midwest. But Hollywood has become just so totally absurd and obnoxious it doesn’t take a midwestern bible thumper to wish you all would go away.
@Stacycy – How dare you. HOW DARE YOU! How old are you – twenty, twenty five? You must be a youngin’ to even THINK something like that. You disgust me.
I have a great solution for all parties.
Let’s charge a “Slice of the Pie Fee” on all TV shows watched, All DVD’s rented or bought, and anything that appears on the Internet.
To make certain that everyone gets their fair share, let’s make this new fee $1,000,000.00 per viewing per person. The Company, the WGA, The Producers, and everyone else can have their fair share and make tons of money.
Oh wait a minute……. No one in their right mind would pay such a BOGUS Fee. The last time I studied Fuzzy Math, ZERO times ZERO still equals ZERO.
You are all money hungry whores just like the Oil Company Executives. Remember Ken Lay and Enron?? How greedy is too greedy??
The point I am trying to make is simple. Everyone deserves to make a fair living. I think if you kept the Union Dues and Union Fees that you pay, you would be much better off. Why let a small group of blow hearts ruin your long term careers? Unions are things of the past.
You people are “Hollywood Liberals” Why not do what your Democrat party preaches? Take the wealth from the people in your own industry who are over paid, and redistribute it to those who are not.
Is striking worth the very little you “MIGHT” get??
But I guess misery loves company.
Possibly one bennie to be had from this is the hope that viewers will get a terminal gutfull of contrived, worthless, reality TV, and punish anyone who sponsors it.
Regarding nasty Anne from flyover country: reading your comment, others might be tempted to misjudge the fine character of the majority of American Heartlanders. I am glad such nastiness is not really typical.
Here’s to a quick and fair settlement to the strike and best wishes to the talented WGA members fighting for fair treatment. I won’t be watching any of the reality lineup, that’s for sure.
The real fallout will be with viewers. As a viewer, I’m sympathetic to the plight of the writers (and think their demands sound reasonable) – but if it means “Lost” won’t come on in February 2008 as scheduled, I will be very upset.