Mogul Cracks Are Curiouser And Curiouser

COMMENTS (6)

• it’s been baffling why this hasn’t been reported sooner

  of course there’s been divisiveness at AMPTP

  they are different companies with different agendas, and all with megalomaniac CEO’S jockeying each other for dominance

  however, if those “moderate” producers mean a “compromise” is WGA nibbling down what are already paltry terms, the WGA stood stand firm

  WGA should’ve started out with harsher terms to give negotiating room for AMPTP to have its little victories and pound of flesh – it’s about the winning for these guys. They’re too emotional and not acting clearheadedly.

  Comment by AS — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 1:03pm PST  Reply to this post

• The way to break any perp is to play good cop / bad cop. It’s a plot that writes itself. The only way the perp wins is to realize they’re all bad cops. Has a billion tv cop shows taught us nothing?

  Comment by fakeout — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 1:21pm PST  Reply to this post

• I find it disturbing that the studios negotiate in a pack anyway — doesn’t that result in “pay fixing” and creating a situation for writers (and anyone else in whose contract is negotiated in this fashion) of only one game in town? Doesn’t this situation usually demand competition among the studios, i.e. some offering better wages in an effort to get the best talent? Auto makers don’t negotiate in a clump with the Auto Workers Union… so why do we do it this way, which seems to give them all the power?

  Comment by Jennifer — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 2:29pm PST  Reply to this post

• Jennifer is right. As has been pointed out on this blog in past postings the big car makers deal with the auto workers union individually – not as a block. It should be the same in this case. But it’s not. And without that competitive spirit we are at the mercy of whichever company is holding the hard line. Sigh….

  Comment by moderatewriter — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 4:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• Sometimes good cop arrests bad cop. Like when the latter is screwing up the former’s ability to do his job and the former isn’t a wuss.

  What CEO who actually deserves his job would allow his company’s agenda to be set by the CEO of a competing company? Moonves and Zucker are really going to let Chernin’s stubbornness extend the strike and steal advertisers from CBS and NBC over to FOX? How is Chernin selling them on that idea? By describing it as a new economic partnership?

  Comment by Relampago — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 5:12pm PST  Reply to this post

• The problem with the issues of the studios competing for the best talent and negotiating with the guilds individually is that they ALREADY pay premiums for the best talent – maybe David Koepp makes the same residuals as any neophyte who’s spec gets made, BUT David’s sure making more up-front.

  These are MINIMUMS being discussed. An assembly line worker for GM might get paid much less if he took a job at Chrysler. Would any writers out there be happier if there were different formulas for each studio — If a staff job at a UMS show paid half as much as a WB show (at the minimum negotiated scale) ?

  Comment by Anonymous — Wednesday December 5, 2007 @ 5:48pm PST  Reply to this post