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Back on December 6, 2007, Directors Guild Of America President Michael Apted, Negotiations Committee Chair Gil Cates, and National Executive Director Jay D. Roth received a letter from 300 of the joint WGA-DGA members asking them to refrain from entering negotiations. Supposedly the DGA is going to announce on Thursday a start date for its negotiations. This letter sure makes it sound as if they expect to wrap up the talks by the end of January. (My understanding is that the DGA's hired gun, uber-attorney Kenny Ziffren, has put together a New Media proposal that has significant -- and what the agents are telling me, potentially positive --consequences for the other guilds.) Here's the text:
Dear Member,
We didn't want to let too much time go by before we answered your letter. We want you to know this response comes from our heartfelt understanding of the difficult times we are all in together.The DGA Negotiations Committee had its fourth meeting yesterday and we discussed your letter. We mention this so you will understand that this response reflects the very open discussion we had with your fellow Guild members.
To begin with, we understand the importance of new media and its potential impact on all our futures -- and on those who follow us. DGA has spent close to 18 months developing research, meeting with outside experts, and talking to our members about these issues. They have been discussed by the Board and the Negotiations Committee for well over a year.
We understand well the importance of protecting our members. We will not rest until our members get a fair and equitable deal for the work they create in both old and new media. Since its founding, the Guild has consistently fought hard for that goal. For more than 70 years we have managed, often without fanfare, to negotiate good deals for all of us and we are proud of the strength of our Basic Agreement. We have no intention of letting our members down or betraying the rights of the directors who went before us. There is a reason that few in the industry ever accuse the DGA or its members of being pushovers. We've never been that and we don't plan to start now.
This issue is not between the DGA and the WGA. To make that the fight only strengthens the other side. But sharing a goal is
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While striking writers and Hollywood networks and studios are still negotiating a contract, Les Moonves "has a honey of a new one", 
Naturally, this doesn't surprise me because I've written a lot about Hollywood corporate gluttony over the years. This case is just the arrogance of rich old Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone claiming he cuts costs at every corner while at the same time lining the pockets of himself and his execs at the expense of investors. It's all so nauseating. I recall how, in 2005, Viacom was shameless enough to reimburse Moonves, who lives in Los Angeles but also has a New York apartment, $105,000 for the period he stayed in New York at his apartment instead of at a hotel. Talk about chutzpah: This is paying the guy to live in his own home. (To learn more about the Big Media CEOs' exorbitant pay, see my 2005 column 
The long-time Hollywood maxim is that he who loses his temper first, loses. Well, the AMPTP has pitched a hissy fit today after days and weeks of defiance and needling by the WGA and its members. What did the moguls expect: that they could issue an ultimatum and then walk away from the post-strike negotiations (as News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin and the other Big Media CEOs had planned all week and told their pals privately), and the writers wouldn't portray them as total douchebags?
That's why I'm now insisting that the moguls need to take back these negotiations from their loathesome spinmeisters and their labor lawyers and their lapdog Nick Counter and start meeting face-to-face with a self-selected group of Hollywood's top showrunners and screenwriters and work this thing out. As for continuing to demonize the WGA's Patric Verrone and Dave Young and John Bowman, sure they're far from blameless. I, too, have written that the strike never should have happened. I, too, have posted that jurisdiction over Reality TV or animation writers -- while an important issue because they're now an oppressed and exploited underclass of Hollywood -- isn't a central issue of this strike, not with New Media formulas so vital to their members' incomes. On the other hand, it can also be argued that including these writers strengthens the WGA ultimately, so in a sense it does benefit all members. But the WGA leaders can't be expected to stop pushing on contract terms like those (which have been long-time parts of their proposals) without some inducements from the moguls beyond, "Because we told you to." Get real. These aren't your yes men, like IATSE local boss Tom Short.
He passed away last night at approximately 9:15 PM at home surrounded by his family. (Left, Freddie and Corina Fields.) I hear a service is planned for Friday at 2:00 PM in Westwood. During his career he founded and operated one of the world's largest talent agencies, Creative Management Associates (CMA), which today is known as International Creative Management (ICM). Fields' roster of talent at CMA included Robert Redford, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Robert DeNiro, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Jacqueline Bisset, Liza Minnelli, Steve McQueen, and such renowned directors as Arthur Penn, Steven Spielberg, Bob Fosse, Mel Brooks, Sidney Pollack, George Lucas, Francis Coppola and George Roy Hill. Fields also conceived and created the First Artists Production Company with clients Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Barbra Streisand, Sidney Poitier and Dustin Hoffman, forming the first independent cooperative film company in some fifty years. Towering Inferno, Dog Day Afternoon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Papillon, The Sting, American Graffiti, Star Wars, and The Godfather are just a few of the dozens of major motion pictures which were packaged under Fields' guidance during his years with CMA.
CBS RADFORD
UPDATED: CAA today gave assistants bonus checks. Not from individual bosses, but from the company. All the other major agencies are doing it too; Paradigm's checks go out next week (and Sam Gore's tenpercentery even had its annual Christmas party), Endeavor will be paying bonuses to assistants, etc. They could have easily gotten away with not doing it because of the strike. But the big agencies are working hard to keep their assistants and support staff employed. A PR firm owner who does a lot of business with the studios and networks contacted me because he wanted to anonymously contribute to needy WGA families so their children would be sure to have something under the tree. There are toy drives and I'm sure other random acts of kindness happening this month of Chanukah and Christmas and Kwanzaa to balance all the nastiness. Otherwise, Hollywood really is like this YouTube 
Dates for Jim Cameron's Avatar, Night Of the Museum 2 and Ice Age 3 are now set, joining X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That's four major 2009 tentpoles for Fox.
I love the upbeat exec quotes that usually accompany these kinds of announcements. "Commented Hutch Parker, Vice Chairman of 20th Century Fox Film Group: 'This is a win-win for us. Avatar goes to the Titanic date in December, which was obviously auspicious for Jim and us, and by the time of release there will be more worldwide 3D screens available. With Ice Age 3 now being made in 3D, its release in the summer will help further accelerate those 3D screens. Night At The Museum 2 is exactly the kind of all audience franchise that performs big on Memorial Day weekend. Wolverine has the summer kick-off date and Ice Age 3 has July 4th, so even though 2009 is a long way away, we feel well set for four of the best launch dates of the year.' ”
The drink created by screenwriter Nian Aster was first offered at “The Backstage Bar” then “La Campanile,” “M Bar” and “Chan Dara,” with discounted rates and menus for Writers Guild members. "Cinespace” on Hollywood Boulevard is hosting a complementary evening Wednesday for striking writers with free beer, shots, and Striking Writer Martinis. Here’s the recipe:
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