Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
HBO, InStyle/Warner Bros, Universal and more are busy canceling their Golden Globes parties right now. WGA may still picket what's left of the telecast Sunday night.
I'll have a complete writethru, with all of today's twists and turns, later tonight.
Loading ...
For christ’s sake! Is this some sort of sick joke? Is the WGA really this bad? They already cancelled the freaking show! What more can they possibly want? Isn’t it bad enough already? Is the WGA literally going on a crusade to get the entire world to hate them? This is getting absolutely ridiculous! It is getting to the point where the WGA is really starting to look like the bad guys here.
It’s not enough to run the victim over, you got to stomp on him and shoot him in the head also? Jesus Christ! There are no words to describe how insane that is! Seriously! What more can the WGA possibly want? They just won’t be happy until they piss off every fan on the planet!
This has really got to be a joke! They are actually going to picket the press conference? You have got to be kidding! This is CRAZY!
Why would they still picket? They got what they want; no show. Why not just let whatever the Golden Globes do go on.
So funny to see all those “For Your Consideration” Golden Globe ads in the right margin of this site. Paid for no doubt by the “enemy” of the WGA, the evil Studios. Give me a break – what hypocracy.
I have a friend at NBC who says this ‘fiasco’ is costing NBC at least $10 million in ad revenue. Any idea how many streaming video residuals that would pay, Jeff? Hello, moguls, is it really just about winning at this point? Give the writers a fair share!
Sigh. Only in Hollywood…cancel some parties and it’s front page news at LATimes.com
War? Economy? Mortgage Crisis? Nope.
Parties.
Good on the WGA for picketing. It’s going to take every bit of fight to get the greedy networks and studios to give them a fair share. Why go easy on them?
Hell, let’s picket the Golden Globes parties, too!
The WGA is quickly losing sympathy – I understand they’re trying to bring Hollywood down, but destroying everything writers or no writers is not the way to go about it. I really hope they allow red carpet coverage and a press room. It makes the point for them to be shown giving support to the writers more than a press conference people will skip over and forget about it.
I will be out of work soon because of the writers and many of my co-workers already are out of work. I have reality pilot that doesn’t need these ahole writers and it would give NBC or FOX a triple revenue stream. I can more than makeup the revenue that NBC will lose on the Self_Promotional/Pat on your own back Golden Globes. 661-313-5286 if you want to help me make a show and say “To hell with the writers”. I say fire them all and let’s move on.
I just want to know, when the writers put out a $50million movie bomb or a $2million pilot that bombs, do they pay the studios back for their losses?
Is Everybody High? Pt. 2
And when you’re finished explaining the dollars and cents of the strike in response to my earlier post, why don’t we tote up the millions of dollars in lost income and revenue for all the ancillary stuff like parties, limos, stylists, media coverage — delivered for the most part by the working class of Hollywood — of the now-cancelled Golden Globes? Not to mention the lost value of the promotion the GGs generate, worldwide — we joke about them, but we love them as much as we love our other children. So why would we want to hurt these guys? We’re talking movies, not human rights. International promotion of the “product” that keeps this little enterprise running is kinda important. So much for being able to buy it. You think they were in the bag before? Well, not that bag anymore. Good work.
being pissed off is better than being pissed ON, imo.
i could care less that i may have to miss a few award ceremonies and tv shows — BFD!
go WGA — you have my support!
Yet even more people are put out of work. This is crazy. At this point the WGA looks worse every day. I hope both sides realize the financial crisis many families have been put in, and now even more will join the lines of the unemployed. There will be no way the rift this strike has caused will ever be healed.
NBC is still airing the Globes parties under the banner of “news.” It’s not news. It’s an entertainment program that will be written. Let’s call them on it!
Jim, I totally agree. And, while we’re at it, can we picket both the WGA and the AMPTP?
While I may occasionally bitch and moan about my job, I would actually like to work and pay my bills. I know, crazy talk.
>> For christ’s sake! Is this some sort of sick joke? Is the WGA really this bad? They already cancelled the freaking show! What more can they possibly want? >>
What more can they possibly want?
Gee, hard to say. Couldn’t possibly be something like, I dunno, “a fair and equitable deal from NBC and other AMPTP members,” could it?
No, the strike was about canceling the Golden Globes. Having achieved that, the WGA should immediately give up picketing AMPTP members, of course. They couldn’t possibly want anything but the cancellation of one awards show.
Dude. Where have you been?
kdb
People (non-writers) are suffering. Lives are being ruined. The WGA and the AMPTP need to check their egos at the door and start talking again. I realize that the moguls have bigger egos due to their deeper pockets. The AMPTP did after all, leave the table in a huff. It would be nice if both parties could swallow a little pride and just get on with it. In the end their will be a deal so why not just get on with it! Picketing the news conference, parties, and the Oscars is, in a way, misdirected energy. Just do what you can to get back to talking. All of this is just a waste of time. When you measure it against what is happening to families who are out of work and on the brink of loosing everything it’s just stupid!
The best PR move, for either side, would be for someone to make a move to end this. Will it be the WGA or will it be the AMPTP? Right now both sides look like brats fighting in a playground. Grow up!
People (non-writers) are suffering. Lives are being ruined. The WGA and the AMPTP need to check their egos at the door and start talking again. I realize that the moguls have bigger egos due to their deeper pockets. The AMPTP did after all, leave the table in a huff. It would be nice if both parties could swallow a little pride and just get on with it. In the end their will be a deal so why not just get on with it! Picketing the news conference, parties, and the Oscars is, in a way, misdirected energy. Just do what you can to get back to talking. All of this is just a waste of time. When you measure it against what is happening to families who are out of work and on the brink of loosing everything it’s just stupid!
The best PR move, for either side, would be for someone to make a move to end this. Will it be the WGA or will it be the AMPTP? Right now both sides look like brats fighting in a playground. Grow up!
Uh, they’re picketing the ceremony because NBC is still planning to make money off of it. Not really that strange.
Of course they’ll still picket. Do you know how many cameras will STILL be there?
Congrats to the Guild on this bitter victory. NBC could have allowed the ceremony to go on, and while the licensing fee would still be toast, the press and local party venues, as well as the Beverly Hilton, would still make out.
NBC could have walked away from this looking like good guys, and they blew the chance.
Big win for the WGA here.
Keep taking the fight to them. No Globes. No Oscars. No ad revenue. Make them lose every third of a penny you can. Foot on the throat. That’s the only way to win. And we will.
Well, it goes deeper than “just canceling parties.” Those parties are put together by people who get paid to do so. I’m one of those people and this might be the last two of all my work days this month being canceled because of these people. All my work has been cancelled this month because of the Writer’s Strike. Most people may not understand that but it’s reality. Just because they’re not being paid doesn’t mean they should prevent other people from getting paid. I am freelance and so are a lot of people in Hollywood, I don’t get paid very much and I don’t always have work. I really needed this. I hope they’re getting exactly what they wanted because they’re losing support from their friends.
Are you people serious with this WGA going to far nonsense? Do you not understand this is WAR? The writers must do as much as they can. Bless yourselves that they haven’t really pursued an aggressive strategy to stop productions across town. What would you have the writers do – nothing?!?!
Get real people. In striking against the Business, the writers mean business. You can be as pissed off as you want, but it’s time to realize the writers won’t go to work or take a break until they get what they deserve.
Now you’ve really done it, WGA!
Jeff Zucker at NBC is REALLY MAD at you guys. You are allowed to strike, but it is not okay to mess with GE’s profits. That’s a public company! Owned by Americans! You just gave America the finger. Not cool in my book.
- IATSE Bob
Woohoo! Go writers!
Tonight, instead of watching TV I went to the local Starbucks and finished reading the Golden Compass.
Picketing whatever is left of the GG telecast is entirely in-line with the WGA’s tactics.
NBC is being a bunch of weenies about this. As I pointed out in a previous comment in response to NBC’s suggestion the WGA give a one-year waiver or interim deal (I forget which, and it’s not relevant to my point) to Dick Clark Productions for the GGs, if NBC believes the deal is acceptable for an independent production company that works with the network, why doesn’t the network just sign the deal itself???
PISSED OFF, I do understand your anger about the Golden Globes ceremony and the after parties being canceled but we have to get through the looking glass people.
This hurts all the vendors who make their living off of the awards season. It doesn’t seem fair that my union should inflict so much pain on the masses. However, I wish it was that easy to blame the victim. (WRITERS/WGA)
How many times have my union got on their knees and sodomized the AMPTP to come back to the negotiating table “please like me, really really like me” and this was to no avail.
There is hope for us all because this isn’t a divorce it’s a grudge match. All the AMPTP has to do is talk to the WGA again at the negotiation table. I know we can make a deal if we go back to the table to end this strike. No matter what names and strong arm tactics either side uses it should not impede both sides from slugging it out around the negotiating table until both sides come to an agreement. Nobody leaves the room until this is achieved. Period.
Nobody wants this strike to last any longer including the AMPTP.
We are all in this town together like it or not and we do have a responsibility to our fellow workers, employees, fans, children, husbands and wives to bring this strike to a quick end.
Fuck, flip a coin if you have too like the NFL does On Any Given Sunday for Christ sake. Heads we get animation tails we lose animation. Tails we get reality – heads we take reality off the table. Then with the New Media we actually negotiate like grown ups a fair contract.
Remember, the consumer is going to foot the bill anyway by paying two to ten cents more for downloads. The Ad Agencies and media buying companies can just as well increase their rates of streaming video by ten cents as well and that would be for the DGA, WGA and SAG.
Think clear people it doesn’t have to come directly out of the AMPTP bottom line if you add on the new cost to the consumer Et. AL.
Call it a tax hike.
I don’t care about the Golden Globes!!!!!!!
How about those other side deals with the WGA?????
Any word on whether or not John Ridley was a last-second host for the Globes?
Didn’t the WGA already say they wouldn’t picket a non-televised Golden Globes? And now they’re going back on their word and picketing anyway. This is NOT doing any favors for their image.
WGA should host their own parties, hand out a few awards, get folks to nod silently in agreement, then everyone drinks too much and has a hell of a time. For a night. Maybe even let loose with some impropriety. Shag a studio mogul, or their spouse, if you can find one. What the hell, you may never get another chance and fatigue makes humans of us all. Then the next day, even with a hangover and the shame, everyone who was at the party, sits down and starts talking.
NBC is losing $10 million dollars in ad revenue? Now that’s what I call success for the WGA.
But I wouldn’t picket the parties or press conference. Take the high ground WGA. You won this battle. Let them sit there and ponder their losses.
As a journalist and writer I am appalled at the attitude the WGA is having at this point.
Many actors and writers were right stating these people went into the strike without any plan whatsoever on how to resolve it. When you get into a strike you’ve got to have a plan on what gets you out of it. And these people just don’t, they think that only their point of view is what needs to be considered. Well wake up, negotiation is called such because it’s based on compromise. It’s not just the studios/networks that need to compromise, the writers need to do so just as much. A little bit of responsible behaviour here wouldn’t hurt.
The absolute disrespect for all the people who are paying the actual price for this (the crew workers and the everyday workers at a much lower level for shows) is making me sick. The writers are hitting the pockets of people who need this job to make their families survive. And they don’t care one bit about it. I completely understood the need to raise the issue and make a stance. But that’s been done abundantly by now, and I really see the writers becoming the side that is wrong at this point.
The writers have made their stance, we got it, the whole world saw it. It’s now time to sit down at a table and be a LOT more reasonable. Picketing the press conference? I second what was said above, it is CRAZY. If the writers think they can garner sympathy and respect with this sort of attitude, they’re sorely mistaken.
Congratulations, WGA. Who knows whether the WGA’s leaders are pursuing an effective negotiating strategy, but clearly their cause is just, and the only people who are suggesting that the WGA water down the strike for the sake of a meaningless, corrupt award program is clearly no friend of workers rights.
Yes. They cancel the “telecast” but their still having a red carpet and announcements. YES WE WILL PICKET. YES WE WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT. THEY ARE LOSING AD DOLLARS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT TO HAPPEN. We want our fair share and until they give us that. WE WILL FIGHT. You don’t like it ‘pissed off?’ Stay home and turn off your tv and your computer.
Like we really need actors who are nothing more than walking Italian billboards, to be herded by their stylists and publicists (barking urgently into their headsets), down yet another red carpet…having spent a full day being followed by ET in “preparation” complete with the Spa commercial.
The stars become models for anyone with swag.
Questions begin with the gown’s designer. Actual talk time about the film? Seconds.
Enough already. It’s just not that interesting.
Please. The writers just want to get INTO the parties.
“pissed off”: nbc is the VICTIM now? how do you come up with that? they’re the ones refusing to negotiate.
But they don’t strike the NON UNION critic’s choice awards?
I have a friend at NBC who says this ‘fiasco’ is costing NBC at least $10 million in ad revenue. Any idea how many streaming video residuals that would pay, Jeff? Hello, moguls, is it really just about winning at this point? Give the writers a fair share!
Comment by zuckersucks — January 7, 2008 @ 6:44 pm
Could someone please explain this mentality?
Waste upwards of 10 mil to teach the writers “a lesson”?
How is that cost not to mention fan enmity (before ANYONE blames the writers, note that we’re ready & willing to go back to negotiations, whereas the AMPTP refuses) worth it?
Just doesn’t make rational business sense to me.
Be a (smart) Man, Jeff!
Sign a Deal!
If the Golden Globes is a press conference, do the nominees show up for this? Not sure I get it. If they do, everyone should show up wearing black and red strike colors in solidarity.
Picket. Picket everywhere. Picket every chance you get. That’s how you turn the heat up and that’s how you make sure the strike stays current.
If you think this will end by doing things the same way as it has been done for two months, then you really don’t get it.
Resolution will only come with ramping up the intensity. Sign more and more side deals and picket like there’s no tomorrow.
The next step: Picket the viewers watching Leno, Stewarts, and the Golden Globes press conference.
This actually saves the studios (except NBC) lots of money in talent travel, stylists, and parties. Just a huge vanity-fest for the talent anyway.
Does the WGA just not have anything better to do? (how about getting back to the tables and get this town back to work!)
All you can do is to shut down the awards show so the shows and the people that worked on them (before the Strike) can get their awards. Common WGA get off your ass and get to the real deal and that is a CONTRACT that will put your writers back to work and the rest of this town back to work.
The Globes may be only the beginning.
A West Coast source I have says the WGA will send members to Phoenix and picket the Super Bowl, which could threaten that game (or at least TV coverage of it)!
They may hope to keep Fox from broadcasting the game or perhaps force the NFL to cancel the game entirely!
I agree with Pissed Off. Public sentiment is taking a turn. I actually like the revamped Golden Globe idea. Who needs an awards show. Dateline profile, simple press conference handing out awards with no boring speeches, and a sexy after party -
Dear Jeff Zucker,
What happened to you? In reading your Wikipedia biography, it talked about how you were the guy who was smart enough to wring 8 extra years out of the “Friends” franchise by financially rewarding the talent, and then farther down, it talks about how you were diagnosed with colon cancer at 31, and have battled two bouts of it. You were responsible enough to your shareholders that you went above and beyond the call by scheduling your chemo for Fridays, so you’d be back at work on Monday.
At one time you believed that the artists were important, and deserved to share in success. At one time you cared about the people who invest in GE stock.
In fact, you are quoted as saying, in regard to your cancer experience, “It put my life into perspective,” he says. “I want to win and win honorably.”
Jeff, what happened to you? When did you change?
Good for them. I’m glad that they are sticking to their guns. I just want to let them know that there are SO MANY fans who are on their side.
Globes cancelled is no big deal. When the Oscars are cancelled then WGA & SAG will get the studios attention. BTW doesn;t the producers realize that SAG is rolling out the blueprint for its own strike in June by not allowing its members to cross the picket lines? How many more signs and casualties most we endure before the producers make a deal? Also, with the mounting losses in the LA economy from this work stoppage, how come there’s no federal, state or local intervention to get these two sides back at the table? Why can’t we all just get along?
This is all posturing for the Academy Awards setup….
Do you really think that Zucker cares about the $10 mil?
What I’d like to know is: what exactly is the WGA striking over, in actual dollars and cents, micro-style, not macro bullshit. Give us real life examples with real arithmetic and numbers — no more cliched rhetoric. Tell me; I really need to know. When I can’t pay MY tax bill in April, will one of you writers give me an advance against YOUR payday for internet streaming?
Why didn’t the WGA offer to make an 18-month deal? They would’ve set the table for the DGA and been local heroes. Now they’re going to be lucky to get the same deal the DGA gets. Such amateurs.
NBC could have saved the Golden Globes by moving it anytime between 12/17 and 1/7. You know–the weeks that the strikers were on vacation from the picket line. Or hey, pick a day that it rains. They’re never out there on the lines when that happens neither.
It’s no wonder the writers are losing respect from the BTL unions.
Enough is Enough WGA stop with all your BS stopping award shows!
Get back to talking at the table and get a contract for your writers and get this town back to WORK! Take off the lame stuff off the table and get back to the contract talks. Stop all your BS and show the industry that the writers are not self centered cry baby’s.
Time to get this town back to work!
@everyone blaming the WGA on this thread:
Don’t forget: the AMPTP walked away from the table. If they hadn’t, we all might be watching the Golden Globes right now.
Oy, where have you people been? NBC was given the option to allow the ceremony to go on as planned, just not to televise it. All the parties, all the hotels, all the caterers and flower arrangers and stagehands and lighting and sound people would be paid to do their jobs. Zucker refused that option. He also had the option to allow the ceremony to go on as planned, on television, by making the same deal WWP and UA made with the WGA. Again, he refused. So therefore, the fact that all these parties have been cancelled is the fault of…everyone but NBC.
If you feel that way, then don’t waste time sitting here compalining about the mean old WGA, go to your hero, Jeff Zucker, the guy who’s on your side and wants the show to go on despite his refusal to allow it to go on, and ask him to make up for the money you’re losing out of his own pocket. He’s such a good guy and innocent victim in all this, I’m sure he’ll agree. There is no reason for the show to have been cancelled except Zucker’s greed and petty tyranny.
“When you get into a strike you’ve got to have a plan”
Yes, and the plan includes a work stoppage and starving struck companies of revenue. Seems a little bit more realistic than helping struck comapanies to make millions of dollars and hoping they’ll start talking to us again out of appreciation because we’ve been so ineffective in doing anything to affect their normal operations, um I mean, because we’ve been so NICE.
“Sneeking off on the side to do little bits of work in the back alley isn’t really fair”
Awesome point, good thing going back to work under an aggreement between the company you work for and your union isn’t sneaking off anywhere to do anything in any sense. And to be honest, if I’m out in the rain the fact that some other writers are back to work legitimately under the contract we’re asking for doesn’t affect me negatively at all, it’s the rain that’s hurting me, and moreso the fact that the greedy moguls of the AMPTP are making me walk around in it instead of being reasonable.
a says: “The writers have made their stance, we got it, the whole world saw it. It’s now time to sit down at a table and be a LOT more reasonable.”
i didn’t go on strike to “make a stance,” i went on strike to get a fair deal… a deal which even the wall street journal says would cost LESS than the strike has already cost.
the WGA is at the table. the AMPTP refuses to come to the table. maybe it’s the table?
The writers ARE the enemy. They are no better than the AMPTP. They went on strike because they had no clue how to negotiate, and the Studios called their bluff.
Neither side gives a damn about the rest of the industry. Nobody ever paid to see a script, or watch a mogul mogul. They pay to see the finished product, the effort of many talented people. And these are the people hurt most by this misguided strike, not the writers or the AMPTP., and will get no benefit from it.
So don’t you dare tell us your fight is “just” or “right”. A pox on both your house.
Two questions:
If the Guild pickets the “news conference,” are SAG members expected to cross or stay home? There have been many negative remarks directed toward actors, which I find strange, given their solidarity with the WGA.
Also, regarding David Young — I’ve heard mixed messages about his past record. Does anyone know how many labor negotiations he’s been involved in that ended up in a victory for his client?
Not trying to stir anything up, just curious. Thanks in advance for any responses.
This is what writers want:
Residuals for digital content, i.e., movies/TV shows shown on the internet, and a raise in residuals on DVD sales (they now get $.04 per copy, they want $.08).
The major studios and networks made $95 billion in revenues last year alone. And they expect that number to increase with the advent of the Internet and digital broadcasting. When it comes to some new media distribution, the conglomerates are proposing to pay writers nothing. On permanent downloads or “electronic sell-through” they’re offering less than 1/3 of a penny for every dollar they make. Would YOU accept that offer?
FYI- DGA ( Directors Guild Of America) and AMPTP Agree To Begin Contract Negotiations (January 12, 2008) The current contracts end on June 30, 2008