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“It is unfortunate that the WGA is contemplating plans to ‘investigate’ Jay’s authorship of his Tonight Show monologue. The WGA agreement clearly permits Jay to create and perform his own monologue. The enforcement of strike rules against Jay in these circumstances would violate the Federal labor laws,” said a NBC spokesperson tonight.
This has really turned into an all-out WGA-NBC war! As well as a SAG-NBC war!
That’s because Screen Actors Guild Prez Alan Rosenberg issued a statement today clarifying the thesp union’s position re its stars appearing on network talk shows. “We urge our members to appear on the two programs that have independent agreements with the WGA, The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. However, actors who are asked to appear on the struck network talk shows will have to cross WGA picket lines, creating the same situation that has led to the consensus among actors to skip the Golden Globes. As I have said since this strike began on November 5th, we must stand united with our brothers and sisters at the WGA.”
By the way: Letterman plans to shave off his strike beard on Monday’s show.
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Does the NBC spokesperson have anything to say about it being almost a month since his bosses left the negotiating table and guaranteed that thousands would be out of work for the holidays? Anything? Hello?
I commented about this in the last thread. Since Day 1, NBC has been touting their ability to counteract WGA sanctions.
Yeah, investigate. The arrogant SOB went on national television and admitted to performing struck work. Some “investigation,” it’s going to be difficult to get to the bottom of this one.
I don’t know a single talk show comedy writer who thinks Leno is really writing all those jokes himself. It’s time for Leno to come clean about where those jokes are coming from and stop claiming that he wrote them all himself.
I was all for Jay Leno and defending him to everyone because of his daily visits to the picket line. But now it is clear that when push comes to shove he has thrown the writers under the bus. (His WGA writers that is — not his scabs who are giving him these jokes.)
And yet, Ellen continues to do a monologue every day as she has since Day 2 of the strike. All the while claiming ( through her reps) that “daytime is different” and she “has a contract”. Like no one else has a contract or a crew effected by the strike. No dougnuts either. No appearances on picket lines, not even a simple statement supporting the writers.
How has the WGA-W allowed this?
We’ve been focusing on Time-Warner as the big, bad mogul in charge of the moguls, but it would appear NBC is firing all the shots. They started the call-backs of their late night personnel, they are taking the front lines in fighting to keep monologues in clear violation of strike rules, and they are the ones editing transcripts to filter out Conan’s pro-WGA remarks. On the other hand, they are also the target in the sights of a WGA that’s making agreements to put David Letterman back on the air.
…stand by, kids, this is gonna get ugly.
SAG is just helping to muddy the waters. This is not about Leno and Letterman and which show the actors should appear on! The strike is primarily about writers being fairly compensated for their work appearing in new media forms. All that noble-sounding talk about SAG standing with their brothers and sisters at the WGA is just so much bs when they don’t keep the focus on the actual issues and, instead, contribute to the trivialities.
Bring on the Feds! They can investigate anti-trust issues, illegal accounting practices, collusion, and the list goes on.
Jay knows the right thing to do. He’s a member of the WGA, and as a writer, he’s supposed to be on strike. The Guild is being very understanding about his desire to get the employees of the Tonight Show back to work, something other shows aren’t allowed to do.
But Jay does not need to write a monologue–or anything else–to put on his show. If he does, then he’s a scab who’s keeping all of the other writers on strike longer.
I sympathize with his desire to do the best show he can, but he’s in a union, and that union is on strike. He’s hurting many more people than the 150+ employees of the Tonight Show by putting on any show at all.
Do the right thing, Jay. You’re a writer. And putting on the Tonight Show is a knife in the heart of every other writer in the WGA.
Leno’s scheduled to leave The Tonight Show pretty soon as it is. Rumor has it NBC was pushing him out because they don’t want O’Brien to pull a Letterman.
If this is how Leno wants to go down – as a pro-corporate whore scabbing the very people who make him funny – that’s up to him.
Nothing he has done for the WGA up to Wednesday excuses his behavior, any more than all the devotion Judas showed made up for that little 30 pieces of silver incident.
Leno should realize that as far as his legacy is concerned, this is his Elia Kazan moment. He can’t have it both ways.
It’s hilarious to see the self-described TV viewers get on these threads harumphing that the WGA strike interferes in “free markets” and applauding Leno for standing up to the “extortion” of the writers. I and everyone else in comedy always knew Jay Leno’s fans were stupid, bovine and on the down slope of their lifespans; it’s not so surprising that they’re also sour libertarians. They probably scream about building toll roads when they’re not moaning over their TV-time being interfered with.
MGArnold -
With all due respect, sir or ma’am, my guild is not muddying the waters. Our leadership is making it quite clear that the morally correct and tactically advantageous thing to do is to NOT cross the WGA picket line to appear on a struck television program. Period.
The WGA’s fight is SAG’s fight. Everything we do to help the WGA is going to help us get a better deal as well. We may be two different unions, but we’re working in the same factory for the same managers.
Just wondering…have a question here…can somebody create a monologue without writing it down? (i.e. creating a monologue on the spot) Would that be considered a written service?
Jay has bragged about how he banks all his Tonight Show money and lives off the money he makes in clubs.
Bottom line – if he can even do that, he must have more money than God. What does he care about a WGA sanction? In his mind, he can do whatever he wants.
The start of The Tonight Show had a lot of “jump cuts” and “lock ups” during the monologue. Was that a sign that WGA members were disrupting the program and it had to be edited more or less on the fly?
MildApplause wrote:
“Jay has bragged about how he banks all his Tonight Show money and lives off the money he makes in clubs.
Bottom line – if he can even do that, he must have more money than God. What does he care about a WGA sanction? In his mind, he can do whatever he wants.”
Yeah, he can do whatever he wants…like honor the picket lines instead of doing a show.
J
Leno’s dad was a working class guy, probably a union man, but apparently Leno had forgotten his roots and is now doing irreperable harm to the union.
It is an ugly fight now between Leno and the WGA but it is a fight the WGA must take on. There are strike rules. Jay is a WGA writer. He CAN NOT write for himself. BFD that NBC trots out some whore spokesperson to say Jay can legally do this. If Jay killed a baby NBC could fine some whore spokesperson or lawyer to say it was legal. NBC is a scummy company and always has been. Jeff Zucker is a bitter midget and is so short-sighted that he doesn’t realize this fight will do irreparable harm to the Tonight show brand and franchise.
I hope Leno sleeps well in his mansion while writers are losing their homes because of him.
AC — Leno has admitted he is “writing” this monolog. He knows he is WGA. He knows he is a credited writer on the show. He knows the WGA is on strike and it has been made clear to him in no uncertain times that his writing for his show violates the strike rules.
He has chosen to hide behind NBC spokesmen spouting legal nonsense about how a contract that expired two months ago binds the WGA to a deal where they must permit Leno to be a scab. It’s nonsense.
Jay’s Mr. Everyman image will be gone forever. The WGA and its members will now see to that, and Leno will have no one to blame but himself. At a pivotal point in the strike, Leno has chosen to fuck over the writers for a network that has already fucked Leno over.
He is doing his monolog for one reason: he wants to win the ratings war and not fall behind Dave, and he knows with no monolog people will stop watching.
He’s a scab and a scumbag and no amount of donuts will make up for that.
The Guild leadership lead us into this strike, not unlike Bush lead us into Iraq: without a plan.
Go after Leno?! That’s your plan?!
Verone has to go. And of course Bush too. Two boneheads duck-walked out the front door.
This shit is so much funnier than any of those late shows could be. They should read it out load on TV. Would that violate any Guild regulations? Probably not, since most of the people posting on this site are probably assistants working for the producers, hoping to make a name for themselves by stirring the shit.
Let the guild make a decision, and let the members abide by it. If only things were that clear these days, and if only we got our news from the guild leadership and not third party folks like Nikki.
WGA Member (sic) wrote:
The Guild leadership lead us into this strike, not unlike Bush lead us into Iraq: without a plan.
Gee, nice original analogy on the Iraq thing.
The plan for the strike is to financially hurt your employer by withdrawing your employment services. TV is just about entirely shutdown. Movies are struggling. It seems like that has been executed about as well as possible. It’s all a matter of how much of a financial hit the employers are willing to take.
The WGA has a plan and are executing it better than anyone thought they would. But it takes time. You (if you’re really a member and not a paid shill) and Ridley can go feh-core if you want but it’s not like there’s an offer out there for you to accept. If you go back to work and cross the line you will be blackballed and never work again. And rightly so. So do what you want to. Asshole.
I can only imagine how Leno must feel, after busting his ass for decades to reach the pinnacle of his career, to then have to seek work dispensation from the likes of a Patrick (Futurama) Verrone and his minions of red-shirted mediocrities. It must be galling.
I really hope Jay goes fi-core and leads the way to a mass exodus from this disgraceful organization.
After reading all these posts it has become obvious that the members posting here are mainly concerned about a talk show host who is a member of the WGA (and AFTRA) doing a monologue.
I thought there were bigger issues but why bother with them when you can take out your anger on a talk show host. Easier than dealing with real issues.
Whatever happens with Leno, it doesn’t put a dent in your strike…….either way.
You keep taking your “eye off the ball”.
Leno is just an excuse for your frustration. Letterman is better because his “shell” company signed a deal that says whatever AMTPT agrees to he’ll agree to?
Halleluah!
I do believe WGA Member @ 8:29 is embracing both definitions of “member.”