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Writers Guild of America, West and Writers Guild of America, East issued this statement this weekend from presidents John Wells and Michael Winship on behalf of the WGAW and WGAE:
"The Writers Guilds of America, West and East mark the passing of Nick Counter, longtime president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and convey their deepest sympathy to his family."
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, don't get your facts wrong, and don't bore me.
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Interesting…”mark,” not the standard “mourn.”
That seems appropriate. SAG should hire a writer (and a Unionist).
Gotta love the phrasing. I’m suprised the WGA was able to muster up three lines worth.
Yeah, I marked the passing of Nick Counter too – with a martini! I feel bad for any family left without their father/brother/husband, but they all knew what he did for a living and reveled in the spoils of his labors. As ye sow…
Some of you think (and say), “it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead.” Why? The guy was a king-sized douchebag. He’s dead and the world is a better place without him.
Nick Counter did his job well, there is no disputing that. But then, so do drug dealers, repo men and hitmen for the mob. Just because someone hires out to do someone else’s dirty work, it doesn’t make that person respectable – or make their hands clean.
David White couldn’t make a personal statement about Counter because his old company advised the AMPTP on how to screw the union membership. Better for David to just tag along on Ken Howard’s coattails and not make too much of it – even though it’s very likely he knew the man well.
Posters take note: THAT’S how you tell someone to burn in hell without being tacky enough to actually say the words.
That’s more like it.
Once again, WGA demonstrates that it’s the only major union in town with any class or character.
Why SAG couldn’t just do something like this instead of being so suck-up-y is beyond me.
A polite and well-spoken fuck you. Nicely done and richly deserved.
Of course, “mark”. Did you really expect them to say that they “mourn” the passing of the guy whose sole mission was to keep money in the pockets of the AMPTP and out of the pockets of the Unions? Really? Of course if Verrone croaks, the studios WILL mourn. His replacement might have a pair of nuts.
Well said. While I’m not one to start doing cartwheels when a man who was a husband, father, and grandfather dies, I don’t think we should whitewash the enormous damage he and his collaborators did to the industry. I’m still reeling from the SAG statement that said we were “in his debt.”
I like how the WGA finally stands up to Counter once he’s dead. Courageous.
Something like this would have been perfectly appropriate for SAG’s leaders to issue. One wonders what they were thinking when they decided to gush. Even if you feel that way personally, keep it to yourself and let the public statement reflect what the members are feeling. How could they not have anticipated the reaction they are getting?
As far as SAG goes, the brilliance of Nick Counter as a tactician was knowing the precise moment to get out of the way and let SAG destroy itself. Nowhere was that more evident than during the last negotiations. He wouldn’t have been able to have the success that he did with a union that was unified and had its act together.
“Silence is an absence of words, not an absence of meaning.” — Sanford Meisner
Perfectly said. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
Short. Concise. Enough said. D.
Yes, the WGA statement is noteworthy for its brevity and minimalism. It’s the equivalent of “damning with faint praise.” Subtle, yet appropriate, yet dignified.
The difference between the WGA statement and the SAG statement shows the worth of good writing. And yes, brevity is the soul of wit.
The above comments show the immaturity of writers and why they and the Hollywood elite are detested by society.
Ah yes! Society detests Hollywood. That’s why the airwaves are filled with TV shows glamourizing show business… why movies, television and music are such popular, powerful and influential mediums… and why it seems everybody and their uncle has an idea for a screenplay, if not one (or more) sitting in a drawer. If you’re going to spout cliches, at least pick one that has the ring of truth, or facts to back it up.
And if you hate the Hollywood elite so much… what the hell are you doing visting DHD in the first place?
So according to your fundamentalist church group, we writers are immature and therefore detested by SOCIETY? Really? That’s not what the girl I picked up last night said. She was smoooookin too. She blew me in Jesus’ name.
I AM HEALED!!!!!
You’re just jealous that you’ll never be as creatively admired and able as writers. Must suck to be you.
Honesty & sincerity are detested? Would you prefer empty, insincere platitudes about someone who ruined more lives than you’re able to count? I look forward to your next assessment of the Obama Administration. You obviously waste your life & standards pretending to be “Fair & Balanced”.
Really, Joseph?
I actually think they showed great restraint when what they probably wanted to say was “good riddance”, “two years too late” and “rot in hell.”
BTW, as a writer I find I’m pretty much beloved by society.
Dear Joseph,
I think most americans would use ‘detest’ to describe CEO’s and upper level management in all areas of business who receive pay scales far out of line for the actual work they provide. I doubt you could find any people in the fly over states who would word associate ‘detest’ with ‘writer’.
But I do find your personal vitriol odd and somewhat revealing. What has a writer ever personally done to you to deserve to be ‘detested’?
Way to go, Guild. Truly classless! The flames of the studios hatred for writers have, no doubt, been fueled.
Joseph the saint called, he’d like the ‘Joseph’ above to stop using his name.
It’s pretty terrible to ‘mark’ the death of a human being in a public letter. That’s just a fact. It’s an ill-prepared note.
We should be detested by society, because we merely distract from that which is real and important.
I absolutely love how people demonize a man they know nothing about. A man who was kind and did nothing malicious to others.
I hate to break it to all of you but the final issue in the WGA strike was not about the residuals. That can be a story for another time but in short the writers of the WGA were conned into the strike by the brass. Way to use those brains that you think you have.
Let me write you a sample of how writers get paid. Do not worry I will go slow for all the WGA members out there.
I knew a writer, who sucked a dick to get a job on a major film and I completely mean that. He, his writing partner and director made a halfway decent “Hollywood” film.
After this film, they were all asked to do another film, a film that “bombed” at the box office. He was payed about 120,000.00 initially for writing the film.
It has been about for years since the release of that film and every quarter of year (3 months for all you WGA’ers) he still receives around 40,000 in residual payments.
This film was nothing special to this writer, he took no time in writing the film and made barely an effort to give the film a solid story. He simply did not care about the film.
Since then, he has done nothing for the film and has not made a single movie. Yet he still rakes in 40,000 every three months for a movie that was quite terrible in my eyes and will probably go down as a huge disappointment.
On a side note, this writer has conned himself into several initial payments on projects that he will never complete because he will not write the movie he has been commissioned (payed) to do. (By the way, writers are payed according to Guild rules)
Also, the writer once said to me, “I need more money, so I guess I need to find a new project.” Obviously, the first thought in my head was, why do you not just finish the eight you have deadlines for.
This writer would blow his money on cheaply made collector toys from Japan and contribute nearly nothing to society.
Being just a writer is not a career choice. It is a hobby you choose to do because you are good at it. Please find me pictures of Hemingway, Chaucer or Tolstoy holding picket signs.
If you are a writer and you have something bad to say about a man, do it the way we have always done it. Write a story about him or at least write a metaphor and look at it the ole’ fashion Colbert way. If it makes money, then it has meaning. Or, look at it the way true writers look at their work. If it is good and people like it, then I am truly happy.
I have met and known so many just “Writers” in Hollywood and I can tell you they tend to be dumber then the turd I just laid out. Just like anyone who is not actually good at their job in Hollywood, these writers act like assholes (so no one will question their ability) and constantly beg for more money because they know that they do not really have any real money making skill set.
I also knew Nick in person, he was a much better human being then most people you meet in Hollywood. He mostly cared about money going towards pensions and retirement funds. He wanted the money to go to people who made a career out of their life’s work. He was a hard worker and he could of retired, long before the WGA scum demonized him. He decided to keep working, to ensure that Hollywood would not go to shit. But, he kept on trucking along even though he knew his body could not take the stress anymore. He continued to work and work hard he did. The contracts he would negotiate would live on for three years and he would not stand outside picketing for residuals. He cared about his work and make the contract negotiations not because he got payed to but because he wanted a fair and balanced contract. He worked harder then any writer, I have ever known.
In closing, why do you think the directors, actors(2 guilds), etc… all settled their contracts so quickly with Nick? Hmmmmm… maybe because it was fair and balanced.
Nick does not, did not and will never deserve the kind of trash I read on this site spewed about him. His family has read this and it has made their pain all that more unbearable. He was a man of great integrity and intelligence.
Before you start spewing off what some celebrity told you to say or do why don’t you read a book. Well, at least one past the reading levels of Twilight and The Da Vinci Code.
People seem to not realize this but most writers who have been decently successful either did not participate in the strike or realized their mistake around the end of the second week (ie. Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Kevin Smith and the list goes on and on). Oh, even the writer from my example figured out the strike was bad idea.
I wanted to go to the writers while they were striking and tell them how much they were fucking up our economy. (Entertainment is one of America’s largest exports). But, I had a real job that I need to be at, one that pays me according to my skill and the level of work I put out. Maybe, I am the only one who sees this but I am pretty sure our economy really began it’s death spiral during that three month period during the strike. There were other options then striking for the writers but hey give a writer only a reason to not work and he will take it.
The strike was a bad idea, no one “won” anything. Nick was just a Steward put in charge to guard the kingdom of entertainment. I miss him more then I would miss most of the people in Hollywood I have met. He was such a great man and will be missed by all of those who truly missed him. A man, movies used to be written about.
P.S. Nick could easily be classify as a liberal. I am sure that blew some pathetic little mind that believes we should all be classified by our political stance.
P.P.S. The idiot who think Brevity is the Soul of Wit, probably hasn’t written shit worth shitting on. Life is complicated, life takes thought, consideration, critical thinking, etc…
Grow up and get a real job or be a starving artist, trust me, I have been there, it is a lot of fun and worth the life experience. If you truly love your work, money does not matter.