More Clarification on the AMPTP's Numbers

A letter from WGA Board Members that was sent this afternoon to members, with even more detail on the corporations' proposal.

Fellow members:

There are a lot of rumors and questions floating around, and we’d like to address them.

HAVE NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN DOWN?
No.

DID OUR NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE ASK FOR A BREAK?
No.

THEN WHY THE FOUR DAY BREAK?
On Thursday, the studios and networks gave us some of their proposals, and said they needed more time to fashion the rest. Therefore talks were scheduled to resume on Tuesday.

THE COMPANIES SAY THEY ARE OFFERING US IS A $130 MILLION INCREASE. THE GUILD CALLS IT A ROLLBACK. WHY THE DISPARITY?
The companies have still not explained how they arrived at their $130 million figure, but we can certainly explain how this is a rollback.

OKAY. SO HOW IS THEIR MADE-FOR-INTERNET PROPOSAL A ROLLBACK?
Currently, the writer of a 30-minute prime-time TV show makes almost $21,000. The conglomerates are proposing that if that writer wrote the same show for the Internet, his or her initial compensation would be $2,600. That’s a rollback of 88%.

SO WHAT’S THEIR OFFER ON INTERNET RERUNS?
Currently, the writer of a half-hour television episode makes about $11,600 when his or her episode is first re-run on TV. The companies are proposing that if that same episode is rerun instead on the Internet, they will pay the whopping total of $139 for unlimited reruns for one year--and nothing at all if it only streams for six weeks. About a third of all TV series are now being rerun only on the Internet. This amounts to an immediate 98.8% rollback. And it gets worse. If they decide to call a show “promotional,” they don’t have to pay us anything. It’s a “freepeat.”

WOW. AND WHAT ABOUT FEATURES?
Are you sitting down? The companies want to be able to stream any and all feature films in their entirety, supported by advertising dollars, and pay the writers nothing. Zip. Nada. Bupkus. A 100% rollback.

GIVEN ALL THIS, HOW IN THE WORLD DID THE COMPANIES COME UP WITH THE 130 MILLION DOLLAR FIGURE?
Our question exactly. It’s definitely not a three-year number. As near as we can figure, their proposal might net us that total around the year 2107.

YOU HAVEN’T SAID ANYTHING NEW ABOUT DOWNLOADS.
Neither have they. We are hoping that they will address this essential issue by Tuesday. Stay tuned.

In solidarity,

Nick Kazan
Howard A. Rodman
Phil Robinson
Tom Schulman
(for the Board of Directors)

An Open Letter to the AMPTP's PR Person of the Hour

Hey, there. So, I understand that there's been a lot of turnover in your job lately. In the very likely event that you get fired before you finish reading this, I hope you'll be so kind as to mark your place so that your successors can pick up reading where you leave off. Thanks.

I'm writing to let you know that I understand how hard it is to be you. It seems like the AMPTP goes through PR firms faster than Nick Counter goes through wolf-headed walking sticks. It must be very dispiriting to know that you are facing a task that not even Hill & Knowlton wanted. Nikki Finke reported that the AMPTP had hired H&K, the company responsible for defending Big Tobacco in the 1950s. But two days ago, H&K called Nikki to deny they had any relationship with the AMPTP. So what that tells us is, H&K would rather admit to working for a carcinogen than for Nick Counter.

In the few minutes you've been on the job, I bet you've already realized what an uphill battle you're facing. The media have been reporting all week about how your client is losing the PR war. Read this piece from yesterday's LA Times for example:

As the strike has dragged on, studio executives have become increasingly worried that their side has been drowned out by relentless pickets in Los Angeles and New York. The writers' blitzkrieg has triggered a heated debate within the alliance about how to burnish its public image.

Over the weekend, [Barbara] Brogliatti told alliance chief negotiator Nick Counter that she was stepping down from her day-to-day job as chief spokeswoman.

Brogliatti, a former Warner Bros. executive, has been consulting for the alliance and will stay on as senior advisor. The alliance is in the process of hiring a replacement.

Whomever is hired faces a formidable task.

Or listen to this story from NPR.

All that talk is quite flattering to us, but we don't pay much attention to it. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Your PR problem isn't us. It's the AMPTP.

We're not some crack team of PR geniuses, we're just a bunch of volunteers. All we've done is tell our story. All we've had to do to "win the PR battle" is get the facts out there. Every bit of PR we've done has said the same thing -- "All we want is a fair deal."

Unfortunately, your client's story can be summed up in one word: GIMME. And that's not even a word, it's more of a pig-like grunt.

That's a very tough story to sell. I'm not sure there's a PR person in the world who could do it. Our proposals are so reasonable, and your client's are so "sensationally wrong" as the New Yorker's tv critic put it, that your client can't open its mouth without digging itself a deeper hole.

That's why the AMPTP had to have a media blackout. Hiding was the only option. Coverage of the negotiations only hurt your client because even slight scrutiny shows us being rational and the AMPTP, you know, grunting. The blackout would take the public heat off your client and toy with the writers' emotions, weakening their resolve to stand firm.

Except that didn't happen. Even with a blackout, the story of a fair deal was beating GIMME. The writers didn't back down.

So, perhaps in frustration, someone working for your client said, "Wait, let's lift the blackout and announce a bold New Economic Partnership. The name alone will wow 'em. It'll be a huge and insulting rollback, but if we smile hard enough, no one will notice!"

You're cringing, I know. Everyone noticed. And this is the mess that's been left for you to clean up. You now have to deal with the revelation that your client was negotiating in bad faith. Your client wasn't just wasting our time, they were putting more and more people out of work, hurting thousands of families and costing the LA economy millions rather than give us a fair deal.

It's now clear to the whole country -- and increasingly, the world -- that it would be easier and cheaper to negotiate honestly. How can you explain the fact that the AMPTP quite possibly has already lost the conglomerates more than they would have to pay if we got every single thing we're asking for?

As I said, I feel for you. I bet you're wishing you could punch the dolt who fed all that nonsense to Nikki Finke about a sweetened, comprehensive new media offer coming out. They built up all this excitement, then offered shit and called it a sundae. It would be funny if it weren't so shameful. With the blackout lifted, the facts of what's happened will only spread further and further, and the outrage will grow.

That is, unless you do something about it. That's what you've been brought on to do. And because I'm a nice guy, I'm going to tell you how to do it.

Tell the AMPTP to make a fair deal.

It really is that simple. Tell them to hold their noses and actually negotiate. Tell them that the longer they drag their feet, trumpet fake proposals and spend more money fighting a deal than a deal would actually cost, the deeper a hole they dig for themselves. The only way out of this mess is for the conglomerates' CEOs to step in and say, "Enough. Wasting a huge amount of money to save a tiny amount of money is not good business, it's idiocy."

My friend, if you can do that, you'll be a hero. You'll be acclaimed from every corner of the industry. You will have literally saved the future of not only thousands of working families but of the conglomerates themselves. The companies and the workers can get back to figuring out the digital future of entertainment together instead of letting someone else do it without us.

And the icing on the cake? It'll be Nick Counter who gets fired this time, not you.

Some Answers: Real Numbers, and what Really Happened in the Negotiations

Ok, so we've finally got some answers from our sources. We'll have more as the day goes on, but here's the beginning of it:

Why aren't the writers still in the room negotiating? Why are we waiting until Tuesday to continue?

When they presented their proposal, the companies said it was incomplete. The Negotiation Committee still hasn't received the rest of the proposal, and they're waiting on the AMPTP to actually bring it. However, it's kinda hard to get excited about anything they may be bringing to the table, given the unimpressive track record they have so far.

But also, what the congloms are proposing is a new paradigm in these negotiations -- a flat fee for use on internet. As a WGA member, it sounds crazy to me -- I feel like percentage of revenue is a much more sensible model, and one that can accomodate all the fluctuations of this "new" media/internet that seem to have the corporations in such a tizzy. But it's fair (I guess; frankly "fair" isn't the mood I'm in) to examine this idea and its ramifications closely.

The corporations say they're offering us $130 million. Is that true?

Weirdly, no one knows if that figure has any relation to reality. Apparently the AMPTP haven't felt the urge to share where that number comes from. They didn't present it to the NegComm in the room -- the first time anyone saw it was in the AMPTP press release when they (unilaterally) broke the media blackout.

Since they claim that the internet just isn't going to make any money, and supposedly that number has some relationship to the internet money they're offering, it's... baffling.

We're trying to get an answer on that one. But frankly, it looks like that number, like the cheerfully 1950's-flavored wording of their PR release to the world, is spin, not substance.

UPDATE ON THE "$130 MILLION" ISSUE --

As well as not yet revealing where that figure comes from, the conglomerates are also refusing to say how many years it covers.

In other words, that $130 million could be paid to writers over 1 year -- or 3 years -- or 5 -- or 20. Or, as one NegCom member pointed out, the most likely number: "infinity."

Which could, for example, mean 10 bucks a year.

How about the rollbacks?

This is where things get really frustrating. We all know that television is headed toward internet delivery, and movies too; close to a third of television series are already rerunning primarily via streaming and downloads, instead of on tv.

Shows like LOST, for example -- this year it will supposedly be shown without a singe rerun. The only reruns would be on the internet via streaming and downloads. That means that a writer, who would normally get anywhere from $3,000 residual for a WGA-covered cable show to $20,000 residual for a huge network hit, would get $250 dollars instead when it was shown on the internet -- and that would cover reruns for a whole year, no matter how many times it was seen. If that same episode was downloaded from iTunes for $1.99, the writer would receive about .6 cents. As in, slightly more than half a penny.

That's why it's a rollback. It about the future, yes -- but it's also about right now.

And of course, we shouldn't leave out "promotional use" -- which, as usual, means if they decide something is promotional, they don't have to pay anything. Ever. And by "promotional" they mean, well, whatever they want.
And that includes entire movies, entire television episodes, regardless of how much money the AMPTP receives for them. And they can unilaterally declare anything promotional.

Want to guess how much stuff they'll designate as promotional? Cause I'm thinking... everything.

Teamster Member Breaks Down The AMPTP Proposal: A Kid's Book Makes More Sense

(We want to welcome Teamster Member John Jabaley as a regular contributor to United Hollywood, and we hope to continue to add voices and perspectives from all unions.)


Last night was a literary evening at my house. After "Go, Dog, Go!" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" we continued the Ingalls' family saga with a chapter of "Little Town on the Prairie." After my kids fell asleep I settled down to look at the AMPTP's latest proposal to the WGA.

I really should have stuck with P.D. Eastman & Dr. Seuss. A big dog party up there in the tree is something I can believe in. But $250.00 in residuals? For a whole year? Really?

I couldn't resist grabbing a paper towel and pen to try and figure out what this proposal means for those of us below the line.

In 2006 the AMPTP member companies contributed $339,000,000 in residuals to our P&H funds and made another $277,000,000 in direct contributions. That's a total employer contribution of $616,000,000.00 We employees contributed $0.00, and there was a surplus when it was all said and done.

Now the AMPTP is proposing to give writers a residual payment of $250.00 for an entire year of streaming reruns instead of the TV standard of $20,000.00 for the first rerun. What does that have to do with us? In terms of Dr. Seuss, is it a big fish or a little fish? It turns out it's almost all the fish. There are shows that already have no network rerun ("Lost" and "24" for example). They only stream on the Internet. Not only do the writers get nothing, our pension and health funds get nothing.
So what will this mean? I estimate $250.00 dollars to be one eightieth of $20,000.00. Now of course our P&H funds get several times 20,000.00, but the ratio of one eightieth is the one the AMPTP is offering, so that's what we're looking at. And one eightieth of $339,000,000.00 is $4,237,500.00. For the sake of my paper towel I have to assume all residuals payments to the plan are from content made for television. I also have to do that because the AMPTP is offering $0.00 for theatrical content streamed on the internet.

My paper towel got a little messy around here, as it's been a while since I've done long division and I frankly got a little fascinated by all the zeroes. But I wanted to know the worst case scenario, the one my kids will face if they disregard my advice and go into the industry. The one I will face before I retire. The one guys with 25 years and 48,000 hours will face when they're 72 and have their hip go out a 2nd time.

So here's where I ended up once I added the direct contributions and the reduced residual payments: $281,237,500.00. That's a lot less than $616,000,000.00 In fact, it's a shortfall of $8,000.00 for each and every one of the roughly 42,000 members of the health plan. I don't know how long it will be until all content is delivered over the internet vs. broadcast, but with savings like that I bet the process is going to speed up pretty quickly.

Now admittedly these are very rough numbers- Of course there will still be DVD sales and, if the companies get their way, downloads at the DVD rate, and we'll continue to get a few pennies for airplane and hotel movies. There will still be reruns on the airwaves, but they will become a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. People will still watch things on their TV screens, but those screens will be fed through the Internet.

The numbers paint a pretty bleak picture for the future of our pension and health funds. Retirees can pretty much kiss 13th and 14th checks goodbye, and we'll all be looking at large increases in deductibles, co-pays and yet unheard of ways to pay more for healthcare.

On a brighter note, Laura Ingalls and her family finally managed to raise enough money to send her sister Mary to a college for the blind. Of course scarlet fever wouldn't have made her blind if she'd had healthcare. But I digress.

John Jabaley
Location Manager
IBT Local 399

SAG - Call To Arms

(We want to welcome SAG Member Justine Bateman as a regular contributor to United Hollywood. We hope to continue opening the site up to more voices from SAG and other unions. Justine reminds us that this fight belongs to all of us. We're all on the same page.)

Attention all SAG Actors:

I believe it's appropriate at this time to call all actors into action in support of the Writer's Guild on strike.
I know many of us have been walking the picket lines and attending the rallies, but I want to challenge ALL SAG members to see if they can commit an HOUR-A-DAY to walking the picket lines.
The AMPTP has been jerking the Writer's Guild around.
1. They offered nothing but insulting Roll-Backs to the WGA in the negotiations that caused the strike.
2. They have planted "trolls" to post on the industry internet sites(corporate-paid people who troll the internet for places to pretend they are writers, crew members, and fans and post AMPTP propaganda).
3. They called WGA back to the table on Monday with no intention of settling as they AGAIN presented that rejected Roll-Back proposal. Their purpose in getting in the room again looks only like a weak PR move to get the public and the fans to change their tunes about calling a Christmas Boycott of DVD and downloads. I believe the fans will NOT call those Boycotts off now.
4. They tried to discredit Nikki Finke and deadlinehollywooddaily.com by planting mis-information about this weeks talks in an attempt to crush the spirits of the writers.

Ultimately, this is OUR strike. If the WGA had not called this strike, we would all be participating in MASSIVE stockpiling. Then, in June when our contract expires, the AMPTP would have offered US the no-gains-play-your-work-for-free-and-how-bout-some-rollbacks offer we're now familiar with.
And SAG would have to go on strike, but because of the stockpiling, we would have NO leverage. The AMPTP would have said to us, "Strike all you want. We have enough material stockpiled for 6 moths, maybe more."
And we would have been on strike for months and months and months.

So I urge you, get out there on the lines. Go to www.wga.org and look at the list of picketing locations. There's a studio near you. Pick a gate, become their SAG mascot. Maybe there's a studio that is on the way to a meeting or near the school you drop your kids off at or on the way to where you need to run errands. Just park the car and pick up a picket sign for an HOUR-A-DAY.
These guys need us. We're 120,000 strong. Let's get out there and let them know we're WITH them.
Let them know we are Fighting For The Future, too.

Here are some links. Send any videos you think are important to your friends and family.

www.unitedhollywood.com
www.speechlesswithoutwriters.com
www.wga.org
www.sag.org

Best,
Justine Bateman
SAG Member

UPDATED: Press Blackout Lifted -- Companies Offer Rollbacks

UPDATED: We're bringing the post from yesterday to the top of the page -- but we also wanted to let you know what's on the agenda for today.

We'll be updating frequently throughout the day as we get some answers to questions we all have -- where are the congloms getting their numbers? What are they based on? What really happened in the negotiating meeting? Why, after insisting that there was no way to do flat payments on internet use, did the companies suddenly completely shift their paradigm and tell us that actually, no, it was percentages they aren't willing to discuss?

We'll also be able to clarify what the WGA negotiating committee proposal numbers are, and confirm the ugly fact that all this could have been over weeks ago for less than the budget of doing PR for one theatrical release or fall tv show. As in, a lot less.

Stay tuned, folks. It's going to be a busy day. And if there's one thing I hope we've all learned in the last week -- let's keep a healthy skepticism about everything we hear. The truth remains on our side, we just have to get it out where people can see it.

FROM YESTERDAY:

The companies put out a press release today, thus ending the media blackout to which they and the WGA agreed. So this is what we no know:

That big, amazing proposal that the companies hinted to Nikki Finke was coming? Well, it came.

Turns out their exciting, groundbreaking proposal is... a residual rollback. And not just any rollback, one of the biggest in the history of the Guild. Then, stunningly, the companies have the balls to say their plan gives us more compensation. Well, I'm sorry, but If you take away a dollar and give me a nickel, the nickel ain't a raise. Somewhere, Nick Counter's first-grade math teacher is embarrassed.

So we decided to do some math of our own: We broke out the cost of the WGA's current proposal to the conglomerates into yearly figures. We found that the TOTAL payment yearly -- the total that ALL the companies would make under our proposals -- is $50.54 million. And that, we realized, is about one-third the budget of TRANSFORMERS. We are asking IN TOTAL, for the equivalent of the cost overrun on a summer event movie.

Instead of agreeing that that is a fair and just offer, they've proposed this:

When an hourlong episode of television is streamed on the Internet, writers would get a flat $250 payment for one year of reuse. That's $250 as opposed to, for example, $20,000 per episode when it's reused on network television. They proposed nothing new on downloads, it's still the DVD formula for those (ie. two-thirds of a penny for an iTunes download). For theatrical movies, they're offering exactly $0.00 on streaming. Oh, and they want to be able to define any content they like as "promotional" -- for which they would pay zero dollars. Even if they stream an entire film or tv episode, and even if they sell ads on it, they can call that promotional and pay us nothing.

THE AMPTP claims their deal is worth $130 million over three years. But what they don't mention is how much we'd lose under their proposal. As all media distribution transitions to the Internet before our eyes, their proposal takes away far, far more revenue than it provides.

A bold, new relationship? Sure, an abusive one.

Patric Verrone and Michael Winship sent this letter to membership a few minutes ago:

To My Fellow Members,

After four days of bargaining with the AMPTP, I am writing to let you know that, though we are still at the table, the press blackout has been lifted.

Our inability to communicate with our members has left a vacuum of information that has been filled with rumors, both well intentioned and deceptive.

Among the rumors was the assertion that the AMPTP had a groundbreaking proposal that would make this negotiation a "done deal." In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.

From streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.

For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15 minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300. They continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet.

In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse "promotional," and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).

The AMPTP says it will have additional proposals to make but, as of Thursday evening, they have not been presented to us. We are scheduled to meet with them again on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I felt it was essential to update you accurately on where negotiations stood. On Wednesday we presented a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals. Our entire package would cost this industry $151 million over three years. That's a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%. We are falling behind.

For Sony, this entire deal would cost $1.68 million per year. For Disney $6.25 million. Paramount and CBS would each pay about $4.66 million, Warner about $11.2 million, Fox $6.04 million, and NBC/Universal $7.44 million. MGM would pay $320,000 and the entire universe of remaining companies would assume the remainder of about $8.3 million per year. As we've stated repeatedly, our proposals are more than reasonable and the companies have no excuse for denying it.

The AMPTP's intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating. Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of SAG, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together.

Best,
Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

Nikki Finke and Kim Delaney on United Hollywood Live

Nikki Finke, the journalist behind Hollywood must-read website Deadline Hollywood Daily, and Emmy-nominated actress Kim Delaney will be the special guests today, November 30th, on United Hollywood Live (12-1 PM Pacific/3-4 PM Eastern).

A large part of the show will deal with this week's negotiations and the latest AMPTP rollback offer.

Tune in by CLICKING HERE (or by using the widget located along the right hand side of UnitedHollywood.com). The show, which airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is also available as a podcast immediately after each broadcast via the widget.

Fans and WGA supporters are encouraged to become a part of the broadcast via live IM chats, video feeds and phone calls to the studio. We want to hear your thoughts!

"You're Going to Hollywood! Hope You Don't Like Health Care!" The First Picket On American Idol

Today a group of picketers showed their support for the writers of American Idol by hoisting their picket signs and passing leaflets out to people entering and exiting the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where the reality show was holding their narrow-down-the-ones-who-made-it-to-Hollywood auditions.

Yes, indeed, reality shows have writers. And, those writers are not granted WGA union contracts by the AMPTP. Unfortunately, this means they are not protected and, as revealed in a new study commissioned by the WGAw, "overwhelmingly work long hours without receiving overtime pay, health insurance, and other benefits..."

Not fair you say? We agree. And, so does the California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), whom:

recently ruled that a reality TV story producer was improperly classified as an exempt employee and should have been paid overtime, the results of the [new] study “indicate that the total overtime liability for employers could reach almost $100 million..."

Unfortunately, corporations like Fremantle Media (the producers of American Idol), find any loophole they can to get out of fair pay and health insurance for their employees.

To write, or call Fremantle to let them know you are a viewer and would like to see them change their policies, contact them at:

FremantleMedia Ltd
1 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1AL

T +44 (0)20 7691 6000

You can also visit their website to see a list of their programs and properties.
http://www.fremantlemedia.com/

World Wide Rallies In Support of The Writers!

It's a small world after all - thanks to the Internet (not the theme-park ride). Yesterday was International Picketing Day, and we got emails, links, photos and videos sent to us from around the globe!

Thanks to Jessie Jay for sending these two links:

Australian writers hold rallies in support of WGA.
New Zealand writers rally

Jessie writes, "I love your site and I hope you know how much fans around the world support you guys, and not just those in the same hemisphere as you."


From Montreal

Martine Pagé, a screenwriter, sends this report:

The turn out in Canada was pretty good, including two groups braving
the COLD in Toronto and Montreal! The rallies were organized by the WGC
(Writers Guild of Canada) and the SARTEC (the French language writers
guild in Quebec). There were a lot of newspaper and radio reporters
around as well as tv camera crews.

Here's a video of the bilingual (English and French) solidarity march
today in Montreal.

And here are some photos of the rallies in Montreal and Toronto.

Here's a recap of the walk in Montreal.

And here's a recap of the walk in Toronto.

We're behind you! Don't give up!

Also, check out the AP article and WGA press room collection of photos from the international events .

Thanks again to all who braved inclement weather in different hemispheres supporting our WGA. Appreciate all your sharing!

Finally! A Video Response from the AMPTP!

In the interest of equal time, UH presents this message of healing from two executives at MegaPictures BFD.

Rumor Patrol: All the Showrunners Went Back to Work

STATUS: False.
Several people called and/or emailed under the assumption that because negotiations had resumed, all the showrunners were back on the job. I'm guessing the origin of this rumor was a post on Variety's Scribe Vibe blog from the 26th:

Many of TV's top showrunners headed back to the office this week, resuming their non-writing chores (such as editing, supervising post production, etc.). One studio exec said "more than half" of his series' showrunners were back at work, both on the comedy and drama side.
Fueling the return: The revived talks between the Writers' Guild and AMPTP. That follows through on an arrangement proposed by many showrunners earlier this month, in which the multi-hyphenates agreed to return to work only if the studios agreed to return to the negotiating table.

Multiple sources told UH yesterday that this is a delicious cocktail of spin, one part exaggeration mixed with two parts incorrect information. (Just add some sour mix and a dash of bitters!)

Anonymous sources close to the situation (what works for Variety works for us) laughed off the "about half" figure for one network. Across ALL the networks, one source said the number was in the single digits -- as in, under ten. It's certainly nowhere near half, we're told.

So that's the exaggeration. The incorrect parts are these:

1. The AMPTP's return to the table was the criteria for showrunners to return: False.
Our multiple sources say the proposal was actually to return to work if the AMPTP "began negotiating in good faith." Simply returning to the table was not the threshold being considered. The threshold was some evidence such as a joint announcement that "an agreement in principle" or even "a tentative agreement" had been reached. That was to be the signal that genuine progress was happening and that the companies were serious about making a deal.

2. Some kind of arrangement to go back was actually adopted by the showrunners as a group: False.
Apparently, the backers of this proposal were a "very small faction" of the showrunners. The group at large did not think it was a wise strategy, and so the idea was never declared "the official policy of the group." It was left up to individual consciences when to return.

As best we can determine, the few showrunners who have returned do not even constitute the entire group that proposed holding out for the evidence of "good faith." It's a subset of a subset.

So speaking of "good faith" -- and bad faith -- why would an anonymous exec want to spin Variety this way?

One possible reason is the hope that the spin could be self-fulfilling. If you keep repeating that all the showrunners are working, a bunch of them just might get spooked and go back. The other strategic reason is to split the showrunners and have them turn on one another. What no one on either side of the strike disputes is this section of that same Variety post:

The united front by TV's showrunners to halt their work forced several series to stop production sooner than expected, and is seen by many as having helped the WGA's cause -- serving as a catalyst to jumpstart talks.

So it would be a huge coup for the conglomerates if they could break up that unity. Thankfully, we've been told that the showrunners are respecting each other's choices, even if they disagree with them. "The showrunners are all doing what they think is best to end the strike. And a small group believe that going back to work is going to help; a larger group feels that since staying out was such a powerful tool in bringing the congloms back to the table, it’s best to continue staying out."

Due to the news blackout, we have no idea if the companies are negotiating in good faith. And we won't know until there is some sort of joint announcement of "agreements in principle." Once that happens, some showrunners may go back to work, a lot won't. But the longer it takes for that moment to arrive, the more inclined we are to believe the reports from Nikki Finke that there's a lot of corporate foot-dragging going on.

Keeping Score at Home

A reader emailed us an interesting observation about the stock prices of the four companies we're striking against whose core businesses are entertainment (ie: not GE and Sony). From day one of the strike (Nov 5) until yesterday, the stock prices have all declined:

CBS -4.5%

Disney -6.4%

Viacom -3.8%

News Corp -2.0%
Source: CNNMoney.com

Of course, many things factor into a company's stock price, but if you're a shareholder, you might suggest to your board that one way to boost confidence would be fostering productive, mutually beneficial relationships with the creators of some of your biggest revenue streams. A crazy notion, we know!

Walking the Picket Line in a Blackout

Something's very different on the picket line.

Since Thanksgiving, the energy on the picket lines has fallen off. One picketer was even seen reading a book while he walked the picket line.

It seems like only yesterday that we were chanting to stop trucks from crossing the picket line or "2-4-6-8, Why won't they negotiate." The turnout and the energy paid off. The AMPTP rejoined us at the negotiating table and that was great.

But now....we wait....in a news blackout.

Getting the agreement to restart the negotiations felt climactic, because so much energy had to be expended to get the AMPTP to do the right thing, but "restarting" the talks didn't mean "concluding" them.

Monday Nikki Finke raised our hopes: a deal's been worked out. Tuesday she lowered our expectations: time at the table didn't mean moving forward.

Nikki, like everyone else, is trying to read the tea leaves. And we want something to happen. We'd like to think it's all been worked out; they're just withholding the good news so they can surprise us for the holidays.

On the picket lines, the dark stuff comes out.

"The AMPTP didn't want to restart the negotiations. Their bad polling numbers forced them to sit down again. They aren't really serious about the negotiations. All they're really doing is running out the clock, stalling until all the force majeure money drops into their pockets."

And that leads to the really dark stuff.

"The 'news blackout' and then the hopeful press about a deal's-already-done sucks off the good energy we had going before Thanksgiving. The AMPTP doesn't want us to get daily updates because then we'll see how they aren't willing to give us a fair deal. Flip it the other way: if we think we already have a deal--that's really Machiavellian--why fight when you think you've already won?"

A lot of tea leaf-reading.

But there's no question that we know a couple of things, for sure. We all want a deal, because we'd rather go back to work. But there isn't a deal yet. And, most importantly, we haven't won so we have to keep doing what we've been doing.

We're still in a fight. That's the only news flash we'll get in a news blackout.

So now what?

If you were picketing or blogging or posting videos on YouTube or talking with fans or working with other unions, you have to keep doing it--all that is part of the process, just as much as the work our negotiating committee does in rooms in unnamed hotels.

And they can't do their work if we don't do ours.

We need to be on the picket lines with as many people as possible, with as much energy as before, making it clear that the strike is important, that we know we're fighting for our future, that it's not over yet, that we'll do whatever we have to, and that "We Matter".

The Strike, Your Marriage and You

With the assistance of Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? writer Bob Kushell helps you survive your marriage during the Writers' Strike.

SERVICE EMPLOYEES RALLY TOMORROW

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been very supportive of our strike. They've paid for billboards reading, "Hey Studios... Do the Write Thing. 1.9 million janitors, healthcare workers, public employees, and security officers support the writers' struggle for fairness." At last week's union solidarity rally they marched with us, as they have on several other occasions.

Now we have a chance to return the favor. The SEIU Security Officer Local (SOULA Local 2006) is asking WGA members to support them in their fight for justice.

Join them tomorrow,
Thursday, Nov. 29th
at 11:00 am
at 1247 W. 7th Street (7th & Bixel St)
in downtown LA.

From there SEIU will bus supporters to the SE corner of 5th and Flower St. (Library Park) for a short rally and march starting at 11:45am, and ending at 1:00 pm.

Breaking the Law To Screw The Worker And Reap Bigger Profits: Corporate America's National Pastime

In his Huffington Post article, How Big Media Breaks The Law On "Survivor" Island, Jonathan Tasini writes:

It now appears that Big Media has been routinely breaking wage-and-hour laws, pocketing piles of money it should have been paying to writers who work in reality television. Here's the story. Turns out that reality television is a sweat-shop for the writers who make those shows happen: long hours with no overtime pay, no health insurance, and no pension.

He points out that this is a broader problem for all American workers, not just writers:

Big Media is taking part in a sham that is growing like a cancer throughout the American workplace--the misclassification of workers. Now, this sounds like a very boring phrase. And it would be if, in real life (as opposed to reality TV life), it didn't mean that lots of people were being robbed blind.

He closes by stating:

So, if you've wondered whether the Guild's strike is your fight, there is the crystal-clear answer. Writers Guild of America members are fighting the very same fight that every worker is fighting--the attempt by corporate America to rewrite the rules of the basic social compact, either by cutting peoples' pay or refusing to share in the money earned, or skating or snubbing the basic rule of law.

Check out the full article at:

www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/how-big-media-breaks-the-_b_74086.html

Criminal Minds Fans Fundraise For Support Staff and Crew

The fans of Criminal Minds have a daily blog, and have been raising funds for the crew and support staff of their favorite show.

For information on contributing to the "Criminal Minds Appreciation" fund contact Jill Davidson at displacednewyorker@gmail.com. Also, check out their Ebay auction. All proceeds, minus Ebay fees will go to the fund.

Toy Drive A Real Ball

Writer and actress Nia Vardalos, seen here with Phil Rosenthal and Tom McGowan, sponsored a toy drive this Monday. She had this to report:

So many people came by the Raleigh Van Ness Gate (WGA, TEAMSTERS and SAG) and we took two truckloads of toys to the fire station! People brought food for SOVA too – enough to fill two large boxes. It was so much fun, and a great feeling to be part of such an uplifting day!

Thanks to Nia for organizing the event, and thanks to all who donated!

Pencils2MediaMoguls Update

Have you ever wondered what a pallet-load of pencils looks like? This picture is your answer. Have you ever wondered what a pallet-load of pencils being delivered to a chagrined media mogul looks like? You'll find out soon!

The Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign is moving forward. And I'm happy to report that Miles Millar and Al Gough, the showrunners of "Smallville," have announced a fun incentive for those of you who haven't joined in. This email was sent out to "Smallville" fans this morning:

So, Miles and I were sitting around the other day (which is what writers do when they can't write and their picketing shift if over) wondering what we can do to kick this Pencils2Moguls campaign up a notch. Don't get me wrong, we are stoked by the response so far, but we felt there must be something we can do to really light a fire under it going into the holidays.

Then the answer hit us -- the greatest criminal mind of our time -- Lex Luthor.

We will give the gift of Lex.

Well, not really since he is, after all, a fictional character, but we do have Michael Rosenbaum, one of the best young actors of our time (in our humble opinion). We thought, why not offer a challenge to some of these other shows who have devoted fanbases (that's right Battlestar and Buffy I'm talking to you!) and see whose fans can really deliver the goods (in this case, pencils).

So here is the skinny:

For every box of environmentally friendly pencils you buy at Unitedhollywood.com, your name will be entered into an e-raffle. We will then pick a winner at random and they will receive at phone call from Michael Rosenbaum thanking them for their support of both the cause and the show.

That is right, Lex Luthor will call you directly! Make sure you list SMALLVILLE as the show you are supporting when you click on the icon.

So, Craig, please spread the word far and wide.....and thank you all for your continued support and good wishes. We are all in this together.

Best,

Al Gough

Now, if the gift of Lex isn't enough to motivate you, perhaps you'll take the advice of Jane Espenson:

First off, I just had a new idea for the pencils campaign -- when you put down what show or writer you support? Put your own name down. After all, you're the generation of writers who are going to benefit from this. It makes perfect sense. Go 'head. Support yourself; that's what you're really doing anyway.

And I think this applies not only to the future generation of writers, but to the future generation of actors, directors, set dressers, location scouts, caterers, costume designers, grips, everyone. The companies' unfair and greedy proposals threaten ALL of us in the industry. Let's send that message loud and clear.

Phil Alden Robinson on United Hollywood Live

Oscar-nominated writer-director and WGA board member Phil Alden Robinson will be the special guest today, November 28th, on United Hollywood Live (12-1:30PM Pacific/3-4:30PM Eastern). Robinson has been an articulate voice on behalf of writers during the current strike.

Today's show also features live reports from the various picket lines, video clips and a surprise guest or three.

Tune in by CLICKING HERE (or by using the widget located along the right hand side of UnitedHollywood.com). The show, which airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is also available as a podcast immediately after each broadcast via the widget.

And while United Hollywood Live is brought to you by writers, it's not just for writers.

Fans and WGA supporters are encouraged to become a part of each broadcast via live IM chats, video feeds and phone calls to the studio. They can also embed the show on their sites with the code included on the widget.

Your Mid-Week Links

Exorcism at Warners,
originally uploaded by UnitedHollywood.

This pic snapped by Jeffrey Berman is my favorite from yesterday's exorcism at Warners. Congrats to Jace, Scott and the Horror Writers for pulling this together. And horror folks: I hope you're ready with some AMPTP voodoo dolls if these reports of foot dragging and stall tactics are true.

- Yesterday also saw a big labor solidarity rally in New York's Washington Square Park. There's coverage and video at the Huffington Post.

- We're happy to add your strike photos to our Flickr pool if you don't have one of your own. Just email the shots to unitedhollywood [at] gmail [dot] com. Here is an RSS feed of all photos from Flickr users who've added UH as a contact. There's great stuff in there. I don't know much about SmugMug or Photobucket, but if you do, post links to strike-related tags in the comments!

- The latest "Speechless" is directed by Paul Haggis and features (deep breath) Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Dulcy Rogers, Marguerite Moreau, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Deitrich Bader, Olivia Wilde, Marcia Cross, Chris Redman, Josh Brolin, Jenna Elfman, Elizabeth Pena, Polly Shannon, Kamala Lopez and James Franco.


All "Speechless" videos:
Hi-res/Brightcove
Lo-res/YouTube

- Members Speak!
Pamela Ribon, aka "Pamie" has been blogging about the strike and sharing email from her readers in a series of "Inbox" posts.

Comic Book Resources takes a look at how the strike affects the comics industry and includes a FAQ from comics writer and WGA member Brian K. Vaughan.

Doug Gordon became a WGA member by working for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" during its heyday. He's written a personal essay in support of the strike onSalon.com.

If ever there was a time when I valued my WGA membership the most, it was when I wasn't working. Thanks to the Guild's qualification policy, I had earned enough during my time at "Millionaire" to keep my health insurance for another year. When that ran out, I held onto the WGA's excellent coverage by making COBRA payments. That ends next month, almost four years to the day after I wrote my last trivia question.

- Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax is a very cool new arthouse/rep program from the people behind Family, the "curated bookstore," just down the street. And for the duration of the strike, WGA members get in free.

- As Helen A.S. Popkin argues on MSNBC.com, if the conglomerates can't offer a fair deal and get everyone back to work, the Internet could eat our collective lunch... even if some content on there makes you want to lose your lunch. (And no, I couldn't make it all the way through the infamous video she refers to. I lasted longer than most, but even I have my limits.)

Edie Falco Solves the Strike

The folks over at LateShowWritersOnStrike.com caught up with Edie Falco the other day:

Jericho Fans Support The Writers

I'm impressed.

On-Line, All the Time

We're told that the long strike of 1988 had two far-reaching consequences: the audience discovered cable and reality shows grew in popularity.

What will be the legacy of the 2007 strike?

Hard to say. The negotiations are still ongoing. But one fact is abundantly clear even at this point.

Writers love the internet.

Given that the AMPTP was trying to control the internet, there is something ironic about the way writers have taken to the web as the place to try out ideas or vent or be funny about issues that can seem simultaneously enraging and arcane, like the DVD formula with its string of percentages: 1.5% (or 1.8%) of 20% of the studio’s gross on DVD sales.

By various accounts, after only a few weeks, striking writers and their supporters have put between 750 and 1,000 videos on YouTube.

Blogging is going on day and night as witnessed by our own efforts on unitedhollywood where we've mirrored what hundreds are doing every day on their own.

No matter how the AMPTP tries to obscure the obvious, we all know that in the future, the internet will become an important source of revenue for Hollywood.

But we don't have to wait to see the social importance of the web. Not that we were the first to see it, but during the strike we've seen how quickly communities have been created to support our cause.

That's certainly a great lesson to have learned....and best of all, we didn't have to ask anyone's permission to go on-line.

Answering the Question: Can the Corporations Afford to Pay Us?

Ok, so I hear this a lot: "But can the corporations really afford to pay you what you're asking for?"

Let's set aside for the moment the issue of what the congloms say in their press releases to us (which is basically "There's no money! Ever! And if there was, we spent it all on other projects that lost money so it's gone! Forever! We're broke! We're having to rent our yachts!") and focus on some hard numbers thoughtfully provided by Jonathan Handel on the Huffington Post yesterday.

He writes an excellent (I think) and even-handed analysis that takes into account the effect pattern bargaining will have in calculating real numbers of what we're asking for, and what it will cost the companies, individually, to pay us.

It comes, by his calculation, to $125 million per conglomerate per year -- if we got every single thing we're asking for.

That, by the way, is less than the $140 million Disney spent to fire Michael Ovitz for 15 months of work.

But the reality is, everyone knows how negotiations work:

Remember too, the WGA doesn't realistically expect to get all the numbers it's asking for; a negotiation is a compromise, not a diktat. Let's assume the parties split everything down the middle. That's about a $60 million increase per major per year. $60 million? It's a small fraction of the typical revenue and profits the conglomerates are achieving. The numbers are complex, but the conclusion is simple: the producers can afford to increase the residual payments, and it's time for them to do so.

Take a look at the post. Read for yourself. What we're asking for is simple, fair, and eminently affordable.

And we're a better bet than some of Disney's previous hires.

Exciting Employment Opportunity!

Last week, Nikki Finke wrote an article debunking the Variety theory that the late night hosts were in talks to cross the picket lines and return to the airwaves. And it seemed like Nikki's article reflected the reality of the situation. After all, David Letterman decided to pay his staff out of pocket rather than return to the air, and Jay Leno has been so busy visiting the picket lines in person to provide support (and donuts) that NBC has already scheduled to air "vintage" episodes while his production is shut down.

Nikki, and everyone else, apparently forgot about Carson Daly. He's got a late night show too, and in Carson's opinion, the show must go on!

I know what you're thinking. Carson's a helluva talented guy, but how could he possibly write, produce and star in a late night talk show all by himself? There may actually be a sensible answer to that question, but until someone figures it out, Carson's solution is to ask his friends and family to call a telephone hotline with jokes. You know...his parents, his doctor, his dad's golfing buddies, his "celeb friends", etc.

Yup. You can click to see the email Carson sent out and the phone number you can call to submit jokes.

Is this a stupid gag about the strike for a late night talk show struggling for material? Yeah. Of course.

Does Carson hate his writers? No, probably not.

Was this still a completely lame idea on his part? Absolutely.

We've got a lot of unemployed writers reading this site. If anyone wants to leave jokes for Carson in the comments section (or, hell, just give him a call), please feel free. You won't be paid for it, but you'll be helping Carson out. The strike's been tough on him.

great,
United Hollywood

CA Democratic Party Supports Strike

The California Democratic Party is officially on record as supporting the WGA's strike action. Stating in their resolution:

WHEREAS, the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has refused to recognize the legitimate claims of the approximately 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to fair remuneration through residuals on the distribution of its members’ creative endeavors on any current distribution platforms and those yet to be developed, including the monitoring and enforcement thereof; and

WHEREAS, the AMPTP has had sufficient experience in new media to make confident, public revenue projections to its shareholders, but nevertheless insists that it must study new media for another three years before it can bargain a residuals formula; and

WHEREAS, the AMPTP has thus far been unwilling to recognize that the wages, working conditions and residuals provided in the basic WGA contract should govern work created for any platform, new or old; and has thus far been unwilling to bargain in good faith with the WGA; and is unwilling to offer a reasonable compensation proposal on new media, the home video market formula, DVD sales, mobile phone and iPod transmissions; nor to counteroffer WGA payment proposals for Internet streaming and instead calls such use “promotional” even when whole pictures are shown and new revenue is generated;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party fully supports the strike action and the fight for a fair agreement by the Writers Guild of America as a job action necessary to furthering resolution of the issues between it and its signatory employers, and encourages the AMPTP to return to the table and engage in good faith bargaining; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution should be transmitted to the WGA, the AMPTP, the media, and interested parties.

Guild Member Pickets CBS Baltimore Affiliate

Article reprinted from weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/critics/blog/2007/11/wjz_protest.html

Author and screenwriter Ellis Avrum Cohen staged a one-man protest on TV Hill this morning as part of the Writers Guild of America Strike.

"I'm a team of one," said Cohen, a 30-year member of the guild.
"I can only do so much. This is like David and Goliath, but I believe I can do it."

Cohen is the first union member to picket at a network affiliate in the country as part of this strike. He plans to picket WBAL Thursday morning and WMAR Dec. 4.

Most WJZ employees on their way into the office slowed their cars to read Cohen's signs. Some waved.

"That's union people -- when they stop and read it," he said.
Cohen penned the 1995 book Dangerous Evidence and later adapted it for film. He has been living in the area for the past several years working on a new book about the connection between the founders of the FBI and CIA and Sept. 11, 2001.

"I"m picketing the company -- CBS -- that fed me for 10 years," he said. "Supposedly you don't bite the hand that feeds you. I'm nibbling a little bit."

Reporter who covered this story can be reached at sam.sessa@baltsun.com

So This Strike Thing Is All Over, Right?

Gosh, I don't know. Do you?

I've been asked many times if the strike is going to end this week. Nikki Finke posted a very optimistic report from an insider yesterday morning, and that has set off a wave of enthusiasm. "Fire up the margarita machine!" you say.

Well, not so fast. First of all, it's November, and who drinks margaritas in November?

What if this round of negotiations falls apart? Personally, I didn't think it would come to a strike in the first place. It seemed inconceivable that the conglomerates would stand by a platform that was so -- no other word for it -- evil. But they did. And we went on strike. Had the AMPTP proposal been only 60% evil, who knows what would have happened. As Craig Mazin recently wrote,

"Either they dared us to strike to see if we had the balls (dumb, because their deal was so ridiculous, who would possibly agree to take it?), or they forced us to strike in order to….
…well, hell, Nick Counter, buy me a drink one day and explain that to me if it’s the case. It certainly seemed like the AMPTP forced a strike, but to what end?"

As usual, Craig says it best and says it first. Given that history, am I optimistic we'll have a fair deal by the end of the week? Nope. I'd love one. But I'm afraid after how the companies have behaved so far, I'll feel enthusiastic when there's a joint announcement about a deal and not a moment sooner.

So what do we do until that happy email lands in our inboxes? We keep up the pressure. And to demonstrate resolve, we continue to blog in italics. Part of me, the paranoid part, worries these optimistic rumors are deliberately intended to lull us into a false sense of security. We start to slack off, let the pickets go, stop the bloggity blogging, and then, BAM! Nick Counter cackles, "Gotcha, sucker!" as he zooms up the chimney with my Christmas tree.

I think it's safe to say that this strike didn't go the way the companies thought it would. Let's keep it that way. Check out the article by Brooks Barnes that ran in today's New York Times. Brooks has been no mouthpiece for the Guild. (He started out rather hostile!) My favorite quote:

“Wow,” said Leo Reed, the gruff secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 399 and director of its motion picture division. “You are acting like a militant union.”

Surprise! Turns out you act militant when someone tries to steal the future -- not just your future, but the future of everyone you work with above and below the line.

So let's hope we can all get together for those margaritas, and well before summertime. But don't book the back room at El Coyote yet.

Video: Who's on the Line

This introduction was written by director Peter Hyoguchi. - JA

A portrait of a Writer's Guild picket line.
Each year, Hollywood produces a spate of network TV shows and a couple dozen feature films. With over 12,000 Writers Guild members, clearly not everyone is employed in a given year. While the mainstream media barrages us with images of red carpet and caviar success stories, the reality is that most professionals working in the entertainment industry are middle-class at best.

"Who's On The Line" features interviews with screenwriters Michael Tabb, Wendy Mericle, Zack Stratis, Monica Henderson, Matthew Goodman and Damon Lindelof.



Directed by Peter Hyoguchi
Edited by Patrick Francis
Music composed by Christopher James Thomas

Your Late Night Links

- "Speechless" is drawing a lot of praise. Congrats to George, Alan and company on all the hard work. Here is a flattering piece in Time and one from the Associated Press (via CNN). The AP story also gives some journalistic love to Kristen and Peter, our fellow online activists at Hollywood Interrupted. Between their MySpace and Facebook squads, the Virtual Picket Line is approximately 6500 strong.

- Mark Lisanti at Defamer beat me to this (like Nikki, that guy blogs as if it's his job or something), but I still want to quote this line from Ben Stein's New York Times column:

To the bosses, I say, “We are not afraid.”

I like to imagine Ben Stein intoning, "Counter... Counter..." But then, it's getting kind of late.

- Catherine Butterfield, a picketer at Sony, sent in this quote from New Yorker television critic Nancy Franklin:

"'Gossip Girl' has indeed become a hit, though not a megahit. It's now possible -- and necessary -- for Nielsen to count viewings of shows that people have recorded on their DVRs and watched within seven days, and 'Gossip Girl's ratings jump from not so hot to respectable when those figures are taken into account. It's also the top TV show on iTunes at the moment. It was on the basis of these two elements of our brave new multiplatform world that the CW decided recently to order a full season of 'Gossip Girl.' Advertisers being drawn to a show that sells well on iTunes wasn't even a concept until a couple of years ago. All the new ways of delivering shows to viewers are starting to pan out for the studios and the networks that own them. That they continue to balk at sharing a larger fraction of their stupendous wealth with writers -- the people who make that wealth possible -- is as mystifying as it is sensationally wrong."

Not just wrong, "sensationally wrong." Wow. Variety subscription: Cancel. New Yorker subscription: Renew.

- I'm guessing that in the time it took Nancy Franklin to type, "All the new ways of delivering shows," three new ways launched. The latest I've read about is SyncTV. Big thanks to Disney picketer David Simkins for sending me the announcement from MacWorld.com.

- More New Yorker content! Writer Dana Goodyear maintains a blog about Los Angeles. This week, she visited with Jerry Maren, "who, at eighty-seven, is the only remaining representative of the Lollipop Guild." And Jerry, a proud Republican, is no fan of big media.

[H]e was still bitter about his treatment at the hands of M-G-M, sixty-eight years ago: “They paid us fifty dollars a week. No residuals, no nothing. Midgets don’t grown on trees, you know.” Then he pointed out that “the dog” -- I guess he meant Toto -- had been making a hundred and twenty-five a week.

- WGA member Alan Shapiro has posted a round-up of strike coverage, and it's easy on the eyes.

- Yahoo!'s slideshow feature continues to add strike photos. And Eric Appel is the latest member to send us a Flickr pool.

- I found this parody protest song by Jill Sobule buried in the comments of a previous post. But she's right about what will happen without another season of "Mad Men." That's no joke. Back in September, Jill wrote an interesting essay about how digital delivery has changed the music business.

- I would go to sleep now if I weren't certain I'd have nightmares about Nick Counter's horrible robot minion.

Hollywood Homecoming

Hollywood Homecoming, an event honoring the veteran writers, directors and stars of yesteryear who helped form and shape the unions we are fighting to protect, will be held this Friday, November 30th, from 10AM-12PM at Sony Studios in Culver City.

But your help is needed getting the word out and locating those trailblazers of Hollywood's Golden Age.

So who do you know? Is Shirley Temple your next door neighbor? Do you go to church with Esther Williams? Are you related to Mickey Rooney? Do you live next door to an Academy Award winning director from years past? Was your grandfather one of the writers on "The Wizard of Oz?" Did your great aunt work as the assistant to David O. Selznick? Does your family have a long history in the biz?

Help locate these guests and join us to pay tribute to them.

If you know of someone who would like to attend as a guest or if you have any questions, please contact Chad Darnell at HollywoodHomecoming@gmail.com as soon as possible.

The event is being sponsored by HOT IN HOLLYWOOD - a collaboration of performers, writers and directors that helps raise money for various AIDS-related charities in Los Angeles - in association with the WGAw.

Tuesday: Horror Writers to Exorcise Evil Spirits at Warner Brothers Lot

If at approximately 12:10pm tomorrow, Nick Counter reverts to his true form (a writhing pile of worms), well, he was warned. -JA

We, the horror writers of the WGA, don't necessarily believe that the AMPTP is evil. Rather, we believe they've been invaded by evil spirits whose devilish agenda is the destruction of our Guild. For this reason we have decided to conduct this exorcism for the mutual benefit of this industry. We may be dark souls, but we do believe that good eventually triumphs over evil.

We encourage our brothers and sisters in horror to join our procession by emailing Jace Anderson at creepymofo [at] roadrunner [dot] com or Scott Kosar at scottkosar [at] mac [dot] com. And, of course, we welcome ALL writers to come and support our fight at Warners Gate 4, Tuesday at noon.

Today was the toy drive, tomorrow the demon drive.

Fan Call-In Blitz Happening NOW

The LiveJournal group Fans for WGA / wga_supporters has launched a "call the big wigs" campaign. They've really thought it out and written a very polite script for fans who want to call the heads of the big six companies.

"On Monday the WGA and AMPTP will recommence negotiations. The FFWGA wishes them Godspeed. However, our support cannot waver. I must stress: we will not stop campaigning on the writers’ behalf until the contract is signed, sealed, delivered, and serenaded by Stevie Wonder."

We're honored by the passion of this group and thrilled that they're articulating the issues in a POSITIVE way. Check it out.

"Speechless" -- The Official Launch

After its exclusive weekend run on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily, United Hollywood is thrilled to present the official premiere of the "Speechless" campaign, as well as announce the debut of its new site, SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com. This campaign is like no other. For the first time, high-profile actors are taking their talent directly to the Internet for a powerful show of union solidarity. The folks at SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com will be adding new videos every day, in both high-res and low-res versions. Here is "Anthem," the first one. We hope you enjoy!



Click here for the hi-res version.

Pieces which ran exclusively on DHD can be seen here:
HI-RES/Brightcove
LO-RES/YouTube

Tune in for United Hollywood Live!

The next United Hollywood Live broadcast will be today, November 26th, from 12-1:30 p.m. Pacific (3-4:30 p.m. Eastern).

Covering all aspects of the WGA strike, the interactive show will include interviews, live reports from the various picket lines and video clips.

Tune in by CLICKING HERE or by using the widget located along the righthand side of UnitedHollywood.com. The show will air Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a podcast available immediately after each broadcast via the widget.

And while United Hollywood Live is brought to you by writers, it's not just for writers.

Fans and WGA supporters are encouraged to become a part of each broadcast via live IM chats, video feeds and phone calls to the studio. They can also embed the show on their sites with the code included on the widget.

Writer Boi

"Funny rap" is hard. By that I mean it's usually not funny. But then, most funny raps don't have a line like "I got a Housewife but she ain't Desperate, 'cause she knows Marc Cherry is handlin' shit." Or a video featuring WGA president Patric Verrone gamely making a telephone gesture with his hand.



Click here for the hi-res version.

Astroturfers, Sock Puppets, Conglomerate Plants: A Troll by Any Other Name

I want to take a few moments to point out something that some readers of this blog may not be aware of.

There are people on the Internet who have a very interesting job: They get paid by large companies to sit in rooms all day (in shifts, so they have 24 hour coverage) and read blogs and news sites. Then, they go into the comments sections of those sites and try discredit or defuse anything that might be seen as negative to their employers. They always pretend to be ordinary people, and never admit that they are writing as paid advocates. They act as if they are regular folks, just responding honestly to what they've read.

But they aren't. These people are professionals, and they're known in the PR industry as "astroturfers" (because they pretend to be grass-roots, but they're fake), as "sock puppets" (that one kinda speaks for itself) and, most famously, as "trolls."

I was just reading the comments on the Chris Williams story -- the boy who has chosen to join the picket lines, and wrote a story and drew a picture about his experiences. A few people (most conspicuously, of course, an "anonymous") went to great lengths to heckle, demean, belittle and insult this kid.

They even questioned his existence, saying that he was a PR stunt made up by the WGA, or a "plant."

When the woman who met Chris, who sent in his story, responded in the comments section with an offer to prove he was real and not a plant, "anonymous" promptly said that he'd called the number she gave for verification and it was a strip joint.

Yeah, it's not a strip joint. The 7th grader isn't a plant. Sorry.

But that's what trolls are hired to do -- at all costs, turn attention away from anything their employers don't like (for example, a true story about a kid who walks the line with us.) Call people liars, insult little kids, whatever it takes to win. Keep people from paying attention to the actual issues.

And we've got a lot of trolls here. Kinda like we're infested with weevils, except that the weevils are making a hell of a good living off the strike. So actually, they're a little more like parasites.

Because we're a volunteer organization (we aren't paid for this, we're a collection of strike captains and other writers working together because we want to), we don't have the resources to battle the paid hecklers the AMPTP sends out into the blogosphere. So the trolls will continue to show up here, and continue to pretend to be people they aren't. They'll lie and insult and try to manipulate. Why? Because it's the only strategy the AMPTP has. The truth is not on the conglomerates' side.

A lot of people reading this post will already be aware of everything I've written about. But as you may remember, my yardstick will always be my 91-year-old Omie in Blanco, Texas, and she sure as hell had never heard of trolls. So for everyone wondering where all those shrill, angry people in the comments sections came from -- chances are they're hired guns, who lie for a living.

Picketing: Now It Gets Interesting

With the AMPTP returning to the bargaining table, there's hope that a new contract can be worked out. But the coming week presents a challenge to all of us who have been picketing.

Over the Thanksgiving Day holiday, the Los Angeles Times ran two articles about showrunners: Scott Collins' "Who really runs things" and Maria Elena Fernandez and Meg James' "Key role is also a tough one".

After weeks of coverage that favored the AMPTP point of view--denigrating writers and minimizing the impact of a work stoppage--the LA and NY Times have begun to print articles that, if not sympathetic to writers, are at least respectful. Let's cross our fingers that the press will cover the restarted negotiations in a balanced way.

What part does picketing play in all this? The pickets are the visible sign of Guild solidarity.

As positive as is the Fernandez-James article, the reporters are looking for fissures, the way factions weakened the negotiation in 1988.

This coming week, the press will be searching for new stories about the strike that will get the public's attention.

The story we don't want the reporters to write is "Picketing numbers down, WGA strike loses steam" just as the AMPTP is pushing back at the bargaining table.

The story we should give them is the one that empowers our negotiators: "WGA remains strong on the picket line and at the table."

Let's build on the newly discovered respect for writers in the press. Let's picket as if our future depended on it.

Monday Picket Party and Holiday Toy Drive

Writer and actress Nia Vardalos is sponsoring a toy drive at Raleigh Studios on Monday, November 26th. The event will take place from 10am-1pm at the Van Ness gate (south of Melrose Avenue). All WGA, SAG, Teamsters, AFTRA, other unions and supporters are welcome.

"We’ve walked the picketing shifts, seeing old friends, exchanging re-write stories, shivering in the cold, sweating in the heat, and comparing not-sexy T-shirt tans," writes Vardalos in the flyer for the drive. "People took care of our community. They donated food, drinks and our morale was boosted by honking cars. We can’t ever repay these people."

"But we can show our appreciation by helping another community - the underprivileged and sick kids of LA County."

Ms. Vardalos will be providing the food and drink. Those attending are asked to bring a new, un-gift wrapped toy (drop-offs also welcome!).

In addition on Monday, a food drive will be taking place at all picket locations. Food will be going to SOVA, a division of Jewish Family Services. SOVA serves the entire community - all races, religions and backgrounds. Among SOVA's clients are homeless families, homeless singles and the elderly. Those wishing to help are asked to bring a non-perishable food time. SOVA vans will collect the food toward the end of the day.

Please join us for these very worthy causes.

United Hollywood Live

Click here (or go to the United Hollywood Live widget along the right hand side of the main page) to join us right now for a special Friday edition of United Hollywood Live.

UPDATE: The show is over but you can listen to the podcast via the widget. And please join us Monday at 12 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern for the next regularly schedule broadcast.

We're "Speechless" with Gratitude

On this Turkey Day, the writers of United Hollywood wish to extend our thanks to everyone across the world who has offered so much help, support and encouragement. We invite you all to watch "Speechless," a new campaign featuring dozens of actors who want to see creative talent get a fair deal. "Speechless" will run exclusively at Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily through the Thanksgiving weekend. Three new videos are scheduled each day. Read the full press release here.

And we hope you'll find this video from Tuesday's labor solidarity march as inspiring as we do.



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. We're all on the same page.
- your friends at United Hollywood

Thankful for our Supporters - Big and Small

(This is a photo of 7th grader Chris Williams, and two of his buddies walking the picket line with us. I received the following email from WGA member Rama Stagner.)

I just met the most amazing kid on the picket line. He was obviously alone and I was curious so I asked (jokingly) if he was a WGA member, with someone who was - or if he was just there to support us. He was just there to support us. It blew me away.
I had about an hour long conversation as we walked the line. His name is Chris Williams and he's a twelve year old who goes to Walter Reed. He'd been in a comic book store near CBS Radford last week (looking at Superhero comics, his favorite) and saw the strike. He said he thought what we were doing was heroic so he asked his mom if he could join us. She said yes and he's been on the line almost every day since. He's even talked a few of his school buddies to come once in a while. I asked him if he wanted to be a writer and he said he'd never really thought about it until this week. And yes, maybe he did.
I told him he should write about what he was experiencing.
And then he told me he already did. He wanted to show it to me but I didn't know if that was appropriate, so I introduced him to the Strike Captains and asked him to call his mom and make sure it was okay. She approved so I read it right there on the line.
Just two pages - but it made me me feel like a hero. It made me cry.
Is there any way we can get a story about this kid out there? At least acknowledge him on our website?
A seventh-grader this idealistic, willing to walk the picket line alone, gives me new hope for this country. I think his story should be shared.

Rama Stagner

(Rama followed up with Chris' mom - she and Chris agreed to let us post his writing, and one of his drawings here. A comic book fan, Chris writes from two perspectives: his own, and Super CC's.)