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Though the WGA's weekend hiatus from picketing inevitably slowed the Guild's impressive rate of generating photo-ops with sympathetic celebrities willing to march, chant, and consume agency-provided, high-calorie snacks with their writing brethren, there's still plenty of strike-related news to round up on this surprisingly warm and sunny Day 8:

· The WGA declares Monday Bring Your Kids to the Strike Day, hoping that officially encouraging family-wide participation in the ongoing protests will produce a fearsome legion of Incredible Picketing Babies sure to break the studios' resolve. [WGA.org]
· In the latest AMPTP Counter-Strike™ dispatch, the Companies break a week-long silence to spin their side of the download story: "SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT... As the WGA knows and its own records will attest, writers are paid residuals on permanent digital downloads.

As the WGA knows and its own records will attest, writers are paid residuals on pay-per-view digital downloads. This additional compensation was part of the more than $260,000,000 in record-breaking residuals paid to WGAW members in 2006. When the WGA went on strike, an offer to pay writers for Internet streaming was on the table." [AMPTP.org]

· Variety explains why "force majeur" are perhaps the two most dreaded words of the strike (scarier even than "Nick Counter"!), as their very utterance results in the layoff of support personnel at writers' production companies that aren't currently shooting, the cancellation of deals, and reduction in actors' paychecks [Variety]
· Meet WGA chief negotiator David Young, a man beloved by the writers he's organized into a lethal, red-shirted strike force, but so hated by the studios that AMPTP counterpart Nick Counter circles Young's house each night on his giant raven, heaving bags of flaming feces into his backyard. [LAT]
· A tipster was surprised by the sight of strikers deployed hours earlier than usual: "When I got to work at 6:25 this morning (Fox) there were picketers at the gate! I cant believe they got up early! Maybe they're making up for not leaving anyone behind after the big rally on Friday to picket until 5pm like usual."
· Striking writer/blogger Ken Levine imagines what would happen if the WGA started marching outside of Mr. Burns' compound. [By Ken Levine]
· Among the projects these WGA members will not be writing during the stirke: "Venti Nonfat Pumpkin Spice Latte: A character-based one-hour drama about a couple whose marriage is torn apart by the death of their son. Project would have received some promotional consideration from Starbucks. [What We're Not Writing]
· Alec Baldwin laments that the strike is breaking up his TV family. [HuffPo]
· The person behind Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians has turned his blogging attentions to the strike. [Writers Strike Guide]

[Photo: AP]