As the second week of the WGA strike comes to a close and a picketing-free weekend draws rapidly nearer, we offer this Friday morning round-up of what's going on in the world of idling writers, their high-profile friends, and their sworn studio enemies:
As we await the announcement of the theme of the WGA's next picketing event (we're hoping a petting zoo is involved, or at least a parade of more cute dogs in sweaters bearing protest slogans), here's the obligatory morning round-up of strike-related news.
On this ninth day of the strike that has reduced Hollywood to a one-story town, take a bite of that days-old, CAA-supplied churro and scroll through this morning's round-up:
If clips like the one above documenting the single-producer picket line in front of WGA headquarters this weekend continue to proliferate at this staggering pace, the studios may have to seriously consider sending idling development staffers out into the street with camcorders, generating their own counter-sketches depicting greedy "writers" declaring that they won't return to work until they receive a million-dollar residual per iTunes download.
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:
As this exciting and eventful first week of striking draws to a close (enjoy it while it lasts, for the picket lines probably won't stay so well-stocked with your favorite out-of-work TV stars a few weeks hence), we offer this Friday morning round-up:
As the sun rises on Day Four, feet are sore from hours of pacing, bellies distended from the consumption of high-calorie snacks delivered to the picket lines by supporters trying to help writers maintain their blood-sugar levels, and throats raw from screaming chants awkwardly incorporating the names of picketed executives who may be listening on the other side of a studio lot's wall. The morning round-up:
· A striker on the Grey's Anatomy-boosted Prospect Studios picket line sent in this photo of Katherine Heigl proudly decrying AMPTP president Nick Counter's weinderdom. This is the picket sign by which all subsequent efforts will be judged.
· Fox has indefinitely postponed the premiere of 24. And considering all the strike-related scheduling changes, it looks like Kiefer Sutherland took on that extra jail time for nothing.
· Click here if you need a limoncello-flavored pick-me-up. Come on, just do it. Your ears will thank us, we promise.
· Refusing to cross the picket line, The Office's Steve Carell phoned in sick with an acute case of "enlarged balls."
As Day Three of the strike begins, writers dig in for another eight hours of waving picket signs, dodging scribe-seeking SUV missiles, and trying to induce passing motorists into a horn-honking din intended to drive executives on the other side of a struck lot's walls slowly insane. This is your morning round-up:
The United Hollywood blog has taken on the responsibility of debunking several rumors that emerged from Day One of the WGA strike, with no update more crucial than this one about AMPTP bogeyman J. Nicholas Counter III, whom many in the Guild fear—possibly with good reason—possesses supernatural powers he can use to break the will of writers once night falls: "RUMOR: Nick Counter can mentally summon and command coyotes. He can turn himself into a cold mist to elude pursuers. He eats the dreams of sleeping children as he flies above their homes on the back of a giant talking raven named Stormhammer. STATUS: UNCONFIRMED" [United Hollywood]
By the time you read these words, the striking members of the WGA will have already taken their positions at the entrances of every studio lot in the city, hoping that the inspiring sight of scores of red-shirted, spindly armed picketers (unless some Teamsters decided to join the first-day mix and add some muscle to the walkout) toting eye-catching signs will inspire at least a view of their peers to turn their cars around and head home in solidarity. We begin, as has been our custom, with a round-up of strikes news, leading off with the dueling™ WGA and AMPTP statements explaining why yesterday's last-minute talks ended in not-unexpected failure:
As expected, the WGA took the enthusiastic shouts of the 3,000 or so writers who showed up last night's meeting as a sign that now would be a pretty good time for a walkout, officially announcing moments ago that the picket-line-walking and slogan-singalong fun will begin Monday at the gates of every studio in town. The LAT has the e-mail that went out to the membership:
In the event that you had your television turned up too loud to hear the city-wide array of air-raid sirens sounded at the conclusion of last night's WGA meeting, the union's negotiating committee recommended that the Guild go on strike, a mass walkout that could begin on Monday. (Stayed tuned for the timing announcement that's sure to ruin your weekend—if not the next several months of your life—later today!) We begin our day, as we must, with a rundown of strike-related news:
There were no effigy burnings, nor pinata-beatings, but there will be a strike: "A few minutes into the gathering, there is no more uncertainty: There will be a strike, leaders tell the thousands of WGA members in attendance. Leaders will send out a press release tomorrow afternoon, telling members precisely when the strike will begin. The Screen Actors Guild president says the actors guild is in full support of the strike and will stand by the writers for as long as it takes." [LAT]
We're only about 90 minutes from the beginning of tonight's big WGA General Assembly at the L.A. Convention Center (note to entrepreneurs: you'd better hurry up and get down there with your "I Walked Off The Job Today and All I Got Was This Lousy Red T-shirt" novelty garments), where, according to a story just posted to the LAT's website, the very thing that we'd hoped to distract ourselves from by briefly taking up the cause of the Zombie Guild is expected to occur: a strike recommendation by the writers' negotiating committee.
Our panic-stricken city, already reeling from the possibility of a potentially disastrous writers strike that could arrive at virtually any moment, seems to be in even greater peril than we'd previously imagined: At a gathering in Silver Lake last night, a representative of the Zombies Guild threatened a parallel walkout that would surely finish off any sector of the local economy that managed to survive the entertainment industry's labor strife, accusing humans of not taking seriously their reasonable demands on issues crucial to the survival of undead workers trying to make an honest, brain-devouring living in a rapidly changing world. A flyer describing the ZGA's frustrations with a human negotiating team that refuses to bargain in good faith follows after the jump:
Faced with the possibility of months of lost commissions, Endeavor superagent/HuffPo superblogger Ari "Can't We All Just Get Along?" Emanuel makes a last-ditch plea for sanity during these tense, pre-strike moments: "I'm about to get myself in a lot of trouble. So be it... Listening to both sides in the looming writers' strike, it's clear to me that politics is about to trump sound economics. Neither the Writers Guild nor the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is looking at the issue properly. If you look at the amount of money that was at issue during the last writers' strike in 1988, I bet it was less than the amount the strike ended up costing all concerned. And I believe that will be the case this time around, too. [...] Going on strike to lose more than you gain is not smart negotiating." [HuffPo]
The pencil, it seems, has become the dominant image of the looming™ writers strike (mushroom clouds are so two weeks ago): previously, THR incorporated it in an evocative tug-of-war logo for its contract talks coverage; today, over a hundred WGA showrunners have placed their names (not pictured due to space constraints) below a trusty No. 2 in an ad appearing in both Variety and the Reporter, promising the Guild membership they'll plunge its dangerously sharp point into the jugular vein of any network executive who asks them to secretly break stories, write scripts, or perform any other strike-verboten duty while their brothers and sisters are out on the picket line, trying to dodge the rubber-bullet fire of overzealous studio security guards.
