A striker seems to have located a weak point in the Warner Bros. lot's defenses: an executive gate, where security guards have been instructed to try and quiet down the picketers who might annoy the studio bosses with their racket: "The Warner Bros. guard at the gate came out and approached me. 'Hey, I've been cool with you guys,' he said. 'But we have to watch the noise level in this area.' I have no idea why this person thought I would respect a social taboo against bothering the Warner Bros. executives inside with excessive noise while they work. But, damn, that was funny. Made my day. 'REALLY?' I bellowed like a complete jerk. 'SHE WAS JUST ASKING ME IF I WAS TIRED AND I LET HER KNOW I WAS OKAY. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?'" Maps to the lot's soft, executive-adjacent underbelly are provided for those eager to participate in further headache-making activities. [Slumdance.com]

Deciding delivering smiles to the faces of the tourists who had traveled great distances just to dance in her aisles was more important than delivering platters of Nate'n Al's lox to her striking writers and marching alongside them, Ellen DeGeneres chose, like many other daytime talk shows, to cross picket lines. Deadline Hollywood Daily printed what she'll say about the issue on tomorrow's show—a declaration of the love she feels for the drones who put the funny words in her mouth that amounts to no less than 1/10,000th of the love she feels for regifted rat-dogs. Unmoved, however, is blogger Surgical Strikes, who worked as a writer's assistant on her sitcom The Ellen Show in 2001, and remembers a far different DeGeneres/writer relationship:

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:

In our last dispatch from the Day Three picket lines for today, a reader reports on some high-profile drop-ins and some possible scab-related intrigue at Culver Studios: "I'm a SAG actor (a nobody) walking the WGA picket lines at Culver Studios today. Minnie Driver shows up with her dog Bubba to hang out with her writing staff. Eddie Izzard shows up and starts handing out blue wristbands that say 'All for One and One for All' that loop into a Gordian knot. He ordered these up himself and said 'they're not official.' Minnie takes off after a couple of hours and then Eddie goes "Norma Rae" on everyone. Lost in the shuffle was Josh Duhamel who didn't showboat at all. The buzz on the line is that the Las Vegas writers had spotted a former writer who was no longer on staff coming onto the lot. As I left, they had not stormed the lot yet."

In an effort to document for posterity how some of the striking writers tasked with pacing the sidewalks outside of Hollywood's temporarily stalled dream-fabricating factories spent this third, historic day of picketing, we dispatched Defamer videographer Molly McAleer to the Paramount lot, hoping that her bribes of tasty donuts (the beer we offered was less well-received; we suppose the drinking has to wait until happy hour at Lucy's across the street) would encourage some of the protesting scribes to open up for the camera.

Breaking! Horny TV doctors show support for striking writers! Says a tipster: "Cast of Grey's Anatomy outside protesting ABC Prospect Studios right now in their blue gowns. Heigl, Dempsey....they're all out there." Actually, we're told Dempsey isn't wearing his scrubs, a wardrobe failure that potentially could hamper a lovestruck picketer's ability to flesh out his or her fantasy of sneaking off with McDreamy for a quickie show of solidarity in the back of a temporarily unused production van.

[Note:an update/correction follows after the jump.] An operative on the Paramount lot describes an innovative protest technique being actively developed by the WGA's picketers, one sure to help break up the monotony of marching in circles while chanting:

Another set-disrupting Writers Guild Strike Force has gone on the attack, descending upon a downtown location shoot for ABC's Big Shots in hopes of ruining some takes with the joyful noise of labor strife. A tipster reports from the scene, where it seems that star Christopher Titus has thus far avoided the fate of physically weaker Desperate Housewives hostage Eva Longoria: "I work on 5th and Spring Downtown and strikers were disrupting the filming of some Christopher Titus show. I know this because I walked into Titus' chest. He's tall and tan and seemed to be laughing about the antics. I think the crew was pissed. I overheard 'What benefits they get in the WGA?' Response: 'A lot.'"

Operatives toiling on the Sunset Gower lot are expressing delight over the appearance of Reno 911's Lt. Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior on the picket line, a welcome law-and-order influence sure to reduce the kinds of ugly incidents that marred the first day of striking at that violence-plagued location. Disappointingly absent from the scene at the moment is rollerskating hustler Terry, who presumably had wandered over to his Santa Monica Blvd.-patrolling colleagues in the sex trade to convince them that the picketing writers could use the morale boost that only some fun-loving, strong-lunged trannies can provide.

Shortly after being taken hostage by vigilante WGA picketers trying to disrupt a Desperate Housewives location shoot yesterday, distraught captive Eva Longoria attempted to purchase her freedom with some Domino's pizzas. After happily gobbling down the snack, her red-shirted tormentors laughed at her incredible naivety, reapplied her duct-tape gag, and rudely stuffed the actress back into her burlap sack, hinting that they might let her out for air again if anyone concerned about her continuing safety were to bring by some Starbucks. [wxyz.com/WENN Photo: AP]

• The Office is Closed [YouTube

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 WGA Strike: pitting writer vs. studio, picketer vs. picketed, and roomie vs. roomie: "Dear Roommate,
I don't give a f*ck if you're on strike or not, you're not bringing your "movement" into our apartment. Start cleaning this place up!! You should have plenty of time now." [My Roomate is Such a Dick]

Just when strike-related news seems at its Longoria-kidnapping bleakest, a glimmer of hope arrives in the form of yet another talk show host bearing morale-boosting snacks for his picketing compatriots, as a tipster reports from the Olive/Barham gate of the Warner Bros. lot: "[Was] walking the line with dozens of other writers and several SAG members (most recognizably, a very friendly Jon Cryer from Two and a Half Men and Pretty in Pink fame, when suddenly a white van pulls up and Jimmy Kimmel and a few assistant-types jump out, set up a table and bring out A LOAD of food to feed the strikers. And not just any food, but tasty grub from a great Mexican place in the farmers market. Anyway, Kimmel was VERY friendly and seemed genuine in his support. Right on!"

Earlier today, we'd expressed a now very naive-seeming wish that WGA members and the Companies they're protesting might find a way to get through the remainder of the strike without further incidents of unnecessary, cause-undermining violence. It is with considerable sadness that we note KTLA's story (video here or here) about a renegade band of Guild picketers, who, upon receiving word of an in-progress Desperate Housewives location shoot earlier today, marched on the set, hoping to disrupt filming.

In troubling times like these, we realize that we can always depend on frosted-tipped E!biquity Ryan Seacrest to provide us with some much-needed comfort, knowing that within seconds of hearing his reassuring, silky voice, we'll be gently hypnotized into believing everything is going to be OK.

Less than two full days into the WGA strike, Alexander, Ruler Of The World, the ruby red and fancifully appointed apartment complex situated directly across the street from Paramount's WGA-targeted Van Ness service gate, appears at surface to be suffering from a concentrated bout of attention envy. Alexander, Ruler Of The World has, over the course of six months, forged a sizable Van Ness attention spotlight. By strategically choosing the service gate across the street as a picketing locale, WGA strikers have dimmed that spotlight considerably - one might say they've thrown a wrench into it - and as a result Alexander, Ruler Of The World has received an estimated 60% fewer "Oh My Holy Fuck Would You Look At That Monstrosity" reactions per day.

If it's strike carnage you seek, look no further than today's episode of The View: Stripped of its guild-member producers pumping meaningful dialogue into their earpieces, a Hot Topics segment on the writers strike forced the hosts to explain the labor impasse using their own, barely coherent grasp of the issues. (Particularly immaterial was Joy Behar's "Surveillance Cameras: What's With Them?!" contribution to the ongoing debate.) In moments of total daytime TV chaos like these, we typically rely on Barbara Walters to set this runaway locomotive back on its rails. Oddly enough, however, she remained uncharacteristically quiet during the segment—and, we might add, looking in her old age more and more like Tori Spelling every day.

Though we've heard no early reports from today's picket lines as troubling as yesterday's attempted vehicular writercide, a tipster from the Fox lot—one whose use of the term "red-shirt" and skepticism about whether or not he was watching someone take a dive indicates he might be a little annoyed by WGA-instigated traffic jams—notes that things are already getting uncomfortable between picketers and the picketed over in Century City:

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]