During the media blackout that accompanied the resumed post-Thanksgiving negotiations between the writers and studios, no news was good news, allowing Hollywood a brief—and, as it turns out, completely misguided—sense of hope that things might get settled before the holidays. As Day 36 of the strike begins and despair engulfs the industry anew, a round-up of the latest thoroughly depressing developments in the ongoing labor Armageddon:

If anyone wonders why the WGA is winning the PR battle during the strike, this abandoned sign found at the Paramount lot should make clear how much better Guild members have been at communicating reasonable proposals to the public. On the other hand, a HONK AND DR. PHIL DIES message might have been even more effective in winning supporters for the writers' cause.

· A happy thought as we head into the weekend: Before joining this morning's negotiations, the WGA released a statement addressing rumors currently circulating that the studios are soon going to accuse the writers of stalling, storm away from the bargaining table until after the holidays, and trash the entire fall TV and spring seasons in an effort to prolong the strike. The Guild assures the public that it wants to continue negotiations for as long as it takes to get a deal done, and that no one should take seriously the full-page THE WGA WANTS TO DESTROY CHRISTMAS ad, featuring a Santa Claus bludgeoned to death with a WGA picket sign, that the AMPTP will take out in major publications on Monday. [Variety]
· The strike has decimated the ratings for late night shows, as TV audiences are unwilling to sit through the repeats that have been running since writers hit the picket line in early November. The Tonight Show has been the most adversely affected, with numbers off 40 percent from last year. Amazingly, viewers are finding that "vintage" Leno episodes featuring the hottest stars of 1994 plugging long-forgotten projects haven't aged well. [Variety]

The AMPTP's recent retention of a new PR firm to help them more effectively communicate to the public why the intransigent, greedy WGA should accept the incredibly generous terms of their groundbreaking New Econonic Partnership is paying immediate dividends; while the organization's previous attempt to have studio head Roger A. Trevanti explain the Companies' position was amateurish, unfocused and openly hostile, under the supervision of their new-media-savvier publicity team, their latest effort is a great leap forward.

Now that all of the networks' late-night talk show stars not named Carson Daly have put themselves on the hook (even a straggling Jay Leno!) by agreeing to personally sign their laid-off staffs' paychecks during at least the next few weeks of the strike, the game of "host chicken" has begun in earnest. With their generous pledges expected to cause a weekly low-to-mid six-figure drain on their bank accounts, who'll be financially broken first and have to bring their money-train to a screeching halt?

A tipster forwarded this cameraphone photo of an unattended WGA picket sign found on the Warner Bros lot this morning; hopefully, its owner has permanently abandoned it in favor of one with a more up-to-date slogan, as no one really needs a reminder that the strike has dragged on so long that references to DeGeneres' pet adoption problems once seemed timely.

Over in Burbank, they're apparently trying out some new ways to slow down WGA picketers who Warner Bros. feels are spending too much time crossing the street and disrupting the flow of traffic near their lot. Next up: adjusting the Walk signs to only allow a three-second window before jaywalking tickets can be issued. [LAist]

After viewing Carson Daly's initial writerless effort on his revived Last Call Monday night, the NY Times opines that even though there's been much hand-wringing over the host's decision to be the first late-nighter to cross the WGA picket line, "a bland interview with the underwear model Karolina Kurkova and pop music by the Plain White T's" is hardly going to be the death of the Movement, as Daly is not exactly threatening to fill the void left by the darkening of The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live sets. True, but the next thing you know, the Scottish guy who's on after Letterman gets back to work, and from there it's a slide down a slippery strike-breaking slope that doesn't end until Ryan Seacrest is guest-hosting for Leno for months. [NY Times]

Having just hit his stride with an Emmy-buzz-building role and a cast that he genuinely enjoyed seeing every day, Alec Baldwin seems to us as apt a poster child as any for the tragic human toll the writers strike has taken on our creative community. In his darkest moments, Baldwin has turned to the Huffington Post to blog out the pain: Having written previously of "this motherfucking, motherfucking, motherfucking strike" that keeps him from his beloved 30 Rock family, the actor's latest dispatch suggests a radical shift of WGA strategy—shaming producers online until they are brought to their knees:

In the most stirring show of solidarity with the scribes' cause to date, YouTube's animal superstars have pledged to immediately shut down their viral pipeline of footage of virtuoso cats, X-Game-hopeful canines, and, most critically, hand-holding otters. For the love of God, Nick Counter and the AMPTP, make a reasonable offer before everything that is good and worthwhile about the internet disappears forever. (And don't miss the brief cameo by Carson Daly!)

But the reward sure to be most coveted comes from the producers of Battlestar Galactica, who are donating three autographed pieces of fabric that have touched the private parts of star Jamie Bamber to the cause:

· Unsatisfied at being the face of just one blockbuster franchise, Dark Knight star Christian Bale is in talks to join the next installment of the about-to-be-revived Terminator franchise. Somewhat disappointingly, he's coming on as the John Connor character, not the latest iteration of the series' (nearly) indestructible, killing-obsessed cyborg, which would have been a pretty amazing bit of casting. [Variety]
· Tom Petty will play Super Bowl halftime, a choice that will probably prevent the musical festivities from being marred by exposed nipples or terrifying demonschlongs, though the puckish rocker may decide to defy the conventional wisdom that he's "safe" by hanging some brain in the middle of "Free Fallin'." [THR]

Perhaps wounded that some disgruntled, newly laid-off Tonight Show staffers anonymously griped that their early-bonus-proferring boss had failed to equal the generosity of peers like eventual successor Conan O'Brien, who'd previously pledged to financially support every last self-abusing bear and incontinent, bolt-excreting robot on his payroll during the writers strike, host Jay Leno has decided to join the compassionate ranks of late night TV saviors by covering his employees' salaries on a week-to-week basis. Christmas is saved!

Though they did last a little longer than the mid-November date initially threatened by NBC, about 120 staffers at The Tonight Show were laid off today. On the bright side, the freshly pinkslipped employees were handed early Christmas bonus checks courtesy of Jay Leno; still, at least one disappointed now-former employee found themselves wishing they worked for Conan Claus instead: "We haven't heard from him since the second or third day of the strike. He called on speakerphone while we were in our daily meeting and said, 'Don't look for other jobs, no one's going to lose their house, we'll get though this.' Two weeks ago, we got the heads up that we had two more weeks (of pay) and that's it. Everyone wondered, 'Is Jay going to come through?' And nothing happened. Conan makes less and he said, 'I'm going to pay for my people.' " [Scribe Vibe/Photo: Franklin Ave]

As the last four day of negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP ended on a rather discouraging note, with the Guild's public statement revealing that they won't be jumping into bed to consummate the studios' underwhelming New Economic Partnership until they come up with some sexier numbers, Hollywood now hurtles quickly towards a holiday season full of empty stockings, less-than-joyous picketing carols, and scaled-back Yuletide orgies. Still, some who toil in the industry are determined to party themselves into the New Year undeterred by strike-induced despair; this e-mail invitation from a "bunch of junior execs at the studios who live together in a big house in the Hollywood Hills" posted over at CNBC reporter Julia Boorstin's Media Money blog defies twin negotiating Grinches Patric Verrone and Nick Counter to try and steal their Christmas with exhaustively Seuss-inspired verse:

The media blackout that accompanied the resumption of contract talks between the WGA and the AMPTP forced our Hollywood StrikeWatch round-up into a brief hiatus, but as the two sides have decided it's time to start talking to the press again, we can put our bullet-pointed morning show back into production:

· Sports-specialist writer/director Ron "Bull Durham/Tin Cup/Cobb" Shelton will helm a movie about steroid-enhanced home run king Barry Bonds based on the book Game of Shadows for HBO Films, a cinematic journey through Bond's clear-and-cream-lubricated pursuit of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron that Shelton and his writing partner plan to undertake after the conclusion of the writers strike. [Variety]
· The heads of some media conglomerates are trying not to ruin their relationships with the writers they'll one day have to collaborate with by biting their tongues during the strike, resisting the tantalizing impulse to publicly brand them as "greedy residual monkeys" whenever contacted for comment about the ongoing labor dispute. [THR]

Enlisting Christina Applegate to fill the role of the wife he said didn't want any part of his boredom-induced video project, Samantha Who? writer Bob Kushell tries to provide a handy survival guide for couples whom the strike has forced to spend way too much quality time together. We imagine there are many such spouses pining for the days when their partners were locked in the writers room for 15 hours a day, way too busy to stick camcorders in their faces. [YouTube]

So successful (read: chock full of cute, single writers) was the inaugural Gay Gate march outside Raleigh Studios that the organizers have already called for a sequel. Gay Gate 2: Return to Oz is slated for tomorrow at 10 a.m. outside NBC. Why NBC? A gay striker explains in a rallying e-mail:

Due to a recent absence of adorable photographs in our inbox of the most potent symbol of Writers Guild solidarity to emerge from the strike, we were a little afraid that the Incredible Picketing Baby, finally tuckered out by weeks of instilling fear in the hearts of studio executives with her clever signs, had retired from marching detail. This apprehension on our part was, of course, completely ridiculous, as the IPB—shown earlier today patrolling the newly exorcised Warner Bros. lot—will not rest until this thing is settled, even if it she has to put off enrolling in kindergarten to see her mission through.