1) Rumor of a DGA settlement seems to be just that - a rumor.
2) Grammys are now the latest Awards Show to get denied an individual deal. NAACP Image Awards, well those are just fine. This brings the current tally to:
SAG and NAACP -- the Writers like you. They really, really like you.
Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys -- why can't you be more like your siblings SAG and NAACP?
3) ABC 7 / Survey USA Poll asked people who they favor in the Writers Strike.
In November, the results were:
Writers: 69%
Studios: 8%
Neither: 23%
This week, the results were:
Writers: 57%
Studios: 8%
Neither: 35%
That's a twelve point drop in support for the Writers in two months. No one's dumb enough to throw support behind the Studios, who have been acting completely irresponsibly. But people are getting hip to the fact that there's plenty of blame to go around for this disaster.
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Tonight on "The Tonight Show", 2 hecklers had to be thrown out. They could be heard, but what they said could not really be understood. Bill Maher was the guest at the time, and the protest could have been towards him, but it's hard to say. The second protest was met with a commercial break.
Now I have to say that I've been watching "The Tonight Show" as oppose to "The Late Show" because of one major thing. I find it funnier. I think America tends to find it funnier, the ratings are proving that. If the writers start disrupting the show, I don't know if those people, who have waited 2 months for their late night fix, are going to appreciate the writers doing that. This could possibly turn public opinion against them.
I found it interesting that "al" at UH couldn't resist getting in the dig about "what if the DGA can't make a deal?" and then slamming the DGA as hard as he could. I've been hearing this from various WGA hardliners, including Mark Evanier's blog (although Evanier does temper his comments a bit, and I have to admit he's been pretty accurate in his summation of events).
For the record, the DGA does NOT have a history of "caving" or "rolling over". This is a myth that hardliners have been pushing for years, but their emotional belief in it does not make it true. The DGA has tended to be more pragmatic about picking its battles over the years, it's true. But they come to their negotiations prepared, calm and firm in their convictions. The 1984 negotiation, in retrospect, unfortunately allowed the studios to roll down the home video rate - but at the time, the DGA gained in a bunch of other areas. In hindsight, it would have been better not to have touched that rate, but I'd change a lot of things in my life if I had that benefit.
"al" and the other DGA slammers might be trying to reference 2004, when the DGA did early negs and got a contract that repaired our health plan and reworked a lot of our MBA, but which didn't adjust the DVD rate. Michael Apted said at the time that it was not the time for the DGA to be doing that. Given that he was trying to save the health plan at the same time, he was correct in his assessment. Unfortunately, many WGA and SAG members felt he should have put their needs first - and now we have all these guys saying that the DGA always gets a bad deal.
A lot of hay has been made of the 1987 DGA strike, with the angrier WGA guys like Robert Elisberg making nasty jokes about the 5 minute strike being a "clerical error" or something like that. My father was on that picket line. (He insists it was actually 6 minutes, by the way) And the DGA spent over a month preparing for a long walkout when the AMPTP refused to budge regarding their insistence on changing episodic residual rates. Once the DGA walked out, the town immediately shut down. And the AMPTP immediately compromised. That's the part that people don't remember. The strike only lasted 5 minutes because the AMPTP backed off.
It pains me to no end to see the attacks being made on my guild, when the DGA is the one trying to get everyone back to work. During normal circumstances, the DGA does its talks early - both because it gets better conditions and because it removes the dangerous uncertainties that happen when the town thinks a strike is coming. (Such as 2001, when the town overheated in the early spring just in case the WGA went out that summer, and then was a lot drier for the next 18 months - a de facto strike)
I'm truly sorry to hear that there were hecklers at the Tonight Show. If these really were WGA people, that kind of thing hurts their cause. It's yet another on a long list of childish acts that have helped change the numbers in the poll btl guy was referencing. I suppose Nikki Finke would call that "bratty". Wait a second - no she wouldn't. She'd post the audio and celebrate the moment, like she did when Carson Daly's show got disrupted.
Having now watched the replay of last night's Tonight Show on the NBC website (with an insurance commercial that I turned the sound off of - wonder if NBC is making money from the internet broadcast...), I can safely say that the hecklers were not WGA.
I believe they were from a completely different group. The first heckler was yelling "Let Kucinich debate", which was a reference to NBC keeping Dennis Kucinich out of the Las Vegas debate that happened last night. The second heckler yelled "GE, NBC, Put Impeachment on TV". Something tells me both hecklers were connected. Since neither Maher nor Leno could clearly hear what the hecklers were yelling, they just made jokes about the first one and went to commerical after the second one.
So again, that whole incident had nothing to do with the WGA strike. Maher made a joke about it being about the strike, but he was also making constant jabs at Leno like "Nice monologue, where'd you get it? See, I'm trying to catch him off guard..."
I'd have to say that the 1987 DGA Strike was the biggest pain in the ass for me. 5 minutes, or 6 minutes, it was still painful. Why? I was working at "Mouseschwitz" during that time, in the eidtorial department. I spent month setting up editing rooms all over L.A., Burbank, Glendale, & Hollywood in preparation for the DGA Strike, since the directors would not be allowed to work on the lot. Months! All for a 6 minute strike. It could have at least lasted a day. It took me weeks to get all the diting rooms back in order at the studio. This was also in the days of actual film, not hard drives & desk tops. And yet, I'd be perfectly happy with another 5 mintue strike if it happen now. Now back to the serious stuff.
How about a lawsuit against "United Hollywood" for false advertising by using that name? Maybe "Untied Hollywood" but not united. They sure don't represent me and anyone I know.
United Hollywood is completely full of sh*t. They'll do their best to discredit the latest statistics. They never face the facts. I hope they do keep talking garbage about the directors. Making enemies, guild by guild. Everybody is wrong but them.
UH has posted a few new beauts, including a problematic opinion originally on the DGA yahoo group for ADs, and Frank Pierson's condemnation of John Ridley.
Pierson says one thing that is quite strange at the end of his Ridley slam: he says that Ridley is the only screenwriter to have gone fi-core during this strike. I don't believe Pierson is correct. I know for a fact that several key soap opera writers have gone fi-core to keep their soaps going, but that the WGA has stayed silent about it. An early rumor about "Young and the Restless" was quashed, but the LA Times did a more comprehensive piece about this just a couple of weeks ago that discussed other soaps where this had been confirmed to happen.
There are likely more people who have chosen to go fi-core, but aren't being public about it. In most cases, like the soap writers, they really don't want the publicity.
Why is UH publishing that 'mythbusting' thing again? When you click on the link to the "entire post", it takes you to a DECEMBER 5th entry. DECEMBER. Is UH completely without information without Nikki and DHD to pull from?
Does anyone know what the story is with the rally on Saturday at 2520 Olive? Or a picket or rally on February 9?
"Frank Sr." on the Variety blog has repeatedly mentioned these, with the one this Saturday scheduled from 10A to 6P.
The Feb. 9th picket was suppose to be the WGA Awards, which has since been canceled due to threat of pickets by all the BTL's who are REALLY pissed at the writers. At least I think the picket is canceled. The only picket I've heard pending is Jan. 27th @ the Shrine Aud. before the SAG awards.
Well they're at it again over on UH with another DGA deal rumour. Along with the usual tough guy comments (WGA only of course).
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