Everyone beats up on America for being the worst, but look, sometimes India is the worst too, as is the case of Bollywood shutting down because all their laborers went on strike:
About 147,000 workers belonging to a federation of 22 unions — representing workers ranging from extras and dancing girls to lighting technicians and camera operators — didn’t show up for work, calling it a "noncooperation movement," evoking Mahatma Gandhi’s words during India’s fight for independence.
Wait, they just didn't show up for work? That's actually way smarter than what the writers in LA and NYC did almost a year ago during the WGA strike, when they showed up, but then just walked in circles with painted signs. Suckers.
While it's easy to point and go "Look, other countries have their problems too" you know that it's inevitably going to come back to America and how we caused the economic collapse of everywhere, including India:
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POWER TO THE DELIVERY PEOPLE A judge has ruled in favor of the Saigon Grill delivery guys. saying their owner illegally fired them last March and should reinstate them. If you don’t live and/or work on the Upper West and/or Greenwich Village, the Saigon Grill delivery people have been striking over unfair work conditions. But before you order their Mi Xao Don guilt free, the restaurant is planning to appeal the decision. [NYT]
First they took away our late night shows, then they took away our sitcoms. Then they gave us back our late night shows, but now they might be taking away our self-congratulatory events.
That’s right, the Golden Globes, the big shit award show until the Oscars come, might be canceled due to “internet royalties” and this damn writers strike.
The deal is if the writers pickets the Golden Globes, then “the good people” actors like George Clooney would feel totally awk attending. And George Clooney doesn’t need to scab to remind people how good he looks in a tux. People, and People, will remember. CONTINUED »
DAMNED IF YOU DO … “An ultimatum was put in front of me … It was, 'Put a new show on Dec. 3 or 75 people are fired. What's your answer?'" says Carson Daly, explaining his decision to cross the WGA picket lines. See that’s the thing about being a tool: either way, you come off like one. [LAT]
STEWART/COLBERT '08 Joining Conan, Leno, Letterman, Ferguson and trail blazer, Carson Daly, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will return with new shows, produced without writers, starting January 7. [NYT]
Well, it’s come to this. Striking writers have so little to do they’ll hit up a taping of Last Call With Carson Daly.
On Tuesday night, strikers snuck into the studio audience of Last Call, a move not approved by the Guild, and reminded Carson Daly what middle school was like.
According to a tipster to Defamer, a few of the writers interrupted Daly before a producer warned that hecklers would be prosecuted, at which point over 20 people left the studio audience.
It’s hard to tell what makes Carson Daly look worse: crossing the picket line or the fact that 20 people can so easily crash a taping even with only Ellen taping new shows.
Permalancers are people too, people who need health benefits, 401(k)s and paid vacation days. To remind the bigwigs at Viacom about these issues, the “freelancers” staged a walk out yesterday.
Viacom managers were “supportive of the strike;” a freelancer told Mixed Media, "The word of the day is, 'Do what you gotta do.'"
These managers are so trying to be the cool father who can still rap with their teenagers’ friends. How about instead of rapping, you help get these kids some benefits?
Nothing To Sell Here The Television Critics Association has canceled its annual January meeting where networks traditionally announce their upcoming schedules. In case you haven’t heard, TV stations don’t have much to promote since the writers strike began, unless you consider American Gladiators reincarnated something to promote, which we don’t. [AP]
Whatev, Got Money For all the talk that late night show hosts are just gesturing by paying their staff through the strike, it's actually costing them an estimated $150,000 to $250,000 a week. In the meantime, CBS and NBC are saving more than $1 million a week by not producing their shows, while still taking in major bank from advertisers on repeats. Looks like this strike thing is really working out.
Jay Leno, what a great guy! The late night host is going to personally pay the salaries of his staff through Christmas. It’s amazing how Carson Daly can cross the picket line and Jay Leno can finance his staff, and they both can still end up looking like tools.
MTV's pissed off freelancers show they're much more creative than any of those striking writers: They've flipped the "M" in "MTV" to turn it into a "W," and changed the "TV" into "TF," creating "WTF." And then they put it on stickers! [Gawker]
Last week, the Boston Phoenix had an interesting article about how the writers strike is shaping political coverage for young adults. Guess what? Alessandra Stanley has a piece about the return of Carson Daly that touches on many of those same points. Well, what are you going to do? Of course, other than get all self-righteous and annoyed?
We don’t get the New York Review of Books; three is our limit on magazines with New York in the title. But we do know that people sound smart quoting it. We also know that one of the co-founders of the magazine, Elizabeth Hardwick, died this weekend.
Like with every obituary in the Times, her death comes with a mini-history lesson. For those who forgot, the New York Review of Books was founded because of a newspaper strike:
It was the spring of 1963, during the 114-day newspaper strike, which had begun late the previous year. Mr. Epstein proposed that in the absence of The New York Times Book Review on Sundays, the time was perfect to introduce a new book review. The guests concurred. The next day, Mr. Lowell went to Mr. Epstein’s bank and took out a $4,000 loan, secured by his own trust fund. He then began to cajole his moneyed friends, including Blair Clark, the television news executive, to invest in the project. Shortly afterward, the first issue was dummied out on the Lowells’ dining-room table.
Don't feel intimated by the legacy of that strike. The stuff coming out in reaction to this strike will be just as enduring as the New York Review of Book, at least in the sense that YouTube clips don’t get taken down.
With Heroes and Desperate Housewives officially out of new material (get it? We’re saying that they never had any original material to begin with—zing!) talks resume between the writes and producers after a four day hiatus.
The WGA is expected to give a counteroffer to the producers’ proposal from Thursday. The writers were unhappy with the producers’ offer of a fixed $250 annual residual for online streaming video for one-hour dramas; writers get $20,000 for reruns on TV. CONTINUED »
WHAT IS THIS, TIME MAGAZINE CIRCA 2006? "Hollywood's striking movie and television writers" are named IWantMedia.com's Media Person of the Year. [IWM]
Like you, we’re sick of considering the poor Midwesterns who are forced to watch repeats of Dave Letterman because of the writers strike. Let’s be honest, Dave Letterman is not that funny, even with writers. Those Midwesterns should have better late night plans anyway.
But pothead college students, we care about those kids, if only because we’re just like them except with degrees. We also care about the 2008 election; we’re suckers for democracy.
So after many weeks, there’s finally a new angle to the writers’ strike: What are the stoned college kids missing out on now that fake news is in reruns? CONTINUED »
Even though Broadway got it together last night, the TV writers strike shows no signs of ending. They've been picketing for so long that we’ve resorted to reporting on the New York Times coverage of the Nikki Finke’s blog.
And as the TV writers continue to not write for TV, CBS’s news writers could strike any day. As a precaution, CBS News has canceled the Democratic presidential debates it planned on hosting for December 10.
Here’s an idea, TV writers, news writers and stagehands: When we renegotiating your contract, how about picking different expiration dates? This perfect storm of entertainment strikes has left us with no evening plans.
One strike down, one to go. After costing the city $38 million in lost tax revenue, the Broadway strike is over. Stagehands and producers have finally reached a settlement and performances will resume tonight. [NYT]
Back in his TRL days, Carson Daly proved he was good at sucking up to celebrities. Turns out, he’s good at sucking up to executives too.
Daly will be the first late night talk show host to cross the picket line and resume production of Last Call With Carson Daly. The show is taping this week, and will begin airing Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Knowing that he couldn’t come up with jokes himself, The Smoking Gun has obtained an email Daly sent to his friends, family and doctor New York [Ed: If Carson finds doctor humor funny, reruns of The Colbert Report will be more entertaining] asking them call into a joke hotline.
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Um yeah, so all the negotiations between Broadway producers and their striking stagehands resulted in, well, nothing. After 13 hours of negotiations, no deal was reached and no new talks were scheduled. The city will continue to lose an estimated $2 million a day as Broadway remains closed.
The only play that will continue is Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, which people with good taste have been boycotting since its opening.
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