Clueless as to the nitty gritty about why those WGA types are striking about DVD and new media residuals? Let entertainment attorney and HuffPo blogger Jonathan Handel explain: They wanted to double their DVD residuals (from four cents to eight cents), double their video streaming cut (from 1.2 to 2.5%), and octuple their download share (from 0.3 to 2.5%). So why are the studios resisting? Because then the directors and screenwriters' guild will want the same deal-io based on their similar, but quantitatively larger, formula. And: That's a lot of Excel spreadsheets to update. [HuffPo]
Haven't you heard? The Deadline Hollywood Daily blogger is all the rage with this WGA strike. Studio chiefs, show runners, and every assistant in Tinseltown is reading her. "I don’t think I’m a better journalist than anybody else," she says. "I don’t think I’m a harder-working journalist than anybody else. I do think I have a forum where I have more freedom than anybody else." [NYT]
Man, the Writers Guild of America has been busy lately. Along with organizing the strike that is ruining the evening activities of millions of Americans, they have authorized another work stoppage that would kill the pre-dinner routine of literally thousands of old men. CONTINUED »
Thank god the U.S. economy is shit, otherwise New York would be in real trouble.
Last night, negotiations between the League of American Theaters and Producers and the stagehand union fell apart. The producers have canceled all performances through next Sunday. As the talks stand now, there’s no reason to believe that Broadway will be back for Christmas. CONTINUED »
As the SNL cast does endearing live performances and writers picket the studios, the WGA and the producers have agreed to return to negotiations on November 26. Hopefully the two parties can get their shit together regarding online residuals, since reading books in lieu of TV is clearly not an option. [AP]
As we approach Thanksgiving, the writers strike shows no signs of ending. The Week in Review, which usually features bits from late night monologues, has resorted to using jokes written in on their humor blog, Laugh Line. Dozens of shows have stopped production, and Lost might not resolve until 2009.
But those hams at SNL did not let the writers’ strike stop them from putting on a show. The cast performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater on Saturday night, while NBC resorted to broadcasting a rerun.
Michael Cera hosted the live act; Amy Poehler invited him earlier in the week via text message. We hope emoticons weren’t necessary to get him to perform. CONTINUED »
So it’s the eleventh day of the strike. After reporting on the new reality TV programming and predicting the rest of the seasons of the shows affected by the strike, we’re all out of angles. So Conan’s in reruns, blah blah blah.
Fortunately, the good people at Pepperdine University conducted a survey about the strike. Thanks for making the story fresh again! CONTINUED »
Well, the pressure is really on the studios now. Today, 21 TV blogs will go un-updated in support of the writers strike. If the literally dozens of people affected by Ducky Does TV.com going down for the day doesn’t convince the producers to settle, we don’t know what will. [TVWeek]
On Friday, Slate's Troy Patterson wondered aloud why members of the Writers Guild of America – writers by profession – couldn't come up with any snazzy slogans for their little strike thing they've got going on. Is "We want our words' worth" the best they can come up with?
Enter Bruce Vilanch. If he were on the picket line, he'd be making KNBC's 11 o'clock open. (via)
After media writers had come up with all possible synonyms for strike, theater reporters get to benefit from all their research.
A Broadway “work stoppage” has taken over midtown. Twenty-seven plays have stopped production this weekend as the stage hands began to strike over their contract with the League of American Theaters and Producers. CONTINUED »
Forget about the networks, who are forced to rebroadcast late night programming and the writers, who are currently out of work. No, they’re not the real victims of the writers strike. Nor are the American people, who very soon will have to resort to reruns for entertainment, or the show runners who are caught in between the writers and the producers.
No, the real victims of the writers strike are the L.A. coffee shops whose clientèle have left them for the picket line.
CONTINUED »
There’s good news and bad news for Conan O’Brien.
The bad news, first: The writers strike is still on and shows no signs of abetting or becoming interesting.
But the good news is that your stalker has been detained. David Ajemian, a Boston priest, was arrested following a Conan taping on Friday and is being held for psychiatric testing. He'll head to court tomorrow.
Ajemian has been sending menacing letters to Conan for over a year. Some notes were written on Parish letterhead, which is not as bad as molesting young boys, but is still quite creepy. CONTINUED »
For a writers strike, there's certainly a lot to read. While people caught in the middle of this might be busying themselves with Guitar Hero, most people just want to know when The Office will come back on. And updates on the donut status on the picket line is a poor excuse for actual entertainment. Our breakdown on the strike must-reads after the jump.
CONTINUED »
These folks earn at least five times your measly salary, but they people on TV who don't. So support 'em.
It’s day three and the writers are still striking.
More shows have stopped production due to the walk out, including Desperate Housewives, Back to You, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Til Death, and Rules of Engagement. At least late night shows won’t feel lonely in repeats.
Producer-writers for Grey’s Anatomy and The Shield have sided with the writers and stopped working. Hillary Clinton, copying Barack Obama, has also endorsed the writers.
Since Americans have never been the type to read the newspaper after work, the networks have planned some high class reality TV to substitute for scripted shows.
After the jump, a preview of the strike season. CONTINUED »
After a lot of talk, the Writers Guild took to the picket line yesterday.
Late night shows went into repeats last night. The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men stopped production. (Actually, the Writers Guild did CBS a favor there.)
In a pro-union gesture, Barack Obama offered his support to the writers guild. Sadly, Obama failed to realize that it’s the unionized factory employees who are really getting screwed by the strike since now they have nothing to do after work. CONTINUED »
This writer's strike has gotta be hard for Tina Fey. She used to be a head writer at Saturday Night Live, so she knows the pain of an under-compensated scribe. But then she became a full-time cast member on the show, which means she understands the frustrations of an actor who can't do her job because those whiny writers aren't scribbling.
Then she decamped for her own 30 Rock, where she's both writer, executive producer, and actor. She's practically NBC Universal management. Who's interests should play bigger?
And yet there she is on the street, with her fellow writers, explaining why they're about to force us into reruns and shelved reality TV programming: It's the Internet's fault!
Last night, after midnight, writers agreed to strike. Tourists in Midtown, take note: The East coast arm of the Writers Guild is planning to picket Rockefeller Center.
After threatening to strike, saying there wouldn’t be a deal that would avert a strike and promising to go on strike, you would think these writers would come up with a more exciting storyline when they finally went on strike.
No matter how much producers deny it, with a writers strike set for Monday, bad programming is in store for your TiVo. Below, our poll on how the writers' strike will ruin your ice cream and sweatpants night.
No more votes, no more deadlines, no more contracts, no more writers.
The Writers Guild of America is set to strike, maybe as early as Monday. The WGA negotiation board made a unanimous recommendation to stop writing in response to failed contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The fight was over residuals on DVD residuals; currently writers receive less than a nickel for each disc sold, and want to double that rate for any DVD with more than $1 million in wholesale revenue. CONTINUED »
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