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A select portrait of some of the 12,000 WGA members currently on strike. “”Who’s On The Line” features interviews with screenwriters Michael Tabb, Wendy Mericle, Zack Stratis, Monica Henderson, Matthew Goodman and Damon Lindelof.” (via UnitedHollywood)
We all do it.
You watch a movie, a line sticks with you as so memorable, so applicable to some aspect of your life, that you adopt it as your own. One of my faves: “Morons. Your bus is leaving.” from Groundhog Day. Unfortunately applicable pretty much every day as I read the news. But there are so many others. As I type this, I could sit here and list my favorite lines from movies or shows for quite a while…and I bet you could as well.
Art, when done well, pulls at you both emotionally and intellectually. And when it hits you at a gut level, you remember it. Sometimes forever.
Those lines don’t just appear on the page on their own. They come from writers with a gift for saying precisely the things we are feeling in a way that is both memorable and meaningful. Good writing is very difficult — and ought to be compensated fairly because it brings added value to the table. Especially in the case of shows which get after-market bounces of revenue from DVD sales, or where the writing is used for promotional materials that give added oomph and buzz to marketing strategies, thereby raising prospects of increased advertising sales and long-term sales value for syndication.
The suits get a lot of value from the writers, and the writers deserve respect and payment for that value in return. It is that simple.
A reminder for all our NYC-area readers, there is a solidarity rally today for the WGA-East:
WHERE AND WHEN:
Tuesday, November 27th – WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK
12:00 NOON – 1:30 PM
The more folks they have out in support, the better. So if you have the time and the transportation, please try to get there.
– United Hollywood has several updates. And even more updates here. And Defamer has more as well.
– Via skippy, I found these great Speechless videos in support of the WGA. This one is my particular fave.
– Hollywood Interrupted has a virtual picket line going.
– And Nikki Finke is reporting that the talks between the WGA and the studios are positive, thus far, but no deal inked as of last night.
UPDATE: I meant to add in a link to a Hollywood Reporter update on the negotiations as well.
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Zed?
Woohoo! Gmornin Christy!
Christy!
Morning Christy!
Now I can commence to blogwhorin’ (my natural state)
Bush re-writes the Battle Hymn of the New Republic
Washington Square Park at noon. I’m planning on it. Weather is perfect for a rally.
eCAHNomics @ 5
62 degrees F? It’s 5 here in Minneapolis…
eCAHNomics @ 5
Go eCAHN!
if the networks don’t start making some real rogress, they are going to lose their advertisers.
BTW, any advertisers looking for a place to put ads…..
There’s this nice web blog I know about….Just sayin’s all
a pro-union rally?
at noon today in washington square?
oh man, how great would that be?
but i can’t get off work for it.
lame, i know.
btw, gang, the YouTube at the top is a series of interviews with a number of WGA members walking the picket line in front of ABC/Disney. Some great discussion of the sorts of issues that writers face in an industry that is highly uncertain in terms of steady employment. It’s a risk they take with that line of work, sure, but it’s also part of the huge imbalane in power between studios and the talent that works for them — and off whom they make a lot of money.
Really good starting points for discussion in it — thought you all would enjoy it.
Respect for labor is one issue that has not been discussed enough for this election.
Shrubco has been very damaging to organized labor and I think the unions have blown it big time by not getting behind Edwards as a group.
Wow, those speechless videos are really great. I’m gonna send them around!
dmg @ 9
start coughing now, you could buildup to a full blown cold by 11:30
just sayin’
Smgumby — Yeah, they are really well done, aren’t they?
dmg @ 9
Presuming you’re in NYC, don’t you get a lunch hour?
katherine Graham Cracker @ 11
they’re hedging their bets — but you’re right. they should go bigtime for him.
OT (sorry, but important)
Abu Dhabi buying large interest in Citigroup.
The selling off of our country continues.
eCAHNomics @ 15
a lunch hour? bwahahahahahahaha
no, seriously, that was a good one.
(wipes tear from eye.)
i’d blow off work, but it’s not the company, it’s the peeps in my foxhole — can’t let ‘em down.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 14
They really, really are. Who would have thought personalities on tape not speaking would be so powerful.
Here in Los Angeles, people are very optimistic that this could be resolved within a couple weeks. Both sides are finally negotiating in good faith. As part of that effort, they’ve agreed to a news blackout, so we might not be hearing anything more specific for a little while.
looseheadprop @ 8
Yup. AdAge has the scoop on that. And any networks thinking about trying to renegotiate their ad rates upward had better think again.
Yeah! Our readership kicks demographic butt, just like KO’s viewership.
Good morning from L.A. Thanx for staying on top of the WGA strike news, CHS.
One of my favorite movie speeches in recent memory is from a film about the importance of unions. Harriet Frank Jr. & Irving Ravetch wrote the lines for Rueben Warshowsky (Ron Liebman), a union organizer in the film Norma Rae:
“On October 4, 1970, my grandfather, Isaac Abraham Warshowsky, aged eighty-seven, died in his sleep in New York City. On the following Friday morning, his funeral was held. My mother and father attended, my two uncles from Brooklyn attended, my Aunt Minnie came up from Florida. Also present were eight hundred and sixty-two members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Cloth, Hat and Cap Makers’ Union. Also members of his family. In death as in life, they stood at his side. They had fought battles with him, bound the wounds of battle with him, had earned bread together and had broken it together. When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were heard. They were black, they were white, they were Irish, they were Polish, they were Catholic, they were Jews, they were one. That’s what a union is: one… Ladies and gentlemen, the textile industry, in which you are spending your lives and your substance, and in which your children and their children will spend their lives and their substance, is the only industry in the whole length and breadth of the United States of America that is not unionized. Therefore, they are free to exploit you, to cheat you, to lie to you, and to take away what is rightfully yours – your health, a decent wage, a fit place to work. I would urge you to stop them by coming down to room 207 at the Golden Cherry Motel, to pick up a union card and to sign it… It comes from the Bible – according to the tribes of your fathers, ye shall inherit. It comes from Reuben Warshowsky – not unless you make it happen…”
SaltinWound at 20 — I’ve been wondering how this is effecting the studios in terms of ad rates, coming in sweeps period an all. I’d think that would be a point in the favor of the WGA in terms of timing. But it’s so hard to tell from the outside looking into the industry.
Yesterday, the Gray Lady gave Nikke Finke a shoutout:
eCAHN
You go girl! Can you take pix?
One writer said on NPR that this is a dispute that both sides feel a need to win. He said as a writer he of course wants to win. Then he said if he were a producer he would also like to win.
Biodun @ 24
Woo-hoo!
Biodun at 26 — What was the tone on the NPR piece — I missed that one.
SaltinWound @ 20
a variation of “no news is good news”
ps digg it!
If this continues, the networks will owe a fortune in “make goods,” money they’ve already collected from advertisers, based on the promise of specific ratings. If the viewership falls short (and it will), the networks owe the advertisers money and/or free airtime.
Christy:
NPR tried for neutral tone, if that’s possible. The writer (a he) was quite articulate however. I’ll see if I can dig up a link.
The best writing is found on FDL. The networks can’t hold a candle to the ladies of the lake.
SaltinWound @ 30
hmm. i wonder if that would have some nominal effect on time availability for political spots.
i don’t think it would, since those spots are bought on the local station level, not the network.
neokneme @ 32
I second that!
Other than some misinformation from MSM ( average salaries $100,000 – $150,000) there has been little or no news about the stagehand strike.
These people work godawful hours in a potentially dangerous job while the producers rake the cash.
Does anyone have any news?
nomolos at 35 — Only thing I know is the latest wire report (via NYTimes here) that the talks broke down.
SaltinWound @ 30
Yup.
Hey, have you heard if FOX finally finished negotiating with its advertisers for higher rates? Their last ad contracts were set with fairly pitiful ad rates, and if they didn’t get anything inked before the strike, they can forget about negotiating rates upward. (Downward, on the other hand, is a distinct possibility.)
eCAHN — If you get pictures at the rally today, feel free to send them along to Jane and I and we’ll try to get them up at some point if we can.
Christy:
Here’s the NPR link for that story: Just click Listen Now.
Thanks, Biodun. Much appreciated!
Woo writers!
How else would we have Betty White’s immortal phrase “If I had a d*ck, this is where I would tell you to suck it.”
What? No other Lake Placid guiltypleasurites?
they’re hedging their bets — but you’re right. they should go bigtime for him. dmg
Christy Hardin Smith @ 36
Thanks CHS. Here is Union update
Christy Hardin Smith @ 38
Don’t have a digital camera & my point & shoot is in the country. I’ll take my other camera which is in the city but the fastest turnaround, if I shoot an entire roll, would be tomorrow afternoon. The place where I get them developed includes a disk, which makes them emailable. But don’t hold your breath.
Firepups on Facebook can join the WGA Strike cause here. I’ve been recruiting a few of my friends. Right Elliott? *g*
Biodun @ 45
*g*
It is so cold and dreary here today. (Glad you weather is better for the rally, eCAHN.) I may have to make myself a warm pot of tea in a bit…just that sort of gray day.
Bloomberg hearts Finke link.
`Toldja’: Nikki Finke Has the Scoop on Hollywood Writers Strike
Long live bloggers!
OT There is a muddleheaded, all over the place article on the Annapolis peace conference at the Times by Steven Myers: Seeking a Mideast Path, Bush Offers a Nudge
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11…..qzUne9jUGA
It basically says that nothing is going to happen in Annapolis but this is part of some Bush plan to get talks between Palestinians and Israelis going which Condi Rice can take care of. Myers doesn’t explain how doing nothing will accomplish anything nor how Bush doing nothing and leaving it to Condi is any different from what Bush has been doing (or not doing) for the last 5 years or Rice for the last 2 years.
While the article does contain criticisms of the conference, it also tries to put the best face on what is essentially a non-event. But Myers and the Times being part of the MSM can’t just say this or explore the inanity of legacy building at this late date or what a just Israeli-Palestinian peace would look like or the weakness of Olmert and Abbas. No, they have to skirt at great length the fact that this is a waste of time, that this has nothing to do with Middle East peace but everything to do with Bush’s and especially Condi’s ego.
neokneme at 48 — Well, that’s funny. Bloomberg will do a piece on a blogger reporting on a story that’s critical of the studios. But how many actual pieces are there critical of the studios on their own? *g* That would be a fun one to look into…
Hugh at 49 — I read that piece. My favorite incredibly obtuse line was this one: “Mr. Bush’s vision is ambitious, but his strategy is cautious — he may be repeating Mr. Clinton’s role, yet he rejects what he sees as the meddlesome quality of it.” Because invading an entirely different country in a war of choice is the anti-meddle.
CHS @50,51…
“Mainstream organizations are too scared,’’
I had this brief exchange with Robert Novak on my way to work this morning (we didn’t really connect):
“So you show your face in public, huh?”
“Fuck you!”
Testy motherfucker.
brendan at 53 — Well, you’ll be having cocktail weenies and quail wings in no time after that. *g*
The writer-producers (so-called runners) are in a funny position. They seem to hold the cards–at least on the big shows. So far they’re supporting the writers. But in the long run, if the strike continues, chances are that they’ll cross the picket line and go back to work. Then the writers would really be f*cked.
contracts need to be written so that whenever a new method of distribution (DVD, web, etc.) emerges, the writers automatically get residuals from those new markets… forward-thinking contracts…
Another OT via TPM and with Edward Teller in mind:
Christy Hardin Smith @ 51
I liked that one and also the response to the criticism that it was all a photo-op: “That, however, does not necessarily mean that it will be a failed photo op.” How can you have a failed photo-op. Leave the lens cap on? Forget to put the film or memory chip in? This is a little like saying that this meeting will be trivial but successfully trivial.
Jane’s upstairs…with Joe Klein’s editor at Time, who hung up on Jane. That editor needs to get a few phone calls…
OT: An afterthought from the previous thread.
In the past week, four of my favorite commentators, Marcy, Christy, Glenzilla, and Hilzoy, have done some awsome takedowns of: Thomas Friedman, Joe Klein, and Mark Halperin in various tag-team combinations. It has been truly delightful.
brendan @ 53
I love you.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 50
Critical Mass
Hosts of ‘The View’ Support Strikers, Too
TIMELINE: The Hollywood labor dispute
dmg @ 16
Everyone’s hedging their bets including this blog which I understand will not endorse a Democratic primary candidate but will support the Democratic presidential nominee, whoever that might be.
I do not know what motivates people including myself. The year after John Lennon died there were memorials around the country including McLevy Park in Bridgeport. I’m not one for public demonstrations, but after mulling it over ten minutes I got there in time to stand silently for the remaining thirty minutes. I thought John Lennon very special, but to this day I don’t know what got me off my ass.
The point is we have to get motivated to support the writers and to position ourselves for the worst should it come down the pike. Comment sections don’t do it in that they don’t promote solidarity, a trust that others will walk where we walk. Thinking about how we can use the internet to support the writers, something that shows their bosses how many people are aligned against them, strikes me as a first order of business.
I am not a labor lawyer but the back of my mind says secondary boycotts (I’m not sure what they are) are illegal. So I don’t know about boycotts although if a few million people spontaneously stopped going to the movies, it might make an impression. I don’t know about motivation, but I know what we are doing is not enough.
skippy walked the line w/the horror writers today at warners