Current Affairs

The AMPTP took out more full-page ads in national newspapers today in an attempt to cast the WGA as irrational, unreasonable, and greedy. The problem is that the AMPTP can’t do that and tell the truth at the same time.  So guess how they dealt with the problem.

Here is how Patric Verrone, president of the WGA, responded to the latest ads:

* They say that technology and the Internet is rapidly
changing how Hollywood works. This is true, which is why we need a new formula to
determine compensation.

* They say that writers are already paid residuals for
digital downloads. It’s true some companies are trying to pay us for downloading shows we’ve
created at the abysmal DVD rate of a third of a penny per dollar earned by the companies. But we have
never agreed to this formula, and we have initiated arbitration.

 

* They say we are asking for a 700% increase over
what we currently receive for digital downloads. This is more than misleading. Again, some companies are trying to pay us the DVD rate. And we are asking to receive
2.5 cents per dollar. The only way to characterize our request as a 700% increase is if you accept as a
given the low ball amount they’re trying to foist on us.

 

* They say they have offered to pay us a percentage of the
revenue from Internet streaming of shows we’ve created. Here’s the truth about their
offer. We would get no share of revenue for the first six weeks that our shows air. In other words, they’re offering us a share of revenue after there is little revenue left.

 

* They say that no labor agreement in history has given
writers, actors, or directors a portion of advertising dollars. Nowhere in any of our proposals have we
ever asked for a share of ad dollars. As with every residual, we are asking for a share of the revenue
the corporations receive.

The AMPTP is dealing with the issues by spending lots of money on misleading, full-page ads in national newspapers. The WGA would rather deal with the issues by talking about them over a negotiating table.

The strike has put my friend Javi in a tough situation.  He was in the midst of producing his pilot THE MIDDLEMAN, a dream-come-true for him, when the strike was called. Now he is in a moral quandry:

i can’t be legally penalized by the guild for doing my duties as a
producer: but the guild would certainly prefer it if the walkout was
complete – if people like myself struck not only as writers but also as
producers…because if the paralyzing effect of the strike is felt
swiftly and across the board, the producers might be more motivated to
settle quickly.

so here i am, given the opportunity to see
through to completion the production of a nine year-old dream into a
pilot…a dream i self-financed as a comic book, seen through to three
volumes and fought to get to this place, into a reality…

…and
on the other hand, there’s a labor union of which i am a member,
mounting picket lines i am required to honor, running a justified
strike against a predatory media cabal that has no qualms about taking
from creators as much as they can possibly get (while laughably
pleading poverty when their entire raison d’etre is to monetize the
work of people such as myself) asking me to walk away completely.

I wouldn’t want to be in his position. It seems like an awfully cruel twist-of-fate for him.

A YouTube video compiles interviews with Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger, Sumner Redstone, Les Moonves and others crowing about the huge profits they have already made — and WILL make — from TV shows streamed on the Internet, iTunes, etc. (Thanks to Craig Mazin for the heads-up!)

Back when the WGA struck in 1988, I was a starry-eyed newcomer in television, fresh off having my first couple of freelance scripts produced. Walking the picket line each day was a chance to meet my TV writer idols and enjoy a master class in TV writing.

Nearly twenty years later, I’m pleased to report that it hasn’t changed.

Today I got to CBS Radford at 5:45 am and walked the picket line with legendary writer/producer William Blinn.

We share two social connections…when he started out in TV, his writing partner was Michael Gleason, my mentor…and he produced the TV series  "Our House" with the late Ernie Wallengren, who was one of my closest friends. So I’d heard a lot about Blinn over the years from Micheal and Ernie and, of course, was well aware of his successful career in television.

The congenial Blinn and I spent the whole time talking about TV and, for three hours this morning, I was the happiest writer in Hollywood. He shared anecdotes about his early days writing for "Bonanza," "Maverick," "Gunsmoke," and "Laramie"… about writing the epic miniseries "Roots"…about writing & producing everything from "Starsky & Hutch" to little-known shows like "Lazarus Syndrome" and "Heaven Help Us"… and about working with actors like Wilford Brimley, Broderick Crawford, Michael Landon, Lee Marvin and Lou Gossett Jr.  I was almost sorry when our shift ended, though my aching feet where screaming for a rest.

As far as celeb sights go, KING OF QUEENS star Kevin James showed up on the line for about twenty minutes, bought everyone Egg McMuffins and skee-daddled, but we appreciated the support and the vittles.

I had a late breakfast and caught up with the Los Angeles Times, where I was pleasantly surprised to see a very pro-WGA column from Patrick Goldstein, who noted that:

When Tom Freston was fired from Viacom in 2006 he received $60 million
in severance pay, more than all of the DVD residuals paid to WGA
members that year.

[…]So why are studios playing such hardball? They say they can’t divvy up
online revenue until they have a better idea of how much money is
generated. Of course, when video came along, the studios persuaded
writers to take a tiny cut of the profits, so as not to kill an
emerging technology. But once they were accumulating windfall profits,
did they ever revisit that deal? Not on your life.

And yesterday, the LA Times profiled a soap opera writer living in Sacramento who stands to lose everything if the strike drags on much longer. Perhaps the print media is beginning to finally see our side of the story.