The Industry

My friend Gregg Hurwitz, author of THE CRIME WRITER, sums up my feelings on the strike better than I can.  He’s also better looking than me:

Coming to Hollywood as an author, I was amazed at the benefits and
infrastructure provided to me as a screenwriter. Health care. Pension.
Residuals. Minimums. There’s not a day I’ve worked in L.A. that I’m not
grateful for these benefits—benefits that provide for my family and
that allow me to continue to do my job. These benefits were won by the
sweat and courage of men and women who had much more to lose and who
took greater risks than those before us now. These benefits were won by
the sacrifices others made for future generations, for me.

This
membership, this year, cannot dissipate those gains. We cannot cave in
to an unfair deal that writers decades from now will be saddled with.
This is a watershed contract. Future writers will look back to this
year, to this contract, to us, every day as they live with what our
resolve and respect for writing yielded. They can look back on us with
the same gratitude we look back on those who came before us. Or they
can look back with disappointment.

We’d be well served to remember that this contract isn’t just for us.

I just got back from picketing in the rain with hundreds of my
fellow TV crime writers and the casts of their hits shows outside the headquarters of the AMPTP, which we wrapped in crime scene tape. It was a terrific event that once again demonstrated how amazingly unified and determined the Guild is. The AMPTP has greatly underestimated our dedication to our cause. It was also great to see so many supporters from SAG and the DGA, as well as novelists like Michael Connelly from the
Mystery Writers of America and Christa Faust from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. Celebs included the stars of NUMBERS, CSI, THE UNIT, RENO 911, BONES, and DEXTER and showrunners like Carlton Cuse (LOST), Shawn Ryan (THE SHIELD), Rene Balcer (LAW AND ORDER) and Naren Shankar (CSI). And there were mobs of reporters there as well, so I’m sure we got a lot of press out of the event.
(Photos 1. The AMPTP wrapped in crime scene tape. 2. Me and Michael Connelly. 3. CSI’s Marg Helgenberger and Rene Balcer read the indictment against the AMPTP. 4. William Rabkin and Robert Patrick from THE UNIT. 5. Striking Writers and actor Keith Carradine listen to speakers.)

Here are some pictures from the NBC picket line this morning. I’m the yellow munchkin.

A woman writer asked me if it was true that John Edwards was coming to the NBC picket line later in the afternoon. I said that it was. She beamed.

"I love him so much," she said. "I think it’s great that he can talk to the dead."

"That’s John Edward," I said. "This is John Edwards."
"There’s only one  famous John Edward," she said. "And he talks to dead people."
"This John Edwards is running for President," I said.
She gave me a long look. "Does he talk to dead people, too?"

That was an honest-to-God conversation I had. On a picket line with elderly munchkins handing out donut holes. This is a strange world we live in.

I am at NBC in Burbank this morning, nearing the end of my shift. At about 8, a guy parked across the street and came over to us. His hands were in his pockets and he looked uneasy.. 
He told us he was an editor and that he, and many other IATSE members, were embarrassed and outraged by the conduct of their exec director, especially by the letter that was released today. I didn’t know anything about the letter…I slipped out of the house without reading the paper. He wanted us to know that the editors were with us in spirit and we thanked him.
An hour later, a van pulled up and out spilled three original munchkins, one in her costume from The Wizard of Oz. The three of them must have been in their late 80s and sang the lollipop guild song as they walked with us.

"The lollipop guild is with you," said the lollipop kid and he handed me a donut hole.

John Edwards is coming by later but I doubt that he can top that.  Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Here’s my friend writer Diane Ademu-John (back row, second from the left) and the cast of her show MEDIUM on the picket line. She has already logged an astonishing 40 hours of picketing (compared to my meager twelve). That’s why she’s in such great shape and I’m, um, not.

I’ll be out at CBS in Studio City or NBC in Burbank tomorrow.