Last minute meeting underway to avert Hollywood writers' strike

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CBC News

A federal mediator is convening a last-minute meeting on Sunday between the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood producers in order to avert a strike that would freeze film and television production, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday.


Daily Show writer Rob Kutner, a member of the Writers Guild of America, hands out leaflets outside Rockefeller Plaza Friday in New York. Movie and television writers are set to strike at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday.
(Gary He/Associated Press)

The trade magazine reported early Saturday that mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez had asked for a morning meeting between the two sides after the guild announced this week it had set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time Monday. The writers' contract expired at midnight Wednesday.

"We have 48 hours and what we really want to do is not strike, and come to a resolution," John Bowman, chair of the WGA's negotiating committee, said on Friday.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2007/11/03/writers-strike-sunday.html

[zanne]

1. I wonder if we'd notice. nt

[annabanana]

3. I"D sure as hell notice... The Daily Show would go on instant reruns

I would really really really hate that. .

[Deja Q]

5. Not everybody has cable...

And if cable is the only place to get more than so-called "reality shows", which aren't real and to my amazement have even less thought put into them unlike today's new, innovative shows such as "Bionic Woman" (2007)...

My feelings on the issue are mixed. Too many facets involved.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

10. Uh, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, SNL...

these are some of the shows that will be impacted immediatly that I watch. And this is only the short term!

[silverojo]

12. This isn't about the shows that you or I watch

It's about corporations screwing over the workers. Think past our own fingers and toes, and look at the big picture. Support the writers! :patriot:

[Kolesar]

2. Hold out for that clause that says they have to write something worth watching...eom

[Feral Libertarian]

4. And the downside of a writers strike is exactly what?

[onehandle]

6. Most strikes are a domino effect. Many others will not be able to do their jobs.

Lost wages. Lost revenue.

Not to mention loss of programming, which is mostly no big deal to me, but I got's to have me Daily Show and Colbert Report, which are off the air this week because of the strike.

[ronnykmarshall]

7. Since I live in Los Angeles

It effects tons of people. Not just the writers.

[Barrett808]

8. Media Life: It's for real: TV writers go out on strike

It's for real: TV writers go out on strike
Late-hour effort to reach a settlement collapses
By Lisa Snedeker
Nov 5, 2007

First the dress rehearsal, now the show.

After a long week of threatening to strike unless producers came around, the Writers Guild of America has carried through on its threat, throwing up picket signs early this morning in New York and Los Angeles. Writers had already been in the streets handing out literature in an effort to win support.

Moreover, the mood has changed over recent days, turning darker as the rhetoric on both sides became more inflamed.

Many, including media buyers, had been assuming that a strike by the guild representing TV and movie writers would be brief, lasting less than a month. Indeed, that was the sense in a Media Life poll posted just last week.

The sense now is that a strike could go much longer, though probably not the five months of the 1988 strike, the last called by the guild against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the negotiating arm of the studios.

The rancor runs too deep. There's bitterness on both sides.

The last hope to avert a strike was a meeting of the two sides called yesterday by a federal mediator who had joined the talks last week. But yesterday's talks ended 12 hours later where the negotiations had been stuck for months, over writers' demands for double the payments they received for DVD sales, from around 4 cents to 8 cents, and to extend residual payments to downloads of TV shows from the internet and other new media.

Producers asked the writers to delay the strike so talks could continue but the guild refused.

(more)

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Television_44/It_s_for_real_TV_writers_go_out_on_strike.asp

[Bonobo]

9. My God! Noooo! Who will STOP this madness!!!

[ronnykmarshall]

11. Your point?