12/12 and 12/13, 1-4pm, at the WGA Theater: 135 S. Doheny Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90211

David Milch will host two days of discussion, focused on creating a new, participatory business model for writers. Please remember that parking at the theater is limited, and available on a first come, first served basis.

From 2:15pm-4:00pm today (Wednesday 12/19) and again tomorrow (Thursday 12/20), David Milch (creator, Deadwood) will continue his discussion-series on The Idea of the Writer at the WGA Theater at 135 Doheny Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA.

• Paul Haggis: The Reality of Reality and Animation

• The First Delivery of Pencils2MediaMoguls. UPDATED with report from Jeffrey Berman.

• Laeta Kalogridis Weighs in on Reality and Animation

• David Milch: "The Idea of the Writer" Business Model Discussion

• A Reality Writer Responds to the AMPTP

This was submitted by WGA member Michael Seitzman. It also appears in the Huffington Post.

A producer once told me that when the writer is working, the script is the gun that holds everyone else hostage. When the writer stops typing, he hands the gun to the producer and director and immediately joins the other hostages against the wall.

On November 1, 2007, The Writers Guild of America typed

The strike is over. The WGA contract has been ratified. SAG and AFTRA are now center stage and there is still a lot of work to do before the town gets back to normal. At this moment it's useful to look back at our own history. There are lessons to be learned about how the process can move forward even against what seems like overwhelming odds.

There are many who labored behind the scenes to support the writers' strike. At United Hollywood we worked with people who put their energy on the line but wanted to stay off the media's radar. Not content to just talk a good game, these are members and supporters who knew that if they wanted to make a difference, they had to work at it.

One group in particular came of age during the early part of the strike: the writer-directors. Nicknamed the WD-40, forty writer-directors met to search for ways they could help facilitate the negotiation.

From the beginning of the strike, most journalists accepted the AMPTP's lead and described the DGA and WGA as antagonistic to one another. Nicholas Counter was frequently quoted in the trades as preferring the DGA as a negotiating partner. The writer-directors objected to that characterization and felt that the AMPTP was doing what it always did in positioning the Guilds against one another to diminish each union's power.

LOS ANGELES – The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have issued the following statement regarding Contract 2007 negotiations:

“The Writers Guild has reached a binding independent agreement today with Worldwide Pants that will allow Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the air with their full

Speechless Episode 31: 1/14

See all "Speechless" videos.

A Working Writer: David Dean Bottrell

See all "A Working Writer" videos.

This letter was submitted anonymously by a working reality writer. He/She requires anonymity, because otherwise, he/she fears being fired for writing this.

Dear AMPTP,

Today, I read on your website, “thousands of people in reality and animation have chosen not to join the WGA.”
This statement is false.

As a writer (aka "Supervising Producer", the name I'm given to get around having to give me a WGA contract) who has worked in reality television for over three years and who knows many people on the reality circuit, I can tell you that reality writers desperately want to be part of the WGA.

(This just in from the WGA... I've heard similar sentiment from friends and family all over the nation. The temperature I'm reading -- the whole country is fed up with corporate conglomerates caring only about the bottom line, and not about the welfare of their workers.)

Liz Pardue, Editor of Glowy Box at http://www.glowybox.blogspot.com/ writes this synopsis:

Adopt A Writer is a project organized by TV bloggers in support of the WGA, in association with United Fandom and United Hollywood.

Each participating blog will interview a TV writer about their life as a writer —and as a striking writer— with the goal of putting a human face on the WGA for our readers

Lots of good stuff to share.

- Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times is a sharp and skeptical columnist. He took a few shots at writers before the strike began. But in his most recent column, he argues that the companies are dead wrong to use fear of a digital future as an excuse not to cut in content creators. "If the studios really believe they can't share a sliver of profits with the people who create what they sell, they'll be the losers. If you don't believe in the future, you shouldn't be in show business."As Patrick writes, entertainment is a business built on optimism. Writers believe in the future. CEOs only seem to when investors are listening. Which is it going to be, guys?

Comedy Writer and Animal Internet Entrepreneur Billiam Coronel brings our attention to this supportive editorial from Mylo, a dolphin. Recently posted at animalinternet.com.

I Only Jump Thru Hoops ‘Cause A Writer Said To by MyloSPECIES: Water21 Feb 2008 Congratulations to the WGA. As a member of the Guild of Aquatic Performers Local

This was released by the WGA today:

WRITERS GUILDS REACH INTERIM AGREEMENTS WITH
INTERMEDIA AND THE FILM DEPARTMENT

Los Angeles – The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East are pleased to announce they have reached interim agreements with The Film Department and Intermedia. The Guilds continue to sign agreements with companies that value the essential role writers

(The piece below comes from a WGA member who would like to be known as "Red Sox Fan.")

The Ol' AMPTP Mindf*ck™

Has anyone noticed a pattern in the last couple weeks' worth of negotiations?

Monday is energetic and everyone's buoyed by the residual anger from the way last week ended. Tuesday there's a sense that they're "really talking." But by Wednesday, there's a creeping sense that nothing good is actually happening.

And on Thursday, the companies do the AMPTP Mindf*ck™.

First, it was the New Economic Partnership. This week it's "we're going to take our marbles and go home. Which means you can't play because we own all the marbles."

Three of the original Munchkins from THE WIZARD OF OZ will be joining striking writers on the picket line Friday morning at NBC Studios in Burbank. Among them will be Jerry Maren, the original Lollipop Kid who uttered the famous line, "We represent the Lollipop Guild."

Unfortunately for Jerry and his co-stars, the Lollipop Guild didn't have any better luck than other Hollywood guilds of the era in getting the actors or its screenwriter any residuals for their creation which has earned an untold fortune in the years since.

(Breaking news from the WGA - the AMPTP has agreed to come back to the table on November 26th. Now, let's hope they are prepared to make a fair deal. This is progress. Everyone wants to go back to work. Everyone wants fair compensation for their work.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 16, 2007

With the launch of our new video campaign, Voices4Action! we'll be interviewing people who want to speak out about the strike and the larger issues of a changing media world.

Adam Brooks' interview of Tony Gilroy, the writer-director of Michael Clayton, starts the series. Tony speaks passionately about the partnership between writers and studios and about the trust that needs to exist

Tomorrow night Jerry O'Connell ("Carpoolers," "Crossing Jordan") Kerri Kenney ("Reno 911," "The Ten," "The State"), and stand-up comedian Dan Mintz (writer, "Luckie Louie") will perform in Talk Show: The Talk Show at iO West Theater. Half the proceeds go to the Industry Support Fund - a fund set up by the WGA for non-WGA members affected by the strike.

Here are the details:
11pm THIS FRIDAY,

The WGA just announced a new picket event, Bring an Actor Friend to the Line Day, for Tuesday, December 11. I like this event idea. SAG and the WGA have been partners in this from the beginning, and actors have been joining our picket lines every day of the strike. But the focus of this day is a little bit different.

This introduction was written by director Peter Hyoguchi. - JA

A portrait of a Writer's Guild picket line.
Each year, Hollywood produces a spate of network TV shows and a couple dozen feature films. With over 12,000 Writers Guild members, clearly not everyone is employed in a given year. While the mainstream media barrages us with images of red carpet and caviar success stories, the reality is that most professionals working in the entertainment industry are middle-class at best.

"Who's On The Line" features interviews with screenwriters Michael Tabb, Wendy Mericle, Zack Stratis, Monica Henderson, Matthew Goodman and Damon Lindelof.

(From Writer's Assistant, Ed Fowler)

Saturday I went to my mailbox and discovered a very plain envelope with the return address of NBC Universal. Inside it held a simple, single page letter. At the very top, centered in some kind of Helvetica or Ariel font (at least it wasn't Comic Sans) was the very business like heading of:

(From WGA Member Ed Decter.)

I was walking the picket line with a young television writer who worked on THE UNIT. He was explaining to me that David Mamet always asks three things about a scene:

1. What does each character want?
2. Why now?
3. What happens if they don't get it?

Since I don't have an MBA, CPA, JD or any other degree my father wanted me to get, the only way I can look at our current labor situation is through the eyes of a screenwriter. If I was writing a screenplay, let's call it "The Big Strike of 2007," and the two main characters were the WGA and the AMPTP, before I would start writing I might ask myself the three Mamet questions. When thinking about the WGA "character" things seem very clear:

What does the WGA want?

During the 2007 season, I saw a guy at Professor Thom's one night that made me do a double take. He was wearing a David Ortiz jersey, and the resemblance he bore to the Red Sox slugger was simply scary.

His name is Chris Johnson, a native of Massachusetts who currently lives in the New York area. I remember saying to my friends, "Hey, David Ortiz is here!" I got to meet Chris, and he's just like Big Papi, even personality-wise. He's a big, hulking guy with a broad smile and very outgoing personality. Just a sweetheart of a guy.

I saw Chris many times during the season, and he always greeted me with a wide smile. It was fun watching a game with him, especially when Ortiz did something big. I remember Papi hit a mammoth home run one night, and it seemed like most people in the bar looked at him and "thanked" him for the home run. All Chris could do was smile and say "you're welcome" or "it was my pleasure."

Strike TV is an Internet fundraiser. It's an online "channel" featuring original video shows created by working professionals in the TV and Film Industry. These shows are self-funded and owned by their creators. Funds raised by ad revenue will go toward the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund, assisting union directors, actors and below the line members who are affected by the strike.

(News Release from the Writers Guild of America)

Hundreds of Screen Actors Guild Members Join Picket Lines Outside Universal Studios

on Day Nine of WGA Strike

WGAE member David Handelman sent us an article to balance out the "west coast bias" of U.H. Although, as he writes, "It is called 'United Hollywood' not 'United Long Island City.'" The article is a Washington Post profile from 1/30 of various working writers on the WGAE's picket line.

Washington Post (reg. req'd)
Archived copy on WGAE.org

This article was submitted by WGA member Michael Arkof. It runs today in Writers: On The Line, a weekly print newsletter distributed at picket locations.
AND A CHILD SHALL READ THEM

Sabrina Batchler didn’t write the book on supporting the WGA strike, but she is reading one. Lots of them, actually. The eleven year-old is conducting a Read-a-thon to raise money for the Writers Guild Foundation, to

Michael Winship, president of Writers Guild of America East, sent this message to East members today.

Fellow Members of the Writers Guild of America, East:

A very Happy New Year to you all. In spite of our current turmoil, I hope you’ve been able to find some time to enjoy and appreciate the holiday season with friends and loved ones.

I hit the wall the Friday before Christmas, momentarily