UPDATE: WGAw membership meeting this Saturday, February 9, at 6:30 PM. Shrine Auditorium, 649 W Jefferson Blvd 90007.

Last Friday, WGAw President Patric Verrone gave this interview to United Hollywood's Jeff Berman. When asked about rumors, Verrone says flatly, "They're never true."

This was sent today by WGA Presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship to membership:

To Our Fellow Members,

While fully mindful of the continuing media blackout, we write you to address the rumors and reports that undoubtedly you have been hearing.

The facts: we are still in talks and do not yet have a contract. When and if a tentative agreement is reached, the first thing we will do is

Tonight, I received a call from Larry Gelbart. Technically, it was Robot Larry Gelbart, via an automated call system. (During the strike authorization process, I received a call from Robot Stephen Gaghan.) Larry's message dealt with the rumors and media reports of the past 48 hours. His advice: "Lay them aside and pick up a picket sign."

We will try to bring you the full text of his message. (

With all the arguments about what constitutes fair compensation for writers in New Media, not enough attention is being paid to the more fundamental issue that Thom Taylor talks about in his article in Forbes Magazine from January 17th:

But the media has been wrong to suggest the current battle is simply over cash. While the debate does affect how to divide pieces of the digital media pie (for

This was sent to membership Friday night, asking for patience as the WGA assesses the deal and moves foward with the AMPTP:

To Our Fellow Members,

As you know, the Directors Guild announced yesterday that it has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. We are waiting for the full terms of the deal to be made available so that we can carefully analyze and evaluate the language and numbers.

In his Huffington Post article, How Big Media Breaks The Law On "Survivor" Island, Jonathan Tasini writes:

It now appears that Big Media has been routinely breaking wage-and-hour laws, pocketing piles of money it should have been paying to writers who work in reality television. Here's the story. Turns out that reality television is a sweat-shop for the writers who make those shows happen: long hours with no overtime pay, no health insurance, and no pension.He points out that this is a broader problem for all American workers, not just writers:

(The following is a letter from the presidents.)

To Our Fellow Members:

Today, it is our pleasure to inform you that members of the Writers Guilds of America, East and West, have voted to ratify the MBA contract with 93.6% approval. With a total of 4,060 votes cast, the tally was 3,802 to 258. These numbers reaffirm the tremendous level of support and commitment our membership has continuously demonstrated over these last few crucial months.

We are also pleased to report that the trustees of our health fund voted yesterday to follow the recommendation in our strike settlement agreement to provide additional coverage and an extension of the earnings cycle for a full quarter (three months) to participants who would otherwise lose health coverage following an earnings cycle that included all or a portion of the strike period. Participants whose health coverage is paid for by points will only be charged points if they have ten or more points as of April 1, 2008.

The negotiating committee and the board came out to a full house at the Shrine Auditorium. They were met with a standing ovation. Standing ovations continued through the meeting as Verrone congratulated the membership on its efforts over the last three plus months. Bowman discussed what the nature of negotiations were like on the inside, where we started, and what we've gained. David Young went

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems dead set on pushing through a wildly unpopular media consolidation policy that would allow media moguls to gobble up more local news, radio, and newspaper outlets. The American people aren't happy about it, and neither are many leading politicians.

How, you ask, is this directly related to the writer's strike against the giant media conglomerates? This policy

SAG Board member and regular U.H. contributor Justine Bateman sends this open letter to all WGA members. -JA

To the WGA membership,

As you prepare to examine the proposed deal points and assemble for your meeting tonight, if the decision is made to continue striking, I will see you on the lines Monday. If you decide to recommend the deal to the membership at large for a vote and it is ratified,

Roger Clemens held a rather testy press conference with the media in Houston this afternoon, and played a tape of a 17-minute conversation he had with Brian McNamee last Friday night (in which it appears that McNamee did not know it was taped).

It didn't sway me one bit that Clemens was telling the truth about claiming to have never used steroids. The conversation left more questions unanswered than answered, and seemed to bring up some new ones, too.

I found it very curious in the conversation that Clemens did not ask McNamee a simple but very direct question about the whole mess.

"Why did you lie?"

The saga goes on.

This was sent early this morning to membership. The delay in publishing the deal points, we've learned, was because the companies dragged their feet enshrining some of the final details in an attempt to renege on some of what they had promised. The last-minute fight to keep that from happening took until late last night.

To Our Fellow Members,

We have a tentative deal.

It is an agreement

In the world of marketing, there is an almost obsessive focus on "traditional" advertising - television, magazines, newspapers, radio and outdoor. But highly targeted media, specifically online media, is getting more and more press.

That's why it's interesting to see a usually unconsidered media, like junk faxes, break through in a news story that, I think, has implications for other medias

Monday, we reported that rumors were swirling claiming the DGA had made a deal with the AMPTP. While admittedly unconfirmed, the whispers were coming from so many corners, we felt we had to at least tell folks what we were hearing.

But stop the presses (or at least don't hit the blog "Publish" button just yet).

Based on off-the-record information from two credible sources we contacted in order

2008 MBA RATIFICATION — MEMBER INFORMATIONAL MEETING

All WGAW members who have questions about the tentative contract are encouraged to attend a special informational meeting where senior staff and elected officials will review the deal terms and address members’ questions and concerns. The meeting will take place on Thursday, February 21, 7 pm - 9 pm at Sportsman’s Lodge, 12825 Ventura Blvd,

Ok, so I hear this a lot: "But can the corporations really afford to pay you what you're asking for?"

Let's set aside for the moment the issue of what the congloms say in their press releases to us (which is basically "There's no money! Ever! And if there was, we spent it all on other projects that lost money so it's gone! Forever! We're broke! We're having to rent our yachts!") and focus on some hard numbers thoughtfully provided by Jonathan Handel on the Huffington Post yesterday.

He writes an excellent (I think) and even-handed analysis that takes into account the effect pattern bargaining will have in calculating real numbers of what we're asking for, and what it will cost the companies, individually, to pay us.

This media advisory was just sent out by the WGA:

The Writers Guild of America will hold a press conference today, Sunday, Feb. 10, 12 Noon PST, at WGAW headquarters to update the media on important developments related to contract negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP companies.

Scheduled to appear: WGAW President Patric M. Verrone, WGAE President Michael Winship (available via phone line

The Red Sox this evening reached an agreement with former Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon on a minor league contract. It had been rumored that Colon was all set to go to the Chicago White Sox, but that fell through last week.

Colon is insurance for the Sox, as Curt Schilling status to pitch this season remains a serious question mark. Colon has suffered through two injury-riddled seasons since he won the Cy Young Award as a 20-game winner with the Angels in 2005. It's also a minor league deal, so Colon has to prove he's healthy and still has something left.
Here are Colon's lifetime stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/colonba01.shtml

(Nick Counter and the AMPTP (The Media Moguls) paid for an expensive ad in yesterday's "Variety" -- for those of you who don't work in the industry, "Variety" is an entertainment business magazine that is in the pocket of the Media Moguls.

For further information on "Variety's" biased reporting, check out Nikke Finke's post.

Since we don't have tons and tons of money like the Media Moguls do, we'll have to respond here - on the Internet - which they don't entirely own and control ( but they sure would like to).

Patric Verrone and Michael Winship just sent this message to the membership. The WGA is determined to stay at the table until we have a deal. If the AMPTP wants to negotiate in good faith, and end the strike, we are at the table.

Dear Fellow Members,

Before we head into negotiations this morning, we want to give you an update on where we stand.

This is the letter that was just sent to the membership:

AMPTP BREAKS OFF NEGOTIATIONS

Today, after three days of discussions, the AMPTP came back to us with a proposal that included a total rejection of our proposal on Internet streaming of December 3.

They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads.

They refuse to cover original material made for new media.

In response to the controversy over Scott McClellan's new book What Happened, which disclosed that the Bush engaged in a propaganda campaign to push the United States into war, Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay lay out what actually happened, using sources and articles available at the time.

The media, they point out, have little excuse for having been misled either about the Administration's motives or about the strength of the case for war. The evidence was available; but the media simply didn't want ask the Administration tough questions about its war plans in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. At the moment when a strong independent media was necessary, most of it failed the country. Many members of Congress refused to support the Administration's call for war, and protests were held around the country. But the press downplayed the opposition.

Hillary Clinton (pictured wearing the hat of her "favorite" MLB team) is expected to announce on Saturday that she is giving up her Democratic presidential ambition and will support expected nominee Barack Obama. (Not a surprise she is waiting until Saturday, as today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.)

I would bet that she will NOT be Obama's choice to be his vice presidential running mate, as the Obamas don't want the baggage that comes with her (aka Bill), and she doesn't want to be vice president anyway. (Obama needs a running mate who appeals to the two most important groups he still needs to win over from John McCain: Independents and Conservative Democrats. That's not Hillary.) I would bet in the long run she's hoping that Obama loses in November so she could run again in 2012.

Apparently some of the mega-corps that make up the AMPTP don't need the same three year study they offered the WGA in order to figure out how they can make money in the digital age. A lot of money.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, NBC Universal's president of Integrated Media Beth Comstock said she expects her company to hit $1 billion in digital revenue by the end of

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 26, 2008

Writers Guild Members Overwhelmingly Ratify New Contract

Too tired to move. I spent a lovely day doing almost nothing. My biggest accomplishment was to clean all the crap out of my closet. The gloomy weather outside is the perfect backdrop for a lazy Saturday afternoon. I was suppose to go out to a friends baby shower today. It was an hour away. I couldn't bring myself to get things together and go. Being nine months pregnant is my excuse : )

On a recent post, I added a note about respecting media snackers. It wasn't until a few days later that I actually had the time to think a bit more about what it meant and why (or why not) I should be trying to respect snackers.

As Deadline Hollywood reports, the DGA announced today that formal negotiations are commencing with the AMPTP beginning tomorrow (yes, that's Saturday.)

You can see Patric Verrone's comments below; as he states and as he's said many times before, we all hope the DGA makes a deal that will get the town back to work. However, if the deal they make doesn't address the needs of writers, the WGA is