And so are you.Photo by Justine Bateman. Hat by Strike Swag.(Proceeds from U.H. swag offset the cost of our upcoming redesign.)

The following was submitted by SAG board member and regular U.H. contributor Justine Bateman.

Remember how at the beginning of the WGA's negotiations, the CEOs made a threat about getting rid of residuals? Well, by my reading, the DGA deal does that for TV.

Are you ready to trade an entire year's worth of TV residuals for a one-time fee of $1,200?

Currently, writers and directors both make

Here's the link.

(We want to welcome SAG Member Justine Bateman as a regular contributor to United Hollywood. We hope to continue opening the site up to more voices from SAG and other unions. Justine reminds us that this fight belongs to all of us. We're all on the same page.)

Attention all SAG Actors:

I believe it's appropriate at this time to call all actors into action in support of the Writer's Guild on strike.
I know many of us have been walking the picket lines and attending the rallies, but I want to challenge ALL SAG members to see if they can commit an HOUR-A-DAY to walking the picket lines.
The AMPTP has been jerking the Writer's Guild around.
1. They offered nothing but insulting Roll-Backs to the WGA in the negotiations that caused the strike.

"Speechless" continues to demonstrate the support of SAG talent in the WGA's fight for a fair contract. UH contributor Justine Bateman stars in the latest episode with her brother Jason.

All "Speechless" videos:
Hi-res/Brightcove
Lo-res/YouTube

WGA President Patric Verrone - who along with other members of the WGA Board and Negotiations Committee will be walking the various picket lines today - joins us for an interview on United Hollywood Live (12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern).

We also welcome actress Justine Bateman, who has spear-headed a SAG Call To Arms, and showrunner Bill Prady to the show.

And Blee has one.

Not feeling too well so this is it for the day. Trying to get my energy up as I have been very tired and sluggish for days now.

WSJ today gives overview of social networking sites getting into business of producing online video.  Article features three shows:

- Kate Modern, a mystery on social networking site Bebo.
- Roommates, a soap opera on MySpace TV
- Special Delivery, a hidden camera reality show on MySpace TV.

It notes that while MySpace and Bebo push into original content, Facebook hasn't and other internet companies - AOL and Yahoo, specifically - are backing away from it.   

Article doesn't disclose budget for KATE MODERN but says Bebo sells sponsorships at $400,000 for six months. 

Claims production budgets for Roommates and Special Delivery are about $1000 per minute.

Article also notes that the shows themselves aren't very profitable to their writer / producers, who are portrayed as doing internet stuff to build assets and relationships "in a bigger entertainment medium." 

I'm having a quiet Sunday but there's lots of busy bloggers out there today:

-Nymeth is celebrating and giving books away.

-Justine Picardie is guest blogging tomorrow at Dovegreyreading. Remember, she wrote that Daphne DuMaurier novel? I'm staring at the mailbox waiting for my copy.

-Aquatique has a really interesting post about breaking up over books. Check it out.

And myself, I'm reading Hawaii and Mansfield Park today. Plus, DA-TA-DADA, I opened my own Esty shop here. I only have 2 items now but plan to add more throughout the week. I'm pretty excited out it.

Have a great Sunday!

Will 1+1 someday = 2?

The WGA, the Teamsters and California
State Senator Sheila Kuehl have just announced the introduction of the
"Fair Market Value Bill." The bill seeks to prevent studios from
selling programming to sister companies for below market value. This
particular strain of Hollywood accounting is designed to shift profits
away from the studios (where they must be shared with talent and
producers and serve as a basis for pension and health contributions) to
networks, where they may be enjoyed without the pesky need to pay one's
"partners."

Press release below the break.  We'll have more soon on the bill in particular and Hollywood skulduggery in general.

And if you're a studio accountant or lawyer looking to go all Michael Clayton on the Big Six, send us a tip or a post.

NEW BILL TAKES AIM AT HOLLYWOOD ACCOUNTING

California
State Senator Sheila Kuehl Introduces Bill to End the Practice of
Selling Television Series and Films for Less Than Fair Market Value

Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting this challenge to read books that are part of these categories: Fantasy, Folklore, Fairy Tales and Mythology. This is a Spring challenge and takes place from March 21 to June 20. He has three journeys, I'll be taking this one:

Quest the First

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time II criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

So without futhur ado, here is my list of choices:

With a web site and press release that push hard to position the company as revolutionary, Disney today announced the launch of Stage 9 Digital Media. They claim to have 20 web series in various stages of development, ranging from comedy to science fiction. 

Tech Crunch's Eric Schonfeld wasn't impressed by Stage 9's first series, SQUEEGEES: "Lame doesn’t begin to describe this three-and-half-minute comedy about the hijinks of a window-washing crew ... What ABC fails to understand is that when it comes to Web video, authenticity trumps production values." 

NewTeeVees's Chris Albrecht characterizes SQUEEGEES as another example of big-media creating web shows that are merely "shorter versions of what already exists in old media." He calls the show "sit-comy" but funny, and he faults Disney for a cardinal internet sin: not allowing users to embed the show in their own sites. 

As we expand UH into a resource for the talent community exploring
the creative and business aspects of new media, we will post bits of
news about what's going out there. Comment, question, send us posts
about what you know and what you're doing, and look for the new UH: Artists l Audience l Business in the coming weeeks.  -TES

NewTeeVee writes
today about UNDER THE ARCHES, a "reality" show that began as a series
of short videos online and is now being turned into a "pilot" by a
company called Madwood Entertainment.

NYU student Sean Patrick Murray, who created the show, describes it on Facebook as "8 college kids in NYC, the real "Gossip Girl."  You can see the 7-minute pilot there or get a taste here
on the Gawker post, which described the show as "reality schtick -
[all] about the fast-moving-cloud shots, the angsty Z-100 soundtrack
and the whiny blond chicks" and creator Murray as "either a complete
genius or a total tool."

Last week, State Senator Sheila Kuehl introduced a bill in the California Senate that protects all entertainment union workers.  Below, WGAw Secretary-Treasurer Elias Davis explains the bill and asks the members of all entertainment-industry unions to support it by sending an email to its sponsors in the California State Assembly. 

Over the past few years a number of TV show creators have brought suit against major studios in cases where the studios have sold TV series to companies owned by the studios themselves. The reason for the suits is simple - because of self-dealing, these shows have been sold for far less money than they could have brought in had they been offered for sale on the open market.

Since we are entering the last quarter of the year, I thought it might be a good time to look back over what I have read so far and take a look at the books that I have loved the most in 2007.

It appears I have had a pretty good reading year. I hope I find more to add to this list.

Here they are in the order that I read them this year:(click for reviews)

As Veterans Day draws to a close, we've got a group of links with some of the latest news and analysis:

• We quoted from Damon Lindelof's contribution to the NY Times Op-Ed earlier today. The full text can be found here.

• Here's another excellent and concise YouTube explanation for what the writers are asking for. It's called Fade to Black.

• TV writer Ken Levine wrote a Simpson's parody on his blog.

• Commentary from reviewer Barbara Barnett, who had been linking to Amazon Unbox episodes of "House" as part of her reviews.

I must have had the luck of the Irish on the weekend because I won Daphne from the Bronte Blog. Looking forward to reading this book based on Daphne DuMaurier's life. I also won a book from LASR, though I'm not sure which Lynsay Sands book it is. Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket while I'm on a roll.

For your Irish pleasure, here's a couple of interesting things:
-Chris tells us about a New Orleans cabbage pelting tradition.

Liz Gannes from NewTeeVee posts her interview with Patrick Verrone.

Verrone says that while the legacy of '88 strike was that studios and networks learned how to make shows without writers, the legacy of this strike may be that "writers learn how to do content without the studios and networks."

As to the Media Honchos claims (Zucker, Moonves) that the strike has taught them how to run a leaner business, Verrone says, "not likely." 

February 29. A whole extra day in the year. It should be a holiday, shouldn't it? Here it is, a day that doesn't exist for 3 years, let's celebrate it. It should be National Goof Off Day since it's a free day. Play video games, laze around, and read.

Anyway let's celebrate by checking out the book news:

This was interesting. A picture of Anne Frank's sweetheart has been found. It's sweet and sad at the same time. Peter died during the Holocaust.

Found through bookgirl: 50 Crime Writers to Read Before You Die. That's quite a few!

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Some weekend reading:

• Foreclosure Trends in Sacramento and Recommended Policy Options [pdf]
• The Great Housing Bubble
• Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know (Harper's via The Big Picture)
• Want to Know When Housing Has Bottomed? Here's How

As it is Buy A Friend A Book Week, there are many book giveaways going on. I will keep on adding to this post about new giveaways! Don't forget to check this out!

1) Dewey at The Hidden Side of the Leaf is holding one here. Do check out her link for further details!

2) Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty is giving out two books. Check it for further details!

Focused on "reducing the friction" between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the William Morris Agency and two prominent VCs - Accel Partners and Venrock - are launching an investment fund focused on digital entertainment, according to the NYT and LAT.

AT&T, an investor in the Endeavor-affiliated Media Rights Capital, is also a limited partner in the fund, apparently looking for opportunities in mobile entertainment and advertising.

Expect the focus to be on technology, not content. Per LAT, the fund "will make investments of less than $1 million in young companies that help foster
growth in areas including broadband, wireless, gaming, advertising,
entertainment and emerging media platforms."

From screenwriter Brian Nelson (HARD CANDY, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) --

The other day I had a conversation with a friend of mine who works in Craft Services. It was an unsettling talk. While this friend has been quite supportive of me all through the strike, during this talk he kept raising points that felt more like what people on the other side would say. "Well, it'll take a long time to undo all the damage ... the moment there was a DGA deal, why didn't the WGA just jump on that? ... It seemed like they were a lot more willing to talk to the DGA than to you guys, and I wonder why." I took a while and patiently responded to all these points, but it struck me that every time I'd respond, he didn't really acknowledge it but came back with another bone to pick.

What it brought home to me was that while my friend was definitely on our side because he felt that the corporate bosses were out to screw us all, he still was very wary of the WGA. Now that the WGA didn't need him so overtly on our side, he felt freer to express a lot of the frustration that BTL people must still feel.

Violet Lady is hosting a give-away for her 105th blog post!!! Wow.....I can only aspire to have 105 posts one day.... Anyway, click here to comment on her post and be entered into her give-away...Good luck!
Thanks to Lynne for the link!!

With the premiere of Michael Eisner's second web series The All-For-Nots, here's a quick review of the new media world according to Eisner. 

His company's first series was Prom Queen.  According the Eisner, it cost $3,000 per 90 second episode, was seen by 20 million people and made, "a couple thousand dollars."

Though it had more shots of girls in bikinis than the original, Prom Queen's sequel, PQ: Summer Heat, was seen by fewer people and "lost money."

The New York Times reports today that Warner Brothers will start making internet original content the old fashioned way: shoot first, get advertisers later. This is a good thing.  It means talent generate the ideas, not marketers.  Like others, Warner Brothers has found getting advertisers to finance production can be more hassle than it's worth.  Better to shoot the shows fast and cheap, push them out of the nest and see if they fly. 

The Times mentions three other recently launched internet original producers: 60Frames, Generate and Michael Eisner's Vuguru.  More info about these companies and others in the coming weeks.    

Here's a sample from THE JEANNIE TATE SHOW, from Warner Brothers Studio 2.0. 

Samples from 60Frames, Generate and Vuguru are below the break.

Now here's an interesting challenge! In 2008 I'll be reading some books about planet earth. See the challenge page for more information. List to come.