Writer and actress Nia Vardalos is sponsoring a toy drive at Raleigh Studios on Monday, November 26th. The event will take place from 10am-1pm at the Van Ness gate (south of Melrose Avenue). All WGA, SAG, Teamsters, AFTRA, other unions and supporters are welcome.

UH News
• Contract Update from Verrone and Winship
• UH Live for 12/5

Upcoming Events
From the WGAw
THURSDAY, 12/6THREE GENERATIONS OF WGA MEMBERS: Sherwood Schwartz, (creator of "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch"), his son Lloyd, (writer and producer of "The Brady Bunch" feature films and many television comedies), and Lloyd's son Andy, a story editor on "Scrubs" -- will picket together at the main gate of CBS Radford from noon until 1 p.m. Sherwood Schwartz, 91, was a founding member of the Television Writers of America, which merged with screenwriters to become the WGA.

On a day when thousands of union supporters marched down Hollywood Blvd, the message was simple and most eloquently stated by Sandra Oh: "Writers want to write!"

SCI FI CHANNEL DAY FOR FANS & WRITERS:
Jaime Paglia, co-creator of "Eureka" is inviting fans to join the writers, producers and cast members from Sci Fi Channel's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, EUREKA, FLASH GORDON, PAINKILLER JANE, and others for a rally at NBC Studios.

12 noon - 2 pm at NBC STUDIOS, 3000 W. Alameda Ave, Burbank, CA.

SPOOKY WEDNESDAY AT WARNER BROS:
For the last two Thursdays writers

Life on Strike was originally produced for The Strike Show, a live comedy-variety show that raised money to benefit members of the industry who are affected by the strike via the Motion Picture and Television Fund. and features Ana Ortiz (UGLY BETTY), Nick Kroll, (CAVEMEN), and Kat Foster (TIL' DEATH).

Proving that walking the picket line stimulates your comic chops, the members of the Strike Club, formerly of Sony's Madison Gate and now keeping watch over the Galaxy Gate at Fox, offer up a short film that pokes a finger in the eye of the faceless congloms.

Ok...I have been over-committed for the 2007 challenges. I admit it. That's why I have been avoiding all of the new ones that have been popping up, even though some of them look really interesting and fun. But, Melissa over at Book Nut is hosting a challenge that fits right in with my reading plans for 2008.

As UnitedHollywood settles into the slower, holiday news cycle, we'll still be updating the site. Just ...you know, not as much. The big news over the next few days will be the speechless campaign. So look for that. And we'll be back with full coverage of the resumed negotiations on the 26th.

• StrikeSwag.com has shirts and a brand new supply of red writer's bracelets in stock.

Norman Borisoff (Academy Award winner Titan: The Story of Michelangelo, writer: Ironside, Quincy, I Spy) was one of many who attended The Homecoming Picket outside of Sony yesterday.

The picket was a small way for newer members to pay tribute to the veteran writers, actors, and directors who helped form and shape the unions we are protected by today.

Other attendees included:

Christopher Knopf (president of the WGA 1965-1967, The Dick Powell Show, The Big Valley, Dr. Kildaire, and Equal Justice.

WGA member Rene Balcer (show runner of "Law & Order" and co-creator of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent) may have a new ripped-from-the-headlines story to write after the strike is over. Today, while picketing at the executive gate at Fox (Gate 3), Balcer was pushed numerous times by a black SUV driven by a Fox employee, as he walked legally through the crosswalk . According to one of six

Writer and actress Nia Vardalos, seen here with Phil Rosenthal and Tom McGowan, sponsored a toy drive this Monday. She had this to report:

So many people came by the Raleigh Van Ness Gate (WGA, TEAMSTERS and SAG) and we took two truckloads of toys to the fire station! People brought food for SOVA too – enough to fill two large boxes. It was so much fun, and a great feeling to be part of such an uplifting day!

Thanks to Nia for organizing the event, and thanks to all who donated!

(From fans4writers.com:)

Fans should gather at Universal Studios beginning at 11:00 AM. We have a customizable picket sign (pdf) you can use. Mingle with other fans, wave your signs, experience the thumbs-up and honking car horns of passing drivers.

Then, when the time comes, head to NBC Burbank, where many striking writers will be headed, in time for a larger strike rally to be visited by presidential candidate John Edwards beginning at 1:45 PM.

This is a relatively last-minute event, so spread the word far and wide. And keep an eye out here for future developments, because preliminary discussions are underway for a much larger Fan Day event to show the Companies just how much fans support the writers have.

Compiled from WGA and United Hollywood emails. -JA

TUESDAY DECEMBER 11TH:

PENCILS2MEDIAMOGULS: It's here! The first delivery of pencils will take place today. Over 500,000 pencils have been shipped. Please join us as we deliver the pencils to NBC CEO Jeff Zucker, Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and to Universal Studios for GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Writers slated to appear include: Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Joss Whedon (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly), Carol Barbee (Jericho), Alfred Gough (Smallville), Miles Millar (Smallville). We will meet at 11:30 am at Johnny Carson Park, 400 Bob Hope Drive in Burbank.

RUMOR: WGA members are starting to hire "freelance picketers" to do their strike duty.
STATUS: Unconfirmed

Universal strike captain Jan Kimbrough noticed this Craig's List posting on Day Four:Reply to: gigs-473080663@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-11-08, 3:15PM PST

I can't make it to my picket tomorrow and I need somebody to take my place. I want to go see friends in San Diego while I have time off work, and I'll pay somebody $40 to cover my four-hour shift. My strike "captain" doesn't care as long as there are people out there. I'll give you my shirt and signs and all that crap.

If this works out on Friday then let's do it next week too. I'd really rather not have to deal with it.

Last night was the series finale of the fabulous HBO/ BBC show Extras by Ricky Gervais (the original British Office creator) and it was bittersweet. Since it is a British show of course it isn't going to go longer than two or three seasons unless it is Dr. Who. The show is the very popular uncomfortable painfully funny type that is popular right now, but unlike shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm it isn't so uncomfortable that I can't watch it.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been very supportive of our strike. They've paid for billboards reading, "Hey Studios... Do the Write Thing. 1.9 million janitors, healthcare workers, public employees, and security officers support the writers' struggle for fairness." At last week's union solidarity rally they marched with us, as they have on several other occasions.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH:
UNION SOLIDARITY: Mick Betancourt is organizing a group of WGA members to attend a Teamster Rally Against Cross Border Trucking at the Otay Mesa border crossing, 2335 Enrico Fermi Drive in San Diego, on Wednesday December 5th at 6:30 am. For more information, please contact Mick at polythreat@gmail.com.

§ DIVERSITY PICKETING DAY: The WGA Black Writers Committee is hosting Diversity Picketing Day on Wednesday, December 5th at Paramount Studios. Everyone is welcome to join. Remember, it's our differences that make this guild strong, so come out to support. For more information, please contact Jacqueline McKinley at JacMac14@aol.com.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 6TH:

Greetings, one and all. We're home in San Francisco and I'm not-so-patiently waiting for a serendipitous phone call from an employer I probably forgot to contact. We're in that always excremental time between tours where you aren't around long enough to lie your way into a proper job yet around just long enough so you have to. Of course, that's why God invented temping, which, coincidentally, is the closest most people get to having a pimp.

But we're not talking about my descent into joyless whoredom. No, no. It's a good week, with not one but two shows in the Bay Area and tickets to the Warriors-Nuggets game with all the other monsters. In actuality, all those things happen within about thirty hours of each other, a fact which promises to make my Saturday an epic, Demolition Man-filled celebration of sloth. Details, details:

Friday the 11th finds us at the hotbed of conservative, fundamentalist flimflammery known as UC Berkeley at noon, followed by an evening time date at the always splendiferous Bottom of the Hill. The Berkeley show is, yes, at twelve noon in a place called "Lower Sproul Plaza," a location that surely exists but sounds like it should be in Hogsmeade. Bottom of the Hill is, well, at the bottom of Potrero Hill (see how they did that?). Here's a poster for the later:

(The following is from WGA Member Joshua Beckett regarding the SEIU Rally that took place in downtown LA this past Thursday.)

Just wanted to brief those of you who missed the SEIU rally today. It was heartfelt...and loud!! There were many, many WGA members there -- it looked like there were almost as many WGA folks as SEIU marchers! And what a great feeling that was! Truly.

Hollywood Homecoming, an event honoring the veteran writers, directors and stars of yesteryear who helped form and shape the unions we are fighting to protect, will be held this Friday, November 30th, from 10AM-12PM at Sony Studios in Culver City.

But your help is needed getting the word out and locating those trailblazers of Hollywood's Golden Age.

So who do you know? Is Shirley Temple your next door neighbor? Do you go to church with Esther Williams? Are you related to Mickey Rooney? Do you live next door to an Academy Award winning director from years past? Was your grandfather one of the writers on "The Wizard of Oz?" Did your great aunt work as the assistant to David O. Selznick? Does your family have a long history in the biz?

Help locate these guests and join us to pay tribute to them.

MONDAY DECEMBER 17th: