WGA Strike

Yesterday, W.G.A. leaders voted unanimously to approve a deal that would bring to an end the Hollywood writers' three-month-old conflict over new media residuals. What’s left now is tomorrow’s vote by W.G.A. members on whether to end the strike, pending a contract ratification vote by the joint-membership of the east and west guilds, which will take place via mail ballot over the next few weeks. In New York, ballots on lifting the strike will be cast between 4 and 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Crown Plaza Hotel on Broadway and 49th Street. The results will be announced later that night. After the jump, W.G.A. East President Michael Winship’s letter to membership:  read more »

Despite signs that a settlement with the W.G.A. might be approaching, all is not well in Strike Land. According to the LA Times, there is an increasing sense of frustration and cynicism among members of the “vast and largely forgotten below-the-line class of skilled entertainment industry labor,” who feel they’ve been hardest hit by the strike, yet most overlooked.  read more »

Breaking news from the W.G.A. picket lines: These striking writers are BORED! In a Sunday arts and leisure feature, the New York Times checked in with some of them to find out how they've been keeping busy, aside from walking around with placards, in the three months since their careers (and bank accounts) were put on hold. Some of the strikers are doing what seems like some pretty fun stuff – pitching cartoons to the New Yorker, covering the primaries for NPR, or picking up unfinished “passion projects” like novels, children’s books or rocks bands. But others have had no choice but to return to those horrid, pre-MFA, odd jobs like waiting tables, bartending, copywriting and tutoring. Agonizing, we know, but it looks like they’re going to have to stick it out a bit longer.

The Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men won the top prize at the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild awards show, while The Sopranos cleaned up in the television categories. With this year's Golden Globes reduced to a press conference and the fate of next month's Oscars uncertain, the ordinarily downplayed Screen Actors Guild Awards made big headlines thanks to the WGA’s promise that it would not picket the show, a sign of solidarity with actors who have been supportive of the writers’ ongoing push to be compensated for new media content. AP has the complete list of awards after the jump.  read more »

History has shown that a political movement is merely an idea until it finds a badge, a recognizable symbol of solidarity in strife. Women’s Lib had burning braziers; Environmentalists have the color green; the French Revolution is known for its guillotine; and Socialism waves a red flag. The Writers Guild Strike, now in its third month, has its own emblème, too—the strike beard.

But unlike with most political movements, the act of relinquishing a strike beard has also taken on a kind of symbolism. Just ask Diane Wood, the 26-year-old daughter of Adrian Wood, who owns Paul Molé, an old-school Upper East Side barbershop that’s been shaving faces since 1913. After all, Ms. Wood shaved David Letterman’s beard yesterday, less than a week after the late-night talk show host returned to the air, having recently reached an agreement with the W.G.A.  read more »