For you, it may be about watching old episodes of Law and Order. You may be reduced to watching re-runs of Friends. Try to forget you have already seen the conclusion of the last series of The Sopranos. Besides that, you might want to develop a taste, if you haven't already, for long evenings filled with "reality" programming, for various versions of Survivor and The Weakest Link.
In other words, try to develop an appetite for television shows that ostensibly do not require a script.
In Hollywood, the labour strike that may hit this city on May 1st will be about something else altogether. If it is anything like the writer's strike of 1988, it will be about foreclosed mortgages, lost homes and careers that never recovered.
In the last six months, Hollywood has been in the grip of a panic over the possibility of back-to-back strikes by two of the most powerful unions in town. The Writer's Guild's contract with movie and television studios expires on May 1st. The Screen Actor's Guild's similar contract expires July 1st.
"The last time there was a strike you could roll a bowling ball through all the restaurants in town," said one independent television producer. "If this happens it will be devastating for this city."
The sense of foreboding is pervasive. From Christmas until a weeks ago, Hollywood was on an accelerated schedule. Film studios were rushing scripts to completion and hurriedly finishing production. Television networks were eagerly seeking material and proposals for "unscripted" shows, such as Survivor, that could continue during a writer's strike.
"I've never seen it like this," said the producer, who spoke on the condition of anonimity. "The problem is that both sides want to strike. The writers have the fire in the belly. I have talked to some very big name writers, people who are usually sane, who say they `must' do this. What they don't realise is that this is a different time than 1988. A strike could actually be a good thing for the studios. These are no longer simply `movie' or `tv' studios. These are multi-level, vertically integrated companies whose profits are no longer solely dependent on Hollywood. They can withstand a strike - and even use it to end expensive deals they have wanted to get out of in the first place."
The producer is referring to the force majeur clause in many entertainment contracts. The law, and insurance companies, allow a studio to cancel contracts they would not otherwise be able to cancel if there is a force majeur, or "Act of God". A strike could be so considered.
The 11,000 film and television writers represented by the WGA are pressing several matters. The key issue, of course, is money. They want higher residual payments from shows shown more than once on network television and on cable. (Explanation: a television writer gets paid for a script. Every time it is shown on television, they get a residual payment.) They want more money from episodes shown in foreign markets. They want the companies to acknowledge the WGA's jurisdiction over writing for the Internet and animation writing. They also want additional revenues for films that go straight to video and DVD.
There are other non-financial issues that are being called "creative rights". The writers want to eliminate from movies the credit, "A film by . . .", which is often awarded to a prominent director.
"We mean no disrespect to directors when we assert that the possessive credit denies the essential truth that film-making is a collaborative art in which the contributions of many persons are essential," said WGA president John Wells.
The two sides began talks in January, but by March 1st, talks had broken off. Now they began again this week in a desperate attempt to avoid a walkout that experts say would cost Los Angeles area $457 million a week in lost revenue. Last year, actors conducted a six-month strike, but it was aimed solely at the advertising industry. It cost the city $125 million in lost production, but its impact beyond the making of television and radio commercials was limited.
On one side of the table sits representatives from the WGA. On the other side of the table sits the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which in theory represents 350 production companies and studios.
But there's the rub.
In fact, there are only four big studio players in the room, insiders say. The dominant entities are AOL Time Warner, whose holdings include Warner Bros. studios and the WB network; News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's conglomorate which runs 20th Century Fox films and the Fox network; Disney, which includes Disney studios and the ABC network, and Viacom, whose holdings include Paramount Pictures and CBS. Two other studios, Universal Pictures, now owned by Vivendi, and Sony's Columbia Pictures, are not big players in the talks largely because their owners, based in France and Japan respectively, have not gotten involved. Both Sony and Vivendi revenues are not dependent on Hollywood.
All of these companies are huge multinationals whose revenues are not exclusively dependent on written entertainment. Besides earning revenues from book, magazine and newspaper publishing, these companies also have income streaming in from entertainment theme parks, cable distribution, the recording industry and more. A three-month or sixmonth strike might hurt them very little.
With the accelerated production of the last six months, the movie studios say they have stockpiled films to last through 2001. On television, the impact would be experienced by US viewers in September - there would be no "fall season" of TV shows such as Ally McBeal and The West Wing. Enough episodes are already shot to finish the current season, but scripts are usually written in July/August to start shooting in September. Anytime after this, viewers on this side of the Atlantic will be affected.
However, as one producer put it: "There is no production in the summer anyway. Networks don't care about summer viewership, and the reality programming will do fine. It won't be until August or September that the real impact hits, when shows normally go back in production".
Indifference, however, is not the theme on the ground, not only for the writers but for the huge southern California economy that is so reliant on the entertainment industry.
"Our biggest problem may be what to cover," said Barbara Pepe, manager of international production for the E! Entertainment Channel, which is seen around the world. "We normally cover news on the film and TV sets, go behind the scenes in productions. If there is no production going on, well, it will be a challenge."
For many others, the work stoppage, or slowdown, could be felt right away. Los Angeles is driven by the business' ancillary to entertainment; the post production facilities, the editing facilities, the food catering trucks, messenger and limo services, hair and beauty salons, clothing stores, prop houses, restaurants and bars. Not to mention the residential and commercial real estate occupied by those employed in the industry.
"You cannot emphasise enough the amount of damage that the strikes would do to the production industry in this country," said Bob Solomon, a senior vice president at Liberty Live Wire. The company provides post production services for film and television. Mr Solomon has already warned workers to expect lay-offs if strikes occur. "I am talking about personal devastation for people who can't afford to go two months without a pay-check, as well as a flight of intellectual know-how from which I am not sure the industry will ever recover," he told the New York Times.
Combined with an economy that is already slowing and may well be into recession, and a continued stream of lay-offs - Disney, for example, recently announced plans to fire 5,000 workers, the largest redundancy move by the company - Los Angeles politicians are already taking the unusual step of getting involved in the issue.
Mayor Richard Riordan, who only has three months left in his term, last week took the unprecedented step of trying to head off the strike. "This is not just a game played between the studios and the other side," said the normally taciturn mayor. "This affects the whole city."
Riordan hired a Edelman Public Relations to publicise the economic consequences of the strike. "I want to let everybody know what the strike is going to do to their city, to the restaurants, the barbers, the accountants and to the value of their homes," said Riordan.
Before his news conference, Riordan got on the telephone, and sources say he is putting major pressure on all the parties to settle. His lobbying campaign has included conversations with Warren Beatty and James Woods - both seen as very influential in the acting community. He is also calling in chips from Rupert Murdoch, with whom he dines four times a year, and Micheal Eisner of Disney, with whom he takes annual bike trips.
It may be difficult to find a bright spot in all this, but this is America, so of course someone has. Theatres on Broadway have long struggled to attract film stars, a difficult endeavor because the pay scales are so different. (A starring role on Broadway nets an actor between $25,000 and $50,000 a week. That is peanuts compared to the 100,000 to $1 million a week that a network television show draws.
But now, with the strike looming, many actors have put the word out that they may be interested in coming to the New York stages. "There are people available who might not have been otherwise," Carol Fineman, a spokeswoman for the New york Public Theater told the Wall Street Journal. "With the strike threatening, they are suddenly available."
Still, the variance in pay - imagine your salary being cut to $25,000 a week - may cramp some actors' styles.
