With some top TV shows already off air, the writers' strike is hitting home, but the studios may win in the end, writes Marion McKeone.
'Why don't you try a different job?" "Why don't you try a salad?" The exchange between a striking Saturday Night Livewriter and an overweight woman outside New York's Disney Store neatly illustrated one point in this increasingly heated battle: when it comes to a war of words, a professional writer will prevail.
Whether the Writers Guild of America (WGA) or the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will have the last word in the strike that has crippled the US entertainment industry is another question entirely.
As the writers' strike enters its second week, both sides agree on one thing. If it is not resolved before Christmas there is little incentive for the studios to resolve it before next summer. There the consensus between the two sides seems to begin and end, although, as Joe Grossman, another Saturday Night Livewriter, quipped: "We all agreed that Marie Osmond was just fabulous in this season's Dancing With The Stars."
The first shows to fold were The Tonight Show with Jay Lenoand The Late Show with David Letterman. Comedy shows such as The Daily Showand The Colbert Report, which depend on current political topics for their gags and content, also closed shop on the first day of the strike.
Next in the line of fire are popular prime-time series such as Lost, CSI, 24and Grey's Anatomy, which are currently about halfway through the broadcast season. Most shows run to 22 episodes a season and most shoot just a few weeks ahead of scheduling, meaning that by early December the studios will be forced to find alternative programming.
Every generation has its wars and every technological breakthrough heralds another showdown between writers and studios. It was talking movies in the 1920s, television in the 1950s, home video in the 1980s, and with the new millennium came the battle over new media.
Though the tactics may seem quaint - picket lines and protesters - they are still surprisingly effective. For now at least, in New York and Los Angeles, there is an A-list celebrity on every picket line hamming it up for the cameras, delivering coffee and pizza to striking writers, touting picket line posters or chanting slogans. In Los Angeles an estimated 3,000 of the striking writers have dispatched themselves to picket lines outside 14 studios, with scores of actors lending their support.
At New York's Columbus Circle, Tim Robbins leads a rally for writers that looks more like a Hollywood Awards ceremony, with Robin Williams, David Duchovny, Holly Hunter, Roseanne Barr and Julianne Moore swelling the ranks as tourists gawp and fish for their digital cameras.
Over at Rockefeller Plaza, David Letterman is greeted by cheers and applause from strikers and passersby alike. Every battle must have its heroes and villains and the writers' strike is no exception. So far Letterman, host of NBC's The Late Show, has emerged as the fatherly hero, the loveable curmudgeon with a heart of gold. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, his perennial rival Jay Leno has been turning up on his Harley Davidson at picket lines, acting as a pizza delivery boy for his writers. Both Leno and Letterman are putting their money where their mouths usually are: with both earning in the region of $100,000 (€68,184) a night, the strike has cost each of them upwards of $1 million (€681,849) so far. On the first day of the strike, CBS stopped paying Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, which independently produces The Late Show. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants confirmed that since November 5th Letterman has continued to pay all non-writing staff and is prepared to continue paying staff "at least until the end of the year if necessary".
THE UNLIKELY VILLAINof the piece is the affable comic Ellen Degeneres, who has been excoriated by the WGA for abandoning the picket line to return to her show after the first day of the strike. Degeneres's claim that she was legally obliged to fulfil her duties as a producer and presenter cuts little ice with her fellow guild members.
Down on Wall Street, Sopranosstar Michael Imperioli, unshaven and sporting a battered leather jacket, leads scores of picketing writers and a smattering of film and television stars, and hands fliers to bemused and bespoke-suited businessmen containing the names and phone numbers of the six biggest corporate players in the entertainment business.
"You have to take this to the shareholders. Hollywood is owned by Wall Street," he says. Michael Winship, head of the WGA East, chimes in: "On Wall Street you don't appeal to their hearts. You appeal to their pockets; the studios' stubbornness hurts Wall Street. What the writers are asking for is peanuts compared to the millions being lost every day by the corporations' unwillingness to compromise." Their optimism may be misplaced. General Electric, which now owns NBC, generated revenues of more than $160 billion in 2006. Its tax returns ran to more than 24,000 pages. If NBC catches a cold, General Electric doesn't sneeze; it doesn't even stump up for a tissue. As Michael Bay, director of Transformers, observes: "The studios can afford to sit this out for as long as they want."
So far the Writers Guild is winning the PR battle - the David and Goliath rewrite featuring the struggling artist against the greedy corporate giant. Recent polls show that, while two-thirds of those surveyed support the writers, support for the studios stands at just 4 per cent, with 33 percent don't knows.
In Los Angeles, a demonstration outside Universal Studios brought a crowd of around 3,000 supporters, including Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Felicity Huffman. Also at the picket lines were Seinfeldstar Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Curb Your Enthusiasmactor and producer Jeff Garlin and Everyone Loves Raymondstar Ray Romano. On Melrose Avenue, gay and lesbian writers and actors picketed the Raleigh Studios, home to Ugly Betty.
California's ubiquitous governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been noticeably silent on the issue, notwithstanding the economic threat the strike poses to the already battered economy of Southern California. Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's spokesman, told The Irish Timesthat there isn't "a huge role" for the former Hollywood action hero in the dispute.
"The governor is of course willing to help to the extent that he can," he said. "Any work stoppage in the state is a concern to him."
THE CURRENT SPATputs a new spin on the question: what's a word worth nowadays? The internet has revolutionised the entertainment business, turning it into a DIY free-for-all. Blogging has turned cranks into commentators, reality television has turned nonentities into celebrities, would-be novelists can self-publish and any kid with a video camera can call himself a film-maker.
The last time the writers went on strike was in 1988. After five months on the picket lines, the writers conceded the spoils of home video sales to the studios, a capitulation that was to cost them an estimated $2 billion (€1.36bn) in lost earnings. According to Tony Randall, legal counsel for the WGA, online streaming will generate up to $4.5 billion (€3.07bn)in additional revenue for the entertainment industry over the next three years. The writers want 2.4 cents in each of those dollars.
The AMPTP has dug its heels in, arguing there's no guarantee of money from online content streaming. And new technology is moving so fast, they say, it would be pointless to try to fix pay rates for media formats that haven't yet been invented. They dismiss WGA predictions that, in future, films will be downloaded directly to mobile phones.
The AMPTP's position that the internet is little more than a promotional tool with no proven value is undercut somewhat by a glance at Viacom's legal files. Earlier this year they launched a $1 billion (€681.8m) suit against YouTube, claiming its unauthorised showing of 160,000 programme clips attracted more than 1.5 billion online viewers.
That Viacom has put a price tag on streamed content is something of a boon to the Writers Guild but it's a long way short of a knockout punch.
The lights go down on Broadway
The stagehands' strike that dimmed the lights on 27 of Broadway's biggest shows could end in time for Thanksgiving - traditionally one of the busiest times in New York theatres. Word that a settlement is likely will come as a relief to playwrights and directors - Conor McPherson amongst them. His play The Seafarer, which was due to open at the Booth Theatre last Thursday, was one of the plays affected. The strike shuttered long-running hits Spamalot, The Phantom of the Operaand The Lion King, musicals Jersey Boysand Spring Awakeningand Tom Stoppard's Rock and Roll, which opened days before the strike.
The strike was sparked by a long-running disagreement over stagehand staffing levels. Producers have long dismissed union regulations on safety and minimum labour levels as "featherbedding" - allowing the unions to demand more workers than a show needs.
The effects of the strike on Broadway were immediate and catastrophic. With theatres costing upwards of $100,000 (€68,184) a week for base rent, even a week without box office revenue can be enough to close a show. The League of American Theatres and Producers claims the strike has cost more than $17 million (€11.6m) a day, with ancillary businesses in the Times Square area also reporting a sharp drop in revenue.