Gawker
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defamer
Majors' 'Final Offer' Includes 10 Million New Reasons For SAG to Reject It
It's not quadrupled DVD residuals, regular cocaine rations and guaranteed work for all. However, the major studios' new concession to SAG — $10 million worth of new pay raises — is exactly what we thought might happen after SAG bludgeoned nearly 38% of AFTRA voters into opposing its primetime contract. The deal was ratified anyway, but the majors aren't taking any chances, notes Variety: More »
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By STVComment by SteamyMcFirecrotch: @Shumina: Wasn't that a play with Gretchen Cryer? more » | Other threads
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robert de niro
Robert De Niro Calls Out SAG Leadership In Terrifying, Apostrophe-Free Missive
It's time to break out your SAG vs AFTRA Celebrity Turf War Map™ for an update, albeit a bit of a confusing one: Robert De Niro is the latest star to come out in opposition of a SAG strike, asserting during a press conference Saturday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that Hollywood has suffered enough bloodshed this year in the bargaining trenches to implode once more over residuals: More »
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By STVComment by WGARefugee: I do not know if it is the right time to be doing this at all with the economy the... more » | Other threads
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defamer
Grab an Industry Friend and Play SAG Strike Mad Libs!
Try as we might, there really is no fresh angle to report in the ongoing contract drama between SAG leadership and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — the saber-rattling fuckers hate each other, and no strike-avoiding resolution is in sight before the current deal's June 30 expiration date. That said, a story is a story, so why not stimulate your interest (and ours) by adding your own fun invective and hyperbole to the mix! More » -
strike two
Crisis Averted (Sort Of) As AFTRA Reaches Deal with Studios
Happy news emerged this morning from the deep, dank reaches of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers headquarters, where it was announced the major studios have come to last-minute terms with AFTRA on a new three-year contract. Conveniently or not, the report comes a few hours before AFTRA's former negotiating partners in the Screen Actors Guild were set to resume their own talks with the majors. And with AFTRA reportedly agreeing to conditions on new-media residuals similar to those accepted by the DGA and WGA during the latter union's strike, SAG has until June 30 to determine if the terms are good enough for itself — or detonate! The! Industry! with another labor stoppage. More » -
defamer
Actors No Closer to Deal as SAG, AFTRA Spar Over Clips
After a week-long lull in apocalyptic mutterings from all sides of SAG and AFTRA negotiations with the major studios, a couple of new stumbling blocks have appeared en route to a deal. For starters, AFTRA national president Roberta Reardon today sent out a sobering e-mail to her members, both acknowledging her discussions' ongoing news blackout while giving the rank-and-file plenty to leak to the press. To wit: Reardon writes that even AFTRA, which was expected to breeze to a new contract after SAG very publicly dug in its heels last month, is apparently having a hard time coming to terms with the majors on new media: More » -
defamer
SAG Saves Best Acting For the Press as Negotiations Grind to Halt
There's only so much ledge-prancing, saber-rattling, gun-pointing madness a person can get away with spinning in the press, and at a glance, anyway, it appears SAG national executive director Doug Allen may be faking the labor funk a little too aggressively. Now that his union's extended (and re-extended) negotiation period with the major studios is over, leaving AFTRA to step in and take everything it's offered no-questions-asked, Allen kvetched to Variety today that goddammit — they were so close! Like, just a few hours away! No, really. He actually said that: More »
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By STVComment by KittyCarlisle: It's embarrassing that the AMPTP is refusing to budge on new media issues. It'll be more embarrassing living in... more » | Other threads
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defamer
SAG Drama Renewed For Another Episode; Full Season to Follow?
More apocalyptic Hollywood strike talk is surfacing this morning, with Variety noting that little progress has been made in the ongoing contract negotiations between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Shocking! But with one week remaining on their clock before the compliant gang at AFTRA gets their turn to bend over the conference room table for a little rough, residual-based intimacy, time is of the essence for an aggressive union leadership that wants to at least pretend it maintains the upper hand: More » -
this is fi core
Fi-Core 28 Mere Pawns In Bitter WGA-AMPTP Blood Feud
Last week ended with a jaw-dropping memo from the desks of Patric Verrone and Michael Winship, in which the WGA presidents stated their desire to see the "puny few" who elected financial core during the writers strike to be "held at arm's length" by the rest of the membership, adding, perhaps a tad indiscreetly, "and should the vats of boiling tar and freshly plucked chicken feathers sitting outside our office be of some use to you, so be it." Now, the 28 black-listees have found an unlikely ally in this ugly fracas, with arch WGA nemesis the AMPTP having filed a complaint today with the Natl. Labor Relations Board, in which they claim the letter violated federal law. More » -
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defamer
Studios' Open Letter Only Slightly Condescending to SAG, AFTRA Negotiators
In what could charitably called a polite preemptive blast against SAG and AFTRA, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers yesterday issued an open letter affirming its rightful position in the driver's seat of upcoming negotiations with the recently split actors unions. "Driver's seat" is probably also too kind; perhaps "bending its receivers over a barrel of new media revenues" is more like it: More » -
trade roundup
Upfronts, Peacocks And Low-Grossers
· Good news, advertisers, entertainment journalists, and fans of overblown montages of new shows that will likely be canceled before December: The upfronts are back on! The networks may continue them in some modified form, but it seems as if they're planning on maintaining the most crucial part of the tradition: free booze. [Variety] More » -
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By MarkComment by hollywoodhottie2008: Bruce Vilanch is Hilarious! Bruce gets hit by a semi truck. www.BruceGetsHit.com more » | Other threads
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defamer
The Strike Is Over! On Wednesday! Let There Be Rejoicing! But Not Too Much!
With word arriving over the weekend that Saturday night's WGA Scribeapalooza II: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off event at the Shrine Auditorium sent TV showrunners back to work today and will return everyone else to their jobs on Wednesday pending the outcome of a strike-ending vote to be counted tomorrow night, Hollywood can safely upgrade its feelings of Cautious Optimism to full-blown This Waking Three-Month Nightmare Is Finally Over Euphoria. More »
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By MarkComment by hack-a-rific: btw, we haven't discussed the WGA Awards winners, have we? more » | Other threads
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defamer
Cautious OptimismWatch, Day 2: WGA Trying Not To Get Excited Until A Contract Is In Hand
On this second day of the New Era of Cautious Optimism ushered in by Friday's "informal" bargaining session between Writers Guild negotiators and studio CEOs—when WGA West president Patric Verrone's repeated striking of Disney's Bob Iger with a foam EncounterBat™ led to a critical, tearful breakthrough on the matter of streaming video payments— the LAT reports that the Guild's West Coast board has "reacted favorably to the outlines of a pending agreement" between the warring factions. Still, they refuse to uncork the Moët until everything they've fought for is actually in contract form and put to a vote that could—dare we say it? yes, we will dare—happen as early as this weekend: More »
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By MarkComment by The Authority: The baby of the evicted PA who couldn't pay rent and can't afford formula now didn't make final cut, I... more » | Other threads
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defamer
The Strike Is Over! Or Over In A Week! Or Everyone's Being Set Up For Another Crushing Letdown!
In case you were too consumed with your Super Bowl preparations to scroll through the scores of "THE STRIKE IS OVER!!!" e-mails filling up your BlackBerry, various reports touting "progress" fueled by a breakthrough in Friday's informal deal-chat surfaced over the weekend, filling Hollywood with the kind of cautious optimism the beaten-down residents of a crippled company town haven't allowed themselves to feel since the AMPTP's Nick Counter stormed away from negotiations after claiming that someone on the WGA negotiating team had given him "the stink-eye" back in early December, ushering in weeks of unrelenting gloom. More »
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By MarkComment by gwendemarco: So, does the DVD royalty cover BluRay cuz I hear that's going to be huuugge. more » | Other threads
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By MarkComment by Shemp Baldwin: Let me break it down. Cate Blanchett can shoot a dozen babies out of her yaa and we don't care... more » | Other threads
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defamer
Though widely vilified by those sympathetic to the WGA cause, AMPTP president Nick Counter has been doing groundbreaking work on behalf of the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Central Africa, embarking on a tireless quest to save the the species from extinction that often places him in grave danger. Shadowy blogspot truth-teller Bachem Machuno (of onetime Agents Can Eat My Ass Out Like Hungry Bears fame) has returned from a long hiatus to share Counter's story with Hollywood, hoping to humanize a man often so often unfairly depicted as a crow-riding bogeyman: "Counter's strategy in the case of the Mountain Gorilla was straightforward: herd them into an enclosed area, and wait. Whether it took weeks, or months, or entire seasons. Let them starve and turn on each other; only then will the strongest and most capable of them survive and contribute to a strong gene pool going forward." [nickcounterfanclub.blogspot.com]
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By MarkComment by BabylonSister: So which came first, this strategy used on gorillas, or this strategy used on unions? more » | Other threads
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defamer
WGA Takes Reality And Animation Off The Table, Won't Picket Grammys
How about some quick, late-afternoon strike news to break up the unpleasantness of today's dominant, thoroughly depressing story? OK then! In an e-mail blast to members, WGA West/East presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship say that they're happy to join in informal talks with the AMPTP, and that they've decided to pull their reality and animation proposals off the table to help get a deal done. Also, the Guild won't be picketing the Grammys, one awards show we really wouldn't have missed if it gave its life for the Cause: "In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations, we have decided to withdraw our proposals on reality and animation. Our organizing efforts to achieve Guild representation in these genres for writers will continue. You will hear more about this in the next two weeks." The full message follows after the jump: More »
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By MarkComment by gangrenejean: @Lula Mae Broadway: Uh, I work in animation. A lot of it is covered by another union now, IATSE, which... more » | Other threads
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defamer
Hollywood Reacts To The DGA Deal
· The DGA, as you undoubtedly heard just moments after puffs of white smoke were belched skyward from the chimney of AMPTP headquarters, reached a deal with the studios yesterday. While anxious WGA members are picking over the proposed contract to see if any writer-screwing provisions have been hidden in the fine print, a strike-weary industry reacts: "One thing that is very clear is that with all the bad blood between the WGA and studios, the writers can strike until the end of time and they will not do better than the directors did. It is time to stop this," said a "veteran agent" obviously eager to start earning commissions again. Check out the full story to read quotes carefully chosen to make the WGA look totally unreasonable if they don't fall hopelessly in love with the terms offered the directors! [Variety] More » -
defamer
A Nervous Hollywood Asks: Where The Hell Is This DGA Deal Everyone Says Is On Its Way?
· Warner Brothers allows its options on the Justice League cast to lapse, putting the project on "indefinite hold," though the studio has assured its roster of mostly no-names that it still would eventually like to see what they all look like in their cute superhero costumes. [Variety] More » -
trade roundup
America Not Particularly Interested In Billy Bush's Announcement Of Golden Globes Winners On NBC
· NBC's Billy Bush-enhanced Reading of the Golden Globes Winners telecast draws just 5.8 million viewers, lower Nielsen numbers than even last week's public-access-quality People's Choice Awards delivered to CBS. Meanwhile, the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was huge for Fox. [THR] More »
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By MarkComment by Sweet Panda Love: @CatherineTrammell: Awwwww, they postponed prom?! more » | Other threads
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defamer
All That Is Required For The Triumph Of Studio Evil Is That Good A-Listers Remain Silent
While the WGA picket lines that have become important stops for local tour-bus drivers looking to show visitors to our fine city the stalled dream-making factories where their favorite films and television shows were once made have generally featured enough exciting musical performances, adorable striking babies, and occasional attempted vehicular manslaughters to keep their paying customers entertained, the protests have thus far lacked the A-list star power the public expects from such large-scale Hollywood productions. Today's LAT wonders why the cream of the showbusiness crop has yet to join the pizza-proferring efforts of lesser (read: TV-based) lights in showing solidarity with the WGA's cause: More »
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By MarkComment by Glass_Family: You know what was really fun about the holidays? Trying to avoid this by going home to the midwest,... more » | Other threads
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trade roundup
Golden Globes Party Planners The Latest Victims Of The Writers Strike
· The looming threat of a strike-induced cancellation of the Golden Globes ceremony has thrown the party-planning world into chaos: How can anyone commit half a million bucks to fill a venue with chocolate fountains, imposing mounds of peeled shrimp, and ice sculptures of prohibitive best actor favorite Daniel Day Lewis when there's a chance the whole night might be called off? [Variety] More » -
hollywood strikewatch
Stewart, Colbert Going Back To Work
With Conan, Jay, Jimmy, and the rest of the late night gang announcing they're reluctantly headed to back to work without their striking writers, it seemed inevitable that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wouldn't be far behind. They've released this joint statement on their January 7th return: "We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence." A more disappointed than ambivalent WGA has already issued a reminder that writerless versions of the shows aren't going to fill the Colbert and Stewart-shaped holes in our lives: "Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they've come to expect. The only way to get the writing staffs back on the job is for the AMPTP companies to come back to the table prepared to negotiate a fair deal with the Writers Guild." [AP, WGA.org]
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By MarkComment by OldTowneTavern: This is a bone-headed decision. Having the hosts disappoint their audiences night after night while trying to fill out... more » | Other threads
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trade roundup
Picketing Writers Hope To Drown Out Ryan Seacrest's Penetrating Fashion Questions On Globes Red Carpet
· The Writers Guild has decided to picket the Golden Globes, a move that may make the decision to skip the ceremony easier for conflicted members of SAG. However, the possibility is raised that WGA protestors could be set up far enough away from the Beverly Hilton's entrance that actors who decide to attend could be spared the shame of physically crossing a picket line. [Variety] More »
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By MarkComment by InkStainedWretch: @SugartitsMcFirecrotch: They hate our troops, too. more » | Other threads
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defamer
Today In The WGA-AMPTP Online Arms Race
The AMPTP, while still officially suspicious of the newfangled, profit-deficient internets that have cleaved their precious Hollywood in twain, continues to take bold leaps forward in adapting its once embarrassingly outdated web presence into a tool that will better serve their information-disseminating needs. The studio collective-bargaining group has now not only modestly overhauled the site's entire design (even their much-derided logo has received a minor touch-up), but added the twin extravagances of a second Doomsday Ticker™— this one showing what the strike is costing union crew members—and an intermittently ungrammatical "The Average WGA Writer Makes More Than These Highly Paid Smiling White Guys Box." More »
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By MarkComment by Sweet Panda Love: @Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.: I like how it's suggested that writers - who apparently generate hundreds of... more » | Other threads
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defamer
WGA Files Charges Against The Studios For Bad-Faith Negotiating, Ruining Christmas
With not even the prospect of some rousing Christmas-themed pickets (we think that the briefly spitballed "March of 1,000 Angry Santas" in front of the Warner Bros. lot would've been a winner) to look forward to during a planned holiday protesting hiatus, a frustrated WGA has decided to take action to compel the studios to return to the bargaining table they walked away from last Friday. In a just-issued press release, the Guild indicates that it's filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board decrying the "illegal demands" the AMPTP has set as a precondition for resuming talks, and also reveals that it's petitioned the agency for an immediate injunction against studio bogeyman Nick Counter, whom they have good reason to believe has plans to "quietly lower himself down the chimneys of slumbering Guild families, set fire to the lovingly wrapped presents beneath their Christmas trees, and then steal away into the night, greedily gobbling the delicious snacks their children had left for St. Nicholas." The press release follows after the jump: More »
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By MarkComment by mordecai1908: I do believe, to quote Aristotle, that it's on now. more » | Other threads
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defamer
Once again turning to the revenue-deficient wasteland of the internet to get its message out to the public, the negotiation-averse AMPTP posts a reminder about how much money the Guild is costing everybody while its members mock up hurtful websites and grab-ass with Mr. Sulu on the picket line. That Doomsday Ticker never stops spinning! "Then, someone from the WGA offices happily distributed the link to a hijacked parody website that even many rank-and-file WGA members felt was over-the-top. All of this is happening right along with the WGA's continuing series of concerts, rallies, mock exorcisms, pencil-drops and Star Trek-themed gatherings. Amidst this alternating mix of personal attacks and picket line frivolity, we must not forget that this WGA strike is beginning to cause serious economic damage to many people in the entertainment business." [AMPTP.org] -
defamer
A Suddenly Tech-Savvy AMPTP Adds Exciting New Feature To Website
Obviously affected by yesterday's launch of AMPTP.com, some striking writers' hurtful commentary on the 1994-era design of the studio coalition's web presence, the organization today unveiled the kind of "widget" that the kids demand from their favorite blogotubes: a Doomsday Ticker™ relentlessly tabulating the amount of money their calculations say the WGA is futilely burning upon the pyre of protest. More »
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By MarkComment by acrazygirl: WAIT A MINUTE!!!! If the initial compensation amount is $1,051,320,000 and the 'average' writer gets paid $200k (the number bandied about... more » | Other threads
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defamer
Penn, Pitt Basking In The Year-End Love Of Film Critics
· Sean Penn's Into the Wild leads the Broadcast Critics Association awards nominations with seven nods, including best picture, director, actor, and writer. Meanwhile, the contrarian critics of San Francisco name Brad Pitt's little-seen outlaw-tone-poem The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford their best of the year. [Variety, Variety More »
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By MarkComment by OldTowneTavern: Oh, that's just part of the WGA quote. I think it goes on. It's some damn moving stuff:... more » | Other threads
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defamer
The New, Vastly Improved AMPTP Website
A press release from the "AMPTP" that landed in our inbox a little while ago invited us investigate the real reason that the studios had to break off negotiations Friday evening with a Writers Guild hellbent on destroying Hollywood with its greedy pursuit of a fair deal: to focus on a much-needed upgrade of AMPTP.com, the organization's minimalist web presence. More »
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By MarkComment by thrillwill: Just wanted to point out that the DGA's website is even worse... the links don't even work. Either that or... more » | Other threads
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hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Day 30-Something: Darkness Falls
During the media blackout that accompanied the resumed post-Thanksgiving negotiations between the writers and studios, no news was good news, allowing Hollywood a brief—and, as it turns out, completely misguided—sense of hope that things might get settled before the holidays. As Day 36 of the strike begins and despair engulfs the industry anew, a round-up of the latest thoroughly depressing developments in the ongoing labor Armageddon: More »
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By MarkComment by DrFeelgood: Hmmm, they leave the table because they don't like what the WGA is asking for.That's grown up. Like taking your... more » | Other threads
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a partnership for a better tomorrow
Studio Head Roger A. Trevanti Explains The AMPTP's Complicated Proposal In Simpler, Friendlier Terms
The AMPTP's recent retention of a new PR firm to help them more effectively communicate to the public why the intransigent, greedy WGA should accept the incredibly generous terms of their groundbreaking New Econonic Partnership is paying immediate dividends; while the organization's previous attempt to have studio head Roger A. Trevanti explain the Companies' position was amateurish, unfocused and openly hostile, under the supervision of their new-media-savvier publicity team, their latest effort is a great leap forward. More »
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By MarkComment by Sweet Panda Love: And the ass cancer is included free! more » | Other threads
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hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Day 26: That Sinking Feeling Returns
The media blackout that accompanied the resumption of contract talks between the WGA and the AMPTP forced our Hollywood StrikeWatch round-up into a brief hiatus, but as the two sides have decided it's time to start talking to the press again, we can put our bullet-pointed morning show back into production: More » -
robot scabs
AMPTP To Unleash Secret Weapon At Renewed Contract Talks
Though the super-secret contract talks that WGA and AMPTP officials are currently conducting in a hidden, maximum-security bunker inside a hollowed-out section of hillside behind the Hollywood sign seems to have temporarily inspired feelings of "cautious optimism" in members of the warring factions who've been starved for hope entering this fourth week of the strike, we fear a major setback is in the offing. More »
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By MarkComment by BabylonSister: I'm thinking Mike Darnell has to be shitting his trademark cowboy boot pants(TM) that he's next on the "so replaceable... more » | Other threads
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hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Week 4, Day 22: More Cautious Optimism, Rapping Writers And Rumors Of A Possible Deal
Even though we feel there's not much we can say about the current state of the strike that hasn't already been rapped eloquently in the above video, we nonetheless present this briefer-than-usual morning round-up: More »
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By MarkComment by Sweet Panda Love: @CrankYank: Exactly what I was thinking. It's not a strike update without Strike Baby. (Or is it Incredible Picketing Baby?... more » | Other threads
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defamer
The Strike Silences Sean Penn
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Deadline Hollywood Daily is debuting a series of "Speechless" videos, in which an impressive roster SAG actors (Holly Hunter! Harvey Keitel! David Schwimmer?) , take to these revenue-deficient internets to silently express their solidarity with their WGA peers. Especially mesmerizing is yesterday's clip of the always-outspoken Sean Penn, who, forced into a rare silence by the ongoing strike, seems to calmly mouth a threat to unseen AMPTP negotiators, warning them that he'll be waiting outside Monday's revived contract talks ready to beat some sense into anyone who refuses to bargain in good faith. More » -
hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Day 17: Trading Picket Signs For Turkey Legs
The picketers (and, we suspect, pretty much everyone else who works in Hollywood) are off for the day and en route to wherever they're celebrating Thanksgiving, but we've still got enough links for one last pre-holiday round-up: More »
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By MarkComment by Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.: I had someone take a picture of me with a WGA sticker over my boob and with me holding up... more » | Other threads
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By MarkComment by ClankBoomSteam: Nope, that bald guy was Paul Scheer, along with bearded guy Aziz Ansari, both of MTV's 'Human Giant' -- best... more » | Other threads
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hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Day 16: A Last Show Of Solidarity Before The Turkey Day Break
As Hollywood prepares to bury those still-nagging feelings of labor-strife-related dread in turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes, here's the morning's round-up of strike news: More »
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By MarkComment by Battlefront: On Similar Note After an 80% jump in profits Viacom rewards its Nick Employees by removing their Benefits. After a stellar eighty... more » | Other threads
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hollywood strikewatch
The Strike, Day 15: A New Hope; Also: Shemale Hookers
As Hollywood breathes a collective—if cautious—sigh of relief following some happy weekend news, here's the morning round-up of StrikeWatch news: More »
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By MarkComment by Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.: @Sweet Panda Love: As you wish! more » | Other threads
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