TV, Film Writers On Strike

Noise And Other Disruptions From Picket Line Interrupt Filming Of "Cane"

(CBS/AP)  Noise and other disruptions caused by a Hollywood writers' picket line has stopped filming at a location being used for the CBS show "Cane."

The shutdown came as about 20 writers chanted, screamed and used a bullhorn outside a cafe near the CBS lot in Studio City.

Tom Hogan, a location manager for the show, says he hired two off-duty Los Angeles police officers in addition to five private security guards to maintain order during the shoot.

He said the filming began hours before the picketers arrived and involved a script that was finished several weeks ago.

After the shoot was stopped, writers cheered and rejoined picketers around the corner at the studio.

Elsewhere, the giant inflatable rat, a sign of labor discontent, made its appearance this morning outside the New York headquarters of NBC, accompanied by dozens of writers wielding picket signs.

After negotiations on a new contract between Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed over the sharing of revenue from DVD sales and downloading of programs and movies, the writers took to the picket lines in both New York and Hollywood.

CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman reports that, like almost everything in Hollywood, this is about money - writers want to make more from DVDs and new digital technologies when their shows air on the Internet, iPods or cell phones.

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Photos: On The Picket Line

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"You think about it: you fly on an airplane, you see TV shows, you go into a music store, you see DVDs of shows from 15 years ago - we just want to get paid for the work we do," said John Ridley, a writer who has chronicled the latest Hollywood war on The Huffington Post.

But producers say the writers' proposals are unreasonable and would "result in astronomical and unjustified increases in our costs."

The union, for its part, issued a statement saying that late in the talks, it took its proposal to improve DVD payments off the table, because the companies had called that a stumbling block, but management nonetheless insisted on a laundry list of other proposals.

The Writers Guild says those company proposals for writers include: no residual payments to writers for movies viewed on the Internet; a proposal to reuse even complete TV shows or movies on any platform without paying writers any residuals for the reuse and no Writers Guild jurisdiction to represent most writers in new media.

"They claim that the new media is still too new to structure a model for compensation," said Jose Arroyo, a writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," who was picketing outside NBC.

"We say give us a percentage so if they make money, we make money," Arroyo said.

The strikers appeared outside the "Today" show set at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, shouting "No contract, no shows!" ("Today" itself is not directly affected by the strike because newswriters are members of a different union.)

Diana Son, a writer for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," said she has three children and getting residuals was the only way she could take time off after giving birth.

"It's an extremely volatile industry," Son said. "There's no job security. Residuals are an important part of our income. There's no cushion."

Meanwhile, Millie Kapzen of Memphis, Tenn., who watched the New York pickets from across the street, said she was "disgusted. ... I really think they should try harder to negotiate."

Kapzen said she sells advertising for radio stations. "We've already had cancellations of sweeps weeks ads" by the networks.

In Los Angeles, writers were planning to picket 14 studio locations in four-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until a new deal is reached.

At the CBS lot in Studio City, about 40 people hoisted signs and applauded when picketing began.

Only about half of the picketers wore their official red strike T-shirts.

"Writers aren't the easiest cats to corral," said Don McGill, another writer for "Numb3rs."

"People seem pretty upbeat and determined for now," reported CBS Radio correspondent Claudia Peschiutta from the picket line outside the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank.

"The question is, how will people feel if this strike drags on as long as the last one strike went on for in 1988? That one lasted for more than five months, and it would be difficult for some of these writers to be without a paycheck for that amount of time."

Robert Port, a writer for the TV show "Numb3rs," said he was as ready as possible for what could be a long walkout.

"We live in Los Angeles, your bank account can never really be ready for this," he said.

The contract between the 12,000-member Writers Guild and movie and TV producers expired Oct. 31. Talks that began this summer failed to produce much progress on the writers' key demands. Last-ditch negotiations between the parties ended after about 11 hours.

Producers said writers refused a request to "stop the clock" on a planned strike while talks continued.

"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action," producers said in a statement.

Producers said writers were not willing to compromise on their major demands.

The late night talk shows are the first programs likely to feel the impact of the writers' walkout, the first since 1988, when a 22-week-long strike cost the industry an estimated $500 million.

"Those are taped the same day they air," said Daily Variety's Michael Schneider. "The writers go off, you don't have a show."

In the past, late night shows - very dependent upon quick-witted bits and commentary riffing on the day's news - have gone into reruns during writers' strikes.

Most of the hosts of late night shows are writers or got their start doing a lot of writing for their own standup comedy acts.

CBS News correspondent Steve Futterman reports daytime soap operas - also heavily reliant on writers - are expected to be able to get along without them for a few weeks, due to scripts it has stockpiled just in case.

Hollywood actors asked over the weekend seemed generally supportive of the writers.

"Obviously a strike is a nuclear attack on the business and it's something that can't be done lightly, but I don't think anybody does anything in this business lightly anymore because it's too hard to make a living," said Brian Dennehy. "As hard as it was 30 or 40 years ago, it's much harder now, so everybody has to understand that this is a complicated process, and people's livelihoods depend on it."

Film and TV producer Joel Silver ("The Matrix," "Fred Claus") did not look forward to a strike. "It's going to be a bad thing, it's bad."

He said a strike against his CBS series "Moonlight" "would kill us, just kill us."

The strike will not immediately impact production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts (getting ready for what both sides have said they hoped would not happen), and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

But the shutdown of late night talk shows will have an impact on new films opening up. Just as Hollywood ramps up the releases of its fall films and Oscar hopefuls, a major platform for promoting those films will be off the air.

"If they go on strike on Monday I guess I won't be going to talk shows to promote movies because all the talk shows have writers on them pretty much," said Jack Black, whose "Margot at the Wedding" debuts November 16. "In the long term, yeah, you can make some old scripts that have been laying around but who wants to do that? You want a script fresh off the griddle.

"There's probably going to be a lot of that in the coming months - re-reading old, stale ones, trying to find some gold there."

Television series production will also be affected mid-0season. Patrick Dempsey said 11 episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" have been completed.

"Depending on how long the strike goes, that may be it for the season," he said. "And I think it doesn't affect me as dramatically as it's going to affect the people on the crew, and I think the people that are around this business that are supported [by filming] are going to be affected."

[kmariek]

The thought of losing Moonlight makes me physically sick. At last, a show has been created that makes me look forward to each episode each week. These actors are starting their careers in the US and it''s devastating to think that their show could be stopped because of this strike. Look on the internet%u2026there are thousands of Moonlight fans out here writing and reading about the show. If there%u2019s a way to plead to Joel Silver to do everything to keep this show on the air (and not cancelled)%u2026please do it.

[misssuzq]

I do not understand why Letterman, Leno, etc. have to go to reruns.

Half the time their monologues are boring anyway, so why not just toss in an extra guest or two?

They are why I watch in the first place, not the stuff at the beginning or sprinkled here and there during the show.