Strike Days: Pickets and Palaver

The picketing was barely a half-hour old when Tom Johnson, head writer for Talkshow With Spike Feresten, while walking the line at Sunset Gower Studios suffered a broken leg from being hit, inadvertently in the judgment of investigators, by a Honda Element entering the studio gate. Not since then-Sharon Stone companion Phil Bronstein was severely bitten by a Komodo dragon in the Los Angeles Zoo has one foot--the injured man's shoe was left behind under a tire-- been cause of so much Hollywood attention. Meanwhile, guild president Patrick Verrone took a early picketing shift outside of Sony, and various stars served donuts and coffee to the union folk in solidarity.

What's shaping up to be a bitter propaganda war--AMPTP head Nicholas J. Counter's word for the writers is "irresponsible"-- was enhanced for the writers' cause by the support of such big names as James L. Brooks and J.J. Abrams (due to start filming a Star Trek revival this week, on which he's sworn off any writing duties). On the feature side, veteran and celebrated screenwriter Robert Towne as well as writer-director Paul Haggis were present on picket lines.

The television show runners who are caught between certain of their writing and producing duties seemed to be largely coming down on the walk out side of the ledger. The nascent but already much-trafficked web site United Hollywood posted strong messages from two powerful showrunners. First was Shawn Ryan of The Unit, who described how he went form partial support to completely pulling the plug on show work:

I truly believe that the best and fastest way to a good contract is to hit these companies early, to hit them hard and to deprive them of ALL the work we do on their behalf.

How do we ask our staff writers to go out on strike as we continue collecting producer checks? How do we ask the Teamsters to respect our picket lines if we won't ourselves or if we're sneaking around to do the work off-site?

Just so you all know what I am prepared to give up....tomorrow, we begin to film the Series Finale of "The Shield". I think it's the best script our writing staff has ever written. This is the show that made me. This is the show that is my baby. If the strike goes on longer than two weeks, I won't be able to step on set for the final episode of the show. I won't have a writer on set, as I have had on every episode since the fourth episode. I won't be able to edit this final culminating episode. I won't go to the wrap party that Fox TV and FX are paying for. You can't tell me that any episode of television is more important than this one is to me, and I am ready to forego all those things in order to strengthen my union.

Ryan also described spending 12 hours in the Negotiation Room with the companies, "as [their} representatives treated us "horrendously, disrespectfully...I can't in good conscience fight these bastards with one hand..."

His e-mailed declarations as posted on the site inspired the following from Grey's Anatomy show runner Shonda Rimes:

I have to tell all of you that this email directly reflects the stance I came to over a very long night in New York. I absolutely believed that I would edit our episodes. Until a thought hit me: how can I walk a picket line and then continue to essentially work? How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror or look at my child years from now and know that I did not have the courage of my convictions to stand up and put myself more at risk than anyone else? So I choose not to render my services as a producer. I choose to honor the strike. And I am proud that you all stand with me.

—Shonda

Meanwhile, The New Adventures of Old Christine stalwarts Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (whose husband Brad Hall is a writer) and Wanda Sykes, after their show closed down, walked the picket line in Burbank outside Warner Brothers.

Finally, in a rare outbreak of humor in what's became a quite spiteful interaction, UnitedHollywood co-founder John Aboud posted this late last night:

Rumor Patrol: Day 1 West Coast picketers hit the streets this morning. And the moment we did, something very special happened: Gossip!

RUMOR: There will be lots of sweet picket-line perks like Frappuccino machines and backrubs.
STATUS: FALSE
Not going to happen. My wife promised to bake cookies for my team if we're still on the line by Thursday, but that's as luxe as it's getting. Sympathetic Teamsters and other union members might not cross a line of blended-coffee sippers, but they'd certainly laugh at it. I know that there was a Frappuccino machine at the America's Next Top Model protest, but that was just to lure models. Models subsist on blended coffee in the wild.

RUMOR: Nick Counter can mentally summon and command coyotes. He can turn himself into a cold mist to elude pursuers. He eats the dreams of sleeping children as he flies above their homes on the back of a giant talking raven named Stormhammer.
STATUS: UNCONFIRMED

(Photograph of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Wanda Sykes on the picket line by Charles Gallay/Getty Images)