WGA Membership Positive On Deal, But A Vote Is Pending

Following upbeat meetings of the writers guild membership on both coasts, it appears the writers' strike is heading for a timely ending with neither a bang nor a whimper, but as a case of delayed gratification.

WGA West president Patric Verrone, who began the evening with what amounted to a victory declaration, at last report (here in the Variety) was saying said he and the guild board would await the results of voting over a 48-hour period. This means the hoped-for Monday return to work won't officially happen, but a fair amount of cardboard boxes will likely be carted back into production offices and writers will start to forthrightly pick up their pencils in anticipation of a full return to work as soon as Wednesday.

Amidst the good news was the ominous thought that the Screen Actors Guild, 120,000 strong (though their real clout comes from an A-list that's a tiny fraction of that number), has its own negotiating to do as the June expiration of their contract with the companies. The writers had made an attempt (quickly booted away) to get a clause in their deal granting them the right to honor any SAG picket lines, and certain igh-profile actors, most notably Julia-Louis Dreyfuss Sandra Oh and the Grey's Anatomy cast, and the vocal George Clooney, have made their support evident. (SAG board member Justine Bateman gushed her admiration to the writers in a message posted on the United Hollywood site.) The actors may take a lesson from the WGA, which might have settled for the terms of the Directors Guild deal but stayed out and won key additional concessions (notably a 2 percent share of the distributors' revenue to be paid as a residual in the third year of their deal). It may be that Hollywood, even as numerous stalled features and TV shows that have been in limbo return to production, has not seen the last of picket lines in 2008.