LOS ANGELES(AP)
Hollywood writers' brief moment to savor the end of their
100-day strike gave way Wednesday to the cold reality of a blank
page and networks and studios eager for new TV episodes.
"What we're all finding is there's a certain amount
of, `OK, what are we going to do now?' said Shane Brennan,
writer and executive producer for the CBS drama
"NCIS."
"You go back to your desk, open your computer, look at the
last thing you planned, the last thing you wrote," Brennan
said, "and figure out how to go from there."
Cheryl Heuton, executive producer for CBS'
"Numb3rs," has been making a flurry of calls to muster
crew members, writers and others connected with the drama.
"We're just gathering everybody. The offices are pretty
dark and lonely and will be for a couple more days," said
Heuton.
Members of the Writers Guild of America members voted
overwhelmingly Tuesday to lift the union's strike order,
allowing the industry to jump-start stalled production of numerous
TV sitcoms and dramas.
"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff,"
said Chris Mundy, co-executive producer of the CBS drama
"Criminal Minds." Actual production won't begin,
however, until scripts have been completed, which could take days
or even weeks.
For the Feb. 24 Academy Awards, the vote by East and West Coast
guild members ended the threat of a boycott by writers and actors
that would have robbed the ceremony of its celebrity luster.
Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, which stages the Oscars, responded effusively.
"I am ecstatic that the 80th Academy Awards presentation
can now proceed full steam ahead," he said, and without
"hesitation or discomfort" for the nominees.
The writers' decided overwhelmingly in favor of ending the
strike: 3,492 said yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job.
The number of guild members involved in the strike was 10,500, with
countless other industry workers forced into unemployment because
of the walkout.
Writers did not vote on the tentative contract agreement that
already has won approval from the union's board of directors.
The contract ratification vote will be conducted by mail and at
meetings and will conclude Feb. 25.
Approval is expected, given Tuesday's lopsided decision and
the enthusiasm for the proposed contract expressed at guild
meetings held last weekend in New York and Los Angeles.
"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal
and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the
large contribution that writers have made to the industry,"
Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The
Associated Press on Tuesday.
Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal
after negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion
Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios,
collapsed in December.
Under the tentative agreement, writers would get a maximum flat
fee of about $1,200 for programs streamed on the Internet in the
deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a
distributor's gross in year three _ a key union demand.
Other provisions include increased residual payments for movies
and TV programs downloaded from the Internet.
"These advances now give us a foothold in the digital
age," said Patric Verrone, president of the West Coast guild.
"Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation
and delivery, writers will lead the way as television migrates to
the Internet."
Michael R. Perry, a writer for "Persons Unknown" and
other TV dramas, said the deal made him hopeful the guild and
studios could be "partners in a growing pie" of Internet
revenue.
"I want them to be fabulously, filthy rich. I just want my
piece," Perry said.
The strike that began Nov. 5 dealt a financial blow to a wide
range of businesses dependent on work from studios.
It took a $3.2 billion toll in direct and indirect costs on the
economy of Los Angeles County, the home of most of the nation's
TV and film production, according to a new estimate from Jack
Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development
Corp.
The last writers strike, a 153-day walkout in 1988, resulted in
an estimated $500 million in lost wages.
Hollywood's labor pains may not be over: The contract
between studios and the Screen Actors Guild is set to expire in
June, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with the Los
Angeles firm of TroyGould and a former associate counsel for the
writers guild.
"The signs are mixed whether this is going to be another
difficult negotiation," Handel said. "The actors face all
of the new-media issues that the writers and directors
faced."
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AP Writer Clare Trapasso in New York and Raquel Maria Dillon in
Beverly Hills, Calif., contributed to this report.
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