more strike mayhem
December 20, 2008
Gee, if the idea —
Behind contract negotiations is to split a union in two, the AMPTP has what it wants. The Screen Actors Guild sent out its strike authorization ballot and now there are two growing sides to the controversy over whether to authorize the board to initiate a strike. Big power players on either side. Websites on either side. And both sides whipping out cameras and making shorts for their point of view. Oddly I have not seen anything about this on the news —
Oh.
Wait.
I have not been watching the news.
the no authorization side || the yes authorization side
where the art work comes from :
that is walkway by deceptive
what people do in the face of impending death
December 10, 2008
I do not know —
What other people do facing impending starvation. I know what I do. I order groceries.
It is a very odd thing. Most of the time I do not eat a lot. When I am worried about cash flow? I eat like a ninja. So. A strike is possibly coming? My panic response is order groceries.
I will eat all of these groceries in like two days flat so it won’t help. If a strike hits it will not be for a month at least. But I am thinking about it today so eating like it is today. This means by the time a strike actually hits if it does hit I will be a size six at least half my clothes will not fit and I will be out of grocery cash. It makes no sense but that is how it works.
A strike is not actually a life threatening scenario. I have been in life threatening scenarios. They are much more immediate. Like, someone is trying to kill or damage or maim you right now. The thing about those though is, you have someplace to put your adrenalin. You can fight back.
sag monday
December 8, 2008
It is SAG Monday.
This is the day Screen Actor’s Guild [SAG] sends out its strike authorization ballot and announces the strike authorization time table.
Actors have been working for half a year without a new contract while SAG tried to negotiate with AMPTP and SAG tried pretty hard but appaently AMPTP is being just as dickish with the actors as it was with the writers.
What a strike means to you : Good-bye Oscars. Good-bye shows.
What a strike means to Hollywood : We are all going to starve.
where the art work comes from :
that is tv violence by photopixel
amptp rides again
May 11, 2008
Speaking of Stalin —
The AMPTP is now dicking the actors around.
[How, um, out of character.]
Hopefully SAG [that is the actors’ primary union] can hold steady, but if AMPTP [that is the association of motion picture and television producers which really means the iron clad fist of a few very big corporations] pushes too hard, which AMPTP is already doing by delaying negotiations till after the SAG contract expires, there will be another strike. AMPTP will of course blame the actor’s union. Just like last strike when AMPTP blamed the writer’s union. Funny the only entity central in every strike sitch is AMPTP.
What that means to you : Say good-bye to your shows again.
If nobody writes shows, shows do not air.
If nobody acts in shows, shows do not air.
Oddly, if AMPTP evaporates tomorrow, shows DO air.
Just what is it AMPTP contributes again?
*ps : go post at toni’s to win the new bobbie faye adventure
*pps : no one who is squeamish look but anita will like this anita have you seen this?
where the art work comes from :
that is tv violence by photopixel
letters from the ethos : wednesday’s child
February 20, 2008
Dear Blonde Assassin —
If the rumors are true, and the WGA strike is nearly over, then we should expect a return of pseudo-quality to the airwaves soon.
What three current shows would you put at the top of your assassination list?
[Personally, I’d axe a few reality shows and anything that gets compared to “Sex in the City.”]
And what would you replace them with?
Just curious,
Itchy McTriggerfinger
Dear Itcy McTriggerfinger :
As you know, I have to work in this town. Therefore I can only regard your question as a cheap cinematic trick meant to lure me into incriminating myself within the body of my peers and being ostracized — and unemployable — forever more.
Damn you Itchy McTriggerfinger!
I say damn you!
Love and Kisses,
The Blonde Assassin
You too can write the blonde assassin
Send email to :
blonde_assassin at celluloidblonde dot com
where the art work comes from :
that is stamped mail by drewish
my best birthday present
February 13, 2008
Well my best birthday present —
Besides the gold, diamonds, and large quantities of cash —
The strike is over.
Yay!
Every writer in town has been unable to accept writing work since November 5, 2007. And that goes on down the line, if the writers are not working, no one else works either. So there are a lot of people who have been out of work, or who work at or run or own businesses dependent on the motion picture and television industries that have been out of work or hurting. It will probably be a long time before things are anything approaching normal in Hollywood.
Though normal is maybe not something we should wish to return to.
Normal was not a good situation. “Normal” meant a few corporate personalities could reduce writers to a slave labor force, forced to take less and less each year, cut after cut in benefits and pay, and be glad to get it. That “normal” was not working. That “normal” was wrong.
And we will hopefully never return to that “normal” again.
SAG negotiations are on the horizon too. [That is the actors guild.] Their contract comes due in June. SAG supported the writer’s union so hard and strong during this strike. So did the Teamsters. So did unions across the country. Across the world. If the AMPTP tries to dick SAG around, there will be another fight.
I hope the AMPTP is not that stupid. I hope they lick their wounds from this fight, play their proud press spins, and smarten up and are nicer with the actors than they were with the writers. It would be a bad idea to force another fight.
[Also I am so glad in retrospect when I returned to Los Angeles and things were crazy with grocery store and transportation strikes I never crossed a picket line or entered a union business being struck against — at the time, I knew what those strikes meant on an intellectual level, I now know what they mean on a personal level.]
A lot of people deserve credit for bringing in a fair contract for writers and bringing this strike to a close: Patric M. Verrone, President WGAw; Michael Winslip, President WGAe; David Young, WGAw Executive Director & Chief Negotiator; John Bowman, WGA Negotiating Committee Chair and every member on the WGA Negotiating Committee who held steady in spite of attacks, slurs, retaliation and accusations of child pornography.
[Wow they do not even get that ugly in presidential debates.]
[On to more people to thank.]
Nikki Finke who has provided updates and information throughout the duration of the strike in spite of being in bed with pneumonia — and who is probably the only accurate reliable source of information available at any time throughout the strike besides the unions themselves.
[Los Angeles Times, blow me.]
Members of United Hollywood who kept providing not only information, but humor and solidarity. Guilds in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and the world who stood up in support of U.S. writers. Every writer who manned a picket line. Every writer who wrote disseminating information that made the situation clearer and more discernible to people outside the industry. Every writer who held steady in spite of continuous rumors and attacks devised to split the membership.
Every driver who turned around and refused to cross a picket line. Every union member across the country who supported fellow union members.
David Letterman and Tom Cruise, the first motion picture entities to say “enough is enough” and turn their backs on the AMPTP and sign fair contracts with writers, the Weinsteins who were right behind them, and the many more company leaders who followed suit saying “We are here to make movies and television shows, not to inflate your already over-inflated personal and million dollar “smash the writer” bonuses — our writers deserve fair pay.”
Every actor and actress who refused to cross the line to pick up an award no matter how impressive the honor or the award.
So many many people.
Probably I am forgetting someone. I am a writer not a producer, we make mistakes when the awards come due, we get nervous. If I have forgotten to mention you I apologize. The WGA is only 12,000 bodies strong. But the solidarity of people backing writers during this fight for a fair contract made writers number many many more bodies than just 12,000 — and allowed us to bring home the first fair contract for writers since 1988.
Thank you to every person who supported writers. You know who you are. You make me proud. You are my best birthday present.
*i did forget someone, all the businesses that made discounts available to guild members during the strike to help out, thank you
*also my friend dog who brought me strike soup thank you dog
where the art work comes from :
that is mouse & keyboard by niquin
late night and the tv
January 25, 2008
Okay definitely TV but —
Not really “late.”
“Late” for me and “late” for other people is very different. But I have been watching “late night” David Letterman [wow, someone else owns David Letterman dot com who is just dotty you should really fix that Uncle Dave] and Craig Ferguson [ditto for you Scottish guy] in a show of solidarity after Letterman’s Worldwide Pants signed the first deal with the WGA.
[WGA is the Writer’s Guild try to keep up.]
I do this because I figure my cable company is keeping track of who streams what I do not usually watch talk shows but Ferguson is really funny that was a surprise.
These shows air on CBS so I stayed on to watch the news tonight — CBS signed their news shows contract with the Guild [more solidarity] so I watched that too.
[U.S. news programs are so biased and weird mostly I get news from the internet from international sources.]
I have a few probs with the news show. It is not the commentary. It is not the subject matter. [Okay some of it is the subject matter.] The big thing though is, the newscasters.
Hello? One of the newscasters looks like an un-put-together children’s center administrator and the other looks like a Miss America drop out/stripper stuck into a high collared jacket with too long too bleached hair.
What is going on there? Hey, I wander out of the house in unfortunate sweats often but that is getting mail in the complex I live in. These are professional women who report the news on a major network station on camera. They should not look like either a washed out brunette with too heavy growing out bangs covering her ears like a thatch roof and misapplied eye liner or an over made up over bleached Miss America drop out wearing evening make-up during daylight hours.
Dear CBS. I am so impressed with your report. Please send your reporters to TLC’s What Not To Wear right now Nick Arrojo could really do them some favors in the hair department and also London and Kelly could fix those fashion dilemmas and also Carmindy could really help those girls out with the eye make up factor.
*note : on that content problem?, i thought heath ledger’s death might actually push Britney off page one but somehow heath’s death has been linked to britney in a way that embarrasses and distresses me in ways i cannot explain or fathom
where the art work comes from :
that is tv violence by photopixel
my favorites
January 24, 2008
There are some —
Key phrases and words in Hollywood that always mean you are being lied to. Here are a few of my favorites :
Honestly… [always means something is up]
Frankly… [always means something is up]
I am on your side…. [oh you are so sold down the river now]
I fought for you…. [i cried like a baby and ran while genuflecting backward and promising your soul to satan]I wonder what words are being tossed at writers by the AMPTP right now.
[Probably nothing as incorrigibly inaccurate and preposterous as what the L.A. Times has been publishing about the strike but oh well that is another story.]
[In case you are not in the know and why would you be unless you are a film or television writer the AMPTP has returned to the negotiating table for “tentative talks” and every time they do return to the table they want a “press black out” — the last couple times they wanted a press black out they had a press release written before they showed for the meeting and faxed to papers .05 seconds after they walked out so I am real skeptical of this press black out stuff but we will see.]
[During press black outs members are supposed to curb their comments and not say anything inflammatory. That was curbed, right?]
where the art work comes from :
that is walkway by deceptive
dear amptp : talk to the hand
January 8, 2008
There is more strike news —
Tom Cruise’s company United Artists has signed an independent agreement with the Writer’s Guild — independent of the AMPTP.
This makes United Artists the only film studio in Hollywood that can legitimately employ Guild writers.
When Letterman broke away from the AMPTP to sign the first independent contract with the WGA Jen said Letterman rules.
He seriously does. But not maybe in clearly obvious ways to people outside the industry.
See. In a Guild fight, Letterman is one of the few television personalities that can make this move — break ranks with the AMPTP and sign independently with the Guild — and withstand AMPTP retaliation for doing it.
Ever hear the statement “You will never work in this town again”? That statement originated in Hollywood and when they say that in Hollywood they are not kidding they mean it and will make it happen — if they can and most of the time they seriously can — and that is what anyone signing independently with the Guild is looking at. So to sign first, to lead, you have to be powerful and established enough in the entertainment industry to say back, “I do not think so.”
Letterman is established and powerful enough in television to do that.
[Oprah is another television personality powerful and established enough to withstand the kind of fallout anyone splitting from the AMPTP is facing. Maybe someone should email her and ask her to follow Letterman’s lead : Email Oprah.]
Tom Cruise is one of the only film personalities who can make this move and withstand the hit that will come at him for doing it too.
The number of personalities established and powerful enough to do this without being obliterated by retaliatory action from the AMPTP is very small. Hollywood is home of the black list. But with each powerhouse who takes the first step — and Letterman did take the first step bringing television into the equation and now Cruise and Paula Wagner UA co-owners have taken it too and brought motion pictures into the equation too — it becomes easier to follow.
*note, there is a good deal of hitting and yelling over the wga rejecting requests to sign waiver agreements with dick clark productions to produce the golden globes and with comedy central’s jon stewart — nbc broadcasts the golden globes [and also Jay Leno’s show] and viacom owns comedy central — nbc and viacom are two of the amptp powerhouses refusing to negotiate with the guild gee i wonder why we won’t sign side deals with them to keep their revenue flowing while they punkass the writers at the negotiating table?
where the art work comes from :
that is mouse & keyboard by niquin
cowards cutthroats & weasels
January 6, 2008
Speaking of David Letterman this is pretty funny to me. It is David Letterman talking about the strike issue :
David Letterman is back on the air because David Letterman signed a contract with Guild Writers. All of Letterman’s writers are back at work too.
Jay Leno is back on the air because Jay Leno is violating Guild strike rules. All of Leno’s writers are still out of work.
Also would someone inform Republican presidential wishful thinker Mike Huckabee “supporting union writers” means not crossing our picket lines?
i am you know waiting to see if the ua deal is made up or real
celluloid blonde 