If you're going to strike, you may as well be festive about it. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the resolve among the writers is strong, their mood more festive than one would expect from people who don't know when their next paycheck will come. The recommendation to strike was met with cheers from the 3,000 some people on hand:
A throng of writers descended on the downtown convention center backslapping one another and greeting friends. Conversation with individual writers, however, revealed an underlying anger over what they viewed as long-standing mistreatment at the hands of their studio employers.
As fun as it all sounds, the congregation's resolve stemmed out of anger and frustration with the longstanding disrespect of writers in Hollywood.
"A lot of us are feeling very frustrated," said Marc Cherry, showrunner on ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and a member of the WGA negotiating committee. "We very much would like to make a deal, but we feel the other side is not letting us do that."
Several others among the crowd expressed other frustrations.
"We don't mind waiting six months between paychecks," one screenwriter heading into the meeting said when asked his feelings about a work stoppage.
"The studios take so long paying us anyway that we're used to it. They are just very disrespectful that way, and there is a residual resentment."
Pun intended.
Carlton Cuse, showrunner on ABC's "Lost" and a member of the WGA negotiating committee, said he was heartened at the expressed support for the guild leadership's stances on DVD and new-media residuals.
"It was enormously gratifying to see the near unanimity of the membership," Cuse said.
While their grievances are legitimate and reasonable, the sentiment doesn't particularly bode well for an early settlement.
The Alliance of Motion & Television Producers has abused the writers for so long that they see their position atop the hierarchy as a right. That mentality is slow to change and usually takes heavy financial loss before it does. Given that it would take sometime before the bottom line goes red, the standoff could last a lot longer than anyone wants.
