Supporting the writers

We haven’t said much about the strike lately (aside from the obvious, “Please, let it all be resolved soon”), but that’s just because things have been pretty quiet going into the holiday weekend and leading to next week’s return to the negotiation table. There are a few things I’d love to bring up so that they don’t get lost in the shuffle, so please indulge me as I post a few odds and ends.

• “Live, from New York . . . ” Okay, The Lake Effect already posted about the Saturday Night Live performance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater last weekend, a performance that sounded like an excellent outlet for both the audience members and for the writers and performers. We sure hope you all saw the write-up by our good friend Rachel Sklar over at the Huffington Post, too. Mad love for Rachel, who must have been taking some pretty frantic notes throughout the whole thing.
• Lest you think SNL is the only show that can really be performed live, read through this recap of the live performance of 30 Rock (again, thanks to Rachel Sklar for the in-depth recap . . . particularly since it wasn’t spoiling plot points). Seriously, improvised beer commercials? Hilarious and wrong. Maybe more so because it sounds better than any actual beer commercials I’ve seen.
• Another quick note on the Huffington Post: It’s not linked on our sidebar, but HuffPo’s Writers’ Strike Page has an extensive collection of posts from quite an array of writers, agents and actors. If you have a chance to look it over, I suspect you’d find a lot to interest you. Jon Robin Baitz, in particular, has been getting a lot of love from the guild members (and it’s not hard to see why).
• The Motley Fool has posted a good article pointing out why the writers should win (titled, appropriately enough, “Why the Writers Should Win“). You should read the whole thing, but if all you have time for is the bullet points, here they are:
• The AMPTP’s argument undermines legal downloading.
• Happy writers produce more long-term lucre.
• Greed isn’t good.
• So far, public opinion seems pretty firmly to side with the writers, something I hope continues to be the case. Lest you think I’m only saying that because the blogs and other media sources I read tend to reinforce that position, I’ll point you toward this recent Bloomberg article as just one example of a fairly mainstream source that supports my statement. Here’s possibly my favorite line of the article, “Web-based entertainment by out-of-work writers may have helped the union win public support, said Los Angeles entertainment attorney Howard Fabrick of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.” Hear that, writers? Your embrace of “the internets” has apparently helped persuade the public of the rightness of your claim; never doubt that. Keep it up!
• If you haven’t heard about it yet, you should probably check out the “Speechless” campaign that debuted at Deadline Hollywood Daily yesterday. The campaign features “Public Service Announcements” that showcase “A-list Screen Actors Guild talent” in short internet videos illustrating supporting the writers in their current contract dispute. Here are the videos that have been released as of this evening:

• Episode 1 – Holly Hunter
• Episode 2 – Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss
• Episode 3 – Sean Penn
• Episode 4 – Jeff Garlin
• Episode 5 – The Ugly Betty cast
• Episode 6 – David Schwimmer and Kate Beckinsale

Finally, I want to acknowledge the “Get Back in that Room” site, which lists just some of the hundreds of non-writer individuals who have lost their jobs since the AMPTP and the guild left the negotiation table. I’ve made no secret of my support for the WGA’s position in this strike, but this next statement applies to both the AMPTP’s and the WGA’s negotiating teams when they meet again on Monday: Please, set aside the rhetoric and whatever ill-will may have built up in these last few weeks, and please, please negotiate a fair contract as quickly as you can. The best gift you could give all of us this holiday season is a contract that recognizes the contributions of all members of the creative team. Let these people go back to work, and let us go back to being the appreciative audiences that we want to be.