I don’t mean to keep harping on this, but the question of just what is and is not acceptable for the returning hosts under the strike rules is pretty important at present, and it sounds like even the people who should be “experts” in this area can’t seem to agree on what’s allowed. I love that the AP article I posted earlier (see my update below) simply said, in a truly comical understatement, “the guild’s contract ‘is notoriously difficult to interpret.’”

No kidding.

Have you seen Deadline Hollywood Daily lately? (And if not, what is it going to take for me to get you to start reading it regularly?!) In the last couple of hours, there have been updates and clarifications galore.

Here’s what the current story is: Leno claims that he believed he was within his rights to write his own monologue because of the exception in the WGA’s “Minimum Basic Agreement” that permits a performer to write the lines that he will be delivering on air, himself (that’s the exception I mentioned in this post). However, according to the current story from Nikki Finke, this exception doesn’t apply if the person in question is also billed as a writer on his own show, as Jay is. [Note: Stephen and Jon are credited writers on their respective shows, too.] Adding to the tension, NBC continues to insist that Jay can legally do his monologue. The guild leadership, for its part, seems reluctant to take concrete disciplinary action against such a high-profile member.

Now for the really crazy part: Jay evidently met with WGA-West President Patric Verrone on Monday and told him that he (Jay) would be doing the monologue, to which Verrone reportedly replied that he’d look the other way. Now, however, Verrone is saying that Jay’s monologue is in violation, and Jay is, well, let’s say ‘unhappy’ about the conflicting messages.

Some excerpts from Deadline Hollywood Daily (but you should really read her stories here and here, or click on the post titles):

NBC: Leno Can Write His Monologue; WGA: He Can’t But We Don’t Want War

NBC has just issued the following statement. “The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for The Tonight Show. The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA.” …

EXCLUSIVE: It sure seems like Jay Leno will now be free to perform his nightly Tonight Show monologue. That’s because I’ve learned that the Writers Guild Of America has decided quietly not to go to war with its prominent member. “We are not interested in a battle here between Jay and the Guild,” a WGA insider just told me … Now get this: I’m told Leno can “ad-lib” his monologue. He just can’t “write” his monologue. Huh?

And,

LENO/WGA: WHAT’S THE REAL STORY? NBC Claims Jay Asked For & Received WGA Permission To Write Monologue At Secret Monday Meeting With Verrone

… [O]n Monday at WGA headquarters, Jay Leno set up a meeting with WGA West president Patric Verrone and The Tonight Show writers and some other WGA members and informed them he was going to write and perform his own monologue when he went back on the air Wednesday. “Patric Verrone said, ‘We’re going to look the other way.’ And there were a lot of witnesses in that room,” the spokesperson just told me. “So if Patric Verrone now disputes that he told Jay he could do the monologue, why weren’t there further actions by the WGA between Monday and Wednesday?”

. . .

Now I hear NBC is consulting with its lawyers to figure this all out. But I’m told that the network and Leno are both pissed at what they see as the WGA’s talking-out-of-both-sides-of-its-mouth behavior here. “Especially considering that no one has been more supportive of the striking writers than Jay,” the NBC spokesperson told me.

As Nikki rightly points out, if Jay is allowed to continue doing his monologue, the person who should be most peeved about it is Dave Letterman, who played by the rules every step of the way but who will see his advantage erode if the guild winks at Jay’s writing. If indeed the the monologue is verboten, then knowing that Jay gets to keep delivering it has got to be a bitter pill for Dave to swallow.

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EDITED TO ADD: While I was working on this post, The New York Times posted a pretty comprehensive article about this story, too. This article makes it sound like the question about whether the “Minimum Basic Agreement” exception applies to the hosts isn’t actually clear; the WGA says the exception doesn’t apply, but it sounds like other lawyers may still be fighting over that issue.

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FURTHER EDITED TO ADD: The latest from Deadline Hollywood Daily gives the WGA’s story about what happened at the secret meeting on Monday. An interesting bit:

[H]ere’s what I can’t understand. Leno tells the WGA he’s going to do his monologue. And that doesn’t ring a bell for the guild members to ask him HOW he’s doing that monologue?

“In retrospect, it should have been clarified right then and there,” the WGA spokesperson admitted to me. “But the exchange came at the end of a long and difficult meeting and we were wrapping it up and it was one of the last exchanges in the meeting.”

It’s clear that, on Monday, the guild did not repeat the warning about “no monologues” which it had issued the day NBC announced that Leno and Conan O’Brien were going back on air. (See my previous, WGA Reminds Returning Jay And Conan: No Monologues.) But it’s also a he said/he said situation whether or not the guild actually gave Leno a pass on writing his monologue …

The Associated Press has also updated its story on the WGA-NBC fracas, complete with dueling statements from their attorneys:

“The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for `The Tonight Show,’” NBC said in a statement Thursday. “The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA.”

The agreement between the guild and producers expired Oct. 31 but its terms remain in effect, said Andrea Hartman, executive vice president and deputy general counsel for NBC Universal. She cited federal labor law.

According to the contract, “material written by the person who delivers it on the air” is exempted from the agreement. The exception applies to shows outside prime-time, which includes NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

Leno did not mention the dispute during Thursday’s show, which he opened with another monologue.

For its part, the union argues that it’s on firm ground in the context of either its “strike rules” or the expired contract.

“Our position is that our strike rules don’t conflict here and, because he’s (Leno) always been employed as a writer” on the show, the contract exception doesn’t apply to him, said guild spokesman Neal Sacharow.

Ugh. This has got to be tying the other hosts’ stomachs in nervous knots. Why can’t the AMPTP just give the writers what they want and deserve? I’m just sick about this.

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FURTHER EDITED: The WGA is now saying that it will pursue Jay for breaking strike rules. See this post.

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