Whoa. The news is tumbling out fast and furious over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, and there are new details galore in the latest on the Jay Leno situation, with the WGA now stating that it will go after the Tonight Show host for breaking strike rules.
I’m betting there will be several updates to this story throughout the evening, so I’d strongly recommend that you refresh through Deadline Hollywood Daily frequently if you’re interested in following this story. A snippet of what’s posted now:
URGENT: Writers Guild president Patric Verrone is going on air telling radio and TV media today that the union will go after member Jay Leno for writing his own monologues. This is a 180-degree turnaround from the guild’s position yesterday that it didn’t want a battle with the late night TV host over this issue. Verrone just appeared on Fox. But he told The Thom Hartmann Show on Air America this morning, ”Jay is a longtime member of the guild and we’ve known him a long time and it’s clear to us that [writing his monologue] is a violation of the rule. There are strike rules and we’re going to have to enforce them against him.” Strike-breaking is a serious issue for the WGA and its strike rules require members to report any activity in that realm. Discipline for violations of a strike can include expulsion, suspension, fines and censure.
Meanwhile, I’ve learned exclusively that one of the reasons that the WGA was going to give Leno a pass was a privately communicated threat by Jay to go “Fi-Core” — aka financial core status — with the writers union . . .
Again, my apologies for beating this story into the ground, but it’s obviously relevant to the question of what Jon and (especially) Stephen will be able to do come Monday.
I have this sneaky suspicion that there may be forces behind all this that are trying to stir up trouble and initiate resentment between union members to keep them distracted from the even bigger issue: that the AMPTP hasn’t returned to the table. Still, breaking strike rules is a big no-no in any union. Big, big no-no. I also have a bad feeling Jon and Stephen will be under some major scrutiny come Monday, unless one of them whips out family photos like Carson did back in ’88 to kill air time.
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PS–Nikki’s post also provides a good explanation of “Fi-Core” too…it might be useful in the coming weeks, as I have a feeling we’ll be hearing that term being thrown around more and more.
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Jay’s obviously not getting the message. He’s doing his monologue again.
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Now he has children writing his show.
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I’m strongly behind the writers’ demands, but I think going after Jay is a big mistake.
The wording of the passage in question seems genuinely open to the interpretation that someone who wasn’t hired primarily as a writer (ie. an actor/star), would be allowed to write new material for their own performance. So while they couldn’t use old bits written previously by the writing staff, they could write new bits for themselves alone.
Punishing Jay for what seems like an honest difference of interpretation won’t have a good effect; it will make the WGA look bad or weak.
Let Jay write his monologues; let Jimmy and Conan write their own too; the monologues won’t be enough to hang onto viewers in the long run, especially when they can’t get good guests for the show because those guests won’t cross a picket line. (So pickets ARE important!)
And this is another way that Dave will benefit from his hard-fought interim deal; not only does he have his writers back, but no pickets at his shows = his choice of top of the line entertainment or political guests.
Unions working together to support each other will speed up a return to the negotiating tables and ultimately win this thing. So everyone should just be brave and be calm.
In union there’s strength—literally
(I tried to post this at the Nikke Finke site, but for some reason it didn’t ‘take’, so I hope it’s ok if I (re)post it here)
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