Wait, Did Tom Cruise Just End the Writer's Strike?
I'm no labor historian, but it seems that if some well-placed people want to end this writer's strike, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner just pulled the barn door wide open.
Cruise and Wagner's United Artists signed a side deal with the WGA, making them the only ones doing business in a town that's otherwise as shut down as a southern Baptist town on Sunday. So, if you want to do anything in Hollywood, UA's the one place you can go.
The catch, of course, is that despite its gloried past, the UA of today is relatively small (thank you, Michael Cimino!) They're only slated to greenlight four films a year. But if, say, a consortium of investors suddenly poured a whole bunch of money into UA, then Cruise and Wagner could suddenly be greenlighting stuff right and left. Seeing themselves left behind, the other studios would then undoubtedly trip over one another like a bunch of drunken Keystone Cops in order to make their own deals with the WGA before it's too late.
I don't know who these writer-friendly UA investors would be. According to the producers' spin during the strike, there's a small nation of kabillionaire screenwriters out there, so maybe they can do it. Or perhaps there's a large venture fund or two who can appreciate a competitive edge when they see one. Who knows, but UA could conceivably pull together some kind of collective investment that could quickly lead to scores of sound stages being filled with the song and dance of movies being made, just like Jack Warner and Harry Cohn did it back in old days. Of course, Warner and Cohn would be spinning in their graves if they knew the writers were gaining any power at all. Such, I suppose, are the joys of show business.
Okay, yes, it's a thousand times more complicated than I'm laying it out to be, but alls I'm saying is if the cards play out a certain way, if you see money or momentum suddenly flooding the UA way, and the dominos start to fall, then perhaps we will get the one and only thing we all care about: new episodes of 30 Rock.
Seriously, is that too much to ask for?
Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.
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Good for Tom. I love that he had the courage to do this. He has no doubt made enemies of some of his friends by doing this. But unlike many others in his position, he's made a shrewd move and a very real sacrifice for the good of all of LA.
A group of well financed investors could surely capitalize on the United Artist deal with the WGA. A modern form of carpet bagging, I could see investment banks making substantial investments in UA if they are the only studio producing films. Regardless, the outcome of this strike is going to have major ramifications on the way we consume television and film in the coming years. TheIssue.c
Cheers,
Mike
The Issue | www.TheIss
Wring2bright, the point of the union is exactly to negotiate individual deals with employers. The union unifies labor -- not management. The United Auto Workers makes deals with Ford and other manufacturers -- they do not face a negotiating table where GM and Chrysler and Ford all sit together.
That's called capitalism and competition.
They way Hollywood studios bargain with labor is collusion by competitors and is a violation of antitrust laws.
By making deals with one company at a time, the WGA is following the principles of capitalism. And it is breaking an illegal cartel of studios at once.
It wasn't Tom, it was the aliens on the Mothership!
Is it true Democrats can't do struck shows like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?
What's the point of a union if they are just going to bargain individual deals?
Of course Tom Cruise is writer-friendly. He is a member of a fanatical cult (masquerading as a religion) that was completely made up by a hack science fiction writer...
"Xenu, phone home!"
Another one bites the dust. I lifted this from
Reuters.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" will return with new episodes Friday without both writers and two of its most popular features, Maher's opening monologue and the closing segment "New Rules."
The round-table discussion with celebrity guests will stay as the producers of the live political talk show are tweaking the rest of the format because of the Hollywood writers strike, which is now in its third month with no end in sight.
The most recent season of "Real Time" was cut short by the walkout. The November 9 season finale was canceled and replaced by a rerun.
Monologues performed by talk show hosts who are Writers Guild of America members are at the center of a controversy, sparked by "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's decision to write openings for his show, which returned last week without writers.
The WGA has been adamant that, under its strike rules, such hosts cannot perform any "writing services" for their shows, including penning their own monologues. Meanwhile, NBC has claimed that the hosts are exempt and are within their legal right to write monologues according to WGA's 2004 collective bargaining agreement.
"Real Time" is one of three political comedy shows that are returning this week without writers, along with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Really! I MISS 30Rock!
Along with many other great shows that AREN'T reality shows.
shouldn't ua actually put out one moderately successful movie before anyone thinks this is a big deal?
30 Rock. 'Nuf said!
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Posted January 6, 2008 | 02:46 PM (EST)