Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Winners Only Nick has been keeping in touch from Hollywood, where every morning he fights traffic to get to work early so he doesn't have to cross the line of picketing writers outside his door. The picketers are on a strict 9 - 5 schedule, so Nick pretty much gets in by 8:30. So no problem? Guess again. Here's Nick:

"The security guard I talk to when I enter the gate said this morning he’s about to lose his mind watching these idiots march with their signs, begging for people to honk their horns as they drive by. Unfortunately it’s working so far as many are honking their horns. It’s annoying. I feel like going down there and picking a fight with the picketers. They probably wouldn’t fight though…Most likely they’d just throw their designer sushi at me…"

More from Winners Only:

"...Writers who have had luck on their side and have been able to get movies made or are on TV shows, etc., are not the ones picketing. The ones that are picketing are writers who probably scrape by. They’re the suckers who got talked into spending 4 hours a day for the duration of the strike to wave their dumbass signs and ask for drivers to annoyingly blare their horns. The WGA members with bank, are…yes….sitting by their pools eating designer sushi. I can’t wait to see what happens when this strike hits one month…"

Nick also tells how a fellow non-union writer acquaintance got a somewhat threatening phone call warning him not to take any work. Nick's response?:

"What’s funny is, the WGA will do whatever they can to keep you out of the union when you’re an up and coming writer, but when they’re on strike, they tell you not to take any jobs if offered…what the hell is that all about?!?! If they call me I’m going to tell them to stick their designer sushi up their butts!"

(As an aside, the last time I saw Winners Only we went out for sushi, very much of the LA designer sort. Next time we'll probably just go for burritos by the beach.)

Here's Roger Simon's take on the embarrassing mess of a privileged..."The reason is “new media” - we are in the age of YouTube and no one knows where it’s headed. Movie and television execs have seen the near demise of the music industry and it has struck fear in their hearts. It should. Their power has always stemmed from controlling the means of distribution. The Internet is threatening that."

And the final word on the matter goes to Steve Jobs (or is it fake Steve Jobs? I can't tell...) in this must read howler... It's too good to pull just one quote from, but here's a little sample:

"I guess we can't blame these writers. They've all got big stupid houses in Los Angeles and Hawaii, plus Porsches and Land Rovers and way more money than they ever deserved and they got it all for producing what history will view as probably the worst bulk of absolute fecal matter that has ever been passed off onto the world."

Read the whole thing.

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