We sure got some wordy people in this thread.
It's hard to imagine any actor in Hollywood who makes the studio and
network CEOs swoon more than Tom Hanks. So the fact that he has gone public and shamed them for breaking off bargaining talks with the Writers Guild is
hitting them where it hurts: their public image. The two-time Oscar winner just gave an interview to Reuters in London saying that as a member of the Academy
Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences he wants to see the Oscar ceremony held as usual but warned the studios and networks will lose the Academy Awards
ceremony just like they did the Golden Globes show unless AMPTP returns to the table and gets serious about negotiating.
Certainly anyone in sympathy with the striking writers has been waiting for a big Triple-A list star to step up and take a leadership position calling out the Hollywood CEOs for their intransigence. And if that's the stick, then the carrot is the Academy Awards slated for February 24. "The show must go on, that is one of the tenets of everything," Hanks told Reuters on the red carpet at the London premiere of Charlie Wilson's War. "I am a member of the board of governors of the Academy, and we definitely want to put on a great show and honor the films that have come out in the course of the year." Hanks said. "I just hope that the big guys who make big decisions, up high in their corporate boardrooms and what not, get down to honest bargaining and everyone can get back to work."
This is not what the Big Media bigwigs want to hear -- a popular star like Hanks whom they respect calling them out. So if Hanks is now at the
head of the line, then Will Smith, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon, Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Julia
Roberts and other AAA-listers need to follow his lead. As I wrote way back on November 7th and have said repeatedly since, the only time I've ever heard
of Hollywood CEOs caving on a major negotiation is when they get in the same room with a Tom Hanks. There's just something so needy within the Hollywood
moguls' psyche that they want to be liked and respected by the creatives they in turn like and respect. (I assume this is why these businessmen make TV
and movies instead of toothpaste and mattresses.) Therefore, any professional, personal and even psychological pressure put by these top-of-the-heap artists
on the studio and network bosses could make all the difference. Some of that is going on, but not enough.
UPDATE: Harvey Weinstein Says WGA Side Deal "Gives Me A Competitive Edge"
So now Harvey Weinstein will be in the same enviable position as United Artists executive VP of production Jeff Kleeman who I'm told has scripts "pouring" into his office after UA just competed its side deal. As Harvey told me just now, "I did it because it gives me a competitive edge." I reported last Sunday that The Weinstein Co was negotiating a side deal with the striking Writers Guild similar to the one that UA made. Today Harvey Weinstein confirmed that he would formally announce an agreement as soon as tomorrow. (See my previous, Rumors Upon Rumors Of WGA Side Deals.)
Harvey right now is in Los Angeles doing a media blitz via back-to-back breakfasts with the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times and other reporters. Sure the Big Media CEOs are saying he needs to do a WGA side deal to shore up his financially struggling production company. But Harvey tells me, "We are currently a making a shitload of money. All our movies are making money off their videos and DVDs. My flights of fancy are turning out to be oil gushers."
Still, it's hilariously ironic about Weinstein, who's made screenwriters' lives miserable throughout his career with his iron-fisted management style, now befriending the striking scribes. Weinstein told me he's working with the WGA to "try and be a good citizen" because every crack in the producers' armor can be considered a victory for the WGA and a defeat for the Big media companies who refuse to meet with the WGA negotiators. "This is not the right thing."
Meanwhile, Harvey told the reporters that one project that will immediately benefit from the independent deal is Nine, a planned film from
Chicago director Rob Marshall, while Anthony Minghella, who has worked with Weinstein on The English Patient and Cold Mountain,
is expected to begin working on revisions of a script written by Michael Tolkin.
EXCLUSIVE: George Clooney Offers To Set Up "Mediation Panel" To Solve WGA Strike
Hollywood's Triple-A list actors have started
becoming integrally involved in trying to solve the Writers Guild strike against the Hollywood CEOs. I've just been told that George Clooney today is
volunteering to personally set up a so-called "mediation panel" including himself and with plans to ask Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and John
Wells (the executive producer of ER and a controversial
ex-WGA president) to be part of it, plus 3 or 4 bigwigs who are siding with the producers. The offer came in a phone call today with Harvey Weinstein who
promptly volunteered to be part of the panel. Clooney suggested its purpose should be to oversee the talks and tell the WGA as each term is bargained
"you have to live with this and get over it," and tell the AMPTP "you have to live with that and get over it", Weinstein quoted
George as saying. It's also Clooney's idea that everybody would be locked in the room together and not leave until the deal is done.
FRIDAY UPDATE: A Clooney insider tells me: "It would be more accurate to say that George has and would offer to help, including
putting a group of people in a room that know both the CEOs and the writers personally. And that of course he would do anything to get this over. He
didn't use any of the rhetoric that's being attributed to him [by Weinstein]. His stance has always been to find common ground and not alienate
each other."
This follows a London interview by that other Triple-A lister Tom Hanks linking the fate of the upcoming Academy Awards to the studios' continued refusal to "get down to honest bargaining". Both Clooney and Hanks are making it clear publicly that they're concerned about the writers strike's collateral damage. Hanks said corporate bosses should remember that many ancillary businesspeople were suffering from the studios and networks refusing to restart negotiations with the Writers Guild. "There are caterers and carpenters ... and electricians and gaffers," Hanks told Reuters in London Wednesday night. "There are a lot of people out there associated with the industry, for whom the sooner this work stoppage is over the better." And Clooney said much the same thing when he appeared onstage at Monday night's Critics Choice Awards (photo above): "When the strike happens, it's not just writers [affected]... Our hope is that all the players will lock themselves in a room and not come out until they finish. We want this to be done. That's the most important thing."
Now that Clooney and Hanks are at the head of the line, then Will
Smith, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon, Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Julia Roberts and other AAA-listers
may follow their lead. As I wrote way back on November 7th soon after the WGA strike started and have said repeatedly since, the only time I've ever
heard of Hollywood CEOs caving on a major negotiation is when they get in the same room with a major star. There's just something so needy within the
Hollywood moguls' psyche that they want to be liked and respected by the creatives they in turn like and respect. (I assume this is why these
businessmen make TV and movies instead of toothpaste and mattresses.) Therefore, any professional, personal and even psychological pressure put by these
top-of-the-heap artists on the studio and network bosses could make all the difference in solving this strike.
Bratty Big Media Moguls Are Beginning To Exact Revenge On Pro-WGA Hollywooders
What an incredible list of petty, mean-spirited and just spiteful behavior the Hollywood CEOs are compiling for themselves. Really, they're never going to be able to explain away this stuff when the strike eventually ends and they're held accountable by everyone else. I've been confirming episode after episode of the AMPTP's giant multimedia members retaliating in every way possible against anyone in Hollywood helping the WGA's side in this strike dragging on and on. I'll keep updating as more instances come in to me (so keep refreshing for the latest):
-->The latest is that Disney/ABC has rescinded offers to pay for tickets for TV show executive producers going to the SAG awards -- just two days after sending them emails saying ABC would provide four tickets per show. The exec producers are often hyphenates who also belong to the WGA.
-->Disney/ABC has decided not to pay for hair and make-up and even cars for its stars going to the SAG awards, something the studios and networks always do, since the actors have aligned themselves with the WGA and the SAG show received a Writers Guild waiver while it's increasingly unlikely that the Oscars televised by ABC will. "Their reasoning is that they don't want to pay for SAG actors to get all dressed up only to bad-mouth the studio on the Red Carpet," a source told me. Oh, like that couldn't happen at the Academy Awards, too, although ABC wouldn't air it.
-->Harvey Weinstein received a number of phone calls from the moguls warning him "You shouldn't do it," and "We can get this done with the DGA," when word leaked out that he was making a side deal with the WGA to be able to hire striking writers.
-->NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker has tried to bump both NBC 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan and NBC Celebrity Apprentice star Donald Trump from the recent guest rosters of The Late Show with David Letterman whose parent company Worldwide Pants did a side deal with the WGA to hire striking writers. Zucker's network minions tried to convince both men not to appear on the show. But Zucker allowed late night rival Jimmy Kimmel to guest on Leno and Leno to guest on Kimmel.
-->Zucker earlier bullied striking NBC comedy writers from Saturday Night Live not to appear on Letterman's first Late Show back from strike hiatus and announce the Top 10. The scribes were ordered by NBC to leave the Ed Sullivan Theater right before the taping. By doing so, they couldn't collect their personal appearance pay. But NBC found out too late that writers for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Law & Order did the bit and Zucker wanted the names of everyone who participated and worked at NBC.
-->Zucker refused to allow the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to hold an untelevised Golden Globes awards ceremony even though it would have been unpicketed by the WGA and the actors, directors, writers as well as Hollywood studios and networks who won could have been celebrated.
-->NBC Entertainment co-czar on Monday told his new best friend, the no-talent Ryan Seacrest before the Golden Globes awards show was officially scrapped that, "Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive." (Now there's a T-shirt for sale benefitting the WGA strike fund that reads, "Nerdy. Ugly. Mean. Proud of it. WGA.")
-->AMPTP staffers, consultants and members (especially corporate publicity departments) are busily posting comments on WGA-friendly websites and blogs that Hollywood visits regularly and filling them with hate-filled rants against the WGA leadership, the A-list actors, and the companies who've made WGA side deals. The goal is to turn off readers and drive traffic away and in the process spread pro-AMPTP propaganda and make it look as if the strike is breaking apart.
-->News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin realized the AMPTP was losing the PR war and was most responsible for bringing in Fabiani and Lehane as the AMPTP's public affairs consultants since his company has a close relationship with them. Fabiani and Lehane were paid by News Corp. to orchestrate a 2004 campaign organizing advocacy groups by race and ethnicity to hammer Nielsen Media Research over its plans to modernize how it measures viewing habits.
--> Warner Bros Chairman Barry Meyer has handpicked the AMPTP paid mouthpieces who have spread the AMPTP's insults and disinformation about the WGA leadership.
-->The other day, an AMPTP consultant tried to start a rumor that a WGA exec was connected to child pornography.
-->The AMPTP repeatedly lies that the WGA has "a $30 million PR fund" to spread public information about the strike when the reality is
that the WGA's entire communications budget is several hundred thousand dollars.
AMPTP AND DGA AGREE TO BEGIN FORMAL CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS; DGA's Apted Says "Within Shouting Distance"
The AMPTP just made this announcement. Talks begin tomorrow and I'm
told this news reflects significant "progress." Indeed, DGA President Michael Apted told members in a letter today "We would not enter
negotiations with the AMPTP unless we were within shouting distance of an agreement on our two most important issues: jurisdiction for our members to
work in new media and appropriate compensation for the reuse of our work on the Internet and other new media platforms." But Apted also noted:
"There are still hurdles to jump."
As a top insider in the negotiations just emailed me, "The process is fully functioning, and both sides are engaged with a keen eye on
what's good for everyone (other guild members, community, etc)."It's common knowledge that the Directors Guild, whose contract expires
in June, doesn't start formal negotiations until most of the big issues are ironed out ahead of time in months of early pre-sessions. 
And that's what happened over the past two weeks, including
a secret meeting between News Corp No. 2 Peter Chernin and Walt Disney President Bob Iger about Internet issues with reps for the Directors Guild,
including negotiations committee chair Gil Cates and executive director Jay Roth. (See my previous, EXCLUSIVE: DGA Met With Moguls Today.) Even hardliners among the moguls like Warner Bros boss Barry Meyer
are widely known to be "very eager" to get a DGA deal quickly in order to lord it over the striking WGA. The big question still remains
whether the deal which the DGA can reach with the studios and networks will be acceptable to the Writers Guild so the current scribe strike can end
and possibly prevent a Screen Actors Guild come June:
LOS ANGELES - The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed today to enter into formal contract
negotiations. Negotiations are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Saturday, January 12, 2008, and will be held at AMPTP headquarters in Encino, CA. The DGA and the AMPTP have agreed that neither organization will comment to the press regarding negotiations until negotiations have concluded.
Here is DGA President Michael Apted's letter about it to members:
I am writing to inform you that with the unanimous agreement of the Negotiations Committee and the recommendation of Negotiations Chairman Gil Cates, I have authorized the start of formal negotiations with the AMPTP and we will begin our first negotiations session tomorrow.
As I have stated before, we would not enter negotiations with the AMPTP unless we were within shouting distance of an agreement on our two most important issues: jurisdiction for our members to work in new media and appropriate compensation for the reuse of our work on the Internet and other new media platforms.
We've spent the last few months discussing these and related issues with the studios and we've been doing intensive research on these points for the past year and a half. Now we believe it is time to move forward with the goal to hammer out an agreement. I am very mindful of how many members are unemployed and believe that our reaching a deal will bring the industry closer to getting back to work.
There are still hurdles to jump. However, we would not be going forward unless we believed we could make a good deal.
As is our practice, once we enter negotiations tomorrow, there will be a total news blackout on the talks. As soon as there is anything definitive to report we will be in touch with the membership.
Sincerely,
Michael Apted
