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SUNDAY 12:30 PM: At the WGA's news conference today, union leaders declared the new contract is "a huge victory for us". Trumpeted WGAW President Patric Verrone, "This is the first time we actually got a better deal in a new media than previously." Verrone credited News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin and Disney chief Bob Iger, and also CBS boss Les Moonves, with "being instrumental in making this deal happen" after the WGA spent 3 months "getting nowhere" with the AMPTP negotiators and lawyers. WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman added that, "What happened to the Golden Globes was instrumental in getting the CEOs to this table. It was a huge symbol." Bowman said it was "imperative" that the WGA "get in on the ground floor of New Media. Henceforth, we're in from the start. It's 2% of distributor's gross. They can't have a business model without taking that into account." (Photo below by Jim Stevenson of WGA news conference with John Bowman, Patric Verrone and Dave Young. Text continues after pic...)

Verrone said, "Since we began negotiations in July, we've been saying, 'If they get paid, we get paid.' This contract makes that a reality. It's the best deal this Guild has bargained for in 30 years after the most successful strike this Guild has waged in 35 years. It was arguably the most successful strike in the American labor movement in a decade, clearly the most important of this young century. It is not all that we hoped for, and not all that we deserved. But as I told our members, this strike was about the future, and this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future..."

Verrone said it was "heartbreaking for me personally" to drop the WGA's demands relating to reality and animation (Verrone is an animation writer) "But it was more important that we make a deal that benefitted the membership and the town as a whole and got people back to work." Verrone stated that "The legacy of the '88 strike was the ability of the companies to develop content without writers and creators. The legacy of this strike will be the ability of writers and creators to develop content without the companies. We are making deals, and we will continue to make deals, with Google, Yahoo, and others beyond just the 7 conglomerates."

The leaders confirmed that WGA members would have 48 hours to call off the strike and 10 days to accept the newly negotiated contract.

But Verrone said TV showrunners (who have producing duties in addition to writing duties on TV series) would be allowed to go back to work Monday before the 48-hour notice vote by members is conducted. This no doubt solves the dilemma that the moguls made the deal negotiated with the WGA contingent on having the writers go back to work immediately.

The Writers Guild East Council and Writers Guild West Board voted to approve the contract and sent it to membership for a ratification vote, which will be conducted via mail ballot and at special meetings conducted on a date to be determined. In addition, the Council and Board also voted to lift the restraining order (strike) upon the majority vote of the membership, casting ballots in a vote to be conducted Tuesday, February 12th.

Variety reports that industry sources say the WGA contract reached with the majors "includes a provision that will allow scribes who were force majeuered from ongoing series to return to their old jobs. The contract does not address those who were force majeured from overall deals and other contracts if they were not working on a series that will resume production."

I can also report that the Screen Actors Guild, whose contract expires in June, has not set a date yet when it will start negotiating with the moguls. Asked about the possibility of an actors strike, the WGA leaders concurred that "no part of the Industry wants a second strike".

SUNDAY AM: I'm told the WGA's Negotiating Committee met today from 9 AM-10 AM and agreed to recommend the writers-moguls deal and to call off the strike. The WGAW's governing Board and the WGAE's governing Council began meeting at 10 AM Pacific time to do the same thing. That confab should have the same outcome in time for a WGA news conference at noon with WGAW President Patric Verrone, WGAE President Michael Winship (on the phone), WGAW Executive Director and Chief Negotiator David Young, and WGA Negotiating Committee Chair John Bowman. No matter how the governing boards voted, the WGA membership will still have the last word on calling off the strike within 48 hours, and accepting the newly negotiated contract within 10 days. (FYI: I can't attend because I'm still fluish and coughing my head off.)

Here's more detail, courtesy of United Hollywood, on the membership's 48 hour vote on whether or not to immediately lift the strike. The 48 hours starts today, probably by early this afternoon, with a view to a polling place-like vote probably in the WGA Theater on Tuesday. Voting will either be in person or by fax (proxy). If the vote passes, writers can go back to work. Then the writers will be given 10 days notice to vote by mail, in person or by fax (proxy) on accepting the new contract.

SATURDAY 9:00 PM: I've received word from inside the Shrine Auditorium meeting that the WGA West membership was obviously "very positive" about resolving the writers strike as soon as possible and accepting the deal negotiated by the guild leadership with the Hollywood moguls. Also, the WGA governing bodies wisely decided to ensure that guild members be able to vote within the next 48 hours before the strike can be called off by leaders -- even though the AMPTP made the deal contingent on the writers going back to work immediatelt. Under this new end game, Hollywood could now get back to work by Wednesday at the earliest (not Monday as previously arranged). This also means the Academy Awards, just 14 days away, won't be picketed. A writer who just left the confab told me: "There was cheering for everything and standing ovation after standing ovation for all the leadership. There is no question in my mind that because of the atmosphere in that room this strike will be called off. There is no gearing for a fight. It's over."

WGAW President Patric Verrone announced that there would be a vote by the membership over the next 48 hours on whether or not to lift the strike. I'm told Verrone said specifically that the decision to call off the strike, regardless of the WGA Negotiating Committee's or the WGAW Board's or WGAE Council's recommendation, was to be in the hands of the membership (which wasn't originally planned). Pending that outcome, the 10-day ballotting process for members to accept the tentative deal would begin. Since the moguls insisted that vote not delay the lifting of the strike, WGA leader Dave Young Young told the auditorium that the writers, and therefore all of Hollywood, could get back to work by Wednesday. That means Back 9 orders of some scripted TV series could be saved along with a no-frills pilot season with less scripted series ordered than ever before. (And expect the upfront presentations to advertisers to consist of a lot more pleading than preening.) Some of the force-majeured deals could be reinstated. (But it's important to remember that three times as many pacts would have been cancelled if the agents and lawyers hadn't lobbied the networks and studios.) Feature films that were halted could get going immediately.

About 25% of the attendees left the auditorium after Dave Young explained the deal points. But the meeting is still going on as members now ask questions about specific terms. Nevertheless, it's g'night from DHD. More coverage tomorrow. (Photos by Jim Stevenson: above, outside Shrine Auditorium as WGA membership arrive for meeting tonight; below, reporters throng screenwriter Gregory Poirier outside the Shrine.)

SATURDAY 8:00 PM: The Los Angeles Times' Envelope blog just sent out an email alert that the WGA strike will not be over on Monday. This is based on the blogging of LAT columnist Joel Stein, who is the newspaper's unreadable humor columnist and is inside the WGA West membership meeting at the Shrine because he is a guild member. Stein wrote that WGAW President Patric Verrone told the room that "the strike isn't over Monday" and "the decision to lift the strike will be up to the membership after the vote on the contract". I do not have confirmation of this yet, although I have been reporting since yesterday that WGA members were pressing the guild's leadership and governing bodies for more time to study the language and terms of the proposed WGA-mogul deal. However, earlier today the WGA East membership meeting in NYC was told that the AMPTP made the deal contingent on writers going back to work immediately.

Members Email: Contract Update

There's rarely anything spontaneous in Hollywood when it involves powerful actors and powerful moguls. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a carefully orchestrated campaign is about to get underway in the trades and mainstream press to pressure and no doubt demonize as strike-militant before too long SAG president Alan Rosenberg and national executive director Doug Allen (aka "the football guy") along the same lines that WGAW president Patric Verrone and WGAW executive director Dave Young (aka "the garmento guy) were. (SEE UPDATE BELOW WITH SAG BOARD MEMBER'S UNOFFICIAL RESPONSE)

I hear that on Thursday there'll be an ad signed by George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, and others trying to push the SAG leaders to start negotiations early. Also, Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, etc will begin making phone calls to SAG leadership on Friday. Then, this weekend, the Los Angeles Times Op-Ed page will run a piece signed by Hanks and Clooney. Then. next Tuesday, News Corp No. 2 Peter Chernin and Disney CEO Bob Iger are taking out an ad in the trades responding to the Clooney ad and will invite SAG/AFTRA in for early informal conversations. That this campaign was kicking off coincides with complaints from Hollywood CEOs that they fear starting principal photography on movies if the actors will walk come June. As the WGA talks drew to a close, top agents said privately they would now focus all their energies on averting a SAG strike. Then, at last week's luncheon for Oscar nominees, Clooney sounded off about his guild. Right now, no SAG-mogul talks have yet been scheduled on the contract that expires June 30. But at least Rosenberg and Allen have been learning from the trials and tribulations that the WGA went through at the hands of the Hollywood CEOs. One of the first problems they'll face is whether SAG should institute a "qualified voting" earnings threshold requirement. (Ever since the extras union merged with SAG to strengthen the guild, only a third of SAG's 120,000 members earn more than $1,000 as SAG actors. But now the elite working actors want to take away the right of all SAG members to vote on the guild's major contracts.) A two-week-old petition has circulated among SAG's working TV and film actors. Rosenberg and Allen will be meeting next week with reps from the petition group.

UPDATE: A SAG board member responds to me unofficially about the A-list pressure: "SAG W & W (wages & working conditions) meetings are taking place practically everyday at 5757 Wilshire Blvd. This is where the membership talks with the SAG leadership about what they'd like changed in the contract. Talks with the AMPTP, even informal ones, would be premature until this process is over. (It concludes the end of February). I also find it disingenuous that the people listed as "pressuring SAG to go in early" are NOT participating in this contract talk process with their union, nor do you hear them speaking about any of the possible deal points in their comments to the press. Attendance of the W & W meetings is open to any actor with a current SAG card. It seems to be a very naive request to blindly call for early talks while we're 1) four months from our contract expiration, 2) only halfway through the w&w process, 3) have it handled. Doug Allen and Alan Rosenberg, in addition to our negotiation committee chairs, know what they are doing. Nobody is gunning for a strike. The focus is squarely upon composing a collection of needs for the acting community to be negotiated with our employers. The panic is unnecessary."

Sources: NBC & Hollywood Foreign Press May Sue WGA Over No Golden Globes