Breaking News! For all intensive purposes the Writers Strike is over! Here are a few of the headlines and info we found across the web. Be sure to check out the articles in their entirety.
Variety
For the first time in more than three months, TV showrunners are heading back to the office on Monday with the rest of the scribe tribe due back Wednesday.
The development came with the ruling boards of the Writers Guild of America unanimously approving the tentative deal with the majors, triggering a vote by members that will conclude Tuesday night on whether to lift the strike order. Ballots to ratify the new three-year deal will also go out in the next few days with a 10- to 12-day return period.
Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily
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."
USAToday
It's a deal similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn't kick in until after a window of between 17 to 24 days deemed "promotional" by the studios.Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get a percentage of a distributor's gross in year three — the latter an improvement on the directors deal, which remains at the flat payment rate.
"The precedent that we can participate in new media, that's great," said Diane Frolov, another Sopranos writer. "There was mostly cheering" among the L.A. contingent, she added.
The Strike is Over!
The Golden Globes 2008 - a Hollywood nightmare
We have come to appreciate the Golden Globes as the most exciting award show of the season. The dinner party, the laid-back vibe, the drunken acceptance speeches. What will we do now? As the writer's strike looms on it continues to effect everything we know and love. On Monday the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC were forced to create an "acceptable" show format, or the show would be picketed by the WGA. They are scrapping the traditional celeb filled dinner party! It is reported by the Associated Press that the show set to air this Sunday will take on a "Dateline NBC" format: interviews with the nominees, a news conference announcing the winners and coverage of the after parties. This means no fabulous fashion, no crazy acceptance speeches, no excitement about finding out which celebs are friendly with one another. Just a news conference. The nominated actors confirmed that if the Globes took on it's normal format and the WGA had a picket line they would absolutely not cross it. As boring as this revamped format is I must say, in an industry where every man is out for the dollar it is nice to see a act of solidarity such as this one.
