UPDATED: Day 4 of the WGA strike began with a plot twist on the weather front. A typically overcast May morning in Southern California gave way around 8 a.m. to a heavy downpour that rolled quickly across the region. The rain was gone in West L.A. and Culver City by 9:30 a.m., but the drops fell fast and hard enough to disrupt some of the best-laid plans of dedicated strike captains.
Still, on a soggy Friday morning in the Heart of Screenland, about 200 pickets were circulating around Culver City’s institutions: Sony Pictures Entertainment, the hallowed ground of MGM in its prime, and the Culver Studios, now home to Amazon Studios, Prime Video and MGM in its present.
“Jeopardy” writers Michele Loud, Jim Rhine and Billy Wisse walked on Madison Avenue near Washington Boulevard, in front of the studio gates where they three have all worked for more than two decades. Their jobs have been unusually consistent on a Monday-Friday strip that has transcended from TV quiz show to become a bona fide national institution.
“Our words are on the screen every night,” Loud told Variety. “There is no ‘Jeopardy’ without writers. Without us it’s just an empty blue screen.”
Wisse’s view is that the strike is part of a larger fight for the matter of being “fairly compensated for the labor you give,” he said.
The trio were quick to emphasize their good fortune to be employed for so long by a stable, year-round show. But they see the bigger threat posed by the structural changes afoot in the television business.
“They’re asking some people to work day-to-day,” Rhine said, noting that he’s heard chapter and verse in recent days from fellow WGA members about mini room experiences. “They never tried to make it a gig economy before,” Wisse said. “There was always some sense that writers were partners in it.”
Down the street and around the corner, WGA West volunteers Victoria and Chris worked behind a folding table stacked with water and snacks to fuel the line that snaked in a V-shape down Ince Avenue and Washington Boulevard, around the entrances to Amazon properties. A sprinkling of security guards in the area bordered by the Culver Steps outdoor shopping and dining area kept a close eye on WGA pickets and Amazon’s property line. Honks and shouts were heard steadily but otherwise the pickets were pretty quiet in the first few hours of the morning.
WGA pickets had their own backup looking out for them. Since the strike began, talent agencies, law firms, managers, PR agencies and assorted entrepreneurs have missed no opportunity to market themselves by showing up with water, snacks, amenities and a supportive ear (or fist).
Four days in, resolve among WGA members is clearly strong. Across the dozen picket sites, writers have focused on the loss of opportunity for young writers breaking in and the threat that poses to the profession’s long-term future. WGA members are plainly angry at the issues that AMPTP did not address or make counter offers on after weeks at the negotiating table. AI, the minimum staffing and guaranteed weeks, the demands of feature writers who are fed up with pressure for unpaid rewrites.
Patrick Meighan, a longtime writer-producer on Fox’s “Family Guy,” echoed the sentiments of many WGA veterans who were active as strike captains and organizers during the 2007-08 strike. The climate in industry labor circles is very different this time around, he said.
“I really feel like the entire town is united in this fight. This is a fight that we’re all going through to greater extent,” Meighan said as he walked the line around Amazon. “The corporations are trying to turn Hollywood work into gig work. They’re trying to turn Hollywood work into pay-by-the-day, or maybe paid by the week with no guarantees. They’re trying to turn Hollywood into Uber. They’re not just trying to do that with writers. They’re trying to do that with actors, they’re trying to do that with directors and with crew members. And so the universal realization of where this industry is headed has made this a much more united fight.”
— Cynthia Littleton
(Pictured top: “Jeopardy” writers Michele Loud, Jim Rhine and Billy Wisse)
DAY 3 (May 4)
And on Day 3, it rained.
Precipitation in Los Angeles didn’t stop striking writers from turning out in force at key picket locations on the third day of the work stoppage against Hollywood’s major employers. About 75 people were out making the rounds outside Fox Studios shortly after 9 a.m. Picket signs were covered with plastic bags.
The sense of solidarity and resolve was strong, with many writers saying they were energized by the WGA membership meeting held Wednesday night at the Shrine Auditorium.
“The meeting last night was wonderful. It left us all on a high,” said Amy Berg, a strike captain who is among the organizers of the Fox picket effort.
Berg admitted to being a little nervous about the turnout when she heard the rain coming down early Thursday. As if on cue, the drops that had been steady all morning eased up about 10 minutes before the official 9 a.m. start time of picketing.
Berg praised the guild for the advance work that was done to prepare for the logistical needs of getting hundreds of writers out on the streets of L.A.
“We did enough prep work in advance that we were hoping we wouldn’t have to employ any of it,” Berg said.
FOX STUDIOS
James L. Brooks joined the crowd outside Fox Studios, the lot where he has toiled on “The Simpsons,” among other projects, for nearly 30 years. Brooks told Variety he was seriously concerned about the damage that may be done to screenwriting by AI as well as the conflict over how many writers should be required to produce episodic TV. “How many is a room?” Brooks asked rhetorically.
The resistence by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to addressing the big questions around AI is also weighing on Brooks, who has a long and distinguished resume in TV and film.
“If a machine can write and put a human being out of work — and we’re not talking about it? Come on,” Brooks said. “It’s already happened in other industries.”
The morning shift at Fox was helped along by bottled water, bagels and doughnuts that were being handed out on the sidewalk by Gersh Agency’s Katy McCaffrey and Lynn Fimberg. The Everything bagels were the first to go, McCaffrey reported.
Richey Jones made the rounds at Fox with a sign that declared “Freewrites Suck.” He has worked largely in features in recent years, and he has first-hand experience with the pressure that studios put on film writers to do rewrites for no extra pay. He said studio executives lean on writers who are always eager to see their films get to the finish line. “You want to get the movie made? You’ll do this for us,” Jones said. “They’re always finding ways to squeeze more money.”
For Jones, the guild’s push to ensure that film writers get a mandatory “second step,” or second paid pass at the script, is vital, as are the contract demands around TV writing. Jones left several feature scripts and a TV pilot in a state of limbo when the strike was called. “Writers are being undervalued across the board,” he said. “If we don’t do something about it now, we’re going to get to the point of no return.”
NETFLIX (Los Angeles)
“Pencils down, fists up” was the chant of the morning outside Netflix’s Hollywood headquarters.
Alex Convery, writer of “Air,” told Variety he had just turned in the first draft of his next movie when keyboards went quiet. He takes exception with the suggestion that writers were eager to go on strike.
“This is simply a consequence of the AMPTP’s unwillingness to make a fair deal,” Convery said. “We don’t want to be here. We are here because of what’s happened over the last you know, six years essentially.”
King Hassan was about halfway through the writing work on Netflix’s upcoming comedy “That ’90s Show” when the strike began. He admits to being unnerved by the loss of income, but he feels great support from the guild and from his fellow scribes.
“It’s scary because we all have families at home. I have three babies,” Hassan said. “It’s pretty clear that we work for a union and our union wants to make sure that we are able to take care of our families and that our profession is saved.”
Andrew Goldberg, whose credits include Fox’s “Family Guy” and Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” also cited the Wednesday membership meeting at the Shrine as a galvanzing gathering.
“It was really heartening last night at the large meeting to hear from all the leaders of the various other entertainment unions,” Goldberg said. “The meeting was an uplifting experience. We believe in and we trust our leadership a great deal. The expressions of support from our sister unions and Teamsters was really important to us.”
WARNER BROS.
Lisa Ann Walter, co-star of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” was outside the studio that producees that sitcom with a picket sign in hand. “We are all in this together and I’m here standing with them,” Walter told Variety.
Walter feels the urgency that the WGA has brought to the forefront in the upcoming contract talks that her guild, SAG-AFTRA, will begin with the AMPTP on June 7.
“After a deterioration of our contracts and the monetary value of our contracts, we’ve gotten to the point where most people who are not in the incredibly lucky position that I’m in, they can’t negotiate for a fair living wage,” Walter said. “And we are in a position where a lot of people have to take second and third jobs just to be able to afford the astronomical rent of places like New York and Los Angeles where most of us work.”
Gina Prince-Bythewood, the multihyphenate who directed 2022’s “The Woman King,” said the fight this time has shades of 2007, the last time the WGA went out. Gina Prince-Bythewood: I remember the last strike actually pretty clearly, because we had our young son out there with us to really teach them about what we were fighting for, and what it means to fight for fair wages.
“At that time, it was really interesting, because streaming was just on the come up. And we were told, don’t worry about it at that time,” Prince-Bythewood said. “And now look at where we are. We’re out here mostly because of streaming, and not to able to be a part of that success of streaming. We all know it starts with the writers.”
Prince-Bythewood said she has strong memories of the 2007 work stoppage. “We had our young son out there with us, to really teach (him) what it means to fight for fair wages,” she recalled.
DAY 2 (May 3)
Day 2 of the WGA strike saw pickets arrive bright and early outside key industry locations in Los Angeles and New York.
Many guild members say they have been energized by the organized picketing efforts and the opportunity to compare notes and vent frustrations with fellow scribes.
WGA leadership was out in force on Day 1, walking the walk as they talked the talk. David Goodman, former WGA West president and co-chair of the guild’s negotiating committee, said the collective will of the membership will be crucial in determining the course of the work stoppage
“We’re here as leaders of our union to stay in touch with our members to see how they’re faring, to give them whatever help we can. There’s a lot of support that the union provides and also the Hollywood community provides for our members in a situation like this,” Goodman told Variety. “I have a great deal of confidence in this membership. They understand what we’re fighting for. And we’re here to listen to them, and they will make the determination of the success of this fight.”
NETFLIX (Los Angeles)
Michele Mulroney, VP of WGA, told Variety that the mood she encountered a picket locations on Tuesday was a mix of frustration and expressions of extreme support with the WGA’s mission.
“There’s a lot of solidarity and positivity. There’s a lot of frustration about where the deal stood when we were forced to go out on a strike, but the deal that was on the table on Monday would not have been accepted by this membership,” Mulroney said. “You never know how long a strike has to go. We’ll stay out for as long as it takes to get what we need.”