Dig this:
The fans over at Fans4Writers have come up with a really interesting and ballsy idea. They’re going to hire skywriters to fly over the Rose Parade and aerially type messages supporting the WGA.
Now that’s creative.
The initial cash is being laid out by an anonymous fan, while the site is holding a silent auction of autographed Galactica scripts and other memorabilia to help with the costs -- so don’t let this one brave soul carry the whole burden, go over and see if there’s a script or two that catches your fancy.
I gotta say, I’m really impressed with the fans. They come out and join us on the picket lines in the wee hours of the morning, bring doughnuts, buy pencils, now they’re using the Rose Parade as an opportunity for Guild graffiti.
To all the fans, a great big thank you from me and the entire WGA for your efforts and your moral support, it’s greatly appreciated and believe me, it will be remembered long after this strike is over and done.
It’s time for NBC-Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers.”
…a spokesperson for NBC Universal Media Studios tells TVGuide.com, "Bionic Woman has not been canceled. Production was shut down due to the WGA strike. In addition, we have not completed the initial 13-episode order, which will be the first order of business when the strike ends.
Hoyden About Town blog asks: is BATTLESTAR GALACTICA feminist or not?
Above, Nick Counter of the AMPTP cooks the books, and tries to figure out how few pennies to give the writers for DVD sales for Christmas.As we approach Christmas week, there's still no real public progress on resuming talks. Rumors abound about an AMPTP "February strategy" (see Mark Evanier's blog for more), which doesn't exactly bring tidings of comfort and joy to all those currently out of work.
And the propaganda war continues, especially the charge that WGA members are all so rich that this strike is little more than a welcome, extended vacation for the membership. I'm sure the folks applying for emergency loans, in fear of losing their homes or apartments, appreciate this characterization. It's an especially interesting charge given that it's being promulgated by several enormous multi-national corporations whose CEOs make millions. I don't think you have to be Milton Friedman to understand that the conglomerates are the ones with the deep pockets here, not the writers. Or to remember that it was the AMPTP that walked away from the negotiating table twice now, not the WGA team.
Strange thing is, I don't "hate" the studios or the CEOs... or anyone, actually. I've worked with too many great people on the other side of the table to go there. So I watch all this transpire with something more akin to sadness than rage. Sadness that we've come to a place where charges and counter-charges have to be lobbed in the first place...
“We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”
10. Torchwood
9. Friday Night Lights
8. Dexter
7. The Sopranos
6. Damages
5. The Office
4. 30 Rock
3. Heroes
2. Battlestar Galactica
And in the top spot ...
1. Lost
Our WGA crew, lead by Matthew Weiner, showrunner of "Mad Men," laid out our position to the advertisers -- who for some reason might not be getting entirely accurate forecasts from their corporate customers like CBS.
The event was a success. The coalition of media buyers agreed that our demands are reasonable and that it was "irresponsible on the part of the networks not to settle this dispute immediately."
In the interim, Family Guy creator Seth McFarland has contracted with Google to develop a series of sponsored five-minute mini-programs. Rather than residuals, McFarland will retain 50 percent ownership of the copyright. Other WGA members are forming ventures to take their work directly to the internet, allowing them to deal directly with advertisers.
“This winter is going to be Valley Forge,” British actor and comedian Eddie Izzard said at Friday’s Write Aid, a WGA benefit staged at UCLA’s Royce Hall by several comics.
"For the past seven weeks of the writers' strike, I have been and continue to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause. My career in television started as a WGA member and my subsequent career as a performer has only been possible because of the creativity and integrity of my writing staff. Since the strike began, I have stayed off the air in support of the striking writers while, at the same time, doing everything I could to take care of the 80 non-writing staff members on 'Late Night.'
"Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision. Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs. If my show were entirely scripted I would have no choice. But the truth is that shows like mine are hybrids, with both written and non-written content. An unwritten version of 'Late Night,' though not desirable, is possible – and no one has to be fired.
"So, it is only after a great deal of thought that I have decided to go back on the air on January 2nd. I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers and I'll do the best version of 'Late Night' I can under the circumstances. Of course, my show will not be as good. In fact, in moments it may very well be terrible. My sincerest hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve."
“The AMPTP walked away from the bargaining table on December 7, rather than negotiate a fair agreement for writers. NBC forcing Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien back on the air without writers is not going to provide the quality entertainment that the public deserves. The only solution to the strike is a negotiated settlement of the issues. If the AMPTP won’t come to the table, then it’s time for responsible companies to come forward and negotiate a fair deal.”
The decisions were announced tonight at the big WGA West membership meeting taking place right now at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association had requested a waiver for its NBC broadcast, but the WGA rejected it. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has not yet asked for a waiver for its ABC broadcast, but the WGA said it would reject that, too.
At the start of the meeting, WGAW president Patric Verrone introduced chief negotiators John Bowman and Dave Young to the crowd of striking writers who gave all three men a standing ovation.
The enduring Battlestar Galactica hiatus was recently temporarily spelled by the release of Razor on the Sci-Fi channel and DVD, followed by Battlestar Galactica: Season One on HD DVD a couple weeks ago. Nothing was on the horizon until the premiere of season four in March, leaving us with three months of twiddling our thumbs wondering what happens next.
Now suddenly out of nowhere, Sideshow Collectibles has added a preview to their website for, get this, a life-size Cylon Centurian warrior from the modern version of Battlestar. My first thought was how cool it would look to have a pair of these guys flanking my ManRoom door with their red eye scanning back and forth. My wallet says otherwise, but miracles have happened before!
Anyone who has seen one of the T-1000 Sideshow life-size props in person can attest to how cool they are. Expensive, but cool. The penultimate definition of ultimate ManRoom gear.
After just two short weeks of testing on Blogger in draft, OpenID commenting is now available for all Blogger blogs. This means that your friends and readers can leave authenticated comments on your blog using their blog URLs from OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or with their AOL/AIM accounts.
We've chosen a few popular OpenID providers to highlight on the comments form, but OpenID is, well, "open"! You can use any OpenID service to post a comment by choosing "Any OpenID" and filling in your OpenID URL.
A Message to the WGA Membership from its Negotiating Committee:
As you know, the AMPTP is currently unwilling to bargain with us. The internal dynamics of the AMPTP make it difficult for the conglomerates to reach consensus and negotiate with us on a give and take basis. We believe this multi-employer structure inhibits individual companies from pursuing their self-interest in negotiations. We nonetheless continue to hope that the AMPTP will return in good faith to negotiate a fair contract with writers, as two television seasons and numerous feature projects are currently at great risk.
We want to do everything in our power to move negotiations forward and end this devastating strike. We have therefore decided to reach out to major AMPTP companies and begin to negotiate with them individually. As you may know, bargaining on a multi-employer basis through the AMPTP is an option for the WGA, not a legal requirement. Each signatory employer is required to bargain with us individually if we make a legal demand that it do so.
We will make this demand on Monday December 17th and hope that each company responds promptly, in accordance with the law.
In the meantime, we urge you to support us and our negotiations team and leadership during these difficult times. We look forward to a making a fair deal that will resolve this strike, protect our future and put us all back to work, for the good of the industry and all of its employees.
Signed,
John F. Bowman, Chair
John Auerbach
Neal Baer
Marc Cherry
Bill Condon
Carlton Cuse
Stephen Gaghan
Terry George
David A. Goodman
Carl Gottlieb
Susannah Grant
Carol Mendelsohn
Marc Norman
Shawn Ryan
Melissa Salmons
Robin Schiff
Ed Solomon
The issue at hand is whether the WGA can exploit the lack of unanimity within the mogul ranks on how to proceed with the AMPTP-WGA contract talks. For one thing, not all their agendas are the same: there are the mostly movie studios, the mostly TV networks, and the studios that own networks, and the networks that own studios. But here is what Big Media consolidation has wrought: Brad Grey, for instance, can't just do a Paramount-WGA deal because he has to take into account Les Moonves' opinions even though Viacom and CBS are supposed to be separate companies now. (Trust me, Grey can't do what Moonves doesn't want him to do. For instance, Moonves is planning to make movies, but Grey recently let go of his chief TV exec.) Nor can Universal's Ron Meyer because of NBC. So the handful of CEOs who normally trash-talk one another are now comrades in arms.
I've said this before but it's well worth repeating: In the old days of guild talks, the AMPTP was made up of hundreds of honest-to-god independent producers But they went by the wayside when financial syndication rules were eased. So now there's no Aaron Spelling or Carsey Werner in the mix at the AMPTP telling Big Media to play nice.
Starting back on December 3rd, WGAW prez Patric Verrone called on the more moderate CEOs to break ranks with AMPTP which he claimed is "allowing bottom-line hard-liners to rule the day." I've heard top WGA'ers privately refer to this as the "Let's Make A Deal" strategy. But it hadn't been articulated in public until then. "If any of these companies want to come forward and bargain with us individually, we think we can make a deal," Verrone told AP while conferring with picketing writers at NBC in Burbank.
I find it that the moguls may not have the strength of character, the commitment to their shareholders, or, let's face it, the balls of steel necessary to go against The Club. For weeks now, I've talked to several CEOs about why they don't deal individually with the WGA. After all, the car companies have a lot in common, but they still bargain individually with the auto workers. But Hollywood studios and networks are colluding, not competing.
Sony and Paramount are primarily in the movie business. Why not get their films restarted? NBC has been in the cellar ratings-wise. Why not leap-frog other networks and ensure the Golden Globes go off without a hitch? Then there's ABC: doesn't it have the most to lose with most of its Nielsen Top 10 series in primetime not to mention the Academy Awards? And do Fox's rivals really want to cede January to May ratings to Peter Chernin?
Any network that does a deal now could save the Back 9 of scripted shows not to mention pilot season. Any movie exec could finish the 2009 slate and move on to 2010. Makes sense, right?
But when I raise this possibility, the CEO's answer is an audible shrug, followed by stammering and a simple, "I just can't." Time to upset protocol and break ranks.
“Battlestar Galactica” (Sci Fi): Though there were some wobbles in the second half of Season 3, the final four episodes of this drama’s third season, as well as the standalone movie “Razor,” proved once again why this space series is in a class by itself. There’s nothing like a good “Battlestar” plot twist to make your head spin, but the “holy cow” moments aren’t the main point (though they’re one heck of a tasty side dish). But the show and its twists and turns are grounded in deep curiosity about human nature, and how contradictory and confounding it can be. And some of its most provocative moments spring from an abiding interest in the ways in which people fight tyranny – and in doing so, sometimes become tyrants.
12.14.2007
Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team
Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.
We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.
If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com - we hope someone at CBS will read them.
Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.
Hey all!
First off, thank you so very much for all of your kind words and well wishes. Secondly, I AM going to make a full recovery, better than before, stronger than ever. And hearing from all of you and all the good energy being sent my way can only motivate me even more!
It's been a crazy week and a half to say the least. The paramedics on the scene that tended to me first said I was lucky to even be alive, let alone be able to pull myself outta the damn thing. The roof completely collapsed on the passenger side. I knew the second we rolled over and crashed down hard on the asphalt that something was seriously wrong with my neck. When everything settled, my hands were laying next to my face on the roof of the car and THEY WOULD NOT MOVE. Needless to say, that scared the s#*t out of me. I took a beat, and remember thinking to myself that I CANNOT be paralyzed. This just can't happen to me....I won't let that happen! And suddenly I looked at my right hand and the damn thing reached up and unclipped my seatbelt. Just like that....I had feeling (painful feelings) but feeling nonetheless. Then somehow I managed to crawl out on the driver's side after my friend got out and get to the side of the highway and lay down. From there I made a couple of calls and waited for the ambulance with my friend and about a dozen or so other motorists who pulled over to help. From there I was taken down the road to a waiting helicopter ready to take me to UCLA Trauma Center. It got progressively more frightening from that point on as the seriousness of what just happened started to set in.
Anyhow, I don't want to bore you all with every mundane detail, but I just needed to tell that side of the experience and let you all know that I cherish each and every new day with every rising sun. Life is precious, friends and family are priceless. I am sincerely grateful for all that I have. I sign off on all of my posts with the same mantra that means so much to me. But now more than ever the words really ring true.
So to one and all: LOVE this life, and LIVE the love everyday.
My best,
Michael
While sister channel USA is the one branded around “characters,” the Battlestar Galactica promotion titled “Future” used a minimalist approach that spotlights each of the individual characters, rather than space battles.
Fifteen actors from the series, including leads Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, are featured. Staring directly into camera, a rotating light source falls over each actor’s face. Sound bites from the show are heard to provide the viewer with deeper insight to the character.
"To capture emotional snapshots of each character, a 360-degree rotational lighting rig using a helicopter motor was created and built specifically for this shoot. The idea was inspired by the planets rotating around the sun,” James Coulson, design director at Sci Fi Channel, said in a release. “Everything is done in camera, with only simple masks and a color-correction in post."
"'Battlestar Galactica' is often misconstrued as a visual effects-driven show, when in actuality it is a well-scripted, character-driven series,” Joseph Loskywitz, creative director of promotions at Sci Fi Channel, added in the release. “Sci Fi wanted to focus on the characters.”
(WGAw President Patric M. Verrone released the following statement a short time ago)
December 13, 2007
To My Fellow Members:
The AMPTP and each of its member companies have a legal obligation to bargain in good faith with the WGA. Their unilateral walkout from negotiations last Friday and their on-going refusal to bargain is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. Therefore the WGA today filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against the AMPTP with the National Labor Relations Board.
The DGA’s announcement today that it may begin negotiations with the AMPTP in January in no way relieves the AMPTP of their legal obligation to negotiate with us. The only legal way for the AMPTP to remedy the Unfair Labor Practice charge we have filed is to return to the bargaining table.
The WGA Negotiating Committee and leadership are working hard on many fronts to bring the AMPTP back to the table. In the meantime, your presence on the picket lines Monday, along with your support for the Guild, is critical in increasing our leverage with the companies.
The companies walked out of talks for the second time last Friday, and are using every possible tactic to attempt to divide our members and create ill will. They have recently employed a team of highly-paid spin-doctors to take attention away from the fact that it was the companies who unilaterally and illegally broke off negotiations, and to make it seem as if the WGA was more interested in reality and animation than in new media compensation and jurisdiction. I can assure you that is not the case. The Writers Guild’s proposals remain reasonable and affordable.
The companies’ refusal to bargain in good faith is a callous and cynical act, denying paychecks to thousands of families this holiday season. The WGA strongly urges the AMPTP to return to the table and begin good-faith negotiations, so that our members and the rest of the community can get back to work as soon as possible.
Best,
Patric M. Verrone
President, WGA West
With everyone from the LA TIMES' Patrick Goldstein, to DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY's Nikki Finke to The Huffington Post's Robert J. Elisberg blasting the AMPTP for its PR stunts and attempts at union busting instead of actually negotiating in good faith, this should not have surprised the conglomerates. (Although we are talking about people who failed to spend $9 bucks at GoDaddy.com to register their .com and .net addresses).
And while we're at it, maybe somebody should talk to members of Congress about why these multi-national mega corporations - who are usually cut-throat competitors - are allowed to negotiate as a single entity against every union separately.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut comes out on DVD (And BluRay and HDDVD) next week on the 18th. Bill Hunt of the Digital Bits has a detailed review of every single disc in the set. If you're a Blade Runner fan, you'll need this collectable set. 
Held every year at Epcot, the Candlelight Processional is not to be missed. A mass choir, joined by a 50-piece live orchestra and a celebrity narrator, tell the story of Christmas in words and music, in a very moving performance. Performances are held at the America Gardens Theatre.
Performances take place each evening at 5:00pm, 6:45pm and 8:15pm
The dinner is not Olmos’ only contribution to the auction, he is also selling an autographed picture of the cast of Battlestar Galactica, an autographed LIFI poster, an autographed Stand and Deliver script, an autographed Zoot Suit poster, and an autographed DVD of the movie Walk Out. If you are looking for the perfect gift for an Edward James Olmos fan, there is also an autographed poster of original art celebrating his most famous movie and television roles (although the poster seems to be sadly missing Admiral Adama).
Nick Counter, above, rallies the AMPTP.Then, someone from the WGA offices happily distributed the link to a hijacked parody website that even many rank-and-file WGA members felt was over-the-top. All of this is happening right along with the WGA's continuing series of concerts, rallies, mock exorcisms, pencil-drops and Star Trek-themed gatherings.
By now you know that those in charge at the WGA have injected substantial new doses of vitriol into the important and continuing debate on our industry's future. On Monday, in a letter to members of the WGA East, the president of that organization wrote: "They lie. And then they lie again. And then they lie some more."
Some of you might remember the famous “nuts” campaign on behalf of “Jericho” where fans send packages of nuts to CBS to save the show from cancellation or the “Tabasco” campaign conducted to save “Roswell.” Well, these fans came up with the idea to send pencils to the moguls heading the major studios and networks represented at the bargaining table. Fans were able to buy boxes of pencils in the name of their favorite show for $1, which would then be delivered to each of the six major companies today.
...In less than three weeks, the fans bought over a half a million pencils, which you see here today.
Simply put, the message they’re trying to send by this effort is that members of the audience itself – the market for our shows and films – both understand and sympathize with the position of the Guild and want a return to collective bargaining. Lest this be dismissed as a small group of fans, it’s worth remembering that recent national surveys have shown solid majority support for the writers in this labor dispute.
The WGA is still at the table, waiting for the studios to return to good faith negotiations. While we believe our proposals to be fair and reasonable, the Guild has always been willing to engage in legitimate bargaining on each point of the contract.
But we need a partner to negotiate with.
Issuing ultimatums, staging walk-outs and releasing factually-challenged press statements tinged with manufactured outrage does little to resolve this dispute. There is no reason why the studios cannot return to the bargaining table, sit down, and work out a fair and equitable settlement for everyone involved, and we hope that this symbolic action on the part of the fans will serve to remind the studios and networks that their audience is indeed watching and listening, and they know the difference between posturing and bargaining.
UNIVERSAL BARHAM GATE
Don't let "searing asphalt" and "noxious fumes" deter you from this
"centrally located" "barren intersection" which insiders have dubbed
"Universal's hind end." Make sure you try the "sunscreen" as a defense
against "le sol dangereuse." "Bright" and "minimal", Barham boasts of
proximity to a "furnished apartment complex" as well as a
"graveyard," so "ingrate picketers" can see not only where they're
headed, but also where they're ultimately headed.
Joss Whedon and Ronald D. Moore drop off some pencils.
Ron Moore at Star Trek Day.
Ron Moore at the Trek event.
BSG writer Jane Espenson at Star Trek Day
