In Our Business, You Start a Strike Knowing How to End It
Mrs. Wakely, who gives one of her addresses as Carbon Canyon, wants to lecture me about labor politics. Meanwhile, Momosity believes the old Hollywood chestnut about movie stars losing important jobs because they overplayed their hand at the negotiating table. Poor Mrs. Wakely, who I actually think is Mr. Wakely. And poor Momosity, who may be spending too much time reading TMZ or some such show business "journal" so that he/she stays oh-so-on-top of the Tinseltown Poop Pile.
You don't know what you're talking about, Monsieur/Madame Wakely. Supporting the WGA while losing faith in this particular "team" of negotiators are two different things. (Kind of like loving your country even while it's been overrun by a cabal of trust-fund fascists who have Jesus' private cell phone number.) Calling a strike is sometimes a necessary thing.
Having the wisdom and guts and talent to get it over with expeditiously is even more so. The current WGA negotiators do not represent the best hope the WGA has right now and should be replaced. They should be replaced with more skillful negotiators.
Otherwise, the directors, who have typically fielded the most effective negotiators of the three guilds, will step in and, once again, school everyone. In our business, you start a strike knowing how to end it. Not when, but at least how. Otherwise, don't strike.
As far as those one or two readers who thought I was taking a dig at Bruce Willis, you are even more clueless than Senor/Senora Wakely.
Bruce, like all big stars, does not come into the studio head's office with a gun. He is offered the money. He doesn't steal it. And, like many of the biggest stars I have met in this business, he has probably left more of it on the table, rejecting some lame project, than you can ever imagine.
As for Momosity, part of me hopes the strike goes on, just so you have to watch Harvey Levin for another six months.
Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.
Posted December 26, 2007 | 05:47 PM (EST)