I didn’t have the full story before, but if Bret Stephens is feeling cheated I will ABSOLUTELY come to his house and insult him in front of his wife and children. thedailybeast.com/new-york-times… via @thedailybeast
Although now I feel bad because I’m pretty sure #BretStephens is a frustrated bottom who, thanks to his uptight upbringing, lacks the ability to cope with and verbalize his desires.
“Why don’t you come to my house and call me a filthy insect in front of my wife and children!” #BretStephens typed, pausing to wipe his sweaty palms on his thighs. Why was it suddenly so hot in this newsroom?
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As we head out to picket for Day 100, there are a lot of positive messages of solidarity out there, true, but for my little corner I want to remind you of two sentences:
"Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter."
There are a lot of punters out there proposing "their solve for the strike", and to a one they're like those tech bro buddies of Musk who lectured us on how Ukraine wasn't going to last a week.
When you see "the WGA is holding firm" on some term or another, that's not us rejecting some middle ground the companies are offering, and being the problem.
We''re holding firm on the radical idea that we want *more than nothing*.
Last time I had a failure - which was collateral damage in an argument between the studio and the network - I had to personally fire 200 people, they all were off payroll by that afternoon, and I was also out of a job. The executives all continued to get paid. So fuck off.
Actually, that’s not true. The failure after that one happened as collateral damage in one of the mergers, so it had nothing to do with the quality of the show. And I had to wait, forbidden to work, not earning a dime, as they shopped it for six months.
Also several of my writers were cheated of their expected salaries, some losing up to 75%, for reasons too complicated to explain here. Those executives, both studio and streamer, all kept their jobs. So double fuck off.
1) A moment at the Teamsters/UPS rally this morning clarified our current struggle with the studio CEO's (among other bosses). Teamsters got a lot of wins, but one of the main sticking points is the pay for the 65% of local UPS workers who are part-time ...
2) If you read the SAG-AFTRA demands, a truly STUNNING amount of their points involve protecting background actors, and trying to improve conditions for the 87% of their union who makes less than $26,000 a year.
3) As WGA members know, this is not a strike for the showrunners. We're trying to fix the fact the the current younger generation of writers can't even afford housing and their pathway to advancement has been cut off.
2) My Dad, on his first visit to a set, after an hour of watching, said "Oh, it's like a construction site, but once an hour good looking people wander through" and goddam I have never topped that.
3) I have written this before: a showrunner is both the lead creative voice of a piece of art and is the head of a company with a burn rate of $3-10 million a week, 200 -500 employees, with unmissable deadlines. Always at the same time.
1) There have been a couple threads today about the importance of having writers on set, and a lot of them have focused on last minute changes to to physical locations, story continuity, etc, but there are two other reasons I want to hit a) dialogue and b) training
2) It's not just "don't say X, we find out Y three episodes from now", props, etc, but dialogue is art coming out of unpredictable humans. I always say I choose both writing staffs and actors like a jazz combo -- you're here to play an instrument *I can't play*.
3) There are shows where the writers are considered automatons -- play the score, etc, there was one show where you had to call upstairs to change a "cannot" to a "can't", but I like it when you play one by the text, and then find the reason we cast YOU and not ... not You.
1) Non-members ask how they can show solidarity with the Writers Strike. The most effective way is to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund. It's NOT for us, it's to support fellow Hollywood employees, crew who may suffer hardship due to the strike. secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donat…
2) Choose "Film and Television" in the drop down menu. *This donation is tax deductible*. We writers have our Strike Fund, and the Good and Welfare fund. We're asking supporters to aid those we work with.
3) If you would like to make a more substantial donation, DM me and I'll send you that contact info. Thank you all, I'm pleasantly surprised by all the interest from those not in the industry in this strike.