Hollywood writers paralyze an industry by Corina Ciubotaru

A writers' strike is paralyzing Hollywood these days. Famous shows like "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "The Late Show" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" have been halted and now air reruns because the writers picketing TV headquarters refuse to write any more material. The reason behind their discontent is that they feel their share of online show reuse income should be bigger than it is now, which led to disagreements with producers in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers; they eventually gave up their demand that the share they get off a sold DVD should be increased, thus removing a stumbling block from the producers' path. The Writers Guild of America members have begun their strike on Monday and by the looks of things, it will last for a very long time. The bad news is that the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America may also go on strike due to disagreements in the same area and TV show host Ellen DeGeneres has not showed up for work on Monday, in support of her writers. The writers' plan is to picket 14 studio locations from 9 to 5 every day until they get what they think is rightfully theirs. And the protest would gain even more power if the truck drivers, casting directors and location manager's union would also join, but so far they have kept away from this mess. So far, negotiations have not begun between the WGA and the AMPTP but eventually, this conflict will have to be solved, as the entertainment industry is too profitable to halt for a long time.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071105/ap_en_tv/hollywood_labor;_ylt=AjhgcKcZegFQxo.qJ7WnAq6s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.