Magic Factory

by Claudia Sonea


Hollywood is back business and the wonder factory is going to make millions of people happy because the writers' strike that lasted 100 days was voted on Tuesday to be lifted by members of the Writers Guild of America. All networks and studios are eager for new TV episodes. Sitcoms like CBS drama "NCIS", CBS' "Numb3rs" and others have been halted during the strike and their actual production won't begin until scripts have been completed, which could take days or even weeks. Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which stages the Oscars, is the one who most benefit the end of boycott by writers and actors because the vote by East and West Coast guild members means the Academy Awards will be held as planned on February 24. There were 3492 votes in favor of ending the strike and only 283 against it. A total of 10,500 workers were involved in the strike and they forced countless other industry workers into unemployment because of the walkout. Still the end did not mean that the union's board of directors had get to an agreement with the networks. The negotiations will continue on mail and at the meetings with a final conclusion on 25 February- most probably a "happy ending" due to the enthusiasm for the proposed contract expressed at guild meetings held last weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, collapsed in December, stated to Associated Press that the negotiations seem to be on the right track and they proposed an agreement according to which writers would get a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 for programs streamed on the Internet in the deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in year three, increased residual payments for movies and TV programs downloaded from the Internet. From November 5 a wide range of businesses dependent on work from studios suffered because of the strike and the economy of Los Angeles County, the home of most of the nation's TV and film production, lost $3.2 billion in direct and indirect costs, according to a new estimate from Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. In 1988 took place the last writers' strike and lasted 153 days generating a lost of $500 million in lost wages. The contract between studios and the Screen Actors Guild will expire in June, according to Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with the Los Angeles firm of TroyGould and a former associate counsel for the writers' guild and that is why there is imperious necessary for a deal to be signed.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_en_mo/hollywood_labor;_ylt=Aiw47zIcSbkgzr39TA3u6_.s0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Posted by: Maria Vidlickova