Pressure Points

I'm fast learning that Reuters, despite the fact that it is neither located in the United States nor specifically geared toward entertainment news, most often offers the most insightful analysis of events leading up to and comprising the strike. In this article, by Steve Gorman and Dana Ford, tells us that layoffs may be imminent among the non-writing staff of late night shows, and also mentions -- something I hadn't heard before, but maybe I wasn't listening closely enough -- that the AMPTP has said it will return to the negotiating table if the WGA agrees to suspend the strike. WGA has so far refused that overture. Instead, executives from talent agencies are trying to act as mediators. It's easy to scoff when people say it's a small town, but Hollyweird really is a small city within a much larger one, it seems.

Protean-voiced producer Seth MacFarlane, of "Family Guy" and the egregious "American Dad", has apparently been a hit on the picket lines with his hot rhetoric and comedia dell'arte of characters. He's also been encouraging producers who can afford it to pay laid-off assistants out of their own pockets. Now that would be a gesture. I wonder what MacFarlane's definition of "afford" is.

The San Jose Mercury News ("the Merc", to this old Peninsulaite, and best paper in the Bay Area), reports that with Jay Leno refusing to cross picket lines NBC may be bringing in guest hosts in an attempt to stay on the air. No word on who that might be -- those people would have to be amenable to strikebreaking where Leno isn't -- but I'd encourage NBC to go some kind of completely radical route. How about James Gandolfini? That would be different. Also, Oprah is always looking to expand her Earth-swallowing empire. (Did anybody else hear on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" that people in rural Iraq watch Oprah? Wow.)

At BloggingStocks.com, venture capitalist Peter Cohan estimates that a six-month strike could cost the WGA as much as $486 million in lost wages. His numbers are admittedly fuzzy, but if it drags on that long, if he's even in the ballpark, it's going to take a long time for the writers' action to pay for itself, and even that's assuming massive growth in new media.