wga
WGA Still Weighing Their Jay Leno Scab-Flogging Options
2:00AM Seth | A number of notable talk show hosts made the controversial choice to cross picket lines and not grow out a strike beard during last year’s WGA strike, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres among them. More »
WGA Noms ‘Burn’ Charlie Kaufman and Jenny Lumet
5:30AM Kyle Buchanan | As shocked as we were by The Spirit being shut out of the Razzies, we’re a little more surprised to see two of Hollywood’s most high-profile writers snubbed in today’s WGA nominations. More »
WGA Hopes You Won’t Remember Who Directed ‘The Dark Knight’
5:36AM Kyle Buchanan | When we received an awards consideration copy of The Dark Knight last week, there was clearly something missing — or, to be more accurate, censored with black felt-tip pen. More »
WGA Awards Recognise Every Half-Decent Show On TV With Its Own, Worthless Nomination
8:12AM STV | The Writers Guild unveiled its 2009 TV nominees this morning, revealing a radical shift in taste that rotated only one new drama and two new comedies into the year’s Best Series nominations — all replacing old nominees that weren’t on the air this year. Let’s hear it for attrition! More »
Hottest Hollywood Scab Tyler Perry Gives In, Opens Studio to WGA
6:30AM STV | It took four fired writers, a Will Smith-defied picket line, an open letter from Tina Fey (among others), and an intervention by the NAACP, but we’re happy to report that the impossible dream has finally landed at Tyler Perry Studios: The mogul is finally coming around to a deal with the WGA. More »
Unruly WGA Mob Protest ‘Project Runway’ Rodeo Drive Shoot
9:15AM Seth | A Defamer operative going about his daily Rodeo Drive chores let us know about a standoff that went down this morning between the forces of good (underpaid and undervalued reality show writer-producers) and evil (Heidi Klum, and anything—sorry Tim Gunn fans!—Heidi Klum-adjacent). He writes: More »
WGA Issues Fatwa Against Cheapskate Producers of ‘Osbournes’ Variety Show
8:49AM Seth | On the heels of the Tyler Perry’s House of Payne labour controversy—in which WGA heads Patric Verrone and Michael Winship filed an angry grievance with the National Labour Relations Board, demanding restitution for “an abused writing staff forced to churn out sitcom dialogue with a pistol pressed to their temples by the world’s wealthiest, union-busting grandma-with-a-dick,”—comes yet another fiery piece of rhetoric from the militant duo. This time, they target Fox’s planned Osbourne family variety show, for which producer FremantleMedia is hoping they can get their snappy repartee wholesale. An excerpt from their letter: More »
This Is Fi-Core: Presenting The WGA Blacklist
8:00AM Seth | As Hollywood braces for the possibility of yet another work stoppage, this one by the actors’ unions (as represented by their universally recognised symbol of a laughing hammer superimposed over a weeping sickle), the fallout from the last bitter labour war to hit our shores continues: In a “Letter from the Presidents” posted to the WGA’s web site, Patric Verrone and Michael Winship point the end of a blood-soaked fountain pen at those members who chose to go “financial core,” or fi-core as it’s known in the hip-hop world, during the strike. (Recently employed by George Clooney in a tussle with the Guild over Leatherheads, it’s as far as you can go towards cutting ties with the union while still being permitted to work on WGA projects.) More »
George Clooney Withdraws From WGA Over ‘Leatherheads’ Snub
5:10AM Defamer Hollywood | Remember yesterday when we posted about how incorrigibly charming George Clooney is? Well, according to Variety, the WGA might not agree. After an arbitration hearing where the Guild failed to give Clooney a writing credit for Leatherheads, he decided to become a Financial Core member. That means he can’t vote, run for office, or attend meetings, yet he still has to pay dues. But as Hollywood’s most rakish bachelor explains, “When your own union doesn’t back what you’ve done, the only honorable thing to do is not participate.” More »
