Arnold Is Just Playing At Strike Mediating

17 Comments »

1. He’ll probably wait until the SAG strikes, otherwise he’ll just have to go through the same thing in June, all over again. That’s politically unwise. Better to swoop down in June to solve the whole thorny issue and look like a hero. Solving it piecemeal makes it look like a series of quick fixes. Not very good PR.

   Comment by June — November 13, 2007 @ 4:38 am

2. It’s NOT UP TO ARNOLD TO “SETTLE THE STRIKE”, it’s up to the WGA and the AMPTP do settle it. He can only try to get them in a room.

   Comment by realworldperson — November 13, 2007 @ 4:58 am

3. Now we know the secret to your exhaustive coverage of the strike. You don’t sleep. Posting all throughout the night? No one does it better than you, Nikki.

   Comment by Cory O'Connor — November 13, 2007 @ 5:53 am

4. You know he’s gotta get involved now before it’s too late for him to book a gig on Fox’s new Terminator show.

   Comment by chuckitout — November 13, 2007 @ 8:28 am

5. June,

   Many say that the WGA shouldn’t have bothered to strike until the SAG strike because nobody cares enough about the writers to get involved. It could be that the first eight months of the WGA strike (November-June) will accomplish nothing and the real negotiatons won’t even begin until mid-2008.

   Comment by lawdawg76 — November 13, 2007 @ 8:37 am

6. I still just laugh/ cringe every time you put that photo up with his jaunty little Jackie O. chapeau. Hilar.

   Comment by wga writer — November 13, 2007 @ 9:22 am

7. “Reality is that which doesn’t go away when you stop believing it” — Philip Dick

   To “Real World Person” (Arnold staffer?):

   We are all in the real world, Hollywood is a real world business like any other where people earn their livelihoods and feed their family.

   Schwarzenegger has a duty to offer his assistance if not for the well-being of all those now out of work, if not as a thank you to the industry that built his empire, then for the fact that the film/tv biz generates $30 billion annually for LA County alone, and he himself has noted this strike will ripple outwards to the economy at large.

   At least he has a duty to stop making inflammatory, ignorant statements about how much money writers have.

   btw, Schwarzenegger, and others who scorn writers for claiming their right to earn a fair wage in this “unreal” industry, would do well to consider the quote above written by Phillip Dick — who incidentally was the WRITER of the story that became Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall.

   Comment by AS — November 13, 2007 @ 9:40 am

8. “Get OUT of your office NOW and get back into the negotiations so that da economy of Cali FORNIA will not be crippled like an old man on crutches. You must stop acting like little girls with little vaginas and feenish the negotiations like real men with MOSSLES. Please. It’s imperative. Get OUT NOW! And don’t forget to buy da DERMinator DVD box set . . . avaiable in most stores near you.”

   Comment by Arnold — November 13, 2007 @ 9:46 am

9. The governor of California has had meetings with the WGA and there are reports that he is meeting with studio executives and you post this? Where is the real news on this blog?

   I would like to see the WGA’s response to AMPTP’s recent ad.

   Are they paid residuals on digital downloads?

   Are they paid residuals for pay per view?

   Was pay for internet streaming on the table when the writers walked out?

   I support the strike but are the writers I’m supporting getting residuals while I’m getting laid off with no pay?

   Oh, and what happened to your “inside scoop” that there were backchannel talks happening?

   Thall

   Comment by Tom Hall — November 13, 2007 @ 9:56 am

10. You’re probably right, Nikki, unless… This is some kind of ploy to make Arnold look like a hero to all, both liberal and conservative. I find it hard to believe his handlers would allow him to march into a futile situation in which he can make zero headway.

    Comment by stuck in development — November 13, 2007 @ 10:42 am

11. I love Arno but he’s like all the others who show a lack of appreciation for what writers do. Arno’s best film, The Terminator, the one that really launched his career into overdrive, started from a great script and story.

    How many think Arno would have made it to such rarified heights if he was stuck in cheesy fourth-rate movies?

    Comment by Mark S. — November 13, 2007 @ 11:10 am

12. There is an expression we have for people like Arnie say to people like us. The initials are “IGMFU”, pronounced “iggem-foo”. Roughly translated, it means, “I Got Mine, F*** You.”

    Comment by Julius Fort — November 13, 2007 @ 1:03 pm

13. You may be right about Arnold in general, but I think it’s unfair to be so negative about his Proposition 75.

    Since you are basically forced to join a union if you want to work in many fields, and are thus forced to pay dues, it’s pretty immoral for the union to be able to use those dues to support political parties or causes you oppose. You HAD to join and give them that money, which effectively means you were forced to give to causes you may have moral qualms with. That’s just not right.

    Proposition 75 would’ve fixed this by simply allowing union members, forced to join and pay dues to work, to request that their particular dues don’t go to political causes they don’t support. Doesn’t that make sense?

    I would bet if unions gave to right-wingers instead of left-wingers you guys would have a much different view on forced political contributions being foisted on those who simply want to work. It’s just not right.

    Comment by BC — November 13, 2007 @ 2:20 pm

14. “You HAD to join and give them that money, which effectively means you were forced to give to causes you may have moral qualms with. That’s just not right.”

    You don’t have to join a union, you can “choose” (you’re so big on choice) to work in another industry. And unions are democracies, you can be directly involved in deciding on the policies pursued and the monies allocated. Unions don’t hand out money willy-nilly, they donate to candidates with pro-union stances in order to advance the objectives for which they exist. But if you choose to not get involved and just to complain, well then, you can comfort yourself thinking about your tax money and how you’re forced to give to programs/causes you may have moral qualms with all the time. Or how, if you go to a university your tuition money funds all kinds of groups and causes you may have a problem with. Or how, unless you live alone and neevr leave your house, you can’t 100% control what’s going to happen to your money once it leaves your hands, especially if join any type of diversified organization that has a clerly defined purpose and engages in political lobbying to attain those ends. *shrugs*

    Comment by Anon — November 13, 2007 @ 6:16 pm

15. Personal attitudes won’t get in the way of the california economy.

    He may not agree with the strike (I don’t agree with either side either), but he’ll figure out a way to settle it to stop what’ll happen to the ecnomy.

    Comment by jake3988 — November 13, 2007 @ 7:31 pm

16. right on, Anon 6:16 pm

    BC’s postings are growing tiresome, this divisive “you left wingers” nattering. Angry much, BC?

    As Nikki has repeatedly stated, this is an industry blog, not a political forum, but thanks for the relevant lecture on Prop 75.

    Comment by ontheinside — November 14, 2007 @ 10:34 am

17. “You don’t have to join a union, you can “choose” (you’re so big on choice) to work in another industry.”

    This had me falling out of my chair. So if you are best suited or just plain choose a certain kind of work, but don’t want to join a union, your answer is to “find somewhere else to work?” How progressive of you. Freedom of choice and all that good stuff, right?

    And “ontheinside”. Arnold’s union initiative was brought up in Nikki’s post as if it were an anti-union measure. I thought that was a bit unfair, and the Proposition was a common-sense and just one. So how is something brought up in the main post not something that is in-bounds for those commenting?

    Comment by BC — November 14, 2007 @ 11:12 pm

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