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Above photo, daughter of Gary Greenberg, writer on Jimmy Kimmel Show.
Some L.A. strikers got really sunburned today. And tomorrow is going to be hotter. So there will be more picketers willing to get up early and do the 6 AM shift aimed at encouraging the Teamsters not to conduct business as usual.
At Fox today in addition to cute kids: Patti Lupone ("someone should have come up with some fabulous “Don’t Cry for Me Rupert Murdoch" sign.....") Martin Short, Larry David, Jim Brooks, Alexandra Paul.
Photo (left) of freelance TV writer Sarah Jane Cunningham and her daughter, Charlotte. "She waved her little sign like a trooper, chanting, 'Mommy's on strike!'"
This chant heard today at NBC: "On an Internet download where if a writer doesn't get paid, it's called PROMOTIONAL. On an Internet download where the studio doesn't get paid, it's called PIRACY." (OK, maybe you had to be there...)
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I’m embarrassed for the writers - this is a serious situation with very serious consequences for a number of people. It is NOT a play date. I actually supported the writers in the beginning of this fiasco but now it’s apparent that this isn’t a group of people who NEED what they are asking for. It’s just a game for the idealistic and uninformed. This might be the new low point in the strike.
Comment by Samantha Who? — November 12, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
Nice. I’m losing my job because of you jackasses and you’re throwing a picnic. Fuck all you unappreciative assholes!
Comment by Fuck you! — November 12, 2007 @ 10:00 pm
Did either of you walk the line today? No? Didn’t think so.
Doesn’t matter if kids are there; This is no picnic.
Comment by One Time Sitcom Writer — November 13, 2007 @ 12:01 am
You guys don’t get it. Things like bringing out the kids is to help keep the strike covered. It gives something for the press to write about. They aren’t going to keep writing new stories that say the same thing. And it shows that writers are human, who have families. The money isn’t for private jets — like the CEOs own — its to feed their families.
Comment by Craig — November 13, 2007 @ 9:15 am
What about all the people who are being laid off because of this strike? How are they supposed to feed their families? Minimum wage for writers is more than most of the rest of us make - and that’s IF we have jobs at the end of this. I respect the strategy involved in bringing the kids out, but writers have to realize that it’s getting old really quickly to everybody else in Hollywood who needs to pay bills.
Comment by Caught In the Middle — November 13, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
Hey Bring Your kid to Strike Day! Thats a great idea! I hope while you were all eating churros and sipping lattes you were also explaining to your children that thousands of the people that are responsable for bringing your scripts to life all have no job now and will not be able to give their children a decent Christmas let alone pay there mortgages.
Comment by screwed — November 13, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
This negotiation is a two-way street. It is not the writers who are “throwing people out of work.” It is the companies who refuse to make a fair deal. It is also my impression that most of those folks who DO help bring our scripts to life ALSO belong to unions –which is why they are paid overtime, fed on the set and have set turn around schedules. If the WGA rolls over on this, rest assured, your union will be next.
Comment by Anne — November 16, 2007 @ 11:59 am
It’s also worth mentioning that Bring Your Child To The Strike Day fell on Veteran’s Day, when the schools were closed. Bringing their kids along was the only way some writers could make it to the picket lines that day, so it was a smart move for the Guild to make it an event.
And don’t point fingers at the writers, we’d be at work this minute if the AMPTP hadn’t forced this strike.
Comment by Joe Gillis — November 18, 2007 @ 9:20 am
To Mr. “fuck you!” who assailed the WGA for “having a picinic.” if you don’t understand and support workers’ rights, then you didn’t deserve your job to begin with and shouldn’t be afforded the rights for which others have fought.
I’d be happy to buy you a one way ticket to China. We can hook you up with a sweet job in a sweat shop and you can think about your opposition to the Writer’s Guild as you work 18 hour days 7 days a week for 4 cents an hour. Now, don’t you hurt yourself! There aren’t any labor unions to fight for you there, and there sure as hell isn’t any worker’s comp. But that’s not a surprise to you - afterall, Labor unions are just filled with premadonnas, right? I mean, Why blame the people who run the company, when you can blame the people who create the products and don’t get paid?
. So hit the bricks, blamestorm. You’re worse than a scab. You’re a Republican.
Comment by USS — January 6, 2008 @ 1:05 pm