WGA East & West Identify "Puny Few" Who Went Fi-Core During Writers Strike

154 Comments »

1. What a refreshing change of pace — a union blacklisting its own members. And in a way that guarantees the WGA will get sued… so that our union dues will pay for legal defense. Please, someone get this idiot out of office.

   Comment by ShutUpItsMine — April 18, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

2. Puny few?

   Why Patric Verrone speak like Hulk?

   Comment by Bruce Banner — April 18, 2008 @ 12:26 pm

3. This is not how the WGA should behave. I am not proud to see this done in my name.

   Comment by T. Williams — April 18, 2008 @ 12:36 pm

4. And thus begins the new blacklist.

   These people had a legal right to do what they did.

   It may be reprehensible to other members, but it was totally legal. And now the Writers Guild, whose members suffered greatly for their decisions to join totally legal organizations in the 30s and 40s has decided to publish a list of names of members who went fi-core.

   I loath what they did, but it was totally legal.

   The WGA should never, EVER be in the position of trying to create lists of names of people who did something the majority abhors.

   It was so easy for America to turn on the writers who went red.

   It would be frighteningly as easy to turn on Jewish writers, or black writers.

   Because today we began with fi-core writers.

   Comment by anotherWGAwriter — April 18, 2008 @ 12:42 pm

5. What the WGA just did is illegal I believe.

   Great job, guys.

   Comment by Chris — April 18, 2008 @ 12:42 pm

6. So who wrote this - Verrone or Zucker? Nice.

   Is it obvious to everyone now how this stupid game works?

   “UG - BIG CORPORATE GIANT EVIL. UG. WORKING CLASS STEEL-WORKER/WRITER GOOD. UG. YOU ARE EITHER FOR US OR AGAINST US. UG.”

   Comment by Bob F — April 18, 2008 @ 12:46 pm

7. I am putting my real name on this comment so that everyone who reads it, particularly those who are listed above, will know that, despite the fact that I am an active member of the WGA, this letter was NOT sent in my name. The people who wrote, approved and distributed it do NOT speak for me and, frankly, I find it shameful, petty, humiliating to this union, and the epitome of hypocrisy that a union that has prided itself for half a century on the fact that ten of its members went to jail because they would not name names, found it necessary and appropriate to NAME NAMES. Shame on you, Patric Verrone.

   Comment by Valerie Alexander — April 18, 2008 @ 12:56 pm

8. “must be held at arm.s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are” — you’ve got to be kidding me. That’s blacklisting, kids. It’s evil no matter who does it.

   Comment by Jason — April 18, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

9. Why is everyone so damn sue happy in this city? As for “black listing” … PUH LEEZE.
   That’s not black listing, that is FACT listing.
   I don’t think Verrone had to give them a verbal spanking though.
   All he had to do was list their names.
   As a WGA member who stayed the course, I have to admit, I DID want their names. So I can make sure never to associate with them.

   Comment by dee dee — April 18, 2008 @ 1:06 pm

10. I think it’s interesting that most of these writers work on soaps. I think if someone does a little digging they might find a story here. Shame on the Guild for listing names.

    Comment by Sam — April 18, 2008 @ 1:09 pm

11. For those crowing that what the WGA did was illegal, please, get real. These people are members of the Guild. When they joined, they agreed to certain policies about publication of membership lists. Going Fi-Core is a publishable Guild activity, just as the Guild publishes a yearly list of new members, or a list of diverse members. Why should these people be allowed to do what they did in secret and get away with it?

    Additionally, looking them up in the Studio System & on the IMDB, it’s clear that many of these writers wrote for daytime soap operas… but a good half of them have aren’t listed and have no prior credits, meaning that they were probably Scab hires in the first place.

    Everyone knew going into this strike that Soaps were going to get hit hard, and I feel bad for those who legitimately thought their jobs would disappear… but a lot of their fellow writers did go out on strike and are still fighting to get their jobs back, so I don’t feel too bad for them.

    The person on this list who stands out like a pulsating, festering wound is the scabtastic John Ridley, the only screenwriter who went fi-core during the strike, hoping to get extra jobs. The only one out of thousands. The only one who openly bragged about it on his blog. And on Cable TV News Programs. Advertising his services as a scab for hire while thousands of his fellow members were forgoing well-paying jobs and walking the line. Well, now that the strike is over, hopefully people will see John Ridley for what he is: a leech who sucks Guild benefits without the responsibility to pay his Guild dues.

    And if no one wants to hire a leech, well, I’m not going to cry over that, either.

    Comment by Propagandist — April 18, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

12. Way to lose the moral high ground. This makes the guild leadership look moronic. Very disappointing.

    Comment by not a writer — April 18, 2008 @ 1:16 pm

13. Yeah!!!

    Don’t let these scabs benefit from the amazing new life changing contract that was so obviously and completely worth all the lost product, jobs and money!!! Or… umm… wait… maybe these people should be rewarded for being right all along?

    Comment by ckn8 — April 18, 2008 @ 1:31 pm

14. Wow, what self-aggrandizement and hysteria to compare a list of fi-cores to the red baiting blacklists. Hardly the same thing. You can’t turn your back on an organization that benefited you and got you to wherever you are when the chips are down and the longterm collective well being is dependent on unity.

    Comment by oh, please — April 18, 2008 @ 1:32 pm

15. Clooney’s a whiny self-involved fink.

    Comment by a-b-c — April 18, 2008 @ 1:37 pm

16. I hope to join the WGA soon and was 120% on their side during the strike.

    But I think it’s rather silly to single out a few people who went fi-core when the whole Guild, really, is culpable for the current state of affairs. First an overwhelming majority of them voted for a strike. Then, an overwhelming majority of them voted for a shitty deal. Am I the only one having flashbacks to the re-election of Bush in 2004?

    I’m not on the “blame Verrone first” bus, either. He truly wanted to make major inroads on behalf of his fellow writers, and I’m not sure anyone else could really have done a better job — at the end of the day, a brick wall is a brick wall. (I’m not so thrilled that he’s calling the results a “victory,” but that’s just what politicians do.)

    Comment by Nick — April 18, 2008 @ 1:50 pm

17. Yes, the WGA’s action is probably illegal (remember John Henry Faulk vs AWARE, Inc? Faulk won), however satisfying. Now what about us reality writers who picketed, didn’t go fi-core, and turned down work only to be abandoned by our own Guild negotiators as a strategy to settle with the AMPTP. WHere do we get to list their names?

    Comment by Didn'tStrike,Didn'tWin — April 18, 2008 @ 1:51 pm

18. Propagandist is right. There is a fine line between laws and respect.

    A lot of you forgot that the WGA was forced to go on strike because of massive rollbacks in almost all areas of contract coverage. The only place where there weren’t any rollbacks was in new media because the old contract didn’t cover that issue. What you guys earned was massive gains in new media and no rollbacks at all. That is despite what others say including Trey Parker and Matt Stone. As for those who went fi-core, they deserve to be blacklisted because they disobeyed guild laws. I have no sympathy for any one of those blacklisted people especially John Ridley.

    As for George Clooney, the only reason why he isn’t on this list is because he might have not been a WGA member at the time of his actions. Regardless, he will being blacklisted due to poor box office performance.

    Comment by Jessy S. — April 18, 2008 @ 1:56 pm

19. What our elected leaders did was absolutely right and proper. On my show, having supported our 2007-2008 negotiations will be a condition of employment.

    Comment by Strike Captain — April 18, 2008 @ 1:59 pm

20. Geez people– blacklist, is it? Would one of you Lemmings of secrecy please open a book? The blacklisting to which you refer was based on speculation and a false unsubstantiated threat of communism’s proliferation.

    This list on the other hand is a factual list of those who sat down wrote and sent a certified letter to the WGA asserting they would be working as scabs during the strike.

    Some of you are so misguided with your soft “Politically Correct” treatment of those who practice morally wrong behavior that you have adopted the idea that the messenger is the one who should be killed. I’m not sure when accountability fell out of fashion. But I say bring it back. Create a world where your children can thrive, and stop trying to erase the standards of right vs. wrong.

    Let’s hold morally corrupt people accountable. Otherwise this place is gonna start looking like that morally corrupt place, Hollywood. Oh wait…

    Comment by Zackery — April 18, 2008 @ 2:01 pm

21. Dear Patric:

    I’m a Guild member who supported the strike. And honored it. I literally did not write a word, not on two assignments nor anything on spec.

    Yet, I was stunned to read your email. Stunned, embarrassed, even nauseated.

    Identifying those who went fi-core, two months after the strike was over, was petty and vindictive.
    It is, to me, the equivalent of a public lynching. It smacks of McCarthyism.

    If someone wants to be a writer in Hollywood, they are required to join the Guild. It is not like joining a church or synagogue or even a political party which you do of your own free will. People do not have to believe in the principles of the Guild if they don’t want to. If they do, yes, that makes the Guild stronger. But we should not require it of them.

    The Guild is not a religion. We don’t take a blood oath.

    The Guild provides fi-core as an option. If someone chooses it, that’s their business. By posting a link to their names you have now created a new Hollywood Blacklist.

    Bravo.

    No wait, shame on you.

    Comment by Nauseated — April 18, 2008 @ 2:11 pm

22. Clooney went fi-core prior to the strike.

    I didn’t know Guilds published black lists, I always thought they kept them posted on the bathroom wall.

    The WGA should be ashamed of itself writing that memo/letter. People did what they did to survive and get through a tough time, when did it become a crime to dis-agree with management?

    They’re still members just withholding part of their dues as they saw appropriate.

    Comment by Enough — April 18, 2008 @ 2:15 pm

23. I, too, was pretty surprised about seeing this e-mail (good point about using your real name, Valerie - I am also a WGA member). I’m sure there’s some legal reason why it could be done, I’m sure there are a number of reasons why it was done, but it did take me by surprise - which I’m sure was the point - as they hope to warn people off from doing it in the future.

    That said, I was under the impression that going financial core was a legitimate - at least legally speaking - method of paying fewer dues in order to alleviate financial hardship. Obviously, these people are being publicly shamed for going fi-core during the strike, but should someone go fi-core today or next week or next month, I doubt they’d warrant an angry e-mail drop to the membership.

    Which suggests a generalization was made about every person on the list having gone fi-core in a way to spite the Guild (thereby inviting an equally spiteful blowback) and there’s something about broad generalizations resulting in public shaming that gives me pause.

    As I said, I was surprised.

    Comment by Mark Wheaton — April 18, 2008 @ 2:16 pm

24. Where in the BA does it say fi-core is punishable? I thought I knew the contract, perhaps I am missing a paragraph.

    Fi-core is an option, you’re a basic member and may be looked at as 2nd class but to publish such a list is to encourage a class system that guilds were supposed to end.

    Comment by enough — April 18, 2008 @ 2:17 pm

25. You self-righteous WGA zealots make me sick. The more you crow and preen and condemn the more tempted I am to go fi-core just to disassociate myself from you losers.

    Comment by Dick Hertz — April 18, 2008 @ 2:20 pm

26. Why don’t you guys just go smash the offending parties’ windows, terrorize their families and burn down their houses? I’m sure it would make you feel better.

    Boy do I hate unions, guilds, you name it. Let freedom — and the marketplace — reign.

    Comment by Danny — April 18, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

27. Dear Writers Financial Core or Not;

    You aren’t puny. Your Guild president is. I will not hold you at arm’s length. I will, however, flush any blacklist into the sewer.

    Sincerely,
    David Simkins

    Comment by David Simkins — April 18, 2008 @ 2:26 pm

28. How exactly is publishing this list illegal?

    And I don’t see it as a blacklist either, although I can’t blame people for not wanting to hire them. Even if this list didn’t come out in this manner, did any of those listed really think they’d be able to go fi-core and not have anyone find out about it?

    Comment by milo — April 18, 2008 @ 2:28 pm

29. So the Writers Guild of America is now producing lists of names, a blacklist by any other name, of writers who should be rejected by the writing community.

    To quote from the New York Times obituary of blacklisted writer Ring Lardner, Jr. (written by Richard Severo on November 2, 2000):

    “In 1947 Mr. Lardner was an unrepentant and fiercely outspoken witness when he was interrogated by the committee’s chairman, the famously aggressive J. Parnell Thomas, Republican of New Jersey. Mr. Lardner was, in fact, a Communist, but he refused to answer Thomas because he felt that his political leanings were none of the government’s business.

    At one point Thomas demanded to know if Mr. Lardner was or ever had been a Communist. Mr. Lardner started to reply, then hesitated.

    “It is a very simple question,” the congressman said sharply. “Anybody would be proud to answer it — any real American would be proud to answer the question, ‘Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

    “I could answer the question exactly the way you want,” Mr. Lardner replied, “but if I did, I would hate myself in the morning.” An angry Thomas had him removed from the witness stand.

    In late 1947, 20th Century-Fox, which had been paying Mr. Lardner $2,000 a week, announced that “his employment with the company has been terminated.” Two weeks after that, Mr. Lardner and the nine others who refused to answer were indicted and subsequently convicted of contempt of Congress.”

    Years later, he ran into Bud Schulberg, a great writer but one who did name names even though he was in a strong enough position not to. According to the Times piece…

    “One day, Mr. Lardner, accompanied by his wife, Miss Chaney, encountered Mr. Schulberg in a restaurant. Mrs. Lardner looked the other way because she did not want to talk to an informer. But Mr. Lardner took the hand of his old friend and co-worker and shook it. “I shake hands with anybody,” he said. “I don’t believe in blacklisting.”

    If a class-act like Mr. Lardner could see the evil in blacklisting, even of those who did not support the cause its in greatest hour of need, how could the current leadership of the WGA not see it?

    What they’ve done today is impugn the memory of the Hollywood Ten and every writer who suffered due to a blacklist.

    Comment by George Glass — April 18, 2008 @ 2:28 pm

30. Micah - and your credits include what exactly? Smells like you’re all too familiar with getting blacklisted per a simple Google search. You can’t possibly be a WGA member. If you are, then keep pointing fingers and perhaps they’ll wise up and stick you on that list instead. Now that would be moral high ground.

    Comment by propagandist?!?!? — April 18, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

31. Consider the bit of respect I had left for my guild now gone. When Verrone’s term is up, I’m sure there’s a cult or a clique of 13 year old girls who will welcome him as their new leader.

    Comment by LZ — April 18, 2008 @ 2:45 pm

32. My question is this; Is the full list of memberships available to all? If so, then Fi-Core should be listed just like any type of membership… openly. Perhaps it would have been more reasonable to print a list of all memberships. Let people hunt for the info they want.

    Lastly, I believe most of these people are soap writers. It’s a dying genre. Don’t blacklist these people. Feel sorry for them. They alienated their fellow professionals for a job that very well might not be around next year.

    Comment by Original Joe — April 18, 2008 @ 2:51 pm

33. The only thing this has taught me is that David Simkin’s picture on IMDB couldn’t be more ridiculous. “I’m loooooking at yooooooouuuu, tee heee heee!”

    Comment by hardyharhar — April 18, 2008 @ 3:02 pm

34. Some of the twerpy responses on this thread would make me embarrassed to even be in a Guild with such a**holes. Luckily, cooler heads prevail and I realize that a great number of “WGA members” writing here are probably pimply-faced kids who have never been to a pitch meeting in their lives. Dream on, you pathetic lilles struzes.

    As a twenty-year member of the Guild, with a keen interest in history, I can GUARANTEE there are similarities between this and the blacklists of the 30s.

    I think the Guild has an obligation to prevent any listing and associating of members in any way that they can be shunned by others.

    The Hollywood Ten are spinning in their graves over this horrendous decision. I would only wish our leadership were attuned enough to hear them.

    Comment by anotherWGAwriter — April 18, 2008 @ 3:02 pm

35. I’m not a WGA member, but, I’m in SAG and I walked that picket line in solidarity. This action is just wrong. It serves no purpose except to terrorize current and future members. It says, “this is what will happen to you if we think you disloyal”. Funny, in a liberal town, this is a very “Bush Administration” type tactic, and it’s really, really shameful. Wow. Now I wish I hadn’t picketed for you.

    Comment by thisisnogood — April 18, 2008 @ 3:05 pm

36. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_core

    Read it and understand that the WGA had no choice but to give ficore an option to its members. It was used heavily in the 80s to break unions.

    There has to be a consequence of going ficore: A negative consequence.

    If you truly believe there should be no consequences, if you truly believe that those who went ficore should not be punished, then work with those who turned their back on you. Let them and management know that their failure to support the WGA during the strike has no consequence…And see how the rank-and-file reacts to that.

    Comment by P. Lee — April 18, 2008 @ 3:15 pm

37. I am still so revolted by this. But since we are all Hollywood writers here, let’s discuss this in movie metaphors.

    When are Michael and Patrick going to gaze in the mirror at their weary, haggard faces, through bleary and bloodshot eyes and realize they have become everything they should be standing up against?

    When are they going to look around with a dazed expression and mutter “What have I done?” as the enormity of their error overwhelm them?

    When will the Warner Bros. cartoon train come out of nowhere and run them over?

    Guys, you screwed up. Big time.

    Apologize……

    (that last one was Kevin Kline in “Fish Named Wanda”)

    Comment by anotherWGAwriter — April 18, 2008 @ 3:21 pm

38. During the strike, these writers made a choice to go back to work. It was a choice that harmed their fellow writers who honored the work stoppage — especially soap writers (except for Ridley they all appear to be soaps people).

    One consequence of these writers’ choice was good for them: they made money. But another consequence is that the truth is revealed, and everyone knows what they did. How their fellow writers view that action is an individual decision. My response? I find their conduct despicable, contemptible. I will never hire a fi-core writer.

    Should the WGA have kept these writers’ names secret and protected them from _all_ the consequences of their choice? That seems unfair — the writers who went on strike suffered; why should the people who went fi-core be shielded?

    The list of fi-core members is the truth. In revealing it, the WGA is providing valuable information to its membership. I thank them for it.

    Comment by Ashley Gable — April 18, 2008 @ 3:22 pm

39. How many people had to “greenlight” the idea to publish this list? I am sick and tired of the WGA members being grouped together and slammed as if a vote went out last night to approve this list. Was this the actions of one or two people? Did the WGA board vote on this? This just seems very odd and petty. But maybe I’m just an idiot. Writer’s rule - but maybe the few people who rule the writers need to think before they hit the “send” button.

    Comment by wtf_just_happened — April 18, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

40. We’ve come a long way since the Hollywood Blacklist days, haven’t we? And like those days there were many people who wrote asking that their name not be on the script, but cashed the check just the same, re-wrote under assumed names, formed shell companies to sell their scripts, etc. etc. etc.

    The difference between this list and the Blacklist of the 40s and 50s is simple: the original Blacklist is remembered for it’s heroic actions, this list can’t say that…

    I wish, the WGA hadn’t made public such a list of people…instead I wish the WGA would’ve rooted out every lower-than-pond-scum writer who crossed a picket line, emailed in secret, or held behind closed meetings, all designed to undercut the WGA while they wrote and attempted to sell and write scripts-for-hire. Some of those people walked beside us on the line, while all the while stabbing us in the back with their secret actions. Some even attempted to take credit for settling the strike, even more never walked a foot of the picket line. What they share in common is one basic element: they took advantage of the WGA and all it offers writers, while all the while secretly serving their own narrow interests. Those people were and are scum. And I wouldn’t mind reading those names on some black list.

    Comment by J.J. — April 18, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

41. I don’t think this goes far enough.

    Those who could have walked the line but didn’t broke guild rules and undermined us - let’s get their names up.

    Those who voted against the strike undermined us - let’s get their names up.

    Those producers and directors who kept producing and directing during the strike undermined us - let’s get their names.

    I want more names, bigger lists, more careers destroyed.

    Comment by Ben F. — April 18, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

42. Wait a second … You mean going Fi-Core means less dues paid? Gotta get my agent on the phone.

    Comment by C.G. — April 18, 2008 @ 3:39 pm

43. If you are truly appalled by this, LEAVE! Go ficore yourself!! See how well you do out there without the support and benefit of the union. Free market? Yea, look how well the LA real estate is doing in the free market. That is what happens when no one is looking to protect your interests.

    Comment by P. Lee — April 18, 2008 @ 3:41 pm

44. Miss HarHar;

    I know. That picture is ridiculously atrocious. But thanks for taking an interest. I couldn’t find Hardy HarHar on IMDB, however.

    Sincerely,
    David Simkins

    Comment by David Simkins — April 18, 2008 @ 3:42 pm

45. THEY ARE SCABS.

    They’re not being persecuted for an ideal, or religious, or political affiliation, or some suspicion as some of you seem to believe.

    They are being listed as SCABS. Because they are SCABS.

    Maybe some of you need a refresher course on what it is and means to cross a picket line– Why we were forced to set up picket lines.

    The picket line is physical, but it stands as a representation of where the moral line is drawn in our fight for fair pay, fair benefits, and fair working conditions against inhumane corporations that would do away with us all together if they could.

    And they would certainly do away with benefits, overtime, fair wages and the like without our Unions to back us. Look at the working conditions in the non-union world of reality TV. And in fact the Producers willingness to short change us in the early negotiations forced us to strike.

    If you are morally corrupt enough to cross a picket line and work as a SCAB, thus pointing your middle finger at your union brothers and sister who throughout the Union’s history have fought for YOUR benefits, the benefits many take for granted including YOUR 40 hour work week, your overtime pay, your benefits, your safe working conditions and so on, I think that’s information worth publishing.

    And I’m guessing from many of your less-than-clever pseudonyms on this comment board the majority of you who have embraced a “BLACKLIST!!!” argument are not in the WGA, have no vested interest in the negotiations or contract, and likely are in the 8th grade. If that’s the case your homework assignment is to research the Hollywood Blacklist of the late 40s and 50s and see what it was actually about. It’s not quite as simple as there was a list of names then, and here again we have a list of names.

    What we have here is a list of the few who chose to be SCABS.

    And shame on you that soil the names of those persecuted by McCarthyism by throwing them into this steaming pile of SCABS suggesting they are one in the same.

    Comment by Zackery — April 18, 2008 @ 3:43 pm

46. StrikeCaptain… there may be some question about the legality of this list, but your pledge to base employment decisions on strike support is definitely illegal.

    Comment by YetAnotherWGA — April 18, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

47. I’m really shock by all of this. In the late 80’s a group of IA people went fi core to work all the non union stuff that was going on in town in those days. Never once did the IA published those names, in fact very few people knew who they were. You guys are just plain wrong in doing this.

    Comment by just a thought — April 18, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

48. hello! people who went fi core are NOT wga members… they are financial core nonmembers..

    and considering these soap writers made it easier for studios to rationalize cutting staffs in half after the strike, I don’t feel bad.

    Comment by soap writer — April 18, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

49. As a WGA member, reading this letter made me deeply ashamed and sick with rage. This is one of the most smug, pompous, petty acts of vengeance I have ever seen.

    The strike and contract talks were a business negotiation, not a moral crusade. In a business negotiation, it is customary for all involved parties to act in their own self interests — which is precisely what the striking writers did (including bullying others to shut up and blindly follow out of fear of just these sort of repercussions.)

    Any moral high ground the writers had (and in my opinion, they didn’t have much) has been permanently forsaken.

    As a showrunner and producer as well as WGA member, I will go out of my way to hire these wronged writers.

    Comment by Working writer — April 18, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

50. By publishing this list Mr Verrone gives tacit approvals to the concept and blacklisting in the McCarthy era. Which means, in his vernacular, If you ain’t with us, your against us.

    Legal……..Schmegal.

    Comment by independant producer — April 18, 2008 @ 3:53 pm

51. “During the strike, these writers made a choice to go back to work. It was a choice that harmed their fellow writers who honored the work stoppage — especially soap writers (except for Ridley they all appear to be soaps people).

    One consequence of these writers’ choice was good for them: they made money.”

    And this differs from all those interim agreements (Letterman et al) how?

    Sorry, once the WGA leadership starts deciding who can work and who must strike (i.e. who can earn a living and who must sacrifice) others also get to make that choice. If the WGA had maintained a 100% strike attitude the outrage would be justified, but where is the published list of writers permitted to work and how much they made?

    Comment by Sarcastic Cynic — April 18, 2008 @ 4:08 pm

52. Zackery - not all Fi-Cores are SCABS. My friend went Fi-Core when the network threatened Force Majeure - i.e. canceling his contract. He went Fi-Core, and was subsequently fired during the strike (which is illegal - he’ll be suing) He did not work during the strike, though asked to repeatedly. He is not a SCAB, he’s a man providing for his family.

    Dig yourself, man.

    Comment by C.G. — April 18, 2008 @ 4:10 pm

53. Some of the people on this site are so uneducated. Did you guys and gals go to college? Ever taken any history courses? HAVE YOU EVER READ THE HISTORY OF THIS GUILD?????!!!

    Let’s get things straight:

    These people who chose to go Fi-core are NOT scabs. Not in any wSo let’s not call them scabs.

    And let’s remember that what is ay. In fact, they are far FAR more courageous than the scabs who worked in the shadows. These people did not agree with the current Guild policy and went fi-core, which IS TOTALLY LEGAL.

    Sure they continued to work. They were legally allowed to.

    To condemn someone because they are taking a position that is currently not-in-vogue is the 50s all over again.

    To identify someone in the Guild who exercised a totally legal action (if you don’t like Fi-core, change it through a ballot) which other members do not approve of and single them out for ridicule and scorn IS blacklisting.

    We have shamed ourselves and our leadership has has some serious ’splainin’ to do.

    Comment by anotherWGAmember — April 18, 2008 @ 4:19 pm

54. Working Writer: pretty easy to say you’ll go out of your way to hire them when they’re all soap people.

    And it’s pretty clear what you were doing during the strike. And it wasn’t picketing.

    Comment by TheTruthWillSetUsFree — April 18, 2008 @ 4:21 pm

55. working writer,
    Please publish your REAL NAME so I can go out of my way NOT to work for YOU.
    This is Hollywood. Suck it up. It’s not a fair town. Why the hell would you hire these people who didn’t hang tough with the rest of us?
    Go ahead and hire them on the basis of something as stupid as this.
    No wonder TV sucks so bad. You idiots hire based on friendship and justice rather than talent. If anyone on this list is a kick ass writer, fine, hire them.
    Somehow I sincerely doubt you’re a showrunner. Or a working writer for that matter.

    Comment by gag me — April 18, 2008 @ 4:23 pm

56. Perhaps the guild felt it necessary to publish this list due to the public pronouncements of a few of the Fi-Core folks and to show there weren’t that many of them actually

    Comment by JustaThough — April 18, 2008 @ 4:27 pm

57. True, Clooney did technically go fi-core before the strike, so his name doesn’t technically belong on the list. But he also issued a public rebuke to the WGA for the credit arbitration process — a rebuke that has gone completely unanswered by the WGA.

    I wonder why that is. Could it be because the WGA knows that they can get away with lambasting the small potatoes (i.e. relative smalltimers like John Ridley and soap staff writers), but it’d be political suicide to go after anyone higher up on the food chain? Of course. The WGA knows this very well. Just like they did when they miraculously “settled their disagreements” with Jay Leno.

    So the blacklist isn’t just cruel; it’s also cynical. You think Aaron Sorkin’s name ever would have made it onto that list? Or J.J. Abrams’s? I don’t think so. I think Verrone and company were quite cagey when it came to who they lashed out at and who they quietly let slide. The bottom line is that they’re beating up on the ones they can, in order to intimidate the ones they can’t. Which, if you think about it, is a lot like what the studios did to the writers during negotiation. I guess what comes around goes around.

    Comment by Nick — April 18, 2008 @ 4:27 pm

58. Patric Verone, you the man, dawg!

    As someone who was out on the lines every day, suffering the heat, rain and proverbial slings and arrows, I can tell you the fi-core group made me sick to my stomach. To see them outted is giving them their just deserts. Their are consequences to everything in life, and although we might not be privy to the financial considerations that involved these people going fi-core, we do know many of them (including turncoat John Ridley) chose their out for political reasons. If someone was going to lose their house and they had to go fi-core to save themselves, I do not hold them accountable. but for the majority of others, who refused to take loans from the guild, or sacrifice what we all sacrificed, I say “find a new way of life.” I will never hire nor recommend nor befriend anyone on this list.

    Comment by WGA Striker — April 18, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

59. Sarcastic Cynic —

    “And this [fi-core people going back to work and making money] differs from all those interim agreements (Letterman et al) how?”

    There was a strategic reason for the Guild to sign interim agreements. The idea was to divide the AMPTP membership just as it was trying to divide us. You can argue whether it’s a good strategy, but it’s a strategy.

    So writers who went back to work for Worldwide Pants did so with the Guild’s blessing. Not so for those who went back to work for The Young and the Restless.

    And the leadership was well aware of the toxic effect of some writers going back to work while others stayed on the picket line. That’s why they didn’t make a deal with Jon Stewart’s company despite his vociferous objections.

    And by the way? The Letterman writers kept up a picketing presence after they went back to work. So did writers like Paul Haggis, who was at Fox almost every damn day even after he made a deal with UA. They felt an obligation to their fellow writers. The fi-core people felt an obligation only to themselves.

    Comment by Ashley Gable — April 18, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

60. I’m not your fwiend, buddy!
    I’m not your buddy, guy!

    Comment by Stan M — April 18, 2008 @ 4:44 pm

61. Patric’s letter and his rallying cry to scorn those writers, harkens back to one of the darkest chapters in entertainment history for writers — the blacklist. In my view, Patric is asking us to engage in that same, despicable behavior… to exclude these writers from work opportunities because of their political views. While I strongly disagree with what those writers did, I resent the Guild asking me to blacklist them because of it.

    The writers who went financial core objected to the strike but at least they followed the rules to express their dissatisfaction. I can respect their courage and integrity if not their views. They didn’t hide in the shadows, saying one thing (”I support the strike!”) and doing another (writing scab scripts for a daily soap). They stood up and were willing to be held accountable for their actions.

    I would, at least to some degree, understand Patric’s suggestion if he was talking about the people who actually scabbed…who toiled in secret, writing scripts for shows while the rest of us were walking the picket lines and losing our incomes. Go after the scabs, expose them, fine them, throw them out of the Guild. I am all for that.

    But tarring-and-feathering the writers who went financial core, and suggesting that we not hire them, is wrong. The boards of the WGA West and East should be ashamed of endorsing this wrong-headed action and supporting this offensive letter.

    Comment by Lee Goldberg — April 18, 2008 @ 4:47 pm

62. As a WGA member, I was personally sickened when I read that e-mail. I was 100% behind the strike until it turned out to be a sham. As far as I’m concerned, the people who went fi-core were right all along. And if anyone should be ashamed, it’s Verrone. Pathetic, childish, vindictive Verrone.

    Why don’t you make them all wear scarlet letters while you’re at it?

    Comment by DeeLJay — April 18, 2008 @ 5:05 pm

63. Why beat up on a few hacky soap writers? Classless, stupid and angry…

    Comment by C'MON — April 18, 2008 @ 5:37 pm

64. Incredibly depressing, dull, evil, petty, cowardly, vindictive, and gross.

    The tone these goons in my guild’s leadership have been using throughout this period has been so eggregiously and relentlessly pompus and vile, and now this, yet another rallying cry from the self-righteous to the ignorant - hate someone, anyone, hate someone who you don’t know, who isn’t like you - pick something up and bash them over the head with it -

    This was the tone on those vapid and revolting picket lines as well, when supposed creative artists were reduced to chanting, cheerleading, and yelling at various cars and trucks in order to somehow signal our support for a number of reasonable but hardly world-changing contract demands.

    And that was just for the regulars. If you were really angry, you could be a guild hero by going to a set and yelling your lungs out until an actor forgot or flubbed lines A WGA MEMBER HAD BEEN PAID TO WRITE, thereby not only undermining the entire creative process but treating our words and ideas as badly and with as little respect as any producer or studio we’ve ever accused.

    Over and over, the present leadership calls on us to further degrade and demean ourselves, shun or excoriate our fellow-artists, and become exactly that thing we’re supposedly all banded together to fight against - a swaggering, selfish cartel of greedy bottom feeders with no regard for art or conscience.

    Comment by blesstine — April 18, 2008 @ 5:40 pm

65. Blesstine:

    “Vapid and revolting” picket lines? Effete much?

    And we weren’t “creative artists” when we picketed, we were effed-over workers trying to disrupt production to create pressure on the Companies so they would even bother to come to the table and talk to us. Something they refused to do until about three months into the strike.

    But maybe we should have used our creative essence as Great Artists to _will_ the Companies to the table. I’m sure that would have been a better plan.

    Comment by Are you kidding me? — April 18, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

66. Truly one of the most disturbing letters ever sent out. A true witch hunt. Nothing less. And what about all those deals that got signed with independent companies that allowed some feature writers to go back to work while the rest suffered financially. While those deals were of course approved by the Guild - they didn’t in any way really strengthen the bargaining position - they just made the whole thing more unfair. The high moral ground has truly been lost. Punishing soap writers who are probably in their last year or so of being able to do what they do is despicable.

    Comment by clem kadiddlehopper — April 18, 2008 @ 6:05 pm

67. I am ashamed to be a member of the WGA on a day like today.

    Comment by a new wga member — April 18, 2008 @ 6:14 pm

68. And somewhere, face down on Satan’s griddle, Nick Counter is smiling….

    Comment by anotherWGAmember — April 18, 2008 @ 6:27 pm

69. Classy, Patric. When the broke claim fi-core, they’re traitors… but when you abandon the Reality Writers… that’s A-OK? I guess “some animals are more equal than others.”

    Comment by Jonathan Bourne — April 18, 2008 @ 6:31 pm

70. What about Leno and the other late night hosts that went back to work by illegally writing & producing comedy? The WGA’s not going to name those names?

    Comment by LateNightScabs — April 18, 2008 @ 6:33 pm

71. I initially intended to make my first statement and stay out of this, but I would like to clarify some things for the people who have no idea what really has been happening to several of the WGA members on this list, long before they were ever put on this list.

    Zackery No-Last_Name, you spew that they are not being blackballed for an ideal. How do you know? How do you know this was not a moral protest? Do you have any idea what working conditions are for soap writers? It is not all 40-hour weeks and overtime pay.

    In fact, it is quite dismal and though they have been SCREAMING to get assistance from their union, their cries have been all but ignored.

    Soap writers crank out 30-60 pages of new material per day every day. There is a written draft in prose form, called the story draft, then a script. Since the beginning of the genre, writers got paid a story fee and a script fee. Considering the story has to fit into a sustained arc over months, with continuity going back decades (Guiding Light has been on TV since 1952), there is a huge difference between the story draft and the script. And yet, several years back, the networks simply decided to stop paying for the story draft. Period. That’s it - no more pay for that considerable amount of work.

    Their argument was that story was already in the script and they shouldn’t have to pay for the same thing twice. The writers immediately came to their union to get someone to demand their fair compensation. I’m sure you can guess how this request was met. (hint - sound cue: crickets)

    There is a wonderful man on the WGA Board named Dan Wilcox who has been working tirelessly to get some form of representation for daytime writers within our union, but his efforts have largely been in vain. Last fall, a daytime writer ran for the Board of Directors, but because she was not part of Patric Verrone’s hand-picked slate, she did not have a shot of winning.

    I have served on a number of Guild committees, produced numerous events for the members (including three successful Writers Salons) and proudly supported my union throughout the strike - pencils down, no doubt. But this action crossed so many lines, I cannot continue to give my time to an administration with so little regard for its members.

    This morning, I resigned from all my committee activity. The decision was not between leaving those committees or not leaving, but between going financial core in protest or simply resigning all volunteer work until we have new leadership.

    It is not just this letter, it is everything it has represented about way this union has handled its business in the past year, from the call I got from my strike captain who knew I hadn’t mailed in my strike authorization vote yet (and for all I know, knew how I voted), to the wholesale distribution of members’ private contact info to other members throughout the strike, to the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” zeitgeist that was the very attitude that destroyed the reputation of our great nation worldwide.

    Just as I am not abandoning my country, but rather working from within the system to fix it, I will not abandon my union. It is a given that me resigning from two committees will not hurt Patric Verrone. If a hundred of me resign, it might; if a thousand, even better.

    A statement has to be made. This is not the union so many sacrificed so much to build.

    Comment by Valerie Alexander — April 18, 2008 @ 7:33 pm

72. I am not concerned so much with people who went fi-core as I am with those who scabbed or undermined the work of the union and strike in other ways (hello, Marc Cherry?).

    Comment by Jennifer Glickman — April 18, 2008 @ 7:53 pm

73. Wow. I am totally surprised by this. This was completely unecessary and unprofessional. No matter what your personal opinion is of the people who went fi-core, THEY ARE STILL GUILD MEMBERS. For the guild leadership to attack its members in this manner is morally reprehensible if not legally unjust. I caution any WGA member that thinks this is appropriate, you might find your name on a list one day if you don’t agree with your leadership’s course of action. All the talk during the strike of how evil the moguls are (and of course they are its their job), I can’t tell the difference between the moguls and the guild leadership. Well, except the guild is attacking its own.

    Comment by Intrigued — April 18, 2008 @ 7:56 pm

74. I think it is absolutely wrong to be “forced” to join a union and pay union dues, just to be able to work in this field in the first place. Why do you have to join the WGA if you want to work as a writer?

    And after reading this hysteria here and during the strike, who would want to? In my line of work, my salary is determined by market rates which are calc’ed by my talent and experience.

    Some companies pay more because they can afford to attract top talent.

    If a company doesn’t want to pay me at least my minimum (market rates), then I either work on improving my talent, or try another company who will.

    Why do certain industries think they need unions when most others don’t? If the conditions are poor, you are free to move to another employer or field.

    It seems there is a sense of entitlement that is disturbing.

    If you are between gigs because movie productions are temporary, you either a) try to write well enough to earn more so you can take the time off when it finishes, or b) find another area of employment in your field to supplement you until you get the next gig.

    That’s what average Americans do. Why should this industry be any different? Or auto labor? This is America. Even a homeless guy can become a millionaire.

    Comment by AvgAmerican — April 18, 2008 @ 7:57 pm

75. For the puny few, the cowardly few, the punishment of public shaming seems fair. Of course, these union members were hardly those rattling a tin cup in desperation. I think I walked the picket line with people in financial straits but walk they did, for the greater good. Stop whining. You who chose fi-core, did what you did for the most part under cover of darkness motivated by greed and selfishness. If the light hurts, so be it.

    Comment by eringobiteme — April 18, 2008 @ 8:04 pm

76. I applaud Winship and Verrone for taking this public stance. The membership has a right to know what choices their peers have made.

    Why should the names of these writers be kept a secret? Going fi-core was their choice. They fully knew the ramifications of their actions going in.

    As for the Soap writers, yes, they were in a more difficult situation, but while these few kept writing, most of their colleagues were out on the line picketing.

    Finally, to compare this to THE Hollywood Blacklist is both ridiculous and insulting.

    Comment by Madame X — April 18, 2008 @ 8:27 pm

77. Wow, my Guild has many more pricks in it than I ever suspected. Thanks, Patrick for opening my eyes.

    As Edward R. Morrow said, “The fear in the room”. It still is….

    Comment by anotherWGAmember — April 18, 2008 @ 8:49 pm

78. I am an editor and have been for 10 years. My first unemployment longer than a few weeks was during the writer’s strike. I’m married to a wga member and we suffered through it. I am horrified at the pettiness of this list and the tone of the email. My wife’s best friend is on that list, she has had to put her home on the market (yup) and move in with her elderly parents, who she helped support with her writing.
    She is so afraid that she will never work again and that she will lose her home and not be able to take care of her parents. She is filled with shame and deeply embarassed and the horror is, she walked the picket lines every single day, she kept a strike positive blog and spoke to future wga members all during the strike at various schools around town. She cooked for picketers when she broke her ankle, stepping off the curb at FOX.
    She even had a wednesday night potluck at her place all during the strike. Last word was she thinks she needs to go and talk to the union leadership and explain why she did it and beg forgiveness. To tell them personally why she did it.

    She thought she could honor her guild commitment and the commitment she made to care for her parents. I am pissed that we have to tell her that her guild does not care about her or her parents.

    That they feel blacklisting her and others is necessary and right. That possibly ending her writing career makes sense to some guy who has never said Hello to her, some guy who does not know her story.

    Comment by Productionme — April 18, 2008 @ 8:58 pm

79. Two things: First if you go FiCore, whatever the reason, and even if you’re under financial pressure, you are by definition a SCAB. If you have more than one spouse, whatever the reason, even if it’s all for love, you are a polygamist. If you rob a bank, whatever the reason, even if it’s to help your family, you are a bank robber. If your spouse is an artichoke, whatever the reason, even if they are in season, you are a lunatic. Definitions don’t change because of circumstance.

    The WGA, as will every UNION, views a member who invokes his or her Financial Core rights under the law as a SCAB. Once you invoke FiCore status, you are no longer a Union member.

    Therefore any work you do on a Union project you are taking work from an actual Union worker and you are a SCAB. You are legally able to negotiate your own rate of pay even if it is much lower than Union scale. In short you are undermining the philosophy, hard work, loyalty, and brother and sisterhood of the Union. Any health and pension benefits and fair compensation a FiCore SCAB gets on a Union job are the result of the loyal Union membership’s fight while said SCAB made a self-serving backroom back-stabbing deal with the devil. FiCore is pretty to producers or any employer looking to pay less than a fair wage, diminish the value of workers, and force us all back into serfdom.

    Then two: A short while ago in out country’s history slavery was completely legal. For those of you who take the side of FiCore is legal-therefore nothing is wrong with it- I would argue our moral integrity in the past has questioned our written law and found it fallible. And on the note of slavery, I’m saying don’t think mankind—specifically we Americans– are incapable of exploiting people as an underpaid or unpaid work force. SCABS are a threat to our current workforce which has fought so hard for basic compensation over our country’s extremely short history founded on slavery. SCABS set all the hard work and the good fight back decades, they are selfish, and they are dangerous to our standard of living.

    These adults on this list made an adult decision that there short term needs were more important than the long term goal of America’s workers. No one is suggesting this is a capital crime. But it does define who they are and where there loyalty is, or more correctly is not. This information, like all information based completely in fact, is necessary. Why would anyone want to hide the evidence to pretend we’re all in this together, protect the SCABS, and thereby undermine our constant fight for fairness? And on that note, I say please share the evidence of who is unequivocally against our fight to make fair deals for our families and children and the future of America to facilitate their own personal greed. These people are adults. If you don’t hold these people and in fact all people accountable for decisions they make you’re part of the problem.

    I will add it is also important that a decidedly low number of WGA members decided to abandon their brothers and sisters during the painful strike and choose to be SCABS. Here’s to the proud Union brothers and sisters of the WGA! Here, here. With this kind of Unity producers have to know that SAG like the WGA will not back down. Yes, concessions have to be made in negotiations, but together we can continue to work toward even better and fairer deals. It’s about the big picture.

    (And speaking of pictures: Simkins, that pic isn’t so bad and your imdb hits are soaring. Priceless!)

    Comment by Zackery — April 18, 2008 @ 9:11 pm

80. If your local newspaper published a list of the high-schoolers who’d dropped out over the past year, would you accuse the paper of destroying their lives?

    Comment by Alexander — April 18, 2008 @ 9:36 pm

81. Valerie, thank you for that perspective. It’s eye-opening.

    Comment by Josie — April 18, 2008 @ 9:42 pm

82. at what point does verrone just start buying media for himself so he can keep his name in the press.

    he always has wanted to be famous, couldn’t make it as a writer and led a failed strike. i hope he goes away soon.

    Comment by elliott — April 18, 2008 @ 10:12 pm

83. Oh man, this is sad. We have no idea why these writers went fi-core, how desperate their situations could have been.

    Many of my friends and their families were crippled by this strike and although I love and back writers wholeheartedly especially in the face of corporate tyranny, I think the WGA handled things foolishly. For those who lost their homes, I sure hope what you got out of the deal was worth it.

    And I don’t care if they had a legal right, how gross of the WGA.

    Comment by Emily — April 18, 2008 @ 10:43 pm

84. look, if almost all of these writers are from one sub-group of the guild (soaps) then the reasonable conclusion is that that group faced a different set of social/economic pressures than the rest of us. like many of our guild i lost a lot of fucking money during the strike. but the issues we were striking for were directly relevant to my life and my career. if i was writing on a soap with the producers of my show hiring scabs to replace me and no guarantee that the entire genre of daytime television would even outlast the strike by more than a year or two–would i have been so cavalier about walking around in circles in front of a studio lot? maybe, maybe not. let’s face it, when we talk about internet downloads or streaming, are we really talking about ‘days of our lives?’ we have a very diverse guild, everyone. this is not ‘fist’. this is real life. give them a break. i like what someone above said about it not being our place to judge others life circumstance.

    Comment by david (wga writer) — April 18, 2008 @ 11:13 pm

85. I am disappointed by how few people in this discussion have the basic decency and simple integrity to put their names behind what they say. It’s cowardice and lack of character. But it’s also relevant to this discussion. It’s no coincidence that those with the strongest opinions here are the least willing to take personal responsibility for them.

    That’s why I see a distinction between going fi-core and scabbing. Again, I am in no way defending what the people who went fi-core did and how it undermined our strike. But at least they had the guts to go fi-core, and take responsibility for their actions, when it probably would have been “easier” and “safer” to take the cowardly way out and work in secrecy as a scab (not unlike, for example, the cowards who post comments here anonymously). I am not a mind-reader, I can’t say what the writers’ motives were for going fi-core (except for John Ridley, who wrote about it in the Times), but at least they had the courage and integrity to express their objection to the strike openly by taking this action.

    I was a strong supporter of the strike, of our Guild, and of our leadership. I have great respect for Patric Verrone and what he accomplished for us. But this letter, basically imploring us not to hire or associate with the fi-core writers, was a monumental mistake that has shamed the Guild and ALL of us who are members.

    I have emailed every member of the board to let them know how angry I am about this…and I did it, as I have here, under my own name.

    Lee Goldberg

    Comment by Lee Goldberg — April 18, 2008 @ 11:30 pm

86. I am not a writer. I adore and support them.

    Having gotten that out of the way, there are some terrible misunderstandings on this page.

    Fi-core is, by definition NOT the same thing as scabbing. Financial Core status was not created for the purpose of working during a strike, nor for saving money on menbership dues. It was created as a protest against union involvement in politics. In theory, shoud a member object to a union’s position, they have the right to elect financial core status. That reduces their dues by the amount allocated for those political activities. They continue to pay the remainder of their dues, and they are entitled to the benefits provided by the union, with the exception of full voting privileges.

    In Hollywood, an artist (writer, director, actor, DP, grip, makeup/hair, etc.) is REQUIRED to join the union if they want to work for any major company. And the companies are prohibited from hiring anyone not in the union. So Financial Core has been bastardized into a way to gain work that falls outside union jurisdiction.

    I disagree with the WGA decision to publish a list in such a manner. It would have been appropriate to simply place the names on the website for those interested parties to review. This has made the issue into a media situation.

    Those who say they will never hire or work with someone who is Fi-Core should consider revisiting their position. At least find out when the individual made the decision and what prompted it before dismissing them out of hand.

    Also, points were raised about the ignoring of the soap writers’ situation and the dropping of reality from the negotiations. Soaps are a different contract under the actors’ union (AFTRA), so why not a separate contract for the writers. It is an entirely different business, so why not negotiate it as such? I don’t know what the solution might be for the reality problem, but the dismissal of the entire subject from the negotiations was quite bothersome to me.

    Sorry to drag on so long, but this “blacklist” talk really struck a nerve.

    Comment by wackiland — April 18, 2008 @ 11:50 pm

87. Then they came for the Fi-Cores, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Fi-Core…

    Comment by WhenWillTheyComeForMe — April 19, 2008 @ 12:15 am

88. If you read up even a little on the history of guilds in Europe going back five centuries, the exclusive right of a guild to practice a particular trade or craft within a given jurisdiction has long been set by common law.

    So-called Financial Core status is a creation of the American legal system at the behest of the large corporations who were looking for any way possible to weaken unions. The law recognizes the role the unions play in negotiating contracts to the benefit of all who work in a given field, whether they themselves are full-fledged members or not. The requirement to join the WGA when a writer sells a script to a signatory is the result of an agreement between the guild and those signatories. That writer is perfectly free to bypass WGA signatories entirely and sell their work to non-signatories, as either a non-union member or under Financial Core status.

    I provide this civics refresher by way of saying that absolutely nobody twisted the arms of the individuals named in the WGA letter. Nobody forced them to sell initially to a signatory company and join the WGA. Nobody forced them to remain full-fledged members.

    Because other markets are available to writers for their work - even within the television and theatrical fields - writers who choose guild membership through making a sale to a signatory must be viewed as entering into an at-will contractual agreement with the guild, and in making that voluntary agreement also enter into an organization with a tradition of solidarity in defense and advancement of their rights, working conditions and compensation.

    And as with other brotherhoods, its members also provide professional assistance to one another. A trio of examples I am familiar with. David Milch recently offered a series of seminars on writing at the WGA Theatre. Also, the Guild offers a kind of mentorship program to prospective showrunners (Sam and Jim of the podcast http://www.samandjimgotohollywood.com have talked about their participation in that program). I also have a friend who has been active on a committee that helps writers with disabilities.

    As the WGA definitely has many qualities of a fraternal organization, it is quite natural for members to be resentful of individuals who would so blatantly turn their backs on their fellows in difficult times. In the entertainment industry generally, more so than in most industries, relationships are frequently a vital aspect of career maintenance and advancement. The betrayal of a relationship is a big deal. A very big deal.

    The list published by the WGA is not a blacklist. The 1950s blacklist consisted of individuals targeted by the federal government for their political beliefs and their social prominence in a public field. The WGA is not a government organization, and nobody made this list for their political beliefs. Notice has been given of the actions these individuals have taken with respect to their status with their guild. These individuals now must face the consequences of their decisions.

    This list was not made public to punish these individuals. Producers interested in trying to weaken the WGA without regard to other considerations might look at this as a first-call list for their next project. The WGA published this not so much because of the last strike but as a message to non-union writers who may want to some day join the WGA but may be tempted to do strike-breaking work during the next strike.

    Or to put it more simply, unions live and die by their level of solidarity. If you have a small cancer, the doctor will likely cut it out. The WGA cannot be faulted for wielding a small scalpel in defense of the health of its solidarity.

    Comment by mheister — April 19, 2008 @ 1:45 am

89. I’m not a member of the WGA, but I hope to be some day. The letter is correct: writers who went fi-core were strike-breakers. Maybe their motives for their decisions were justifiable, but they did make the decision.

    If you think their decisions were acceptable, individually or as a group, go ahead and support their case in situations where you have a chance to influence whether they’re hired. If they ask to collaborate with you, listen. That’s fine.

    On the other hand, if you disapprove of their decisions, argue against them if you have a chance to make a difference. If they ask to collaborate with you, tell them to buzz off. That’s fine.

    This list isn’t legally or contractually binding in any way. It doesn’t forbid people from finding work. It may even help the people on the list get jobs with producers who wanted to see the WGA defeated. It’s nothing more than a list of people who made a decision to take an action that’s allowed by the guild, but violates the purpose of the guild.

    This isn’t the same thing as the blacklist. If we are to draw any analogy with that era, this list is more like a list of people who testified. These are the people who made the decision to collaborate with the powerful, the producers, rather than stand with those who chose to resist those with the power to hire or fire.

    Comment by Steve S — April 19, 2008 @ 3:37 am

90. I don’t see the problem with listing those writers who choose to go Fi-Core, public.

    It’s factual, The AMPTP has the list of those that went Fi-Core and the WGA has a list.

    The WGA just made their list public.

    Comment by boo — April 19, 2008 @ 5:37 am

91. I’m a WGA writer, and I am ashamed at our leadership’s letter. We have no idea what hardships those writers were going through and to judge them and publish a list of their names is terrible. Truly.

    Comment by nina colman — April 19, 2008 @ 7:02 am

92. Lee Goldberg: With all the vindictive MF’ers in this town, I don’t blame anyone for using a different anme..you don’t get “tough points” because you use your real name on the internets

    Comment by VOguy — April 19, 2008 @ 7:21 am

93. Just when we all thought this idiots who run our guild couldn’t be any stupider…

    While I truly admire all those who signed their names (especially Simkins, who, trust me, is every bit as handsome as he appears in his imdb photo), unfortunately the very nature of this letter makes it unwise to sign one’s name. Isn’t the next letter going to be a list of those who attacked the guild’s policy of naming names, people who obviously should be shunned as well?

    Enough is enough. THE TIME HAS COME FOR PATRIC VERRONE TO STEP DOWN.

    Comment by ledbyblusteringfools — April 19, 2008 @ 7:56 am

94. Someone brought up the fact that about 90% of the list is comprised of soap writers.

    I am a soap writer. Or rather, I was until this strike happened and all the networks/ producers took to hiring scabs and convincing members to go financial core (some of them even went gleefully.) I stood faithfully by my guild, and I do not regret it. But now I am a struggling out-of-work writer who can barely make ends meet thanks to my selfish former co-workers who sold me out.

    I used to work with at least 4 names on this list. I know them personally. I’ve been to their houses, played with their dogs, and met their children. So I take their betrayal of all writers very seriously because really, they betrayed me most of all.

    All of you who are outraged over the publication of this list clearly weren’t victimized by these puny people who took advantage of a bad situation to improve their own standings.

    They deserve their comeuppance, and I hope this list is only the first step in their karmic debt. So I want to thank the guild leadership for finally taking a step to vindicate me, the out-of-work-thanks-to-these-jerks writer.

    Comment by ILostMyJobToAFiCore — April 19, 2008 @ 9:21 am

95. Much like the infamous quote from the late 90s that appeared in the WGA’s “Written By” magazine regarding (then) DGA president Gene Reynolds, this is a turning point in the Guild’s history. The derogatory Reynolds quote by a WGA member attacked him for failing to show up at a panel discussion to defend vanity “film by” credits. From that point on the DGA changed their tone with the WGA forever. (Trust me, I was there…) I bring this up because the decision to print the offensive language back then was made by just a few people who didn’t think it would “really matter” etc.

    So once again the entire membership of the WGA looks like “they must all agree with the leadership.” Let’s be real clear about who it is that decided to print this “list” and use the specific language that accompanied those names.

    Writers for the most part are cool, collaborative and creative people. Let’s pray that the WGA can get a leadership that lives up to the quality and caliber of the membership, etc.

    Again, maybe I’m just an idiot — or maybe not.

    Comment by wtf_just_happened — April 19, 2008 @ 10:16 am

96. Just to clear up the misconseption on how Fi-Core started.
    Fi-Core did not start as a way to protest against your unions political leanings.

    When the Taft-Hartly act was passed that ended the closed shops and created Right to Work States where anyone can work a union covered job without joining the union or even paying dues the act was amended that in states that were not RTW states a person working a union covered job was required to pay the union dues to work that job without having to join the union. (NLRB v. General Motors)

    It wasn’t till years later that a group of Fi-Cores were upset about part of their dues were being used by their union to support causes they did not agree with brought a suit against their union that lowered their dues to only cover that which the union spends on actual union buisness. (Beck v. Comunacations Workers of Amercia)

    Comment by Yosemite Stokesberry — April 19, 2008 @ 10:48 am

97. “I don’t see the problem with listing those writers who choose to go Fi-Core, public. It’s factual, The AMPTP has the list of those that went Fi-Core and the WGA has a list. The WGA just made their list public.”

    The WGA has done more than that. They have told the membership that the fi-core writers “must be held at arms length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are — strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk.”

    In other words, don’t associate with them and don’t hire them. Blacklist the sons-of-bitches.

    For the WGA to suggest such a thing is abhorrent. I am deeply ashamed of my Guild…one I have fought for, sacrificed for, and been proud of.

    Lee Goldberg

    Comment by Lee Goldberg — April 19, 2008 @ 10:58 am

98. Zackery -

    Your attempt to form a logical argument using the comparison of Fi-Core to slavery is ridiculous and insulting.

    You’re an ass.

    That is all.

    Comment by Disgusted — April 19, 2008 @ 11:27 am

99. I know something about the Blacklist, having co-written a play about its origins called “The Waldorf Conference”; having produced a 2003 reading of it as a benefit for the Writers Guild Foundation; and having produced a recreation of the 1947 radio broadcast, “Hollywood Fights Back” last October to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the HUAC hearings. I have taught and written on the subject, and proudly count people from both sides of the Blacklist among my friends.

    What the WGA has just created is a Blacklist.

    Again.

    The first time they collaborated with Blacklisters was in the 50s when, at a meeting to decide whether to demand screen credit for blacklisted writers denied same by the studios, they first voted support. Then, following a floor fight led by writer John Lee Mahon, they reversed the vote and backed down. To this day, the Guild — heroically led, first, by Paul Jarrico, and now by Del Reisman — is still trying to restore the credits its own members earned and deserve.

    Now this new twist.

    Simply posting the names of WGA members who chose financial core status would have been informative and probably acceptable, if snarky. But urging others to “hold them at arm’s length” and surrounding the list by inflammatory and accusatory language arguably crossed the line from being a statement of fact into the realm of defamation of character, if not outright libel.

    Michael Winship, Patric Verrone, and all who were behind this memo may have placed themselves and the WGA in grave legal jeopardy, just as the blacklisters did to their companies in the HUAC/McCarthy era. In the 50s, “Red Channels,” the periodical “Counterattack,” and other compilations of so-called factual data were careful not to recommend what actions should be taken against those they named. Those who did — well, the earlier blogger confusingly named “Didn’t Strike Didn’t Win” got it right — lost lawsuits such as the one brought by John Henry Faulk (in “Fear On Trial”).

    Recriminations after a bitter strike are understandable and, regrettably, unavoidable, especially a strike where both sides lost. But this is different.

    It will be clear to even the most casual observer (and there were 94 who were anything but casual as I sit down to write this) that the intent of this list is to identify, shun, and, if possible, injure those whose names appear on it — solely because they made a legal choice which, in retrospect, other people in power didn’t like.

    It’s a Blacklist.

    Comment by Nat Segaloff — April 19, 2008 @ 11:42 am

100. How petty the members of the WGA are. To list out the scabs (who themselves should already be ashamed of their actions) in a detailed letter to all the members of the WGA is petty and totally something you did back in 5th grade. It’s not like you couldn’t have just removed their membership from the WGA, which would have fucked them over enough, but you had to blackball the shit out of them for the rest of their careers in Hollywood. Sure what they did was extremely harmful to the cause of the WGA, but come the fuck on. How old are you (as a collective)? The fact that the WGA called them out as “a puny few” just puts the cherry on top. There wasn’t a better adjective the WGA could use to describe scabs other than “puny”? They’re writers for Christ’s sake! It’s their JOB to have a vocabulary.

     Comment by An observer — April 19, 2008 @ 11:42 am

101. lame. just lame.

     everybody. just lame.

     Comment by MK — April 19, 2008 @ 12:16 pm

102. To I Lost My Job To A Fi Core –

     Thanks for posting. Nice to hear from someone DIRECTLY affected. Would love to hear from more people like you.

     Comment by Skip Entro — April 19, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

103. Give Patric Verrone a break. I don’t care about seeing a list of Fi-Cores but some of the attacks on this board are really cruel and unfair.

     Fi-Core list or not, Patric Verrone DID hold the union together for a 100-day strike, DID prevent massive rollbacks, DID get gains for writers that many said were utterly impossible, and DID allow us to merge a stronger union than we’ve been in decades.

     I seriously doubt anyone posting insults here could have accomplished that.

     Comment by Augusta Wind — April 19, 2008 @ 1:33 pm

104. This is wrong - morally and legally. The WGA is obligated to support all its members, fi-core and non-fi-core. By posting this list, by naming names, it betrayed them instead. They deserve everything that will be coming to them. Their members don’t.

     Comment by Anonymous — April 19, 2008 @ 2:15 pm

105. I don’t see anything wrong with posting the names. Undoubtedly these people were proud to go fi-core. I mean why not? It’s legal. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t announce it themselves. But they didn’t. Why? Because they knew that what they were doing was wrong, selfish and destructive.

     The list is just a set of facts. Since when has the truth ever been something to run from? Where the WGA crossed the line in my opinion is by telling WGA members what to do about this information — “arms length” and all that.

     If you choose to work during a strike, you should have no expectations that that fact will be covered up for you. The bill is now due for all the money made while everyone else was sacrificing.

     These fi-core writers made a conscious, deliberate and calculated CHOICE to cross picket lines (legally). It’s still crossing picket lines any way you slice it.

     And just as the fi-core writers acted in their self-interest, the WGA here decide to act in its (i.e. writers collectively) self-interest. Why the double standard?

     Some have written that revealing names is destroying careers. No it isn’t. It’s only a statement of fact, at least the part that lists the names. By going fi-core and working during a strike, these few writers were knowingly and selfishly an impediment to thousands and thousands of careers. How can anyone expect to do that with impunity?

     Financial hardship? There were no interest loans offered. One could learn prudent financial planning. And/or one could suffer and sacrifice for something bigger than themselves, like all those other writers I saw on the picket lines.

     When you make a choice, you have to deal with the consequences. It’s called being an adult.

     Comment by Venice — April 19, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

106. here’s another opinion from someone directly affected…

     i am a soap writer. or was. i stuck by my union while people on this list put themselves first. no, thanks to the scabs and fi-core writers, i was recently told by my exec producer than “the strike showed us we can do this with less people” so i’m gone. and scabs and fic-core’s have my job.

     and i would like to point out to the person who wrote about the “poor ficore writer who was going to lose their house…” i took out a strike loan. one i can’t pay now because i don’t have a job.

     and i would also like to point out that some of these ficore names appeared on the ad taken out by daytime writers… pencils down.

     i guess pencils down meant “only until i might get force majeured or i run out of cash.”

     Comment by soap writer — April 19, 2008 @ 4:08 pm

107. I’m curious about Fi-Core so I dropped a note to the WGA Board asking for clarification as to how one goes about becoming a Fi-Core member of the WGA now that the strike is over and current politics of the Guild leadership is behaving so despicably. As of this moment no one on the Board has chosen to reply to my question. If and when they do I’ll let you know their response.

     I’m not trolling and I’m not trying to be inflammatory. I’m honestly interested in the process and the results of such an action by a Guild member. Can anyone list the steps that must be taken? What kid of form-filling -out is necessary? Do you get a big notice in the mail and a Guild card with a big “FIC-U!” on it? And some of you anonymous posters feel free to suggest, “1. Get your head out of your ass; 2. Get fucked; 3. Go back to Russia.” I would expect nothing less. Just make it funny or don’t bother.

     How does this work?

     Wonder if my name will make a list just for asking.

     Comment by David Simkins — April 19, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

108. Disgusted wrote: “Your attempt to form a logical argument using the comparison of Fi-Core to slavery is ridiculous and insulting. You’re an ass.”

     I have to disagree with you when you say I was comparing slavery to FiCore. I think I was giving a brief overview of America’s less-than-stellar record on the rights of workers. Until a mere 145 years ago (a blip of time in history) slavery was legal in these United States. Until 70 years ago there was no provision for a fair minimum wage. The battles of UNIONS in the 1930s, some of them bloody, were waged against employers dead set against paying a fair wage.

     Those battles, which have benefited every worker in the US since that time, were won by brave and selfless UNION members who stood together in solidarity.

     I would prefer workers in America embrace collective bargaining and the power it gives us to negotiate a fair deal, rather than return to the days– not so long ago –when workers were exploited as slaves, serfs, or the lucky ones, undercompensated workers in largely unsafe work environments.

     I would also prefer workers don’t buy into employers gigantic PR machine that is trying to convince you UNIONS are the problem and so jobs need to be sent overseas, wages and benefits need to be cut and the like.

     For those who are so disappointed with the deal the WGA made in these last negotiations, I have to ask what kind of better deal do you think we would have gotten without the ability to collectively bargain? The producers had a fairly strong front, and I think in this economic climate it’s important to look at what we gained and what we didn’t lose rather than whine about what else we could have gained. Could we have? I mean really, you could have done better going up against these monsters? Because in any battle fought I find the whiners tend to slow us down.

     Then back to the importance of a UNION:
     It pains me to see, not so much the names of the few who turned their backs on the UNION, but the complacency of those who seem not to understand the weight of our fight or the potential damage of those who attempt to undermine our solidarity by befriending producers during our strike. And on top of that to draw them up to be victims. Victims or what? Themselves?

     The last few years have been pretty cushy compared to some of America’s past history–even though this last was pretty tough and getting tougher. What concerns me is the disregard of the history of the workers fight in America by so many who have commented here. You know, that bit about history repeating itself.

     As for that second assertion above– I have to agree– I am something an ass.

     Comment by Zackery — April 19, 2008 @ 4:49 pm

109. If the WGA just published a list of the names, perhaps in response to members asking for them, they could have emerged from this with some marginal dignity under the defense posed by some of the (few) guild supporters in this thread that they are “just providing facts.”

     But by blatantly libeling those on the list with judgmental commentary in a letter that (allegedly) represents all of us and telling us how we’re supposed to think about the Fi-Core folks (rather than letting us decide for ourselves), they have not only exposed our dues to the inevitable lawsuit but undermined the dignity of the guild and insulted those of us who would rather make up our own minds.

     Comment by VerroneMustGo — April 19, 2008 @ 5:00 pm

110. I just wanted to point out that those individuals stating that they lost their jobs because of individuals going fi-core… WORNG! You lost your job because of a strike. If there wasn’t a strike, you would still have a job. That is a fact. Don’t take your frustration out on your fellow writers, when it was your poor guild leadership that pushed for an unecessary and poorly timed strike. Considering that the main issues of the strike were not relevant to soap writers, the guild should have protected the soap writers and issued strike waivers like they did for Letterman writers, but they decided you were leverage and sacrificed you unecessarily.

     Comment by GetTheFactsRight — April 19, 2008 @ 6:02 pm

111. Everyone knew a strike was coming for months. I love it that the people who went FiCore before the strike weren’t listed.

     Of course, to do that, you would have had to put Clooney’s name on the list, and he can actually afford to fight back.

     Much better to pick on the people who are already hanging on by their fingernails.

     Comment by Ben F. — April 19, 2008 @ 6:26 pm

112. The MAIN reason I am appalled by this action is that I did not authorize it. Maybe I missed it, but there was no vote of the membership on turning the Guild into a blacklisting organization.

     Screw the strike, I cannot think of a more serious matter facing this Guild than what its leadership has just done.

     Guild members went to jail because of a blacklist. Anyone who truly cares about this organization should make themselves aware of at least SOME of its history.

     This Guild has made serious mistakes in the past when dealing with blacklisting. It backed down and ran for cover. We should never make those mistakes again. And IF we are going to take an action like this, it should be after reasoned discussion and debate. And then a vote.

     It should NOT be undertaken unilaterally, at the end of the week, right before Passover.

     That’s the way Dick Cheney and Karl Rove do things.

     Given a period of discussion and education, I guarantee you that I and a few of my colleagues could easily convince a majority of WGA members that the Guild must never participate in naming name. No matter who, no matter for what reason.

     I truly believe our leadership realized that and that’s the reason they took this action in such a cowardly fashion.

     If you do noithing else this weekend that reflects on your career, I suggest you look uyp the following names on the internet. They are a group of people who attended what were probably ponderous and boring meetings that were totally ;legal in the 1920s and 30s, or wrote for magazines that were totally legal, or wrote movies that made audiences, God forbid, stop and think and for that they were blacklisted.

     The Fi-core people may have done something we do not appreciate, but considering the history of what was done to Guild members, we should never take those type of actions ourselves.

     Here’s the names:

     Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Sam Ornitz, Robert Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo

     Look them up. They are the WGAs heroes. I bet they are all spinning in their graves over what has just been done.;

     Comment by anotherWGAwriter — April 19, 2008 @ 7:17 pm

113. Its black listing when someone outside the union does it. Its black balling when its done within the union. At least use the terms right. By the way, both are wrong.

     Comment by gh — April 19, 2008 @ 9:01 pm

114. To all writers who allegedly lost their jobs to scabs during the strike -

     You do have recourse. At the end of the strike, the Guild and the AMPTP signed a Strike Settlement Agreement — a binding contract as enforceable as the MBA — which prohibits companies from permanently replacing writers who struck with writers who worked during the strike (with FiCore writers being the exception). They also cannot simply change the job title and have someone else perform the basic functions of your former job.

     If you know a non-WGA writer who took a job, or a non-FiCore writer who continued working, and that person has now replaced you permanently, notify Paul Nawrocki right away and demand that your union stand up for your legal rights. Then please, come back here, or post on The Artful Writer or on WriterAction and let the rest of us know how it worked out.

     I would LOVE a report that the WGA is standing up for its members, particularly in daytime, where they have done far too little for far too long. Please, let’s get some good will back in the game.

     Comment by Valerie Alexander — April 19, 2008 @ 9:05 pm

115. Going fi-core doesn’t always mean you’re a scab, but going fi-core during a strike, and then taking the job of a striking writer … well, that’s pretty much scabbing isn’t it? Publishing a list of guild members who worked during a strike seems like something a guild should do. The rhetoric that accompanied the letter probably wasn’t necessary.

     There is one thing that does worry me about the list, and that is the issue of a double standard.

     The guild somehow held together despite these fi-cores, despite the late-inning panic of the dirty thirty (or 300), and despite certain showrunners publishing multiple scripts right before the strike began. The fi-cores made their choices, and should live with the consequences. The over productive showrunners, and the A-listers who undercut our guild in February, were more adroit in their betrayal and escape censure.

     Their actions, while more covert than the decision to go fi-core, we’re potentially far more damaging. Come the next union crisis, they will be in our ranks, ready again to undermine for personal gain.

     Comment by Anonymous — April 19, 2008 @ 9:10 pm

116. They knew it could happen, and if they were smart, they knew it would happen. They made their beds. Now they’ll have to lie in them.

     Comment by Reaping what they sowed — April 19, 2008 @ 9:27 pm

117. The more I think about what leadership has done by publishing this list without our say so, the more heartbroken I feel about it.

     I believe this alone provides grounds to change our leadership. Or at least to discuss it.

     Comment by An unhappy WGA member — April 19, 2008 @ 9:47 pm

118. great to hear again from all those WGAers supporting Verrone’s blacklist who’ve seen ON THE WATERFRONT one too many times and really got their rocks off on the picket lines where they could wear those silly shirts and pretend to berough tough union guys…the truth, alas, being that they’re really just sissies with a Macbook…

     Comment by skeptic — April 19, 2008 @ 9:58 pm

119. I’m a WGA member and this leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as well.

     John Ridley DEFINITELY deserves the “scab” sobriquet and all the venom that comes along with it (does Arriana Huffington care that she prominently features a union-buster on her otherwise bleeding heart website?); the soap writers, not so much.

     The BIGGER issue, however, is all the writers (and writer/producers) who openly did “wink-wink” rewriting while the strike was going on, miraculously allowing all the stockpiled big studio projects to be immediately greenlit the second the strike was over. Let’s see Verrone have the balls to put AKIVA GOLDSMAN on the list, for instance…

     Fair is fair, after all….

     Comment by Verrone' Double Standard — April 19, 2008 @ 10:28 pm

120. What Verrone did was petty and unwarranted. But this is no blacklist. The Hollywood blacklist was a product of much larger evil political forces. This is a petty internecine dispute, history repeating itself as farce.

     Comment by Sammy Glick — April 19, 2008 @ 11:09 pm

121. Valerie-

     Thanks for your support. We in daytime often feel like the bastard stepchildren of the guild, and that feeling certainly wasn’t helped by the strike.

     The Guild is aware of all the people who remain on the shows that are fi-cores and possible scabs. Legal recourse is being taken where it can be. More often, the show bought out contracts in order to keep the fi-cores.

     That, of course, was within their rights to do. But that doesn’t make life any easier for me as this is now month 5 with no paycheck.

     Comment by ILostMyJobToAFiCore — April 19, 2008 @ 11:59 pm

122. Typical Union Thuggery. Deny people a living and then assault them when they don’t bow down and scrape at the alter of Marxism, and decide to feed their families instead.

     One more reason to ditch the WGA. The others are: futile “victory”, just what did you win? out of touch “leadership”, and irrational demands that caused a strike that put people’s livelihoods at risk. Arrogant.

     As for “incredible solidarity”, what hogwash. Writers didn’t have to do anything, the producers shut down the shows. Just what exactly did they have a choice in?

     If you want to see what happens to “union towns” when the Unions are out of touch, go to Flint Michigan.

     Comment by Mark — April 20, 2008 @ 12:03 am

123. For those who are clueless about the “blacklist”. There are several types. They are all meant to keep people from finding or keeping work. That list is a blacklist, nothing more nothing less.

     My question is why do they think they have the authority publish that list?

     As for those “blacklisted” during the McCarthy days, they brought it upon themselves. They chose to side with America’s enemies, just as Hollywood is doing today. The only difference is that today you are only blacklisted when you oppose Hollywood’s elite. That’s “progressive” for you.

     Jessy S. The Guild has no “laws”, this is not Medieval England.

     That list is nothing but a way to keep people from working. It’s nice to see how Hollywood lives up to it’s core values.

     Comment by Mark — April 20, 2008 @ 12:16 am

124. Ben F -

     Clooney did not go Fi-Core to defy the WGA strike. He was upset over credit arbitration for Leatherheads. He kept his changed status quiet in deference to the writers’ struggle. He’s established and he’s in a zillion other unions, so maybe he felt like he didn’t need the WGA badly enough to get over his hurt feelings & stick with his fellow writers. He certainly didn’t change his status out of economic necessity.

     So my take on Clooney & WGA is, whatevz.

     Comment by mheister — April 20, 2008 @ 1:02 am

125. As a British member of the WGGB, who supported the strike, I think this behaviour by the WGA is shameful: divisive when healing is what’s needed. In one fell swoop, the WGA just surrendered the moral high ground.

     The WGA made a good fight, forced a good deal. Its leaders should be better than this bullying, “law of the schoolyard” behaviour.

     Comment by Disgusted — April 20, 2008 @ 1:23 am

126. Well, Verrone’s and Winship’s letter proves one thing:

     They have WAY too much time on their hands.

     If either of them had a real job WRITING for a living (check out their credits), they wouldn’t have the time for such “puny” vindictive nonsense.

     Comment by Nauseated — April 20, 2008 @ 10:04 am

127. First some “on the lighter side comments” — David Simkins you are a very funny guy and your photo did give me a chuckle. Please note - you won’t find Mr. A. Chuckles on imdb either.

     And to an observer - loved the video on your site from the German director Uwe Boll and your comments. What an ass!

     Now to the serious stuff.

     I am not in this industry but I found many of the comments here extremely enlightening and educational.

     I did not understand what fi-core meant when I first read about it in relation to Clooney, but I thank those who posted and those who clarified those posts.

     What I am though is someone who enjoys well-written movies and television shows. I am also a person who has had a long-time respect for, and appreciation of, those who are talented enough to actually get paid to write. Some of that talent was evident in the postings I’ve read today. Some made me laugh out right; others made me ponder and think about the consequences of each decision we make.

     It is quite evident that the quality of movies and television rests first on the shoulders of the writers. There would be no film or television show worth watching without a script - unless of course, you want to go to a film that is 90 minutes of Marcel Marceau miming (or perhaps, more accurately, one of his off-spring miming - RIP).

     And we’ve seen what an actor without a script can do to absolutely butcher an awards show acceptance speech.

     That being said, I found myself feeling uneasy as I read the letter from your guild president. Had the tone of the letter been factual, i.e. “Here is a listing of writers who went fi-core,” instead of accusatory and spiteful, it might have had the intended affect without opening your guild to potential lawsuits.

     As much as some who have posted here have commented that those writers deserved what they got, I have to agree with those who have commented that it may well cut into your union dues fund to defend the lawsuits that are more than likely to come. Whether they have merit really isn’t the point. There are lawyers out there ready and willing to test the merits at $200 an hour, thank you very much.

     As to the comment from the writer who was told by their producer that they had lost their job because the producer said they were able to make do with less, rag on the producer. Or not. Ask yourself, were they serious or were they using it as an excuse? Did these lesser paid writers work faster, use less overtime and/or produce better quality scripts? That’s what you really need to find out.

     As someone later mentioned, you have recourse through your union. Perhaps the leadership will take up your cause and get back to what they are supposed to be doing - negotiating fair wages and protecting your jobs, instead of writing spiteful letters that exposes all members to derision.

     Comment by eb — April 20, 2008 @ 10:38 am

128. The guild’s letter was unnecessary but let’s not overblow this. Most of the ficore writers were listed in their respective show credits from day one. Most were not hiding out. Of these daytime ficore writers, only John Smith, the Higleys, Gialanella were not openly listed in their show credit crawls.

     Comment by RavenWhitney — April 20, 2008 @ 10:46 am

129. Going fi-core during the strike was the wrong thing to do.

     Having expressed that opinion, I will say that I can understand how soap writers (who had basically nothing to gain from the strike) would consider the option based on their personal circumstances.

     I will also say that these people did follow the rules by selecting the fi-core option in order to continue working.

     A fi-core member is not a scab. They are desperate or misguided, butnly members can be scabs.

     Here is a list of five WGA members who continued to prepare, rehearse, and deliver written material for television programs BUT DID NOT select fi-core status in order to do so and ARE SCABS:

     1. Jay Leno
     2. Conan O’Brien
     3. Jimmy Kimmel
     4. Jon Stewart
     5. Stephen Cobert

     Each day, all five prepared written outlines for their shows. Leno even publicly admitted preparing written material. The WGA is perfectly fine with them and THREE SHOWRUNNERS that continued to prepare written material for their shows AND HAD NOT slected fi-core status.

     The publication of a fi-core list only shows how irrelevant WGA enforcement is. If you’re big enough, you can be like Leno and tell the WGA to fuck off.

     It should be remembered that the WGA is the only Hollywood union that actively blacklisted its own members during the red scare. AMPAS continues to have to periodically revise its records as writers who worked under pseudonyms are revealed.

     The South Park episode, “Canada on Strike,” said everything that needs to be said about the “success” of the WGA strike.

     Publishing fi-core lists is tacky, not illegal, but it does raise the question why the THREE SHOWRUNNERS who scabbed aren’t revealed. It’s not like it’s that big of a mystery.

     Comment by Harold — April 20, 2008 @ 12:07 pm

130. Going fi-core during a strike is despicable. The rest of the time it merely suggests you have an inflated sense of your own importance.

     Comment by Craig — April 20, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

131. As a writer of many screenplays and many television pilots I have mixed feelings about this list. People did sacrifice a lot for this strike even though they didn’t have to. The fact that people chose to cross their picket line while they were suffering and losing tons of stuff is a hard pill to swallow. But at the end of the day, those people who are now blacklisted were merely following their dreams to work in Hollywood. A lot of people come to this town and they think they’re gonna make it big and they never make it at all. If you’re one of the lucky ones who has the chance to work on a big production you have to take it. NO MATTER WHAT. It’s too good a job and too big of an opportunity to pass up. So don’t judge these people based on anything but that. We’re all lucky to get paid to do this job and we should be grateful for it.

     Comment by Anthony Jelly — April 20, 2008 @ 1:51 pm

132. @Harold:

     Exactly. The WGA was willing to look the other way for the sake of not pissing off the bigshots, but now they happily trounce on the little guys, as if those low-level soap writers were sitting in fancy club chairs in front of a roaring fire with diamond-collared cats on their laps, grinning wickedly as they talked about how they’d make millions on the backs of their striking brethren. I don’t think it was quite like that.

     Comment by Nick — April 20, 2008 @ 2:13 pm

133. A bunch of these soaps fi-core people scabbed first, and only went fi-core when they got caught. Several of them got promoted for it, taking the head writer jobs of people like Lynn Latham, who refused to scab and got fired.

     These people are without integrity and don’t deserve a cover-up. I am glad the Guild chose not to hide their actions from the membership. I hope that when it’s adjudicated who scabbed during this strike — including showrunners — that they aren’t protected either.

     Let’s all tell the truth to each other and move the hell on.

     Comment by TheTruthWillSetUsFree — April 20, 2008 @ 3:45 pm

134. The McCarthy witch hunt is alive and well I see. Beyond disgusting. So much for “liberal” Hollywood. They’re as