The Writers’ Strike
Are any of you guys following the Writers Guild of America Strike? I’ve been keeping a pretty close eye on it and it looks as though television as we know it is about to come to a screeching halt. Most scripted television shows will be able to show new episodes until January and then we’ll be inundated with reality television. Yesterday, the cast of Grey’s Anatomy, including Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Katherine Heigl, Sandra Oh, James Pickens Jr., Sara Ramirez, Eric Dane, Justin Chambers and TR Knight spent their lunch break on the picket line with the writers.
The cast was finishing up shooting the last scripted episode of Grey’s. According to TR Knight, “We’re supposed to be going until the end of May and right now our last shooting day will be Tuesday or Wednesday. As actors, we’re paid a different way than the writers, but there’s also the crew to keep in mind. They are out of work as of next Wednesday.” Katherine Heigl said, “You’ve got to have a story. You’ve got to have a story in order to perform anything, to have any ideas on where to go and what to do, and where the character, story lines, arcs, everything. They’re everything. We can’t do it without them.”
The strike started on Monday when the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers couldn’t reach an agreement on payment for writers for work sold on the Internet. The strike looks to be a long one as no new negotiations have been scheduled. The last Writer’s Guild strike was in the late eighties and cost the industry half a billion dollars. This strike is expected to last many months and cost the industry close to a billion dollars. Crew members will be out of work without pay. Patrick Dempsey told the media that this fact upsets him “profoundly, but at the same time the writers deserve a better break.� The cast of ER is planning to raise money for their affected crew members to help them pay their mortgages and car payments. This is such a sad situation all around. Hunker down, y’all, television is about to get really depressing.
Grey’s Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Katherine Heigl, Sandra Oh, James Pickens Jr., Sara Ramirez, Eric Dane, Justin Chambers, TR Knight
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