Hollywood's writers go on strike

Writers want a better deal when their work appears on DVD or online

Hollywood screenwriters have gone on strike after talks with studio representatives failed to resolve a dispute over royalties.

Pickets were set up outside studios in Los Angeles and New York, after The Writers Guild of America asked its 12,000 members to stop working.

Drivers honked in support as throngs of writers waved placards, said reports.

Late-night TV chat shows are likely to be the first productions to suffer with drama to follow if the strike drags on.

In New York, strikers wielded banners reading "On strike" and "No money, no funny".

Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East, said: "The seven-word mantra is: 'When you get paid, we get paid.'"

The last strike by screenwriters, in 1988, lasted a crippling 22 weeks.

The BBC's Peter Bowes says the strike is expected to have a ripple effect throughout Los Angeles with businesses that rely on the entertainment industry being hit hard.

He says one estimate puts the potential cost to the city at $1bn.

Joke supply

Negotiators for the WGA and the studio representatives, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), held talks on Sunday night with a US federal mediator in Los Angeles.

They call it the toughest time for comedy writing since those three weeks back in the 1990s when Bill Clinton stopped dating

The writers want higher fees, or "residuals", derived from work released on DVD or online.

"It's about our livelihood," one striking writer told the BBC on a picket line in Los Angeles.

"We rely on residuals, we rely on money from technology, and the internet is a large part of that and it's going to be an even bigger part of that in the future."

But the studios have rejected their demands as unworkable.

Nick Counter, president of the AMPTP, said earlier that no progress was possible "for overriding business reasons".

"The DVD issue is a roadblock to these negotiations," he added.

Talk shows hosted by stars such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart are expected to stop almost immediately as they rely on a supply of topical jokes.

It was anticipated NBC would broadcast repeats of Leno's programme, The Tonight Show, plus Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live from Monday if the walkout went ahead, the Hollywood Reporter said.

It also said old episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report would be screened under contingency plans by the Comedy Central channel.

But as yet it was unclear what other networks intended to do, it added.

Leno made a quip about the strike on-air on Friday, saying:

"They call it the toughest time for comedy writing since those three weeks back in the 1990s when Bill Clinton stopped dating. Remember that?"

Filling the gaps

The 1988 action disrupted the autumn television season.

David Letterman had a show affected during the 1988 strike

At that time, Letterman was host of NBC's Late Night, and his programme was taken off-air at first. It did return before the end of the strike, however, but many other shows remained unbroadcast.

It is anticipated daytime TV output, such as chat shows and soap operas, may be next to suffer in the current walkout. These series are typically recorded about a week in advance of transmission.

The strike would not immediately affect production of film or primetime TV programmes, the Associated Press reported.

This was because most movie studios had already kept aside a number of scripts, and many high-profile TV dramas and comedies had enough scripts or completed shows to last until early next year.

But then Hollywood analysts do expect the supply of shows such as Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and CSI to fizzle out, and many writers fear the TV networks will turn to additional repeats and reality programmes to fill the resulting gaps.