DGA Talks With Hollywood Studios Progress as WGA Asserts ‘The Whole World Is on Our Side’
variety.comGene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Directors Guild of America is continuing its negotiations with the AMPTP, as companies hope to get a deal that could play a role in ending the two-week-old writers strike.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America told members Monday that the guild is winning the “PR war” against the studios, as members share their stories in the media. “It seems the whole world is on our side,” wrote Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, a WGA East vice president, in an email to members titled “Our Momentum Grows.” “Members’ individual stories of our broken system — of getting by on ten weeks of work a year, of residual checks amounting to pennies — are resonating with the public.
They understand we are losing out on the middle-class American Dream. We are not the elite. We are just like them. We are them.” Cullen noted the solidarity across entertainment unions, and said that WGA members’ pickets have shut down industry events and productions.
She also stated that based on prior estimates, “the strike could be costing about $30 million a day in lost studio output.” The DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed to a media blackout for the duration of their bargaining, and both declined to comment.
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