"L.A. Confidential" producer on boycotting the Globes/Oscars: "The wrong people get punished."

Scribe Vibe received this letter from producer David L. Wolper.

As a member of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic committee, I remember, in 1980, after the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter threatened the Soviet Union with a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics if they did not pull their troops out of Afghanistan. The troops stayed and the boycott went into effect.

Does anyone really believe the Soviet Union would change their foreign policy because the U.S. team wouldn’t show up at their Olympics? Who did the boycott hurt? Not the Soviet Union, but the more than 460 American athletes who looked forward to the Olympic experience who trained four years for their moment in the sun. In the next Olympics four years later, they may not qualify and miss their chance. It was taken away by their own government.

Well, there is a similar situation today with the Writers Guild. To help their cause against the studios, they decided to punish the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Who is hurt? Do you really think the studios will change one single negotiating point because of the Golden Globes or the Oscars? Who it really hurts are all the people, including writers, who were looking forward to their Oscar or Golden Globe experience and who may lose their only moment to shine because of the cloud put over the events by the Writers Guild.

Like the Olympic athletes, they may never get another chance and it’s a shame. The joy is taken away by one of their own Unions. The Olympics and the Oscars, the same story: The wrong people get punished. I hope the Writers Guild will rethink its position.

-- David L. Wolper 

Comments

[Andy]

Wrong. This boycott keeps an issue in the public eye that would otherwise fade in importance.

[filmfledgling]

"To help their cause against the studios, they decided to punish the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Who is hurt?"

Ummmm, the studios/networks by way of the lost advertisers. And a pro athelete and an actor/writer/film professional are hardly comparable lines of work.

[Klaatu]

Perhaps the WGA would grant a waiver if the AMPAS agreed not to televise the awards. If the honor is what matters and not the dollars, that shouldn't be a problem.

[jay]

Do what every one else in America does. If you do not like your job, working conditions, or pay, FIND A NEW JOB!!!
What makes you think you are so special?

[Rob]

The Oscars and the Globes cannot function without writers getting a fair pay.

The comparison with the Olympics is foolish. The Olympics are sport, Afghanistan is Politics. But the Oscars and the Globes are the film business, the same film business that has to understand, that things will be missing, if fairness in pay is missing.

[Bill]

Hi Jay! How are you?

I was just wondering about your posting process. How do you decide how many exclamation points to use? You picked three. How angry and ill-informed would you have to be to use four? If you use just one, is that a more playful Jay we'd be seeing? Have you ever used six? That would be something!!! Wow, I just used three at the end of that sentence, and I'm bushed! I wanted to use two at the end of that sentence, but I didn't have the strength for it. I have to admit, you're quite the stud, Jay!

[ed]

If the Oscars and Globes don't show up, will anyone outside the industry really notice? They're self-indulgent parties we throw for ourselves and invite people to watch. The networks will certainly lose revenue, but enough that they'll care? They can throw out a 2-hour Survivor special or something. The viewing public is way too fickle to really care that much. The points brought up in the posting are reasonable even if they aren't a perfect analogy. They were among my first thoughts when waivers weren't granted. Why would we shoot ourselves in the foot? This is about us and how great an industry we are and the products we produce and recognizing the efforts of so many people. The industry benefits far more than whichever network shows it. Plus, what better platform to vent the frustrations! (I wanted to put a double exclamation there, but Bill might take offense.) Every acceptance could take a shot at the networks in front of millions of people.

[Lisa]

The wrong people being punished? You numbskulls are just NOW figuring that out? The people being punished throughout this whole stupid strike have been the support staff at these shows. But the damn union doesn't care. Hurt as many people as they can as long as they get what they want.

I have no sympathy for a group of immature blowhards who believe hurting innocent families is a viable option.

[Splainittome]

Not really on point but I don't know any other place to ask the question. Do any other writers wonder about the sainthood of the woman who writes the WGA slanted blog? She doesn't have anything at stake; in fact, the strike is nothing but good news for her. She is being paid, she is gaining notoriety, she gets a shout out from the union negotiators (not sure that's something to bedesired by a serious journalist), her blog gains enormous traffic and she is still running movie advertising that benefits the studios. Somebody splain it to me.

[Enabler]

http://untiedhollywood.com

[Adam]

Lisa - I'm a working class writer with two young children and a wife, this strike is threatening my life also. But if we don't strike, their will be no future for us. No pension plan. No health benefits. No nothing. We don't want to hurt anyone, we just want a fair deal. If you want to be angry with anyone, it's the studios you should be mad at. They have billions of dollars, while most of us are lucky to make a lower middle class living. We want what you do, a quick end to this. Don't believe what you read in the papers, they own the papers. Their is a truth out there, find it.

[jay]

Adam - I appreciate your position and I don't want to sound condescending, but if you are unhappy and don't see a future, why don't you find another job?

I am sure you are very talented and could easily find something as a teacher, publisher, or the like.

[Kitty]

Jay,

Some of us are not defeatists and, like Adam, are willing to fight for what is due us. Most of us also love what we do and are willing to fight to ensure that we, and the writers who follow after us, are able to make a living at it.

And for the people who don't understand why we're fighting for residuals -- we traded our right to the copyrights of our material in exchange for residuals. If the studios take those away, as they'd like to, we surrendered our copyrights for absolutely nothing. I'm not willing to be part of a guild that does that, even though this strike is killing me financially. Like the writers in the past, who gave up their OWN residuals so that future writers (like me) could have health care, I have an obligation to those who work in my field after me.

So forgive me, and the other writers, for not just throwing up our hands and saying "oh, well, this is going to be tougher than we thought, better give up and give away our rights... or go be a teacher or a publisher instead!" Every right that every worker in this country has was fought for, and some of us will continue that fight while people like you will merely counsel that we should give up.

[Residuals?]

But this fight has proven to not just be about residuals. The WGA agenda extends well beyond that, into territory that most writers were not prepared for. I think few people would argue against the writers being paid fairly (whatever that is), but to tackle these different issues has essentially shut the door on negotiations. The WGA is being played by the studios now. This is a perfect opportunity for the studios to restructure things and the WGA handed it to them on a silver platter. So why do Lisa and the thousands of others need to be out of work while you argue about jurisdiction and sympathy strikes? They may be good causes, but it's not how this strike was sold to everybody.

[Kitty]

We are not arguing about jurisdiction and sympathy strikes, although that is what the AMPTP propaganda would have you believe. Those have been on the table since the beginning, and could easily be taken off if we were given advances in the other areas we're trying to negotiate. The AMPTP is using those areas as an excuse to stop their negotiations; they did the same thing with DVDs earlier. We took those off the table at their request, and in return they offered NOTHING. We have no reason to now take the six items off the table, since there is no reason to believe that the AMPTP will behave any differently than they did the last time.

The strike was not "sold to everybody" over these issues because these are not the main issues at hand: the AMPTP has just seized on them and has managed to make many people believe that the WGA is refusing to budge over them, merely because we're no longer willing to play their games of "okay, let's take MORE stuff off the table so that you can then tell us to take even MORE stuff off the table while offering NOTHING in return."

[Kitty]

To make this simpler, just think of the jurisdiction and sympathy strike issues as the AMPTP's version of "weapons of mass destruction". They're not really an issue, but the AMPTP has decided to go to war over them anyway.

[Adam]

Jay - First off, I want to thank you for being so civil. These boards can get pretty nasty and it's nice to have a debate that is both smart and well thought out. So to answer your question, which other people have been kind enough to do also. I do see a future here. I don't think it's a helpless situation, just a very frustrating one. I grew up very poor in the Bronx, I moved here after City College because I had a dream to make a living as a writer. I'm the first person in my family to go to college, own a house and make a living with my "mind" and not my "muscle." I'm not a radical person, when we first discussed the strike I hoped we could come to an agreement. Because I thought not just about myself or other writers, but about the whole city. The city I raise my children in, the city I pay taxes in, the city I have friends in, from every walk of life. What would happen to all of us? But what we're dealing with here is bigger than any of us, it's an idea that we in america have forgotten. Over a hundred years ago President Teddy Rossevelt warned us about monopolies and broke them up, because he said if they get to big, then they ouldl be unstoppable. They have become that. Today it's writer's, next it's you, the working class of our business, the backbone. Because these companies only believe in one thing. Themselves. I know, you never think it will happen to you. Like the Jews never believed Hitler would really do anything to them. Like we never believed extremist would attack us on our own soil, etc... Our fight is just. If we fall, soon so will everyone behind us. I can't say with full confidence our strategy is right, only time will tell. I am sorry for any pain and suffering the rest of this city is feeling because of this strike, but it is not us doing this to you. It's the big companies that have the money to fix this tomorrow. But they won't. We al have power together. Let's not forget that. Happy holidays.

[Roger]

The WGA and AMPTP are going to find out that the public at large won't care what happens to either side. Sure, after a few weeks of reruns people will gripe and then they will figure out other things to do wihtout having new TV shows and movies. Gee, families may have to revert to life without a tv. THAT WILL BE GREAT. Good luck finding jobs when people turn you off. The whole industry is expendable, you simply haven't figured that out but will realize it shortly. Walmart may be hiring :) Merry Xmas.

[Luis]

I'm posting here because I find people do not under stand how unions such as these work. Unions were more popular in the early 20th century because the work conditions were less desirable, but they are still used by workers of employers of companies such as the old Bellsouth (I would think AT&T as well).

I find the first few paragraphs of article interesting and enlightening for people unfamilair with unions. It may be worth the read for you, Jay, and those of you new to the concept of a worker's guild.

http://northlandposter.com/blog/2007/01/25/the-folks-who-brought-you-the-weekend/