Not to worry, I mean my short-lived career planning baby showers. A couple of friends and I hosted a shower over the weekend. It was fun, tons of food, good friends and a bunch of adorable little ones running around all crazy like. Anyone's definition of a good time! But now I'm done. Congrats to the Peaches family and I hope you got tons of useful stuff AND had a good time at the shindig. Actually maybe it was more a little bit of hoot and a whole lot of nanny, to quote Seth Green. So, no more planning showers for me. My favorite part is playing with the babies once they are here and then giving them back at the end of the day! I can't wait to play with the next little one, coming in February to a hospital near you (well, me).
Big ol' CONGRATULATIONS to Thump and her hubby on the arrival of our British addition on the 8th - YAY! Another baby boy for me to play with!!!!
And now for a subject near and dear to my heart - television. That's right, I love television and while recent years have left a lot to be desired for quality tv, with the unfathomable popularity of reality shows, I still love it. There are quality shows that rock - 24, Psych, Smallville, NCIS and tons of others. I'm not really on the Heroes bandwagon, but I'm giving it a shot. Admittedly, my heart will always belong to Joss Whedon...
I've been reading a lot about the writer's strike and I completely support their right to strike, as well as supporting their demand to be given a piece of the streaming video pie. If they create a product, they deserve to get a fair share of the revenue created from the sale and use of that product, no matter the form of the use. Period.
The lame ass excuse of the studios that they do not have a business model for the possible or expected future revenue from these sources is less than persuasive. If I understand the WGA's position, they are asking for a percentage of the revenue, just as they have a percentage of the DVD revenue. This is a static percentage, it will not change no matter how much revenue is generated - can the studio not figure out that x% is x% whether they make $1.00 or $1 billion on a specific product? It's math - go ask the guys from Numb3rs, I bet they can help... that is, if they do not smack you around for making them strike.
This being said, can I say that the original members of the WGA were idiots? I was just reading about how the charter members of the union signed a contract assigning the studios the role of "authors" of the work once the product has been sold to the studio. And basically gave away the copyright of the works. Whomever was negotiating on behalf of the writers sold them out in a serious way.
I could understand if a writer is retained by a studio to write a specific product - for example, Warner Bros. comes to me and says, Shel, we would like you to right a screenplay about a supercool chic who has nothing better to do at 9:30 on a Wednesday night than blog about a writer's strike - the studio having a lot of control because the basic idea was provided by the studio and the writer was retained to create a specific product. But even in this example, the utter lack of control or right to a product created by the writer is astounding.
But when a person comes up with an idea, writes a screenplay and then approaches a studio to invest and produce the end product - I stunned at the horrible precedent set by those original few. I suppose I never thought of the writer being in a union, as you hear about contract negotiations between actors and studios all the time. I guess I assumed writers negotiated contracts for the sale of their works as well. I'm learning all kinds of new things with this strike, so if nothing else, it's been an educational experience. I have much more to say on this topic, but I do not want to have all the fun in one sitting.
Now, my problem is that I am going to have serious Jack Bauer withdrawals if this strike lasts for long. And what about NCIS, Chuck, Smallville, Psych and all my other favorites? Seriously, if I do not get new episodes of Psych in January as promised, I may cry. My dvr is already half full of last season's episodes! So, enjoy the new shows remaining and we'll meet back here in January when all the new eps have aired and discuss what books may fill the void!
'Til next time -
~Shel
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