Who you calling a rat?
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The band of picketers that marched outside Silvercup Studios in Long Island City was viewed largely with equanimity by colleagues inside the cavernous production studio, where scenes for NBC’s “30 Rock” and CW’s “Gossip Girl’ were shot today.
“Everybody has their union or guild that they belong to, and people are trying to get the best out of what they can get,” said Bobby Warren, an assistant director on “Gossip Girl,” as he walked into the studio this afternoon. “Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest timing to have a strike,” Warren added. “It disrupts your life.”
“Gossip Girl” is wrapping up work on its 12th and 13th episodes; after that, there are no more scripts to shoot.
“Then we have to close up shop for a while,” he said. “There won’t be much Christmas this year.”
As Warren was talking, fellow assistant director Vebe Borge burst through the front doors with an angry expression.
“I called the WGA to let them know that I don’t like their strategy -- we’re not rats,” Borge told Warren, gesturing heatedly to the massive inflated gray rat that loomed over the studio entrance. “This is not a struck show. We have the right to finish shooting our scripts. I don’t like to be called a rat.”
“It’s just a symbol, I think,” Warren said mildly.
“Yeah, but what’s it a symbol against?” Borge shot back. “The company is allowed to shoot.”
Michael Winship, president of WGA East, said the rat –- on loan from the Laborers Union -- wasn’t meant as a personal insult to those inside the building.
“I think the rat in N.Y. has gone beyond that and is now an iconic symbol of organized labor in protest of unfair labor practices,” Winship said. “I don’t think they should take it beyond that, which is a labor icon in New York. It’s meant to say that we are protesting actions of studios and networks which could be deemed vermin-like.”
The rat made an appearance Monday at Rockefeller Center and will probably follow the striking writers across New York this week as they picket in front of Chelsea Piers, Time Warner Center and News Corp. headquarters.
-- Matea Gold