Cracks in the Writers Guild Wall : How Independent Contracts Let Writers Work for Smothers Bros., Reitman

This much is clear: A handful of movie and TV writers are back at their word processors with the blessing of the Writers Guild of America, even as their striking brethren pound the picket lines.

Exactly how those lucky few got back to work under a pair of independent contracts, however--and whether more such deals are on the way--has become the subject of some puzzled speculation in Hollywood.

Two weeks ago, guild members, on the recommendation of their leaders, voted to sign independent agreements with Ivan Reitman Prods., a small movie-making company headed by director Ivan Reitman, and with the producers of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” a TV series getting a spring tryout on CBS.

In announcing the deals, the guild said only that the two companies were singled out because of unique “legal considerations” and because negotiations with the two were at an “advanced” stage.

Guild officials have since been reluctant to discuss those considerations--or to say what made Reitman and the Smothers Brothers different from some 200 movie and TV companies that are similarly itching to get back to work.

Both Reitman and an attorney for the Smothers Brothers show declined to comment on the deals they worked out. But a number of sources familiar with the agreements say they were triggered by a purported legal misstep on the guild’s part, and that the contracts won’t necessarily set a pattern for a substantial number of other separate contracts any time soon.

The guild has said it is continuing to negotiate with some 80 companies seeking independent agreements, but that it plans to sign only when enough such contracts are negotiated to let a substantial number of writers return to work all at once.

According to the sources, here’s what happened with the other two companies:

Weeks before the guild’s contract expired last Feb. 29, the union was required under the National Labor Relations Act to notify each production company of the coming expiration.

The notices went out in good order--more or less. But at least two companies, Reitman’s and the Smothers Brothers show, claimed not to have received them.

Guild officials countered that the notices were sent, and meanwhile took a stance against negotiating interim agreements that might have let some small companies come back to work while keeping the major studios shut down.

But some sharp labor lawyers, including Tom Rowan--who represents the Smothers show’s producer, Ken Kragen--pressed the guild on the alleged notification problem. According to one source, the lawyers threatened to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Had they prevailed, the guild would have been required to let its writers keep working under the old contract for at least two months while it sent the notices out.

Rather than fall back on the old pact, independent negotiations with the supposedly unnotified producers began, and both agreed to contracts that met the guild’s basic demands on residuals and other matters.

The Smothers Brothers were able to get their writers back to work for three remaining episodes. And Reitman is free to develop new movies, although he is currently busy, with plenty of help from his writers, on “Twins,” a Universal movie that he is directing on location in the Los Angeles area.

In fact, Reitman actually had all five of his film’s screenwriters, including the redoubtable William Goldman, on the set as he began shooting last week--at least in part because his new contract includes much of the guild’s hotly debated creative rights program guaranteeing writers more voice in how their material is used in a film.

According to writers on the project, the contract requires Reitman to invite at least one writer to the set to handle last-minute rewrites that might otherwise have been done by the director or another crew member. Rather than choose among the group--which includes Herschel Weingrod and Tim Harris (“Trading Places”), the English team of William Osborn and William Davis, and Goldman--Reitman invited them all.

Goldman, reached at the Four Seasons hotel, declined to comment. But Harris and Weingrod said work was proceeding without a hitch, and that Reitman had assured them he would have invited them even without the contractual requirement.

Harris noted that it felt “very peculiar” to be writing while other guild members continue to strike.

Weingrod added: “I could certainly understand (other writers) being put out that we’re going back to work. But I’m going back because I’m obligated to go back. I’ve got a contract with a company that has its own agreement with the guild.”