Producers Vow to Salvage TV Filming Plans

Describing their talks with striking writers as “hopelessly deadlocked,” Hollywood producers on Sunday said they will use every option available--including promising protection to union members who cross picket lines--to get the fall television season back on schedule.

“We will get our productions on schedule in any way we can,” said J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “We have no choice to do otherwise.”

As part of that strategy, several producers are offering legal and financial protection to Writers Guild of America members who come back to work, industry sources said.

This indemnification has taken the form of agreements to pay the costs of fines and other penalties incurred by crossing the picket line, sources said.

Guild officials said writers who go back to work risk fines of up to 110% of their compensation from the producers and loss of union membership.

With the talks in limbo, some guild members set up picket lines outside two Los Angeles-area theaters Sunday, targeting a hit Walt Disney Co. film in an effort to elicit the sympathy of the movie-going public.

Negotiations between the producers and the 9,000-member guild broke down early Saturday after an 11-hour session, sending the strike into its 22nd week.

The Issue: Residuals

The key sticking point between the two sides is residuals, or payments that writers receive when their shows go into syndication.

At a press conference Sunday, Counter said the producers have given up hope of reaching an agreement, and will now focus attention on filming TV shows for the fall season within the confines of the strike.

The producers, he said, will “redouble their efforts” to get programming on the air by using old scripts, hiring foreign writers or moving production to other countries--tactics already in use by some producers.

“The fall season may have different components to it than we’ve seen in the past--more reality shows, more news shows--but you’ll see a fall schedule,” Counter said.

The alliance president acknowledged that producers will be hiring striking guild members to write shows for the fall season.

“Indemnification is an issue that has to be worked out between individual writers and the companies involved,” Counter said.

Guild’s Viewpoint

Cheryl Rhoden, a guild spokeswoman, said the union is not concerned about offers of indemnification. Like efforts by some producers to dust off old scripts or hire foreign writers, she argued, luring some guild members back to work will not salvage the fall TV season.

“All of these attempts are simply not going to produce what the networks need,” Rhoden said. “Without original material, they will lose audience share and revenues.”

But others in Hollywood say that by offering a safe harbor to writers who want to go back to work, the producers could cause a further splintering of the guild. Already, 21 dissident writers have threatened to withdraw their political membership in the union, giving up their rights to vote or hold office, but continuing to pay their dues in return for health, pension and other benefits.

A legal precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court would enable these “fiscal core” members to go back to work without being penalized, the group contends.

The dissidents plan to meet today to discuss the issue.

Producers’ Denial

Counter denied that the alliance is trying to break up the union with offers of indemnity.

“That’s not only ridiculous, but beyond belief,” he said. “If we didn’t have a writers guild, we would have to create one because the best way to deal with creative personnel, craft personnel and others on a free-lance basis is through guild representation.”

The producers blamed the guild’s leadership for the latest breakdown, accusing the writers of increasing wage demands in the midst of Saturday’s talks.

“The record is quite clear in so far as the commitment of our companies to address the concerns of the writers, to achieve solutions to get the strike over and get people back to work,” Counter said. “The end result has been a misreading by the guild of those efforts as either weakness, or that more (concessions) would be coming. Therefore, they continue to demand more and keep the strike going.”

But Rhoden described the producers’ allegations that the guild had increased its demands as “either a misstatement or a misunderstanding.”

Compromises Cited

She said the guild has made a series of compromises in recent weeks in an effort to end the strike.

“Some of these compromises have hurt, but we’ve made them,” she said.

While the producers appear to have walked away from the table for the foreseeable future, guild officials said they remain hopeful that talks will resume.

“The movement of the last week, while slow and painful, was movement,” Rhoden said. “We need to build on that and get back to the table.”

About 40 guild members picketed outside Pacific’s Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on Sunday. A like number turned out at the Avco Embassy in Westwood. Both theaters were showing the Disney hit, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

“Who Framed The Writer’s Guild” was emblazoned on the yellow leaflets handed out by the picketers to moviegoers as they arrived at the domed theater on Sunset Boulevard.

As was explained in the flyers, picketing writers, many of whom were joined by their families on the picket line, said they chose the two theaters for picketing in order to let the general public know that the guild believes management of Disney--whose Touchstone Pictures produced the film--has delayed a strike settlement.

The producers’ Counter denied that allegation Sunday.

Plea to Moviegoers

The picketers stressed that their role was to provide information, rather than to ask moviegoers to boycott the film.

“It is the Disney company’s hard line attitude that is keeping the strike going,” said writer Casey Keller, who carried a picket sign reading “Mickey Mouse Is Stealing From Our Kids.”

Keller was joined by his wife, Vicki, a nurse, and their infant son Max, who wore a T-shirt reading “On Strike For My Future.”

“We want them (the producers) to be reasonable, and come back to the table and settle the strike,” Keller continued. “Our point is to draw attention to Disney as one of the hard-liners in this strike.”

Keller and other writers pointed out to the “Roger Rabbit” audience that Disney company President Michael Eisner earned $63.6 million in 1987.

“This one man heading one studio earned $6.6 million more than every writer in the entire motion picture and television industry in residual checks,” their flyer said.

Focus on Issues

Writer Francis Moss said the guild members had decided to go directly to the public, rather than picketing Disney Studios, because “we feel that the public’s need for information on the strike has been ill-served, and we’re trying to improve that.

“We feel that if they knew the issues, they would support us, and that would help to put the pressure on the studio to settle the strike.”

Filmgoer David Salcido, a member of a carpenter’s union, said having the writers picket outside a Hollywood theater was more effective than targeting a studio.

“Not everybody goes to Walt Disney Studios, but everybody goes to the movies,” he said. “There’s a commonality to their problems. We’re all the working class. Hope they win.”