As Strike Looms, Writers Hunker Down

Hollywood’s TV and film writers, a probable strike looms like a fast-moving storm on a weather map, roiling emotions and prompting many to take emergency measures.

The widespread fear, based on the last Writers Guild of America strike, which lasted five months in 1988, is that writers drain their bank accounts, go into debt and even lose their houses. And money isn’t the only concern. Many fear that a protracted strike would abruptly end careers in a notoriously competitive industry.

“The strike has assumed mythic proportions in my clients’ lives,” said Dennis Palumbo, a Sherman Oaks psychotherapist who counsels many in the industry.

Stalled negotiations between the 11,000-member Writers Guild and the studios and networks increase the likelihood of a strike after the guild’s contract expires May 1.

Many writers already are tightening their belts, foregoing that new Lexus or letting the live-in nanny go.

The industry also is bracing for a possible summer strike by the Screen Actors Guild, whose contract expires June 30. Economists have estimated that a full-scale shutdown of film and TV production would cost the Los Angeles economy more than $250 million a week.

According to the guild’s 2000 annual report, the median income of a working writer west of the Mississippi is $84,011. While that sum may seem princely when compared to the salaries of ordinary Angelenos, the potential loss already is generating worry among both writers and the services they support.

“I haven’t started clipping coupons yet, but I think twice before purchasing anything,” said Sheila Allen, a veteran screenwriter in West Los Angeles. Allen recently put off buying a new TV and entertainment system, deferred upgrading her computer and decided to make do with her old refrigerator.

“A strike can get pretty gruesome,” Allen said.

During the ’88 strike, Allen depleted her savings and learned a hard lesson in frugality.

“Many writers have an artist mentality toward budgeting,” said Allen, whose TV credits include episodes of “Fantasy Island,” “Santa Barbara,” and “The Guiding Light.”

“They’re romantic dreamers. They want to eat in nice restaurants and drink good bottles of wine. They want to enjoy life today.”

Still, many writers are better at managing the unpredictable cash flow that is the industry norm than their actor counterparts, said Mark Schwartz, an accountant in Van Nuys.

Last August, Schwartz sent a letter to his actor clients reminding them of the possibility of a strike.

“I am pleading with you not to spend any money unless it is out of necessity,” he wrote. “Do not spend any money on hobbies, home improvements, unnecessary vacations and any other general nonessential items. “

Schwartz said he sent the letter to his actors only because writers have a much different attitude. “Writers are savers,” Schwartz said. Writers also are more likely to have a the-sky-is-falling world view that serves them well in tough times.

“Writers view things in a very negative fashion,” he said, “and that’s what helps them.”

Schwartz said he urges all his industry clients to pay off their home mortgages early by accelerating payments. A number of his writer clients have told him they have tapped their home equity by refinancing and pulling cash out to use as a personal strike fund.

The last Writers Guild strike was a wake-up call for TV writer Lee Goldberg.

Unlike many others who have made fortunes in the industry, Goldberg, 39, said he has taken steps to ride out the hard times by living modestly, at least by Hollywood standards.

“You cannot get seduced by the big money of television,” he said over a bagel at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Encino. Many writers get their first check for $26,710--guild minimum for an hour of prime time TV--and figure the checks will continue to roll in forever.

“You’ve got to pretend that that check is the last check you’re ever going to see,” Goldberg said.

He said he feels certain he will get through the strike without losing his Calabasas home or taking his 5-year-old daughter, Madison, out of private school. He gives an industry mentor credit for waking him up to the importance of squirreling away money when it is coming in.

“He lived like the spigot would never be turned off,” Goldberg recalled. The man told Goldberg: “Let me be an example to you. Don’t live above your means. Live a little below your means.”

Goldberg said he was on the verge of going broke after the 22-week strike of 1988, despite the fact that he was single and sharing a Culver City apartment with a roommate.

Today, he said, he expects to weather even a protracted strike although the stock market has tanked and his CBS series “Martial Law,” ended last May. Goldberg was executive producer.

Ever since the last strike, he said, he has acted as if his bank account were his agent and saved 10% of everything he makes.

“I’m not living out of the back of a Chevette, but I’ve been living as if I wouldn’t be working for a while,” he said. “If I can buy my daughter’s favorite cereal at Costco instead of Gelson’s, I go to Costco.”

Merchants along Ventura Boulevard, the retail corridor near Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., NBC, CBS and other studios, already feel the pinch from worried writers.

“We talk about it every day,” said Steve Lampert, owner and president of Buckingham Nannies in Sherman Oaks.

More than half of Lampert’s clientele--including many writers--work in the industry. Many of his nannies are without jobs, he said, because writers and others fear a strike.

At Hoity Toity Clothes in Studio City, a writer’s wife spent $600 on new clothes but decided to forgo a $165 pair of animal-skin pants.

The woman told store owner Ann Luly she loved the pants, but she had to watch her spending. “If there’s no strike I’ll come back and buy them,” she told Luly.

From salons to photo studios, businesses with industry clientele are bracing for a dip in revenue. Booked up months in advance just a short time ago, contractors say industry clients are calling to cancel orders for a pool or home remodeling.

Barini Leather in Studio City suffered in 1988 when the writers went on strike. Owner Gary Barin said the store lost $35,000 in sales.

“How can you not worry?” Barin asked. “We’re in the heart of Studio City.”

For writers, worries about a strike can sap creativity, counselors say.

“It can be debilitating,” said psychotherapist Palumbo, a former screenwriter and author of a self-help book, “Writing from the Inside Out.”

“I try to say to my writers, ‘Yes, management can cripple a career by forcing a strike, but they can’t cripple a writer. A writer will still write.’ ”

Hollywood-based Robert Ward, who writes for TV and film and has published eight novels, was one of many guild members who said in the event of a strike he will write a book.

Genie Davis of Redondo Beach said a strike will do the most harm to screenwriters such as herself who have only recently broken into the business. The industry is cutthroat in the best of times, she said. Now, with a strike looming, studios are reluctant to finalize deals, and there’s heightened competition as established writers rush to finish as many projects as possible.

“I have a number of projects in development that might not get completed,” said Davis, who may cancel her vacation and worries that she won’t be able to continue paying private-school tuition for her two children.

Chris Thompson, a Hancock Park writer whose work includes the acerbic industry satire “Action,” on Fox, said he has been unfazed by the prospect of a strike.

“It’s been a great excuse to tell my wife not to buy things,” he said. “It’s allowed me not to lend any money to my relatives.”

A 25-year industry veteran, Thompson said, “I have a bit of a peasant mentality and I’ve managed to save money.”

Thompson, who has cashed the first check for a pilot for a new half-hour comedy for WB, said a strike will hit “the grunt writers” the hardest, not writer/producers like himself, who are higher on the industry food chain.

“The writers who are going to be hurt are the staff writers and freelancers,” he said. “These people live script to script. The writer/producers are really not going to get hurt. They’re going to have to hold onto the Porsche for another year. They’re going to have to get the four-bedroom in Malibu, not the six-bedroom. The writer/producers will whine, but they’ll be fine.”