Talks push forward, slowly
Hollywood writers and studio negotiators talked until early Wednesday evening but didn’t move much closer toward a deal that would end the strike now in its fourth week.
The bargaining session marked the third consecutive day the parties met to try to forge a new three-year contract to replace one that expired Oct. 31.
Although neither side made any major concessions, negotiators continued to discuss the biggest issues that divide them, including residuals for shows that are sold or rerun on the Internet, digital players and other new media.
Writers and studio representatives agreed to meet again today.
This is viewed as a pivotal week that could determine whether a deal is possible before the year-end holidays. At stake is the fate of the current and upcoming television seasons, as well as the livelihoods of thousands of production workers and others who have been idled.
Officials from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers declined to comment, citing a “press blackout.”
The negotiations come at a time when the studios appear to be losing the public relations battle with Hollywood’s striking writers.
In labor disputes, the public often sides with workers over management, said labor economist Dave Smith of Pepperdine University.
The writers strike has been no exception. Polls recently conducted by Pepperdine, Fox News and SurveyUSA each showed widespread public support for the writers.
Since the strike began, the Writers Guild has mounted a highly effective PR campaign against the major studios and the media conglomerates that own them.
Though the guild has tapped some media consultants, it has largely managed its public relations in-house, harnessing the writing talents of its members to promote its cause.
Befitting those who work in the entertainment industry, comedy writers have created caustic online sketches on such popular sites as YouTube and MySpace, lampooning executives as greedy corporate titans. The guild also has rallied support from celebrities, enlisting them to appear at picket sites, creating daily photo ops for the media.
The onslaught knocked the studios off guard. One week into the strike, alliance spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti organized studio publicity executives to wage a counteroffensive. At the same time, top media executives publicly downplayed the financial effect of the strike on their bottom lines, statements that were aimed at placating Wall Street but that at the same time alienated a large swath of Hollywood’s creative community.
As the strike has dragged on, studio executives have become increasingly worried that their side has been drowned out by relentless pickets in Los Angeles and New York. The writers’ blitzkrieg has triggered a heated debate within the alliance about how to burnish its public image.
Over the weekend, Brogliatti told alliance chief negotiator Nick Counter that she was stepping down from her day-to-day job as chief spokeswoman.
Brogliatti, a former Warner Bros. executive, has been consulting for the alliance and will stay on as senior advisor. The alliance is in the process of hiring a replacement.
Whomever is hired faces a formidable task.
“It’s clear the writers have won the early PR battle,” said Howard Bragman, a veteran Hollywood public relations executive. “The patient is bleeding out on the operating table and you’re trying to give him a transfusion.”
claudia.eller@latimes.com
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