Bloggers on the Line Day

Another day on the picket line at Warner Brothers. But today was special in that four WGA writers who normally walk the line at various studios decided to congregate at one studio in the Valley and declared this Bloggers Day, inviting the readers of their blogs to join them on the line today at Warner Brothers.

Now I'm a non-WGA writer. I had enough WGA writing credits to get to be an associate member of the Guild at one time, but not enough YET to become a full-fledged WGA member. So consequently, I do not have to do any picketing, but I do it because I see the WGA as right in their demands and as my future. I'm still the person who has the 'day job' to pay the bills (often in support of the writers as script coordinator) while throughout the year (not on the picket line), I try to convince agents, studio execs, showrunners, and yes, even some of these writers, who are inviting non-WGA support people to walk with them, to read my specs so I can become one of them. So consequently I'm holding down an 8-hour day job, walking the picket lines, trying to end this strike by communicating with people on the Internet to help them understand the writers side, etc. etc.

Since I'm already functioning on 5 hours sleep a day doing this, I can't picket every single day. So even though I was not planning on walking the line today, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet JOHN AUGUST, JANE ESPENSON, CRAIG MAZIN, and JOSH FRIEDMAN, who invited us to walk and talk with them, as I don't necessarily get to the studios they are picketing.

I only attempted to talk to two of them, as I only can recognize two of the four and I only have time to read the blogs of two of them. So imagine my dismay that after I waited until they were free from talking with other people and I introduced myself, I got a perfunctory and polite hello from them and watched them walk away from me, without even giving me a chance to come up with something interesting to talk about. Now, I don't expect every writer on the line to talk to me, but I did expect better from those who had specifically invited people to come walk and talk with them.

Now, perhaps you are thinking that we are not there to socialize and that is true. It's grim business we are doing. But consider that we are walking back and forth across the same street for three hours straight instead of what we'd be normally doing: writing, watching TV, shopping, petting the cat or dog, even cleaning house. And the only things to keep one from going nuts with boredom are responding to the honking cars and trucks and talking to each other.

Perhaps I would have had better luck trying to talk to the other two of this group, had I had the opportunity to speak with them, but I had a satisfying tour of duty because of other people I did get to talk to - a couple of screenwriters for whom I only know first names, my writer friend MELODY FOX, and actor STEVEN CULP.

Before the strike, Melody Fox was on staff of the SciFi series Flash Gordon. She's a great writer, a nice person, and fun to be around. I don't get to see her often enough. I thoroughly enjoyed a discussion on spec scripts and I learned a lot from her.

I also spent a lot of time with actor Steven Culp talking as we walked back and forth across the street in front of Warner Brothers gate 2/3. This is a solid actor whose work I've admired ever since I first saw him play Bobby Kennedy in the movie, Thirteen Days. He creates wonderful characters, who are very real and moving. He was my favorite character in JAG, yes even over the two main stars. I liked him in Desperate Housewives, where he played Bree's husband, Rex. But I had just seen him do a tour-de-force guest role on Stargate: Atlantis, where I felt he was able to show more of the breadth of what he can do than in any other role I've seen. He was nuanced and moving as a man so desperate to save his child that he crosses the line into doing things that he knows are illegal and reprehensible and who is later devastated by what he has done and has to atone for. I really felt for his character and that was a hard thing to do considering what the character had done. Steven Culp had done a great job in finding the sympathy in this character.

I had been so taken with his performance that I had told Joseph Mallozzi, showrunner of Stargate Atlantis, in his blog how much I enjoyed Steven Culp's performance in that episode. How neat and serendipitous that only a few days later, I find myself walking the picket line with the actor himself, so I can tell him in person what a fine job he did. I would be honored if someday it works out that he is acting in a script I've written.