Picketing Leno in the Rain

When we left for Christmas holidays, the word was that picketing would resume on January 7, 2008. But unlike other years, when things in the industry slow down to a virtual crawl during the holidays, things were happening this time. Letterman signed an interim deal with the WGA for his own company, WorldWide Pants, which owns his Late Night Show with David Letterman -- a smart move by a smart man -- and owns The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson -- after assuring the WGA that his company is the one that would be paying the residuals.

And Jay Leno continued to threaten to come back to his job without his writers, citing how he was forced to do so. Guess he wasn't smart enough to own his own show. Most likely, Letterman had foregone some rich payoff some time in the past to keep ownership rights.

As soon as I heard that Leno was planning to do his show again, starting on January 2nd, I wondered why the WGA wouldn't be picketing him then. Why they would wait for the 7th to resume picketing. But the WGA website still touted the 7th for picketing to begin again.

Because I'm not on any strike captain's phone list, I didn't get the call that they were indeed picketing the Jay Leno show, so I didn't know until it hit the news. Hence the first day I could join them was today.

And today was a great day to choose -- because it was raining!!! And I learned that it is nearly impossible to juggle an umbrella and a strike sign. There were some people with umbrellas, but they didn't have their strike signs up or didn't have them at all... and that wasn't good.

Anyway, I tried to juggle both, but if I had the umbrella covering me, the strike sign angled and jabbed people. And if I angled the umbrella and held the strike sign proudly, the umbrella jabbed people. Into this no-win situation, I finally gave up, closed the umbrella, got wet, and risked getting sick.

I was informed that we had hot coffee and I eagerly went to the bus stop bench to get a warm drink. As I stared at the pot, I realized that I didn't have a third hand for the coffee. With a sigh, I knew I'd be forgoing the coffee. And that was even more alarming than the fact that I couldn't take pictures either.

However, there was a couple of bright spots on the picket line. I found Steve Sears, writer of Xena: Warrior Princess, Sheena, Riptide, and many other TV shows, walking the line with his camera. The other prop that Steve is never without is his signature hat.

However, the clever Steve had a small, 4" by 6" strike sign sticking out of the headband of his hat. This left his hands free and yet, everywhere he went, he was displaying his strike sign. Because of the rain, he had it covered by a plastic sandwich baggie, how clever is that? And how cool. He told me he had made them for children's day on the picket line.

I told him I wanted one and he said that he planned to make more. I told him to let me know when he had more, because I really wanted one.... that would be so good for me as well. Steve told me that they were going to have a Xena Day on the picket line at Disney Studios on January 24th. Apparently, the fans have been going out there bringing water and food to the writers there. Not sure what Disney has to do with Xena, since the show was done out of Universal, but maybe Sam Raime/Rob Tapert's company is there these days. I forgot to ask.

Steve left before I did, so he gave me his little sign, saying he could make more. I was very pleased, however my Hercules baseball cap doesn't have a hat band to stick it in. No worries -- once I get home, I will pin it to the cap, for next time. However, wherever I carried it, people remarked on how cool it was.

I also got to walk the line with a very nice sitcom writer, Don Foster, Two and a Half Men. He said he usually is at Warner Brothers, too. So I'll probably see him there.

By the time I got home, I was soaking wet, jeans, shirt, jacket, even socks. Did I mention that I hope I don't catch cold?