Golden Globes cancelled : ( — Page 3

FlyingMonkee, it's getting harder and harder to resist the urge to tell you to go take a flying leap.

I have visited your MySpace page and you seem to be sincerely in love with the movies. Those films were written by people who could be your brothers or sisters, parents, friends. They have worked their butts off for years to get the attention of Hollywood and they did this with talent and tenacity and they deserve SO MUCH MORE than they get now. Our film industry has been taken over by big faceless corporation who think their film employees are as expendable as the cheap labor they abuse overseas. We are not going to let that happen.

If you really do love film, hang in there with us. If you're in New York, visit one of our picket lines. I guarantee you that some of the people there are just one or two paychecks away from the homeless shelters you volunteer in. I have friends who are hanging on by a thread or less. I have slept on many a friend's couch and that was during the good times.

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As a WGA member it's gratifying to see so many supportive posts in this thread. And Allofmylife's posts are outstanding, as always. But the misconception some of you have over the big bucks "most" writers are pulling in must be allayed.

An overwhelming percentage of WGA members are barely getting by, depending on whatever residuals come their way. Residuals, btw, are reduced sharply after the first rerun. Most TV shows now are entirely staff written - meaning maybe five people (at most) write the season. Sit coms have bigger staffs but the same rule applies. Free lance assignments are few and far between and those who don't catch on with a show are left in spec land writing on their own and desperately hoping to penetrate a market saturated with other people's scripts. This is harder to do the older you get because the writing profession, like all areas of show biz, inclines to age-ism.

The average writer goes through long periods of unemployment when he or she is living off whatever was made on that "big payday" a few years ago. If you have a family and a mortgage and all the rest of the accoutrements of middle class life it can be tough. Then there's the health benefits, which only come your way if you earn so much per year on WGA jobs - around 30 grand. Otherwise you're uninsured. So, for MOST writers, it's a struggle.

It's not fun being on strike and out of work and knowing that you're putting a lot of other people out of work too. But the issues currently being negotiated are incredibly important to us and to the entire industry. Most of you understand it and I thank you for that.

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I don't even know why I keep watching the Golden Globes. All I get out of it is an idea of who probably has a foothold in the Oscar race. So we don't have a big lavish ceremony this year. Save a few million dollars as well as any disappointment concerning the host (Ellen Degeneres, anyone?)

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Shouldn't writers be well paid? A List actors make tens of millions of dollars for a few weeks work. Why shouldn't us writers? It, nine times out of ten, starts with us anyway. I'm what a lot of people would consider "a successful writer," but I struggle to make ends meet. And it infuriates me to NO END when ignorant people like you, Flying Monkey, come along and belittle what it is we're doing. Is it really any of your business? Do we come to your work and tell YOU what to do? No. So piss off.

And y'know what, sport? Get comfortable in your income bracket, because people with bad attitudes like yourself rarely rise out of it.

Again, FlyingMonkey.........you just don't get it. Maybe, you don't want to.

The current salary of any writer on strike........a writer at the bottom of the totem pole, or one at the top of his payscale.....has NOTHING to do with the strike. You keep saying over and over and over and over again how they all ready make enough money.

That has NOTHING to do with the strike..........zip, nadda, zilch, nothing...........

Take it from someone who labored nonunion for years and got royally screwed while suits made billions, Flying Monkey. This strike is not about greed on the part of the writers.

Flying Monkey, should thou be so quick to dismiss writers? Your MySpace page is crammed with SCRIPTED things that you love in and amongst the vainglorious pictures of yourself mugging VERY MUCH ALONE to a camera. (Yup, I had to see if you were for real or just masquerading as an idiot.)

One of these days, God willing, you'll have to fight for something and times will be hard and you'll have to deal with losers like yourself tossing out dismissive epithets. I can only hope you get as frustrated with them as I am with you at this very moment.

Monkey-you absolutely do not get it. Each time you mention salary, how much writers make, etc. you prove you don't get it.

Whether a writer makes two thousand dollars per year or two million doesn't factor in. What this is about is that THE WRITERS DESERVE THEIR SHARE OF INTERNET EXPOSURE OF THEIR WORK. Now that share could be two cents or two million dollars-it doesn't matter. A writer may not even make as much money as you do, monkey, and even after he/she gets what they deserve, they may STILL not make as much as you do, but they will be getting what they deserve. Get it?

As for the theory that writers make more than the average person-let's say they do. They SHOULD. Does the average person create what hundreds of millions of people watch? Does the average person's work generate millions and sometimes more, for the entertainment industry?

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Updated On: 1/8/08 at 10:17 PM

You support the ACLU? The same group that supports Shirley Phelps-Roper's right to picked funerals with hate speach. Interesting. I once supported the ACLU until I saw what an over-the-top group it was. I do, however, support most free speech without any organization telling me to. And what's with the personal attacks on me? How old are you guys?

Updated On: 1/8/08 at 11:07 PM

FlyingMonkey, you have to realize that when you say something so outlandish, people will call you on it.

And now, a FlyingMonkey greatest hits compilation.

"Even by working at McdDonalds...selling fast food for a small wage you are helping the big wigs of McDonalds make billions!"

Yeah, if every burger made was a unique and original burger that had never been made before and could make money in perpetuity, your comparison might make sense.

"And the last time I checked the majority of the stuff on TV and in the cinema is not very well written, so maybe the WGA members should do a better job of writing."

If it's no good, people won't watch it online or buy DVDs. So the quality's not really an issue here, is it? In fact, wouldn't more residuals be a reason to write better?

To call me an idiot and a loser... shows what character YOU have.

And you're calling writers stupid and greedy. No difference there.

You support the ACLU? The same group that supports Shirley Phelps-Roper's right to picked funerals with hate speach.

Isn't the fact that they do that the best reason to support them? Proof that they will defend free speech to the end? Or do you only support free speech you agree with? The ACLU will also defend your right to go shout down the WBC, you know.

Updated On: 1/9/08 at 12:45 AM

Defending someone's right to go to a funeral with hurtful anti-gay signs and degrade not only every homosexual in the United States but also every service member who is currently serving this country and those who have died serving our country...no, sorry...just can't support a group of people who do that. It has nothing to do with difference of opinion. Everyone should have the right to say what they believe, but spreading hatefulness should not be "supported" in any way, and esp. not by the ACLU which also supports cgi child porn as long as not "real' children are involved.

Updated On: 1/9/08 at 01:21 AM