A devastating, 100-day walkout that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill ended when Hollywood writers voted to lift their union's strike order and return to work yesterday.
The move allows some TV series to return this spring with a handful of new episodes. It also clears the way for the Academy Awards to be staged on Feb. 24 without the threat of pickets or a boycott by actors that would have dulled the glamour of Hollywood's signature celebration.
"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry," Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp said on Tuesday.
Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, collapsed in acrimony in December.
Residuals for TV shows and movies distributed online was the most contentious issue in the dispute involving the 12,000-member union and the world's largest media companies and other producers.
Under a tentative contract approved on Sunday by the union's board of directors, writers would get a maximum flat fee of about US$1,200 for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in year three -- a key union demand.
Other provisions include increased residual payments for downloaded movies and television programs.
"These advances now give us a foothold in the digital age," said Patric Verrone, president of the West Coast guild. "Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as television migrates to the Internet."
Writers who voted on Tuesday in New York and Beverly Hills, California, were overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike: 3,492 voted yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job.
Most writers were happy about the outcome and eager to return to work.
"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff," said Chris Mundy, co-executive producer of CBS' drama Criminal Minds.
He hopes to get a couple of scripts in the pipeline right away, with about seven episodes airing by the end of May.
Not all shows will get back on the air. Networks might not resume production of low-rated programs that have a questionable future.
The strike took a US$3.2 billion toll in direct and indirect costs on the economy of Los Angeles County.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS