Jay Leno, appearing on his first live Tonight show since the writers' strike began two months ago, surprised viewers by delivering a funny monologue that, he admitted during the course of it, he had written himself. Although Leno said, "We are following the guild thing. ... We can write for ourselves," the WGA's strike rules specifically prohibits "all writing by any Guild member that would be performed on-air by that member (including monologues, characters, and featured appearances) if any portion of that written material is customarily written by striking writers." Each of the late-night hosts asserted that they support the striking writers. At one point, David Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants company negotiated a separate agreement with the WGA, said, "You're watching the only show on the air that has jokes written by union writers." He then added, "I hear you at home thinking to yourself, 'This crap is written?'" On his show, however, Jimmy Kimmel, while also voicing support for the writers, criticized their tactics in targeting Leno and O'Brien: "I don't want to depart too much from the party line, but I think it's ridiculous. Jay Leno, he paid his staff while they were out. Conan did the same thing. I don't know. I just think at a certain point you back off a little bit." Kimmel also introduced a new feature called "Greatest Moments for Which Residual Payments Are Made to Our Unemployed Writers," intended to present segments of previous projects so that the writers who created them can receive residuals. Craig Ferguson's entire show featured such material. All of which raised the question, did the late-night writers receive residuals during the previous two months while the shows were being rerun -- and won't now? (Most late-night episodes are never rerun and therefore writers on them rarely receive residuals.) NBC did not respond to an email inquiry concerning residual payments to writers and performers during the strike -- but the question could raise debate about the inherent fairness of the residual system if striking workers in the industry have continued to receive payments while other workers, who do not traditionally receive residuals, ranging from top cinematographers, lighting directors and special-effects creators to grips, production assistants, and engineers have not.




03/01/2008