Trade Roughage 2/13/08

By Karina Longworth posted 7 months ago

Around 7pm PST last night, WGA West president Patrick Varrone made the announement: “The strike is over. Our membership has voted. Writers can go back to work.” Only 283 of 3,775 voting guild members cast a ballot in favor of prolonging the strike.
But the Hollywood Labor Wars are hardly over. The Screen Actors Guild will start negotiating a new contract soon, and a number of super-famous people (including Ben Affleck, Charlie Sheen and Sally Field) are lobbying the guild to make sure only super-famous people are able to vote on the contract that will cover the entire acting caste system.
Steven Spielberg has backed out of its commitment as an “Artistic Advisor” to the Beijing Summer Olympics, on the grounds that China has failed to use its influence to intervene in the genocide in Darfur. “At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur.” Oh Steve––this is totally the “my dog ate my homework” of socially conscious mogul excuses. You can do better than that.