Posted on 01/11/2008 1:45:42 PM PST by bahblahbah
Longtime Hollywood publicist Julian Myers will turn 90 soon. And he worries the end may be near ... for Hollywood.
Myers frets that the WGA stalemate -- with all of its acrimony, vitriol and job losses -- is a harbinger of ill things for the industry.
"The strike impasse is speeding the end of Hollywood filmmaking and television production," says Myers, who has been working in the biz since 1939 and is still an IATSE member. "There are more union contracts coming up for renewal, and already unionists are crossing union lines. IATSE is urging its members to go right on through. Insults are being exchanged, faces will be bashed and fatalities are a possibility."
Myers, of course, remembers when such confrontations were more common. He recalls participating in a 1946 strike in which 900 unionists were arrested in front of Warner Bros. Studios and bussed off to a Burbank jail.
Now, with tensions again running high, Myers worries that the town might be consumed.
"Does a dying Hollywood need a civil war today to hasten its erosion?" he asks.
Good.
What strike? /sarc
WE can hope!
I think a lot of people finally woke up after 9/ll and the WOT who the REAL heroes in our lives are.
The strike may, God willing, be the icing on the cake.
Maybe more people will discover books and - OMG - conversation!
I'm thinking Flavor Flav, Anna Nicole Smith, George cLooney and Captain Douche-Nugget himself, Sean Penn did that for ya'. Don't blame the strike.
/sarcasm?
I think the monumentally crappy movies they’re making will do them in before the strike does.
I’d be happy to see it close down. There hasn’t been anything to interest me in years.
What he seems to be worried about is the end of the writer’s union. The end of the union is hardly the end for Hollywood, and might be exactly what Hollywood needs.
Let it be so.
Like it or not, Entertainment is a big business, and there's $$BILLIONS to be made in it. Eventually they'll solve the money problem and life will go on.
I am probably more sympathetic to unions than most Freepers, but there was a staggering stat about the TV industry in NYC and the strike. The strike of 500 writers had stopped an industry that in toto provides up to 25,000 jobs in the NYC area. Those folks are not working, and I think that fact is being understood in California as well as NYC.
There have been very few good movies I find worth my money to see. I don’t necessarily want to see H-wood movies go down the tubes, although I’m not crying major tears, either. I’d like to see movies start being made which are more family-oriented, without all the smart@ss kids and dumb parent types and doo-doo jokes, and more pro-America movies. Maybe, when and if the writers and everybody get back to work, they’ll realize the types of movies that would be real money-makers.
I won’t be holding my breath.
The WGA will prevail in this strike. The union is right in its stand, unified in its membership, strong in support from the public, and has already begun making interim deals with individual companies.
Only if we’re lucky! :)
The Film Industry is mostly blue collar. And that’s who’s suffering the most from this strike.
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