Ananas

If you want more reason to believe the moguls are perfectly comfortable letting the stoppage drag on, consider this: early in the week, reports emerged that various AMPTP sources were trying to convince trade publications (namely Variety and The Hollywood Reporter) that the Guild negotiators were inexperienced and incapable, and that talks were likely to break down if the Writers didn't change their game plan. Around the same time, a former AMPTP negotiator in confidence revealed the organization's game plan in past negotiations, which included manipulating the emotions and hopes of the other side by teasing breakthroughs and pulling the rug out at the last minute. That report hit the net around the same time as a rumour that the Producers would leave the negotiating table on Friday and try to blame the writers. The moguls had promised the second part of their "New Economic Partnership" would be delivered on Tuesday, then continued to bog the discussion down in jurisdictional issues while delaying the delivery of that offer. Then on Friday, the AMPTP delivered an offer with an attached ultimatum: drop 6 clauses permanently or we walk. These clauses included provisions to ensure that the vertically integrated Big Six couldn't manipulate their profits to cheat writers out of residuals as well as protection for reality and animation writers. The Guild could not accept such an offer. Within minutes, the AMPTP had walked and issued a lengthy write-up blaming the writers for their ignorance and unwillingness to deal. The problem here is that each side is following a different story. The Guild, obviously, has taken a page from Mr Smith Goes To Washington, where good honest work and perseverance can get the job done. The Moguls, on the other hand, seem to be following Machiavelli's The Prince, and are perfectly willing to lie, cheat and steal in the pursuit of crushing organized labour in the town. This is a union busting issue. They're drying to dry up organized labour in Hollywood, and don't think the Guild is going to give into it. The AMPTP inflamed the situation, and knew exactly what they were doing. It was part of a long-haul play book, and if you really think that these guys will have a deal in the next month, well, I suppose you've seen Mr Smith Goes To Washington one too many times.

In fairness, that's pretty much what everyone's thinking and has been thinking since late October.

wwebone is almost certainly right at this point. Unless the moguls dump Nick Counter and negotiate for themselves, this thing is going to play out with offers getting only slightly less offensive until the SAG and DGA strike in July. I say SAG and DGA strike, because I think that this latest tactic is so underhanded that even the DGA won't negotiate with them. The fair market value proposal is an incredibly important element of this deal, because the business has become so vertically integrated that the company NBC Television does business with the most is NBC Universal Television Studio. If NUTS is licensing a program to NBC, do you think they're really going to charge fair market value? Meanwhile it doesn't matter if NUTS makes money, because NBC Universal is actually better off because they get out of paying residuals since right now they're based off percentage of a license fee. The issue with "percentage of distributor gross" is important for the same reasons, although one would certainly hope it would not be the case should it be with an independent producer. The deal over animation guild membership is important, because IATSE (which is a crew union, not a creative one) covers them right now and as such they don't get cash residuals. And Tommy Short, the head of IATSE (and a real Wise Guy, if you know what I mean) completely sold out the Hollywood unions so they could keep this part of the deal off the table. And then there are a couple of issues they probably could have pulled off the table. The reality issue is a non-starter for me. I'm of the understanding that most writers working as "story editors" in reality use it as a stepping stone to writing scripted content at some point, and the moguls aren't going to let the writers take reality with them should they ever go on strike again. The "morality clause" that Teamsters have that they don't have to cross a picket line isn't going to happen, so they probably could have left it out. But the rest was truly important, and for the AMPTP to issue a "take it or leave it" ultimatum about something so important is nothing short of offensive. Let nobody tell you anything else, folks, the writers came to deal and the Moguls fucked them for the third time. Let's hope Les Moonves and company are getting as tired of Nick Counter as the rest of us are. If not, we're in for the long haul.

I assume JtE is saying is that it's not "what's been released of season two" so much as "season two", since this is probably it until the fall unless some major strike breakthroughs happen.

I'm curious to hear these recent deaths that are more deserving of our sympathy. 33 year old guy dies, that's sad. And he, along with Bun B, were a great group and incredibly influential in the south. Big loss to the hip-hop community.

Ugh. Will someone get this clown Ferguson out of here? I can only imagine the amount of prospects/picks they'd have to give up to get Lecavalier. Awesome as he is, that trade probably doesn't make us a top 8 team and he costs 7 million a year. Meanwhile we're even more fucked until 2012 and won't even be able to take some of those high draft picks because our man in charge traded them all away. If this rumour is remotely true (and I strongly doubt it is), Ferguson needs to go now. For the team's future, it needs to happen now.

Cutthroat Bitch was the best of the bunch. Why they cut her instead of Kutner is beyond me. It's not like Kal Penn brings any big audience to House that doesn't already know the show.

They CAN'T keep Ferguson now, regardless of tonight's bitch point performance. It's out in the open, Peddy regrets hiring him. How can they possibly keep him around now that it's publicly known he doesn't have the support of the president? Time for the broom. Get another GM in place, and let him decide the fate of Paul Maurice. More importantly, get the board of executives to butt the fuck out of the day to day operations and let the new GM rebuild the franchise. I really hope the last few seasons have made it abundantly clear to MLSE that rebuilding isn't going to work through the free agent market. I doubt we're going to find any takers for Kubina, but I fully support making him the highest paid AHL player if it gives us some lee-way in the off season to at least take some lower-priced risks. Basically this team has an opportunity, which involves rebuilding towards 2011, when we can get the Tucker, McCabe, Kubina and Blake contracts off the books. At the same time some high draft picks, should we retain them and not trade them off to make this team 2/3 goalies, could be panning out if we don't draft the usual stinkers. If the Leafs want to win in the long run, it's time to stop playing for 8th.

According to today's Toronto Sun, Josh Towers will stick around with the Jays to compete for the #5 slot next season. This is a move more based around economics, as the free agent market this year isn't going to field anyone better than Towers for the same price tag. I like Towers, but I don't think that he's going to improve as long as he's coached by Gibbons. Competing with Gustavo Chacin, Jesse Litch and Casey Janssen, I can't help but figure one of those guys will up him for the final slot. Maybe he'll blossom in the bullpen.

Not even me. Kou whored it to me and I did not care for it. And then we got into an argument over whether anyone from Canadian Idol can be funny. I believe this show proves me right.

It was a word with a different meaning. The usage of "Californication" as a derogatory reference to the sleazy underbelly of Hollywood came with the Chili Peppers song. And since "Californication" the show is basically about a playboy Hollywood writer dealing with a sexual crisis, the band has a point. I mean the United States legal system is way too litigious, but through that litigious scope their argument is valid.

Californication existed prior to the song, yes, but the Time article Cloudy linked to that coined the phrase carried an entirely different meaning. That article referred to the great western emigration at the time, and the resulting over-development of Southern California as a result. The song refers to the sleazy underbelly of Hollywood. If you've seen Californication, you'll know that the title takes its meaning from the latter. The use of the character "Dani California" is just the smoking gun that hammers the point home. The Tom Petty thing is completely irrelevant. The producers are absolute morons for not clearing this with the band in advance. And I love the snide swipes at RHCP as "old rockers grasping for straws". How many bands sell half as many records? They've haven't released an album that moved less than 5 million units in 18 years. They had the top selling album of 2006. If they were trying to piggy back themselves to some sort of newfound success, I imagine they'd probably try to find a target with a slightly larger audience (2 million weekly viewers all reruns included compared to 7 million copies of "Stadium Arcadium" sold).

I have no idea about California Dreams, but she was on Scrubs (Gift Shop Girl) as a blonde.

Fuck Pushing Daisies. Make no mistake about it, Chuck is the best new show of the season. It packs superbly funny writing with great action sequences and awesome swerves. Every episode seems to top the last one. Schwartz has a hit with this show, and I really hope it doesn't become one of the victims of the strike. And that would be stupid, considering that every other new show NBC put out this year has tanked.

I wasn't really sold on the teaser, but with that trailer I'm totally there. Drew Goddard is awesome, and the director's an Abrams veteran so that's cool too. It looks like the sort of disaster/monster movie you don't see anymore.

So in other words, it's not racism. It's bias because he's an asshole. So LD is right. And to GhostMachine: I guess the reason Palmeiro isn't being indicted is because as far as perjury goes, they have nothing on him. Yes he did test positive for steroids, but it was after his testimony to congress. Yes he probably has done them for years, but the only proof they have is that he did it some time after his testimony.

For those who haven't seen, EW posted a one page excerpt from the script a while back. The dialogue seems totally up Banks' and Rogen's alley. EDIT: Sort of useless without actually proving a link I suppose.

It is. I was just listening to a clip of O&A from this morning where they talk briefly about the flick with Kevin. Norton's role will apparently be "small but memorable".

And it's the government charging him, not the MLB. What the hell do they care about whatever records he does or doesn't break?

I'd say he screwed himself a bit more by (allegedly) lying to a federal grand jury.

In fairness, Seth McFarlane and all other showrunners are technically in breach of contract for not showing up to work as hyphenates. That's probably why nobody in the guild is kicking up a big stink over this.

Did we talk about pictures of Tlusty naked leaking to the internet?