Item #1: The 19-day-old stagehand strike of Broadway theaters is more or less over as the stagehands and producers have agreed to a tentative deal. Some shows are going on right now as I write this, others may take a day or two to get up to speed again. Says the Hollywood Reporter:

The new contract provides an unspecified raise in wages and gives the League of American Theaters and Producers a reduction in the number of stagehands required for load-ins, the period in which a show is first installed and mounted.

The chief benefit of being a stagehand, seeing actresses naked during rapid costume changes, was not addressed and therefore can be assumed to be intact.

Meanwhile, another tentative agreement has been hammered out between ABC and the newswriting staff. ABC’s 250 news writers have been working without a contract since early 2005.

“We’re pleased after three long years of negotiations to be able to make a deal,” said Jeff Ruthizer, senior vp labor relations at ABC. “We value our WGA-represented employees, and we look forward to a positive ratification vote that will allow both sides to put this behind them.”

Thus ABC news will go on. CBS isn’t looking so good. Of course with their ratings, they can’t AFFORD for the writers to not strike. And let’s face it, it’s the same news every couple of years anyway, right? Dan Rather reruns!

Carson Daly, host of NBC’s LAST CALL in the post O’Brien time slot of 1:35am, is going back on the air next week without writers. This puts him in the the company of Ellen DeGeneres, who has continued taping her show without writers. Daly’s move is a big disappointment to the WGA, who was counting on pressure from aging insomniac MTV fans to spur negotiations.

Finally, of course, this news: The WGA and AMPTP are talking in what are weirdly being called “double secret” sessions. While it by no means indicates there is progress being made, a lack of talks indicates the opposite. My money is still on February, with the writers getting screwed out of everything, but it would nice to be proven wrong.

-daniel k

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 12:20 pm and is filed under General, Stage, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.