Recent Moves by Guild Leaders Rattle Writers’ Talks

Source: NYT

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — Promising closed-door talks aimed at settling Hollywood’s three-month-old strike by movie and television writers have been jolted in the last few days by the actions of some prominent guild leaders.

Phil Alden Robinson, best known as the writer and director of “Field of Dreams” and a member of the governing board of the Writers Guild of America West, has publicly called for a toughened bargaining position. He expressed wariness over modeling any prospective deal on a new contract recently reached between production companies and the Directors Guild of America.

His critique was posted Tuesday on a Web site called United Hollywood and linked on the guild’s site, and came despite a news blackout and an earlier request by the guild’s president, Patric M. Verrone, that members show restraint during ticklish informal talks that may lead to a resumption of formal negotiations.


Chris Polk/Filmmagic.com, via Associated Press
Phil Alden Robinson, center, wrote and directed “Field of Dreams.” He has called for the guild to toughen its stance.

That development came amid some reduction in the good will from a Friday peace-making dinner that matched Mr. Verrone and his chief lieutenant, David J. Young, with Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, and his labor relations chief, Harry Isaacs.




Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/business/media/31strike.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin