Both earned the scorn of the writers they betrayed, but at least Ellen made some gesture of solidarity by foregoing the monologue entirely. Leno, on the other hand—being the very giant-chinned embodiment of American can-do spirit—simply pushed up his blazer sleeves and wrote his monologues himself.

Being a WGA member, however, this was a direct violation of Guild guidelines, eliciting this terse wrist-slapping from the union: "A discussion took place today between Jay Leno and the Writers Guild to clarify to him that writing for The Tonight Show constitutes a violation of the Guilds' strike rules."

Now, one year later, the WGA is still peeved enough to be mulling a disciplinary action against Leno for peddling his stash of strictly contraband Dick Cheney and L.A. weather jokes. Variety reports:

It's understood that the guild has brought disciplinary proceedings against Leno, who is a Writers Guild of America member and writer for his NBC latenighter. The specifics of the proceedings are unclear, but the process should come to a head soon. [...]

That discipline may include "expulsion or suspension from guild membership, imposition of monetary fines or censure," according to the WGA's strike rules. There is also an appeals process.

We suspect this is more symbolic gesture than disciplinary measure—a premonitory, three-day-old carp wrapped in newsprint and left on the hood of one of Leno's old-timey gangster cars, as if to say, "Congratulations on the 10 p.m. strip, Leno. Now keep our guilded gag writers knee-deep in Funny Headlines, or Stuttering John sleeps with the fishes."

• WGA may discipline Jay Leno [Variety]

The Writers Guild of America has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Leno, Variety reports, and could ultimately expel or suspend his union membership. The union is upset that Leno wrote his own material in January 1008, in the weeks before the writers strike ended, allowing the Tonight Show to return to the air and compete against David Letterman, who owned his Late Show outright and was thus able to settle with the union early. Had Leno not come back, Letterman almost certainly would have clobbered him in the ratings.

NBC said at the time the union gave Leno permission to write his own material in a meeting and that the union's prior contract allowed him to do so anyway.

What ramifications a union expulsion or suspension would have for Leno's new 10 pm show are unclear. But it would definitely be embarrassing for the late-night host to be slapped by the union he publicly supported in a big way during the writers strike last fall. Sounds like the union isn't too happy with Leno annexing a huge chunk of NBC's prime time. At least the time didn't go to reality shows, guys. Those programs barely even have writers.

Those would be Charlie Kaufman, who made his writer/director debut on the criminally underrated Synecdoche, New York, and Jenny Lumet, whose Rachel Getting Married press tour made her this year's most-publicized young screenwriter outside of Dustin Lance Black. Black was nommed for Milk, and Woody Allen and Robert Siegel got some fairly unimpeachable nods for their respective efforts, but the Coen brothers for Burn After Reading? Really? And don't make us talk to you about The Visitor again, lest we be forced to bash a djembe into our skulls.

The full nominations:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen
The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy
The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
The Dark Knight, Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Doubt, Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Screenplay by Peter Morgan
Slumdog Millionaire, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

On both the front and back of the DVD, the words "A Christopher Nolan Film" were marked out. We initially brushed off the matter (assuming some posthumous Joker vandalism) until another tipster wrote in today about his own censored screener. "I just wonder what's the rationale - conspiracy to cockblock Nolan from Oscar consideration?" asked the tipster. "Secret WB plan to put Ratner in the running for Batman 3: Egghead Takes Gotham?"

We called Warner Bros. to find out, and a helpful publicist sighed. "You must be WGA," she said. "It's because the guild won't accept a possessory credit for a director." Thus, a poor awards season intern must censor every DVD with black pen. We eagerly await the day that the WGA not only retains the services of the "Unimportant Defacers Team" to enact web-wide cleanup, but sends Patric Verrone into every Suncoast Video in Southern California to scrawl over the terribly offensive possessory credits awarded to Space Chimps. Way to pick your battles, WGA!

Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Lost, Mad Men and The Wire occupy this year's dramatic category, with Lost filling in for 2008 retiree The Sopranos. (Dexter was the only one of the nominees to earn an episode nod as well.) In comedy, 30 Rock, Entourage, The Office, The Simpsons and Weeds earned nods, with the latter two filling in for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Flight of the Conchords, which return to the network next year. Emmy surprise Breaking Bad drew three nominations, including one for Best New Series, for which it'll compete against Fringe, In Treatment, Life on Mars and True Blood.

Pretty much all the late-night shows that get nominated for everything else were recognized today as well, with Conan, Letterman, Real Time, SNL, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show vying for Best Comedy/Variety Series. The awards will be announced Feb. 7; the full listing is available at the WGA's site. Good luck to all, and enjoy it while you can, Weeds.

• 2009 Writers Guild Awards [WGA]

The Guild sends word today that it reached an agreement with Perry after five months of negotiations, during which a handful of veteran scribes for his series Meet the Browns and House of Payne were terminated for attempting to unionize the staff. The catch? Those writers will not be coming back, according to a WGA release issued late this morning.

But, they added, the mogul "thanked them for their services and wished them well in their future endeavors." Surely that's of little comfort to the reeling Tyler Perry Four, who now confront the reality they may never again have the enviable opportunity to mass-produce Madea jokes for a Perry-starved populace. We hope the NAACP negotiators can sleep at night.

This morning, about 10:45am, I was returning some clothes to the Michael Kors store on Rodeo Drive when I had to cross a big picket line of shouting strikers (all male writers, WGA posters and banners) protesting "Project Runway." They had pulled the fire alarm on the nearby Valentino store also, adding to the noise of their shouting. I walked past them and the two security guards and went to enter the store, and upon opening the front door was startled to see Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum staring at me! They were obviously shooting a segment for the upcoming season, as there were lights and baffling filling the entire showroom. I quickly shut the door and ended up giving my good to a saleswoman who cam around from the back. There was a huge crowd watching all of this and taking pictures. I don't know how they are going to edit this as I'm certain the yelling and commotion could be heard inside the store.

While we sympathize with their cause, we would never condone committing illegal acts of vandalism or mischief in order to get a point across. Interrupting a location shoot with chants of "Heidi Heidi Heidi Ho! Klum and Kors have got to go!" is one thing, therefore, but setting off a neighbor's fire alarm is quite another. Besides—they could have achieved the same eardrum-lacerating effect just by having invited contestant Kenley to stand in the entranceway and talk excitedly about her new collection.

• Previously: Kenley Collins: 'Runway' Villainess Ascendant [Defamer]

Fox has ordered a primetime comedy-variety show featuring Ozzy Osbourne and his family, and has engaged FremantleMedia North America, the company behind American Idol, to produce it. Because they wanted to hire WGA members to write the show, Fremantle contacted the WGAW to see if we would agree to a sub-standard contract. Attempting to pay as little as possible to the writers on the show, Fremantle asked to treat it as “half-scripted” and pay greatly reduced writing fees to those writers who wrote skits, interview material, intros, and “outros.”

We refused to agree to such a deal because it would drastically undermine hard-won minimums and standards. [...]

Accordingly, WGA East and West members may not write for the Osbourne variety show (working title: The Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous). Any members who perform writing services on that show do so at their own peril as they will be violating WGA Working Rule 8 and could be fined up to 100% of their compensation for that work.

We agree, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our variety-show-patter-writing brothers and sisters. If they're going to conjure up golden nuggets like:
"Sharon: Say goodnight, Ozzy.
Ozzy: Grfbbbllhlrhhh.
Audience laughter"
then they sure as hell should be paid fairly for it!

• To Our Fellow Members, [WGA.org]

Jeff Hermanson, an assistant executive director for the Writers Guild, said the four writers — Kellie Griffin, Christopher Moore, Teri Brown-Jackson and Lamont Ferrell — had sought a union contract because they felt they were underpaid and lacked benefits. Matt Johnson, a Los Angeles lawyer representing Mr. Perry, above, said the firing of the writers was related to “the quality of their work.” The writers are planning to picket this weekend at the opening of Tyler Perry Studios, a 28-acre production complex outside Atlanta.

[NYT]

Fired from a TBS sitcom over the "quality of their work"? Come on, guy. Even an entertainment lawyer can't get that one out with a straight face.

They write, "By publicly naming names and encouraging people who have the power to hire writers to keep them 'at arm's length,' and saying they must be 'judged accountable, it is clear the WGA leadership is seeking to deny employment to these writers in the future. That is a direct violation of federal labor law, and as the employers of those writers, we have a responsibility to defend them and the rule of law in this case." The WGA quickly responded, saying the charges are "baseless and represent an intrusion by the studios into an internal union matter." We fear this matter will only continue to escalate, leading eventually to ugly and violent protests as the Fi-Core 28 are bussed onto studio lots to enact their basic, soap-writer's right to pen crappy dialogue involving serial-killing transexuals and the cancer-battling half-sisters who love them.

• WGA, studios return to corners [Variety]

They write that the fi-coring members "must be held at arm's length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are - strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk," a seething reprobation arrived upon after an all-night drafting session that saw the floor littered in crumpled-up wads of paper containing such rejected sentence fragments as "fi-ggots," "...strongly suggest you trip them in the studio commissaries," and "can suck our balls." The 21 black-listees are linked to on a separate page. A preliminary investigation reveals almost all to be soap writers, with the exception of U-Turn and Three Kings writer John Ridley. As for Michelle Lisanti, we have no reason to believe the former One Life To Live writer is of any relation to Defamer's founder and editor-at-large, or, to be a little more sudsy about it, that he may have been masquerading, Tootsie-style, as a cross-dressing daytime drama writer under our noses all along.

The letter follows:

Letter from the Presidents

Dear Fellow Members of the Writers Guilds East and West:

During our 100-day strike, the extraordinary solidarity you demonstrated on the picket lines and the courage and dedication with which you committed yourselves to our cause were not only an inspiration but also the key to making our actions successful.

In the face of enormous personal and financial hardship on the part of many, you sacrificed in the knowledge that your refusal to work would reap benefits not only for yourselves but countless others in the creative community, now and in the future. Your stalwart resolve paid off.

Yet among the many there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good. Extreme exceptions to the rule, perhaps, but this handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm's length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are - strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk.

While others forfeited paychecks to stand in unity with their fellow Guild members, many who went financial core continued to collect salaries. Without concern for their colleagues, they turned their backs and tossed the burden of collective action onto the rest of us, taking jobs, reducing our leverage and damaging the Guilds for their own advantage.

Even in cases of deep financial distress, there were other options, including generous no-interest loans from our strike funds, which would have sustained them until the end of the strike and beyond. That's what unions are for.

Those who went financial core did not share in the adversity; and should not share in our victory. They cannot vote in our elections, run for Guild office, attend Guild meetings and other events, or participate in the Writers Guild Awards. Further, it has been determined by the National Council of the Guilds West and East, and affirmed by Guild East Council and the Guild West Board, that we send this joint letter with a link to a list on respective websites of those who went financial core during the strike. To view it now and for future reference, you can find it at: subpage_member.aspx?id=2828.

The rest of us are all in this together.
Sincerely,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

• Letter from the Presidents [WGA.org]

"When your own union doesn't back what you've done, the only honorable thing to do is not participate."

So, where did it all go wrong between George and the Guild? Clooney claims that he found the 17-year-old-script for Leatherheads, written by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, and gave it a major overhaul. In fact, he feels he wrote all but 2 of the scenes in the period football comedy, and was incensed that the Guild refused to recognize his efforts. Clooney would have resigned from the Guild altogether, but that would mean he couldn't work on WGA-coverd productions anymore, so instead we went Fi-Core. According to producing partner Grant Heslov:

"Financial core was his form of protest, but when he did it, he didn't want it public. We're both big union guys. Between us, we belong to 12 unions. I think they made the wrong decision, and he was within his rights to respond by going financial core."

Amazingly, this all happened before the strike, but George decided to keep it quiet until now so it wouldn't have a negative impact on the protest. Damn you, Clooney. Even when you're angry, you're still a mensch!

• WGA, Clooney at odds over credit [Variety]

So imagine our delight on last night's Late Show, when host David Letterman introduced Counter and WGAw executive director David Young (close enough), there to commemorate the new contract with a vigorous round of tonsil hockey. Take heed, SAG president Alan Rosenberg: When the time comes for your own round of lemonpartyaid, Counter is notorious for slipping the tongue.

• Late Show with David Letterman

[NYP, NYT]

• Previously: The Strike Is Over! On Wednesday! Let There Be Rejoicing! But Not Too Much! [Defamer]

Those who don't want to kick their gloom habit cold-turkey can feel free to fret about the June 30th expiration of SAG's contract with the studios and the possible (if increasingly unlikely) walkout that could follow, or spend some time perusing today's "Was the strike worth it?" piece in Variety, which attempts to throw a sobering bucket of cold water upon those still drunk on this weekend's good news by making them consider the "here and now" losses incurred while achieving "victories in new media that may pay big dividends in the future." (Example: Did you know that some of the aforementioned showrunners may have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of dollars during the stoppage to help save writers' livelihoods in the internet age? They must be crazy!) In the interest of preserving the first days of positive feelings the industry has experienced in about fourteen weeks, can't we all go back to swigging champagne and not picking though the wreckage of the post-strike landscape, at least for the next 48 hours or so? No one wants his Monday morning hangover exascerbated by the tsk-tsking pal who insists you move the car you've parked on his lawn before your headache begins to subside.

• Showrunners back to work Monday [Variety]
• Dealmakers spurred by fear, loathing [Variety]
• TV's new developments [Variety]

The Screen Actor's Guild was planning a very painful contract negotiation sharing the demands of striking writers but predicated on the sad-but-truism that they matter quite a bit more for the continued profitability of show business. As the Times points out, film production has increased since the WGA strike began, as studios prepared for the "nuclear winter" of a combination writers' and actors' strike.

(SAG has quietly been involved in its own little battle with the more pragmatic [and less high-earning] American Federation of Television and Radio Artists regarding SAG's strength in the unions' joint negotiating committee. The WGA strike resolution mostly ended that little crisis too. NB: there is nothing more boring to write or read about than labor negotiations, even when those negotiations involve George Clooney and Hannah Montana.)

The WGA's west coast president called the walkout "the most successful strike in American labor in the past decade," which is ridiculously depressing and probably true. Until the great blogger strike of '09 that is!