Word: sagging
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...shelter in San Jose, Calif., on a school night. Walk past the guard at the reception desk, down past the rows of slightly musty bunk beds, past the red-eyed guys slumped in front of a tiny TV screen filled with colored snow. Just as your heart starts to sag with despair for the human condition, though, stop and take a peek through the locked door on the right. The contrast couldn't be starker. You see a brilliant white computer lab with state-of-the-art PCs and a massive Ethernet hookup; rows of servers with blinking green lights...
...Manhattan and Hollywood, moguls might have preferred concentrating on the World Series, now that the dispute - between the producers of TV spots and two unions, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) - was resolved with major concessions on both sides. But the settling of Strike One simply filled folks with anxious thoughts of Strike Two and Strike Three. In a few months, contracts will expire that link actors and writers to the movie studios and TV networks. If either employee group walks, entertainment could take a billion-dollar whack...
...writer-producer is king; a David E. Kelley series speaks with his voice. In film, the writer is a stenographer fleshing out the notions of producers and directors. And like SAG, the WGA is a union with a few overworked millionaires and a lot of underemployed hopefuls. The difference between a strike and no strike is that in a strike, both groups will be out of work...
...Could this financial fissure lead to rifts in the guilds? The SAG commercials strike suggests otherwise: Stars like Harrison Ford, Kevin Spacey and Nicolas Cage put big bucks in the union's treasure chest and the spotlight of glamour on the little people. That doesn't mean the rank and file is itching for more picket-line time. "The actors just went through the longest strike in their history," says Ira Shepherd, who was lead negotiator for the advertisers. "That will have a moderating effect on their desire to do it again next year...
...Soooo predictable... Last week, we reported that Liz Hurley was playing dumb in her attempt to avoid being expelled by the Screen Actors Guild for crossing picket lines. This week, she admitted her error and tried to buy peace with a hefty contribution to the strike fund. SAG took the money and then said, "Burn in Hell!" Which is ironic, of course, since Hurley stars in Bedazzled opening today... I find it slightly disturbing that the London tabloids named Rocco Ritchie, Madonna's newborn son, as one of Britain's most eligible bachelors. The poor thing has enough to worry...