What would I do without Daddy Day Care 4? Dear Lord, Fuck No! Please!

Who will I take political advice from if George Clooney, and Tim Robbins aren't around?

I need Actors! I NEED THEM!

I said to her, "I don't care."

Screw TV and Movies

As of right now, most likely scenario is AFTRA makes a lousy deal with the moguls, the moguls try to leverage that against SAG, SAG tells 'em to stick it sideways, and the AMPTP gets serious about actually negotiating some time in early July.

A SAG strike will not happen before July 1 at the earliest, and then only if the AMPTP refuses to negotiate in good faith.

Meanwhile, the best way right now to support the actors and lessen the likelihood of a strike is to blog your support for the actors.

Seems to me that if you were paid to be in a movie, then the studio kind of owns it. If you sell a car, you cant charge a fee anytime the new owner wants to drive it somewhere.

More movies and TV shows exist than can be watched in a single lifetime. Even if Hollywood went out of business right now, it is theoretically possible for a person born today to sit in front of the tube and do nothing but watch old movies and TV 24/7, never seeing the same thing twice, live for a hundred years, and die, and still not have seen everything.

There is simply no need to make any more entertainment. Hollywood is done. Mission accomplished.

I'm not suggesting that no more movies should ever be made. There will always be creative people who come up with an idea for a movie or TV show, and want to make it. It would be nice to get back to a time when that was the Hollywood model (If there ever was such a time). It makes more sense than turning filmmaking into a career, where people are forced to create even when they have no inspiration, just because they gotta eat. It's kind of like a trap: you get into the business for the art of it, but when you've accomplished what you wanted to, you're out of ideas, but you can't retire or you'll starve. So the industry gets bigger and the product gets crappier, with no end in sight.

At least that's the way it looks from the outside.

...I forget what my point was.

Writers on the other hand, well, writers are needed even for the crappiest of reality shows, you guys know that shit is scripted, at least loosely.

During the WGA strike remember the numbers that were being tossed around regarding "how much" staff writers were actually making and how that made people's eyes pop? And how it made many say "What the fuck are you guys even complaining about? Get back to work so WE can get back to work!" Well, for crying out loud, now multiply that to even higher pay scales. What the fuck -- do you think TV news and other outlets are going to show the average Hollywood waiter on the picket line or send a camera crew to capture Brad Pitt or someone of that stature carrying a picket sign? And once they do, for fuck's sake who ISN'T going to be saying "What the fuck!? Brad Pitt is bitching about the money he's making?!" So to some degree it seems like the Producers realize that it's almost worth it to call SAG's bluff on this one, knowing full well that the average American is going to see all these "stars" picketing on TV and say "You gotta be shitting me that THEY are complaining! Oh, boo-hoo! I had to get up out of bed and read some lines and get paid a few million dollars!"

If you thought the PR war on the WGA strike and their payroll was something to see just WAIT till the Producers bring their guns to bear on the actors.

Overall, I can only say this: in my heart of hearts, as futuristic as it sounds, DarthPakBao above WAS right, though it is still a ways off. The Producers are biding their time till photo-realistic digital actors can just replace existing ones -- hell, who do you really want to see starring in a movie? Shia pretending to be an action star or Errol Flynn resurrected in his CAPTAIN BLOOD or ROBIN HOOD prime? These guys really don't realize how much the clock is starting to tick on them given emerging technologies...

The truth is as the Internet continues to explode and high speed broadband becomes ever more powerful and common place, more and more people are now interested in making THEIR OWN entertainment whether its tickering with home movies or making actual short films or experimenting in animation or whatever else strikes their fancy, especially given that cameras and computers and off the shelf software are making it far easer for people to do some seriously good-looking work. I just think that more and more people are enjoying that, a fact Union-centric Hollywood had better start recognizing. As a parallel example, it's similar to the way that viewership and ratings have plummeted for TV newscasts because more and more people are finding the news they want online, at which point they then like to spend their evenings NOT watching TV, but creating their own blogs and journals and websites and whatever. In fact, a recent poll found that 6 out of 10 people now prefer to come home from work and go online to relax versus watching any TV at all.

Now, do I think this will happen overnight? Of course not. But come on when it comes to actors and pay scales, is ANYONE really worth $5...10...or even 20 million a single performance UPFRONT versus simply getting a percentage on the back-end IF the movie makes money? And do I think the "community event" movie will disappear -- say a STAR WARS or LOTR experience? Of course not. But personally, I just think in the next decade or so, more and more people will want to self-generate their entertainment and file share it with others and have fun doing THAT -- I mean having a true sense of creative expression. Which should really send shivers up the spines of ALL the Hollywood unions because what are they going to do? Try to unionize everyone working at home or who tries to post their creative work online?

The truth is, in the digital age and as more and more things get produced away from Tinsel Town, Hollywood Unions are REALLY going to have to re-learn and re-adapt themselves in ways they haven't even begun to forsee yet...