BoomerGirl Diary

The emails started appearing about a month ago. Come to the meeting. Turn up at the rally. Show your support.

Help!

My fellow latte-sipping, sign-wavin’, pavement-stompin’ scribes are trying to reel me back in! Don’t they know me by now? In my heart of hearts, I’m not much of a joiner. Do they think their daily missives will make me budge out of my complacency?

They do, indeed. Just check out this ode to solidarity that arrived the other day:

Hey, you. News flash! Strike or no strike, you’re still a captain. Don’t act so surprised. Didn’t you read the fine print? You’re in this for life, girlfriend… unless you’re too selfish to re-commit and enjoy being a social pariah. It’s up to you. But you’re too cool, too evolved, to skip out on your friends. So crawl out of that protective cocoon of yours, that bureau of dog hair and creative debris, put on your walkin’ shoes and get your butt down to the Screen Actors Guild headquarters. The actors were there for us in our time of need. We have to be there for them now. Got it? Good. xoxo, the WGA

I know, I know, it’s the right thing to do. But do I have to reciprocate right now? Must I show the love when I’ve barely recovered from three months of marching? I’m just starting to get some feeling back in my toes.

Such soul-searching consumes valuable time and opens up an agonizing debate:

Do I really want to dig around my closet and unearth my red WGA t-shirt? Do I really want to don my hair-flattening WGA baseball chapeau? Do I really want to revisit those sign-induced splinters on my dainty little hands? Do I really want to chant again?

Can I get back to you on that?

In the meantime, here’s a brief rundown on what this very heated battle is more or less about:

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) split off. SAG wants AFTRA not to ratify its deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). SAG thinks AFTRA’s deal gives too much away and that delaying ratification could benefit all actors.

SAG hopes to improve on the writers’ terms. That means higher residuals for DVD and new media. (This seems unlikely, but they might as well go for it.)

Other issues (not accomplished by AFTRA in its deal) include substantial compensation improvements for working actors, scheduling breaks and mileage increases. Product integration is another point of contention.

According to AFTRA, delaying ratification wouldn’t be in the best interest of its members, nor would it distract from SAG’s negotiations with the AMPTP. In a nutshell, AFTRA is “proud to have achieved major wage gains for ‘middle class’ performers and to have preserved performers’ basic rights.”

As you can see, it’s all a big hot mess, one that could actually result in another crippling strike. I get a headache and a sore back just thinking about it. Another strike would bring Hollywood to its knees. Everyone hopes it doesn’t come to this, but right now it’s anybody’s guess what will happen next. All we can do is hope for the best, expect the worse.

So I might as well pull out the ol’ strike-wear and have it ready… just in case. A new pair of arch supports couldn’t hurt, either.

There’s a captain’s meeting at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in two weeks. I might as well attend. It’s close by. I can sneak out the back and be home in time for “The Daily Show.’

Once a captain, always a captain. Or so I’m told.