I like that you keep updating us on The Nines, but the big issue is the strike vote. At least to working workers. How about an in-depth post on that issue with your thoughts?
–Anonymous (from the previous post’s comment section)
Anon, I’m not on the WGA Board, nor on the Negotiating Committee, so I don’t have any special information or insight. All I could offer is conjecture, and that would be a mistake. I’m a fairly high-profile writer, so anything I blog would be given unwarranted authority. That’s why I’m not commenting publicly.
At the Screenwriters’ Dinner earlier this year, I taped something for a videopodcast that may show up one of these months. They asked about the (then upcoming) negotiations, and I described how my family was very quiet and Midwestern. When there were disagreements, they were handled in private, in hushed tones. But some of my friends’ families were always shouting at each other. I thought they hated each other, but that was just they way they communicated. They fought; they made up; everything went on as normal. Some families just have a lot of Big Drama, and once you accept that, it’s much less uncomfortable.
I try to remind myself of that when I see public spats between powerful entities who obviously have a lot of mutual interest. I don’t think Mom and Dad are going to get divorced. They just have stuff to work out, and it’s going to get loud for a while.