Striking writers reach tentative deal with studios

The union representing Hollywood's striking writers said it reached a "tentative deal" with studios and will meet members later yesterday to discuss ending a three-month walkout that has crippled television production and overshadowed the awards season.

The breakthrough was announced via e-mail to the 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who went on strike for the first time in almost 20 years on November 5 in a dispute centering on compensation for work distributed over the Internet.

"While this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success," WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship said in the memo.

Members will meet in New York at 8 p.m. and in Los Angeles at 4 a.m. to discuss specific terms, the ratification process and ending the strike, the union added.

The WGA memo said the tentative deal "creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid.'"

Officials from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the bargaining arm of the studios, were not immediately available for comment.

The strike has thrown the US television industry into turmoil, derailed several movie productions and idled thousands of entertainment workers, from actors and directors to hairstylists, set designers and clerks.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation has estimated the strike has cost the region's film and TV industry at least $650 million in wages, with over $1 billion more in lost earnings attributed to the ripple effect on the local economy.

The strike also has overshadowed the entertainment industry's annual awards season, even threatening to spoil the Oscars show later this month. Last month's Golden Globes awards ceremony was cancelled after the actors' union said it would refuse to cross the writers' picket line.

The last major strike to hit Hollywood, a walkout by screenwriters in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and delayed the start of that year's fall television season.