The Gvlshornbook

Thank you, unitedhollywood.com

WGAE
as we enter Day 6 of the WGA strike, Broadway will go dark save for eight (8) shows, when stage hands, go on strike as of today.

Broadway’s stagehands will go on strike today, capping more than three months of unsuccessful negotiations with theater owners and producers, the producers said in a posting on their Web site this morning. Local One, the stagehands’ union, was told last night by its parent union to walk out, according to two people who have been briefed on the decision.

The strike would be the second work stoppage on Broadway in less than five years. The musicians’ strike in 2003, which lasted for four days, was the first time since 1975 that Broadway was shut down by a labor dispute.

A spokesman for the union declined to comment last night. According to the Local One Web site, a meeting is scheduled for this morning at 9.

All Broadway shows would be shut down except for eight: “Cymbeline,” “Mary Poppins,” “Mauritius,” “Pygmalion,” “The Ritz,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Xanadu” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Those shows are playing in theaters that have a separate contract with the union…
The talks, which have been going on since before the union’s contract expired in July, broke down over the issue of work rules.

The contract with Local One has strict rules governing how many stagehands must be called to work, what kind of tasks they can perform and how long the work calls can be scheduled. League members say the rules inevitably lead to long periods of time when stagehands are on the clock with nothing to do.

The league has been pushing for more flexibility in deciding how many stagehands are needed for work and when they are needed, and they have offered a package of raises in return for that flexibility.

James J. Claffey, the president of the union, has said that the stagehands would be willing to make changes to the rules in return for benefits of equal value.

“Felxibility = Great Benies, Crap Pay”

On the WGA frontaganda:

Here’s what Sumner Redstone has to say about teh Intertubes and Viacomablity (h/t) to NoFactZone.net):

The Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. chairman Thursday morning applied his old industry mantra to the new media space in a speech entitled: “In the digital domain, content still rules.”

Among other things, Redstone touted his companies’ strong online reach compared to such recent phenomenons as Facebook and their growing advertising revenue coming from cross-platform deals.

While Viacom has sued Google’s YouTube, Redstone also called on media companies “to make it easy for consumers to obtain our content in a legal manner,” and content producers “cannot let the lack of perfect anti-piracy tools keep us from forging ahead in providing the best, most innovative, creative content to the consumer over whatever medium they prefer.”

You remember that? Viacom was demanding $$$ for the stream of clips, fanvids and so on. The WGA is asking the same thing from the studiorperations.

In his appearance at the Media and Money conference, organized by Dow Jones and The Hollywood Reporter’s corporate parent The Nielsen Company, Redstone started with some giggles.

“I do not pretend to be a technology maven,” he said. “I’m not an early adopter. In fact, I have reached the point in my life that I can best be described as a non-adopter. I don’t ping people with emails, I don’t blog or twitter, and I won’t be texting any of you anytime soon.”

hahahaha… oh. stop… you are killing me, Sumner….

Redstone argued four key points for media and entertainment folks during the rest of his speech, and said Viacom and CBS have done well keeping them in mind:

1) Consumers have taken charge, and there is no going back, so content providers must keep bringing their offers to all platforms.

2) “Advertising will “pay” the way — even on the Internet,” and so-called old media companies have a chance to benefit if they play things right.

‘Play things right” aka screwing the Writers, and actors.

3) Global growth opportunities are increasingly a two-way process as U.S. content goes overseas, vice versa plus U.S. media companies invest in indigenous programming overseas.

4) “Copyright is even more right in the digital age.”

Say what?

Redstone argued that with consumers having taken charge in the digital age, content must be “viral, ubiquitous and easy to use.”

And with 500 channels and 8 billion Internet sites out there, “digital means dollars for those with the best content,” he said.

Redstone said that mobile devices and content for them are ready to explode. Said the Viacom and CBS chairman: “It’s on-the-move devices that are the next primetime venue.”

Redstone said today’s business has become the “fragmented search economy,” which, he argued, “means we need to extend our content beyond our own destination sites, so consumers can find it more easily.”

see thedailyshow.com.

He lauded Viacom for being the biggest producer of mobile content in the world and said the firm’s Internet portfolio some 92 million visitors per month worldwide. “That’s double Facebook’s user base and lands us in the top 10 list of Internet destinations,” he touted. “Of those 10, only Wikipedia is growing faster.”

yet Time Warner says they are LOSING money… while AOL (Advertising On Line) quietly becomes their advertising arm.