Monday, March 28, 2005

Writers' Wars

Those of you interested in the squabble between the Writers Guilds East and West, which I discussed here, might like to read an article by Walter Bernstein [Los Angeles Times, they make you register]. Bernstein is a fine screenwriter — he wrote The Front, chronicling a tumultuous era in his own life — and a member of the WGAe leadership.

I agree with him that the most recent WGA deal was insufficient, though I'm not sure he's realistic about what it would have taken to get a better one. The little suggestion he makes about linking arms with directors and actors in negotiation strikes me as pure, never-gonna-happen fantasy. In any case, the arbitration is going forward and Mr. Bernstein's op-ed piece reads like he does not expect the WGAe to emerge unscathed. Note his statement that "...one union is more interested in fighting and even taking over the other." I told you that's what this was all about.

• Posted at 8:19 AM · LINK

Simon Legree Lives!

Several times here, I've complained about the term "support the troops," as in the accusation, "You're not supporting the troops." I think that charge is usually a bunch of emotion-loaded hooey...but there are those out there who literally are not supporting our fighting men and women. They include those who have cut back on pay, pensions, health insurance, etc. — but also, it turns out, finance companies looking to foreclose on their homes. I'll quote the first part of this article in the New York Times...

Sgt. John J. Savage III, an Army reservist, was about to climb onto a troop transport plane for a flight to Iraq from Fayetteville, N.C., when his wife called with alarming news: "They're foreclosing on our house."

Sergeant Savage recalled, "There was not a thing I could do; I had to jump on the plane and boil for 22 hours." He had reason to be angry. A longstanding federal law strictly limits the ability of his mortgage company and other lenders to foreclose against active-duty service members.

But Sergeant Savage's experience was not unusual. Though statistics are scarce, court records and interviews with military and civilian lawyers suggest that Americans heading off to war are sometimes facing distracting and demoralizing demands from financial companies trying to collect on obligations that, by law, they cannot enforce.

I'm quoting this because it makes me angry but also because I couldn't help noting: How many comic book characters have there been now named Sgt. Savage or Captain Savage or darn near any first name or title plus the surname of Savage? No disrespect at all to the gentleman in the above piece, but I did have to check the article's byline and make sure it wasn't by Stan Lee.

• Posted at 1:19 AM · LINK