Although the ongoing writers strike in Hollywood has forced the
latest episodes of some popular TV shows to halt production,
studios and their employees still have no immediate plans to return
to talks, officials said Monday.
No new talks have been scheduled since thousands of Writers
Guild of America members started a high-profile walkout on November
5, according to leaders of the writers union and representatives of
studios and entertainment companies.
Movie and television screenwriters declared the strike, after
months of negotiations failed to make progress on their demands for
greater residual payments from DVDs and from new media like
Internet and mobile phone downloads.
Striking writers since then have been picketing television
networks and movie studios in Los Angeles and New York.
However, entertainment media reports over the weekend quoted
industry insiders as saying there could be "backchannel"
negotiations between the two sides.
Some late night talk shows, which are heavily dependent on
writers to supply material related to current events, have gone
into reruns as a result of the strike, while primetime TV drama
series like ABC's Desperate Housewives and NBC's The
Office also halted production.
Hollywood writers last time went on a strike in 1988, when the
22-week work stoppage cost the US entertainment industry about
US$500 million.
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2007)