I think I wouldn't have minded if it had been tacked onto something else ("Here's where we're striking, and, by the way, this is pretty funny."), but apparently it got its very own e-mail.

I feel like the Charlie Brown of fandom.

And yet you keep trying to kick that football...

The studios can play reality tv till the cows come home, but presumably they'll miss out on DVD sales, itune sales, advertising money from streaming shows and ultimately syndication that only come from scripted shows. So whereas the wave of reality tv might keep their viewing figures up initially, they'll be losing loads on the very things the strike's about.

I was talking to ND yesterday about how this is grinding down our local economy in a lot of ways. My neighborhood is a hotspot for lunches and dinners and coffee meetings, and my coffee bean is usually jam packed with people working on laptops. It's a ghost town.

Yay parking?

I've also been watching the apartment listings like a vulture. A VULTURE. Though I'm still trying to convince Tim to let me move in to the pool house in exchange for baked goods and dog walking.

You know, being slightly panicked about getting a cat sitter for Xmas, I think the dogwalking alone would be worth the price of rent.

This is what I'm saying!

presumably they'll miss out on DVD sales, itune sales, advertising money from streaming shows and ultimately syndication that only come from scripted shows.

Well, they'll miss out on a season's worth of that revenue. But there's still plenty of product available. Remember NBC's "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you" slogan from a few years back? Ten bucks says that we start seeing stories in EW and such about how catch up on current shows that you stopped watching last season, cult shows from the past 5 years to check out, what to watch on BBCA...

And even if they lose quite a bit of money, its only their entertainment division -- as long as the rest or the corporation has a good year they'll weather the storm nicely.

Can't let the other VPs know that I will miss my budget target!

This is so much more important than most people realize. It's kind of embarrassing to see it up close.

[link]

In a move that could realign Hollywood’s troubled labor front, movie and television directors said Thursday that they were prepared to begin bargaining toward a new master contract with production companies after the New Year’s Day holiday.

The new talks are likely to jolt striking screenwriters, who walked out almost six weeks ago after failing to reach a deal of their own with the producers’ alliance. Members of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East had lobbied the directors to stay away from the bargaining table until the writers came to terms with the companies.