Sorry for not writing more regularly, but have been walking the picket lines pretty much day and night the past three days and have been seriously fried by the time I get home. But tired as I am, my enthusiasm (not to mention that of my fellow WGA members) and dedication to this strike has only intensified the past past few days!
I’m not kidding, the energy of the writers on the picket line is truly amazing!
Spent Tuesday afternoon picketing outside one of the rear gates at NBC Studios here in Burbank, and though we didn’t get much traffic back there, I did meet some really awesome TV writers. Writers for HBO, NBC, FOX, basic cable networks like AMC, you name it, they were out there in force!
Many of the most passionate writers on the picket line were from “The Tonight Show” and since these guys are already feeling the economic pinch from not working, seeing them out there fighting for the cause was really inspirational. These guys kick ass!
One of the coolest things that happened Tuesday was when a worker from inside NBC drove off the lot and then stopped about halfway down the block. Calling over one of the writers on the picket line (obviously a friend) the dude in the car handed his friend a crate of bottled water he’d taken from the NBC offices for us.
Ha! Suck it, NBC! We’re quenching our writerly thirst with your pilfered studio water (pictured below), hilarious! We should have staged our own Boston Tea Party and poured it out in the street in protest, but hey, we were thirsty. So, we totally drank it!
No major celebrity encounters on Tuesday, but we did get a shout out from “The Tonight Show” regular and former fatty, Ross “The Intern” as he drove past. Honking, he cheered us on and gave us an enthusiastic thumbs up. That was pretty cool and on a side note, it looks like he kept the weight off from “Celebrity Fit Club”. So, good for him!
Later in the day, myself and couple newfound friends (both of whom write for TV and one of whom is actually a former client of my ex-agent, Marci Wright! Ha! Small world.) moved to the “front lines” on Alameda.
Standing in the area just outside the main audience entrance to “The Tonight Show” the three of us were photographed from across the street by David McNew, a news photographer for Getty Images. You can see (and even buy, if you so desire) our lovely picture and many more at: gettyimages.com
It kind of sucks that there are no actual “Tonight Show” writers in the Getty pic, but hey, we’re all in this together, so, I guess you snap a pic of one WGA member with a picket sign, you capture them all. Ha!
Anyway, will post more on my “split-shift” picket line activities yesterday — at CBS Radford from 5-7:30am and then NBC from 3:30-5:00pm — later tonight, until then, enjoy the pics and que viva la union!
make. see. eat. do. 
Did I read that correctly? 5 am? Wow…yeah, just wow.
I’m enjoying your updates, however I think it’s kind of funny that when other unions have gone on strike in recent years, I never seem to hear a peep out of you. But now that your union is on strike, suddenly you’re acting like Samuel Gompers!
I’ll have you know we never stepped foot once across the Von’s picket lines when they were on strike! And after getting all these impassioned, loud-ass honks from passing bus drivers this week, Christine and will do the same for them next time they go on strike too!
But you do get ten points for referencing Samuel Gompers in a blog comment, and ah, what the hell, another twenty points for even knowing who he is! =)
Ooooh, you shopped at Trader Joe’s during the couple of weeks the supermarket workers were on strike. Clearly you are the second coming of Mother Jones.
Haha! (BTW, do I get another 10 points for mentioning another historical labor leader?) 🙂
“The couple of weeks”? Ha! That strike lasted 5 months, smartie. Unlike your picket line-crossing ass, we never once crossed the line. Not only did we shop at Trader Joes’s we also went to Vallerta in North Hollywood! I don’t know who does your fact checking for you, but you should fire them, pronto! 🙂
Score one for you, Farmer’s Daughter Bean!
You may have won this battle, Christine, but you better watch your back, because you have been served!
;-P