“Speechless Hollywood”

OK, I should totally be sleeping right now as I have another long day on the picket lines ahead of me, but I just discovered these super cool videos that have been floating around town all weekend and wanted to post a couple of them here.

Entitled “Speechless”, the clips are the brainchild of two prominent WGA members, writer/director George Hickenlooper and screenwriter Alan Serebof, and were designed to serve as a series of online Public Service Announcements featuring A-list actors voicing (or not voicing as the case may be) their support for the ongoing WGA strike.

Though some of the clips are a bit “actorly” at times, some of them are really quite cool. And the idea behind them is awesome. Who better to get the message out there than actors? Rock on, George and Alan, you guys rule!

Airing exclusively at DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com (which also has some killer up-to-the-minute updates on the strike by LAWeekly’s Nicky Finke) until Sunday night, the clips recently began appearing on YouTube and a number of other video sharing sites out there.

Hickenlooper and Serebof plan to continue the series with one (or more!) new clips posted every day that the strike continues, and the talent they have lined up is pretty impressive — Woody Allen, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jane Fonda, to name a few — so future “episodes” could be pretty damn cool!

To see more of the existing clips and keep tabs on the new ones as they are posted, check out the “Speechless” blog at: SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com.

Strike Turkey!

Christine and I got back into town very late Sunday night after the long drive home from Santa Cruz and man alive are we tired. Had an awesome weekend with family and friends, but, wow, what a crazy drive home.

We actually came to a dead stop on Highway 5 three times. It was like rush hour on the 405 but with no surface streets to turn off onto. Total insanity!

Anyway, I promise to post an entry soon about the totally amazing Solidarity With Writers march and rally that took place last week in Hollywood, but for now, wanted to get these cool Thanksgiving pics online.

As you can see, Christine and I brought one of our many WGA “We Support The Writers Guild of America” mini posters up to my Dad and Wendy’s house.

Aside from displaying it prominently in the rear window of our rocking Saturn Ion on the drive up, we also posed for many goofy pictures with it and even incorporated that shiny red and black sign into the lovely floral centerpiece on our Thanksgiving table.

We didn’t plan any of this ahead of time (honestly!) but I actually think the sign matches those WGA-red gerbera daisies quite nicely.

That’s my Dad and I in the crazy picture with the knife, and my Stepmom Wendy sharing a turkey wing with Christine, but I think my favorite pic of all is the one with our longtime family friend Les holding the sign (below).

I didn’t even have to ask Les to pose, he just grabbed that sign and went with it!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone, and I hope your turkey tasted as good as the righteous strike bird we stuffed down our gullets all weekend.

I dunno…maybe I’m just being optimistic about the renewal of contract talks this week between the AMPTP and our WGA leaders, but hand to God, that winged beauty tasted like victory! Que viva la union!