Monday, November 5, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Strike Watch: This Week on at 30 Rock
The striking (sorry) Tina Fey pickets the site of her fictional show and her real employer.
The TV and movie screenwriters' strike is, of course, about significant issues: the value of labor in the digital age, the shifting paradigms of entertainment, the importance of Hollywood in the national discourse. But let's not lose sight of what's really important: celebrity sightings!
This morning I walked the block and change from my TIME office to the WGA picket site at NBC headquarters--30 Rockefeller Plaza--and one of the first strikers I saw on the barricades was 30 Rock's Tina Fey. I buttonholed her for a pic (apologies for my inept photojournalism) and a couple quick questions.
Fey, obviously, was there not just because she's a writer but because she's a celebrity, and thus bait for suckers in the media like me. What does she say, then, about the perception that the strike is a battle between the haves and the have-mores?
"Yeah, to the outside eye, I guess this looks like some pretty lucky people arguing with some very lucky people," Fey said. "We have dream jobs that most people would want to have. That doesn't mean that it's OK for the conglomerates that produce our shows to rip us off." Rip-off, of course, is a subjective term, with the networks and studios arguing that the online distribution of shows--the money from which is the central issue of the strike--is still a financial question mark. Fey, unsurprisingly, doesn't buy it: "These companies clearly smell that the Internet is where their future profits are coming from. If you look at NBC breaking off with iTunes and trying to start their own thing and raise the price, it's because they know this is where the money's going to be."
As for where she's going to be, Fey will be going back across the river to Queens for four more days of shooting on an episode of 30 Rock that there's already a script for. Isn't this at odds with her Liz Lemonian devotion to the rights of proletarian scribes? "NBC has made clear to me that I'm contractually obligated to show up as an actor," she says. "We're not doing any rewriting. We're shooting what we have on the page."
Then it's back to the picket line, where this morning she was joined by the likes of The Daily Show's British correspondent, John Oliver, and a whole slew of rubberneckers. TV's loss is NYC tourism's gain.
8 Comments to “Strike Watch: This Week on at 30 Rock”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
About Tuned In
James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or -- once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers -- in your dreams themselves. Read more
RSS Feed
 |
Daily Email
Recent Posts
Tuned In - TIME.com Archives
Blogroll
- Aaron Barnhart’s TV Barn
- About Last Night
- Alan Sepinwall
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Blogher Career
- Brazen Careerist
- BuzzMachine
- Defamer
- Heather Havrilesky
- James Wolcott
- Matt Zoller Seitz
- Maureen Ryan
- Melanie McFarland
- Metafilter
- Peter Ames Carlin
- Popwatch
- Romenesko
- Television Without Pity
- Tim Goodman
- TV Guide blogs
- TV Newser
- TV Tattle
- Undercover Black Man
- Virginia Heffernan
- Zap2It’s TV Blog
More TIME Blogs
http://rss.time.com/web/time/rss/top/index.xml
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Top Photoessays and Slideshows
- Venice Floods
- 20th Century Britain in Pictures
- Pictures of the Week
- Mumbai Sifts Through the Rubble
- Two Days of Terror in Mumbai
- Over 100 Dead as Terrorist Attacks Overwhelm Mumbai
- Photos: The Kitsch of Thanksgiving
- Animated Movies: Not Just for Kids
- Photos: Anbar Sheiks Come Together
- Photos: Two Decades of Guns N' Roses
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 1:11 pm
If I'm not mistaken, Tina Fey and many other writers are also producers of the shows they write for. Doesn't that put them on both sides of the picket line? Why would they side with the writers if the earn more money as producers? I wouldn't have the guts to potentially derail a gravy train job like producing a successful TV series.
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 1:32 pm
If you think dealing with TV writers' strikes is bad, try living in Europe, where our transportation, postal and air travel systems are routinely nonexistent for days on end while the unions negotiate. It's a lot easier to sympathize with the workers when you're watching a DVD than it is when you're biking in the snow to work.
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Love the photo caption.
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 4:00 pm
That is a very striking Tina Fey.
I've always seen her as a cute & adorable.
My favorite strike quote thus far comes from this Saturday's SNL Weekend Update. (Fey's old gig)
Studio Head Trivanti says: "Working writers on average make over $200,000 a year. So you can see why we have problems when you cry poverty and go on strike."
The first comment by KDH was interesting. It led me to wonder if the strikers were striking against Producers as in the people who call themselves producers, or Producers as in the corporations that actually produce (make) the shows. I'm thinking it's the latter.
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Showrunners like Tina Fey are writers and producers. Shawn Ryan of The Shield and The Unit has made a statement as to why he's refusing to do any writing OR producing work on his shows:
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/showrunner-explains-why-hes-on-strike/
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Anyone can be called a producer. The writers are on strike against the actual production companies (studios) which finance the shows and movies we see. these studios are the ones putting up the money, and making the most money. but they are also responsible for the (shady) accounting that goes into the profit sharing. they also distribute the material and the residuals.
the writers want a residual when a show/movie is viewed on line. the studio sells it or sells advertising and the writers are entitled to a piece.
they also want a raise on the dvd residual of 4 cents. this is a number which was negotiated in 1984. do you think there are any studio execs who haven't gotten a raise since 1984?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 7:55 pm
"That is a very striking Tina Fey.
I've always seen her as a cute & adorable."
Tina Fey is cute & adorable? She looks hideous in that picture! Without camera tricks and make-up, she looks like any other hag off of the streets.
She should be the lead star in "Ugly Tina", which should come on NBC the same time as "Ugly Betty". Two uglies going head-to-head makes for true entertainment value! It would be like watching two animals fight to the death.
Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Yadgyu, I don't know what planet you're on, but it's not the same one as the rest of us...
Tina Fey is HOT, and that's a great pic!