Coming Soon: Maps to the Stars' Picket Lines

Picketing For a Piece, Day 3:

--Writing about the WGA strike might be compared to eating a hot fudge sundae in a roomful of dieters. We do it because they can't, and we're better people for it. Or maybe not.

What is indisputable is the fact that now's the time for tourists to beat a path to Los Angeles for some of the best star sighting opportunities (not counting stalking) in years. Forget the tour buses. Just roll on over to one of the picketed studios and there, sans entourage, you will find the likes of Matt Groening, Larry David, John Lithgow, Lily Tomlin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Albert Brooks, Judd Apatow, Marg Helgenberger, Jay Leno, Wanda Sykes, Eva Longoria Parker, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy ... the list goes on and on. They're walking alongside writers with pickets and, occasionally, pizza, doughnuts, coffee and bottles of water to replenish the energy of those expending so much on the picket sidewalks.

-- David Duchovny plans to join a group of strikers in New York on Thursday but voiced concern over the mandatory 20-hour-per-week picket requirement being placed on all guild members -- no exceptions! "I'm WGA, but I'm also DGA and SAG," Duchovny said on the telephone Wednesday, "so what I fear is that I'll ultimately be picketing 12 hours a day. Let me just say, that's a pretty big commitment."

-- My favorite current concern (aside from that of Duchovny): "What will become of the porn industry?" I think I echo those same anxieties. Take away the writing and you've got, well, uh ... OK, maybe that's not the best example.

-- It's become all too clear that legendary mime Marcel Marceau, who died earlier this year, was tragically taken from us too soon. Pretty much the only actor unaffected by the current walkout, and he's not around to appreciate it. There's some terrible irony in that.

-- Most voiced sentiment currently making the rounds: "If they don't figure out a way to settle this thing in the next week or 10 days, there's no way they'll get it done before next year."

-- Also hearing that the strike zones are becoming popular impromptu singles mixers. Rarely has the term pickup line been quite so literal.

(Photo courtesy Los Angeles Times)

Comments

[Mo]

Sighting: entire cast of Grey's Anatomy picketing at the Prospect Studios today.