The Front Page: November 12, 2007

By Randee Dawn

StrikeWatch, Day 8
Or is it Day 6? Do weekends count in StrikeWatch terms? I say: YES. Prove me wrong.

Now that we've got that cleared up, I'd like to note that the big rat on the front cover of today's Premier Edition has nothing to do with the strike. 'Tis merely Remy of "Ratatouille," indicating that today's issue is more animated than usual: it's the Oscar Watch Animation issue, in which Homer (Simpson) will go up against Beowulf and a culinary rodent (among other films, of course) to prove once and for all that This Oscar Category Needs Subcategories. Animation produces some of the most creative and beautiful images on the screen today, but there's no way you can tell me that "Bee Movie" should be going head-to-head (or stinger to hijab) with "Persepolis." As Debra Kaufman notes in her story, there could very well be a dark, doughnut-eating horse in this race: "Traditional animators are looking at the 2-D hand-drawn 'Simpsons' as the great white hope," says Animation Guild president emeritus Tom Sito. "It's the idea that hand-drawn animation isn't dead and buried."

Speaking of dead and buried, it might be time to start a Strikewatch 2: The Revenge, as now Broadway stagehands have also taken to the pickets. Some theaters are still up and running -- nonprofit companies run certain theaters and then there are the independents and Disney -- but there's a lot of nervousness from holiday-themed productions like the return of "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical." "I don't know if we can survive," says "Grinch" producer James Sanna in Andrew Salomon's piece. "It's a holiday family show with a limited run."

Also in today's issue, the AMPTP is continuing its series of Dada-esque advertisements, this time "Setting the record straight" with five factoids that come across with a slam poetry stridency: "As the WGA knows and its own records will attest, writers are paid residuals on permanent digital downloads. As the WGA knows and its own records will attest, writers are paid residuals on pay-per-view digital downloads." Etc. With copy like this being published, it's pretty clear that AMPTP needs to settle, and soon -- they need better writers.