Did we need another reason to love Joss Whedon?

Probably not but here is one anyway.

Reporters are funny people. At least, some of the New York Times reporters are. Their story on the strike was the most dispiriting and inaccurate that I read. But it also contained one of my favorite phrases of the month.

“All the trappings of a union protest were there… …But instead of hard hats and work boots, those at the barricades wore arty glasses and fancy scarves.”

Oh my God. Arty glasses and fancy scarves. That is so cute! My head is aflame with images of writers in ruffled collars, silk pantaloons and ribbons upon their buckled shoes. A towering powdered wig upon David Fury’s head, and Drew Goddard in his yellow stockings (cross-gartered, needless to say). Such popinjays, we! The entire writers’ guild as Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Delicious.

Except this is exactly the problem. The easiest tactic is for people to paint writers as namby pamby arty scarfy posers, because it’s what most people think even when we’re not striking. Writing is largely not considered work. Art in general is not considered work. Work is a thing you physically labor at, or at the very least, hate. Art is fun. (And Hollywood writers are overpaid, scarf-wearing dainties.) It’s an easy argument to make. And a hard one to dispute.

That's pretty much the attitude I've been running into. Some guy the other (at a bookstore of all places) was nattering on about HOW MUCH writers make. He was responding to someone who was asking if House was going to keep being made (answer no, not after they use up the scripts already written) and he said he'd read something where some dude was saying writers made 25 grand when they turn in a rough draft and then another 20 grand the moment (cash on the barrel head?) they turn the first rewrite. And that all of Hollywood is "locked out." If you sell a script in Hollywood you're forced to join the union.

When I pointed out that this is just not simply not true, starting with the fact that TV writers tend to be paid a salary not a per script price, and moving on to the bizarre notion that everyone in Hollywood is union, (I totally forgot to mention that nobody in their right mind turns in a "rough draft" and that script doctors are the ones getting paid for rewrites) he said that he meant feature film scripts. I said a good one takes about a year to write and he said some people write faster than others. Which is true but so what?

Let's look at Ratatouille. This is a film that has made nearly 400 million dollars world wide. Let's say the writer got Guild minimum (I'm sure that isn't the case, but let's pretend) - so they made around thirty grand writing what became a 400 million dollar film. And the writer is greedy and whiny and shouldn't be allowed to go on strike?

Never mind that Guild minimum isn't even the issue - according to WaPo writers want to make a dime for each DVD sold and they want to make something for work that is distributed online. Oh dear god, let's flay them all now. The sheer effrontery! How dare they!

Look at this quote from the governor of California, someone who should know better, from the same WaPo article.

"I think that's a sad story," Schwarzenegger said. "Because the studio executives are not going to suffer, the union leaders are not going to suffer, the writers in the strike are not going to suffer -- all the people who have money." Rather, "the electricians, the grips, the set designers are the people who are going to suffer because they are not getting paid and they are out of work," he said.

How much money does the average member of the Guild make? I've heard that the average is less than five grand per year. While I have no citation for that number it's pretty close to the numbers I've heard for us, the members of the Screen Actor's Guild. I've made less than five grand for every year I've been in SGA. I remember reading a post at Will Shetterly's blog about a residual check he and Emma got for an animated show and the check was for less than ten dollars. (I think less than five but I'm going with ten to be safe.)

I have a question for everyone who thinks the writers shouldn't be on strike. How much do you think they should make and why?