Variety just announced that the Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative three-year deal with the AMPTP. The new deal has three major components: establishing DGA jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet, boosting the residuals formula for paid Internet downloads by double the current rate, and establishing residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet. Gil Cates, chair of the DGA's negotiation committee, says: "Two words describe this agreement -- groundbreaking and substantial. The gains in this contract for directors and their teams are extraordinary -- and there are no rollbacks of any kind."

This is great news for the DGA, and the pressure is definitely on now for the WGA to come to a resolution and end the strike. The writers, as you may have heard, have been on strike since November 5th, and representatives haven't been back to the negotiating table since December 7th, when talks last collapsed. The WGA has not issued an official reaction statement to today's DGA announcement, but many think the DGA deal is strong enough that the WGA will follow suit. Here's hoping that happens, and happens soon, so that everyone -- not just the writers are out of work here, remember -- can get back to work. The DGA deal is set to go into effect on July 1st.

The film industry websites were a-flutter yesterday when the news broke that Paramount/Dreamworks planned to send screeners of Dreamgirls to all members of the Directors Guild of America. The studio wanted to make sure the DGA members knew that Bill Condon, who directed the film, should be considered for the guild's 2006 award. Rival studios were in an uproar, because it was believed that the DGA prohibited the sending of screeners to its members -- but apparently the DGA had never formally adopted such a rule. As long as other studios were notified when a promotional DVD of a movie was to be sent, it was perfectly okay. As soon as this rule was clarified, you could bet that every studio possible was preparing to send screeners to the DGA's 13,400 members.

But before the pre-Christmas mail could be swamped with stacks of prestigious movies on DVD to deliver, the DGA decided to reverse its ruling. Dreamgirls will not be arriving in directors' mailboxes this Christmas -- DGA members will just have to hit a theater like the rest of us (although at least they can attend special guild screenings). The Wednesday announcement acnowledged that the previous rule was vague and misunderstood. Therefore, it was unfair to allow screeners this late in the process, since voting closes Jan. 8, without sufficient notice to all distributors to prepare. Next year, however, screeners will be permitted. Various mailing services and studio mailroom clerks are probably overjoyed. No word on how the Dreamgirls folks might feel about it, but if nothing else, the uproar in the media may have helped bring the film into the public eye.

Like virtually every other awards panel this winter, the Directors Guild of America yesterday named Ang Lee best director for Brokeback Mountain, his obscure film about gay cowboys (who yes, we know, aren't technically cowboys). As Erik pointed out when he revealed the nominees for the award, the Academy and the DGA almost always agree on this category: in the 57 years both awards have been handed out, on only six occasions have their honorees differed. This announcement, then, is sad news for Lee's fellow nominees, Bennett Miller, Paul Haggis, George Clooney and Steven Spielberg, the one surprise in the bunch.

Interestingly, one of the six exceptions to the DGA-Oscars rule involved Lee: in 2001, the DGA honored him for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but the Academy preferred Traffic, and named Steven Soderbergh their best director.