It's the end of the strike as we know it, and I feel fine!

Yes, writers across America are heading back to work today. The strike started on November 5th of last year, and has lasted over three months. The WGA and the AMPTP have been building toward a conclusion for a couple weeks now, so the wrap-up doesn't come as a huge surprise. Still, it sure is great to see an official announcement, isn't it?

Members of the WGA voted on the issue, and the decision was a landslide. 3,775 ballots were cast, and 3,492 of those voters checked "yes." That's a total of 92.5% in favor of ending the strike. So, a few holdouts -- 283 to be exact -- but by and large Guild members are very happy with the new contract. The official ratification of the deal is slated for February 26th.

WGA East President Michael Winship announced that "We're (now) receiving a percentage of the distributor's gross, which is very real money, as opposed to what people refer to as creative or Hollywood accounting."

Don't worry, awards show junkies. It looks like a celeb-packed, picket-free Academy Awards broadcast is going to happen after all. Variety reports that members of the Writers Guild of America approved the new AMPTP contract agreement at meetings held yesterday in Los Angeles and New York. WGA leaders are assembling today to formally recommend ratifying the deal, and to approve a "special 48-hour vote" among Guild members. Heading into the weekend, many speculated that the Guild leaders were going to make a back-to-work announcement for Monday morning. Writers will not technically be back to the drawing board tomorrow, but many people will be unofficially preparing scripts.

The main sticking point of the deal -- as discussed in this week's edition of "The Write Stuff" -- was that the studios wanted to stream programs on the Internet for a period of 17 - to -24 days without paying residuals to the writers. That clause still stands in the agreed upon deal, and it appears both sides have realized that there has to be some give-and-take with any deal. At yesterday's meeting, WGA West Executive Director David Young explained to members that the AMPTP was unwilling to budge on the free streaming period due to concern about declining television ratings, and his explanation pleased most of the writers. So, it seems safe to say at this point that the strike is officially ending. If the vote goes according to plan, writers are expected to be back at work Wednesday at the earliest. A more conservative TV pilot season should get underway. New episodes of your favorite programs should make it to air by the end of the season. And feature films that had been stalled by the strike are expected to start back up again immediately.

A press conference to announce all of this is scheduled for today at noon Pacific Time. This is fantastic news, and congratulations to all!

At last, there is some light at the end of the WGA strike tunnel. Meetings are scheduled in New York and Los Angeles this Saturday, and the purpose is to convince Guild members that the contract WGA leaders have been hammering out with the AMPTP is worthy of bringing the now three month-old strike to a close. The WGA's 10,500 members will vote on the issue, and if they approve, WGA leadership could send its members back to work as soon as Monday. The strike won't officially be over until the decision has been ratified -- likely two weeks, but the Oscars would go on as planned, new television episodes could be scripted, and the TV pilot season might be salvaged.

Living in Los Angeles, all I hear is strike talk. I was told this weekend that the strike would absolutely end yesterday. Didn't happen. I was told several times that it will definitely be over by Friday. That's not going to happen. Now I'm hearing next week for sure, and this official Saturday meeting would seem to support that. But it's not a done deal by any means. Late Monday, WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman sent an e-mail to Writers Guild members that read: "While we have made important progress since the companies re-engaged us in serious talks, negotiations continue. Regardless of what you hear or read, there are many significant points that have yet to be worked out."

In other words -- the finish line is in sight. But there's no guarantee they're gonna run through it.

It's Day 87 of the Writers Guild Strike. Informal meetings are taking place between the WGA and the AMPTP...that will hopefully lead to official meetings. (Doesn't it seem like there should be more effective means of conducting business than meeting to prepare to meet?) The Directors Guild recently cut a deal with the AMPTP, and many hope the WGA will follow suit. Others don't feel the DGA deal is reasonable. National Screen Actors Guild Executive Director Doug Allen and SAG President Alan Rosenberg just sent an e-mail to members of SAG criticizing the DGA deal, and claiming they would not accept similar proposals. Then DGA President Michael Apted criticized SAG for their criticisms. Scripted television production in Los Angeles has officially stopped. Everyone seems to want an end to this madness in time for the Academy Awards, but tensions seem to be just as high as they ever were.

The strike has brought about a lot of interesting and insightful comments from Cinematical readers. As I've mentioned before, the comments we get here at the site range from "UR gay!" to thought-provoking discussion. We read 'em all, and appreciate (most of) them greatly. I thought this might be a good time to highlight some recent strike talk from our readers, and to encourage even more. Whether I agree with all of these opinions or not, it's great to see an important issue like this being discussed.

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.

Spyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense, Shanghai Noon) is the latest studio to make an interim, independent agreement with the Writers Guild of America. Spyglass joins David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's United Artists, Media Rights Capital, and The Weinstein Company. These interim deals basically mean that the studios will agree to the WGA's demands during the strike, and in exchange they can do business with members of the Writers Guild.

In other strike news, the Academy Awards will be picketed by the WGA if a deal is not reached by the February 24th ceremony. (And since there are currently no negotiations even scheduled, that seems unlikely.) The WGA recently granted a waiver allowing a couple of writers to work on the NAACP Image Awards, but the Academy Awards will receive no such waiver. WGA West President Patric Verrone says, "The Guild examines each request like this individually and no decision is easy. Our ultimate goal is to resolve this strike by achieving a good contract. Because of the historic role the NAACP has played in struggles like ours, we think this decision is appropriate to jointly achieve our goals."

If you have been watching The Daily Show (or as Jon Stewart now calls it, A Daily Show) since its writer-less return, you've likely noticed the show has lost a lot of its zing. Stewart is a very funny man, but he can't do it all by himself. And if he's up there winging it as the host of the Oscars, it could be a mighty awkward evening. Now, there's no way the Oscars will crash and burn like the Golden Globes did. Even stripped down, I don't think anyone could have anticipated the fiery train wreck that is Billy Bush -- the guy makes Ryan Seacrest look like Johnny Carson. But if the threat of a far crappier than usual Academy Awards ceremony -- traditionally Hollywood's biggest night -- doesn't bring the strike to the end, I keep hearing this thing could go on for a very long time.

This is a bummer, man. A big ol' bummer. Let's hit up some Q & A:

Well friends, the WGA strike rages on. And on. And like the old Christmas song says: "It doesn't show signs of stopping." The Broadway strike briefly crippled New York City's economy, but it was over in nineteen days. The WGA Strike is on day #38. That's week #6. That's month #2. And there's no end in sight. We're reaching the point where people are going to start losing homes, if they haven't already.

Do you know the old joke about the aspiring actress who was so naive she slept with the screenwriter to get ahead? There's a lot of truth there. Screenwriters don't get near enough respect. That may be coming to light more now that the strike is on, but it's been going on for decades. It's gotten so bad that a lot of the huge blockbusters start filming without a completed script! Like, a lot of them.

Can you name me five screenwriters? OK, five screenwriters who don't also direct? In movie reviews, your average critic will gush about how great Brad Pitt's performance was for five paragraphs, then mention the screenplay in passing, if at all. Guess what? All those pretty words coming out of Mr. Pitt's pretty mouth originated somewhere. Directors and actors tend to get all the credit for a movie's success. Unless a movie sucks, then it's -- "Who wrote this garbage?" Where is the love?

If a movie is a salad, then the screenplay is the lettuce. You can throw all the bacon and cheese and croutons in a bowl that you want, but if you don't have a strong, solid base of high-quality lettuce? My friend, you don't have a salad. With me throwing out razor-sharp analogies like that, I think you can tell that you've come to the right place for writing advice.

Members of the Writers Guild of America overwhelmingly backed a strike authorization on Friday evening, with over 90% of members voting in favor of a strike authorization, according to Variety. Nearly half of WGA members voted, with 5,507 ballots cast. Although the vote comes on the heels of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which has been locking horns with the WGA in ongoing negotiations, pulling off the table the controversial "residuals revamp" proposal that would have denied residuals to writers until producers have cleared expenses, the WGA actually asked members to vote in favor of backing a strike back on October 1.

The WGA is not without controversy; Variety notes that AMPTP president Nick Counter has noted irregularities with the balloting, including allegations that the WGA had contacted members who had not yet voted with reminder letters.

Counter had said after the AMPTP pulled the revamp off the table that they now expected the WGA to back off their demands so that negotiations could move forward. Could that be less likely to happen in the wake of Friday's vote authorizing a strike? According to Variety, WGA West president Patric Verrone said after the vote that guild negotiators "have the backing of their members" and that the "studios and nets need to take a serious look at Guild proposals." The Guild is seeking changes in DVD residuals and new media handling, among other things -- proposals that the AMPTP has not, up to this point, been willing to seriously consider.

I've accumulated a huge backlog of questions in the few weeks I've been doing The Write Stuff. Today, I open up the old mailbag and start dishing out some answers.

Jen asks:

Looking forward to reading the column! Here are a couple of topics about which I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts:

-screenwriting/film school and how useful and necessary it is
-writing for TV versus the big screen, and the pros and cons

To answer your first question, the value of film school sort of depends on the individual. I majored in Film Production and took some screenwriting classes. The screenwriting classes were incredibly useful, and are a great way to find out if writing is something you really want to do and can do well. If I had gotten crappy grades on my scripts, I'd probably be doing something else right now. As for my Film Production major, I haven't used the knowledge I gained there much, but should I ever want to make the leap to directing, you better believe those skills will come in handy. I can tell you that for a screenwriter, a Film Studies major would probably be more useful than Production. Watching the great films and discussing what makes them great is only going to make you a stronger writer. Of course, a Netflix membership is a lot cheaper...

Even if you consider Borat (full title not necessary) to be primarily a scripted work, it is still a film that works best in its unscripted sequences. This is debatable, sure, but I would like someone at the Writers Guild to tell me what was so great about the actual screenplay used. Personally, I think the scripted parts, as well as the adherence to the plot, are the weakest elements.

Nonetheless, Sacha Baron Cohen and his five collaborators are nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Adapted Screenplay. And despite my questioning of this recognition, I don't really prefer any of its competition. The other titles in the adapted category are Little Children, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada and Thank You for Smoking. If I had to choose, I'd go with the last of these, but I think the prize will go to the overrated Little Children.

I also don't think the Original Screenplay category is that great, either. The nominees for that award are Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, United 93, Stranger Than Fiction and The Queen. Again, I'd have to go with the last of these, but predict the overrated first.

Hopefully, unlike with other guild awards, the WGA's honors will not reflect the Oscar nominations, which may recognize foreign films Volver and Pan's Labyrinth, which were ineligible here.