Ellen DeGeneres is a well-liked figure in Hollywood and by her viewing public, but her recent actions have brought her more flak than Iggy ever did.  Her decision to continue with her show in the wake of the writer’s strike has brought the wrath of the WGA down on her head:

That move sparked an inter-union brawl between AFTRA and the WGA after DeGeneres — who belongs to both unions — opted to continue working on her daytime talker during the past week.

The fight came into the open Friday, when the WGA East issued a press release blasting DeGeneres for continuing to perform comedy in violation of strike rules: “Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise.”

AFTRA topper Kim Roberts Hedgpeth declared in a letter to WGA East chief Mona Mangan that DeGeneres is required to work.

“As you know, AFTRA members such as Ms. DeGeneres who are working under the AFTRA Network TV Code (which covers ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’) are legally required by the no-strike clause of that contract to report to work and perform their AFTRA-covered responsibilities,” she wrote. “Ms. DeGeneres, along with thousands of entertainment-industry workers represented by AFTRA and other unions who are bound by similar no-strike clauses, are also reporting to work as legally required.”

But Mangan said DeGeneres is wrong: “Beyond any issue of membership, there is the obvious ethical issue, which is clearly present in Ms. DeGeneres’ decision to write and produce a show without writers in the face of an industrywide walkout by 12,000 writers.”

Ellen had sat out one show in support of striking writers, but came back the next day with this explanation:

I’ve got to say this is a strange show for me to do. This is weird. Weird. It’s a weird show. Channeling Johnny Carson all of a sudden. [Imitates Carson] “Very Weird. Weird. Weird.” Here’s what the deal is. It’s ’sweeps’, which is a very important time in television. That’s when you do your best shows, your funniest material, you pull out all the stops and you’re doing everything you can because you want everybody watching. Now at this moment, we’re in the middle of this strike. There’s a writer’s strike going on, and here in Los Angeles it’s a huge story. I don’t know where you live, but it’s a huge story in Los Angeles. I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honor of them today, I’m not going to do a monologue. I support them and hope that they get everything they’re asking for. And I hope it works out soon. In the meantime, people have traveled across the country. They’ve made plans. They’re here. I want to do everything I can to make your trip enjoyable and give you a show. Otherwise you’d just be wandering around and circling Bob Hope Drive.

So here’s the deal…many in Hollyweird are upset because Ellen chose to cross the picket line and continue to do her show.  Names like “scab” are being thrown around.  There’s even been a former writer telling the world what a horrible boss she was while shooting her sitcom.  And maybe she was…after all, she is an actor, and they are paid to project a good image in public.  But is what Ellen did really so bad?

Normally, I’d say yes.  No crossing the picket line.  But, this is more than just writers striking for their fair share of residuals.  This is affecting people who aren’t striking, but who are being put out of work because of the strike.  You’ve got makeup artists, hairdressers, gaffers, cameramen, set designers, and all the so-called “little people” who work behind the scenes to consider as well.  And it is those people whom Ellen has said she is going back to work for…which is exactly what the studio bigwigs want her to do.

Of course, it is worth mentioning that Ellen is legally bound by the no-strike clause mentioned above.  Basically, she couldn’t strike even if she wanted to.  She could be in big legal trouble if she did, and she already has to make up one day because of the day she took off for the strike.  Could she afford to break her contract?  Perhaps.  Could the below-the-line people afford to lose the show?  Probably not.

So why are the writers striking, anyway, if most of them make more money than most of us ever will?  This post over at MetaFilter by a poster named “headspace” puts it pretty succinctly (all emphasis theirs):

As a working screenwriter, we need the strike, and aspiring scabs might want to really look at why this strike is getting ready to happen before they offer their services.

If you write an episode of Metafilter Towers, you get paid according to scale for the script; you get paid according to scale for residuals when the show goes into reruns. You always wrote the script, the show is still making money, consequently, you’re entitled to some of that. That’s the current contract.

But TV isn’t just first run and reruns anymore. People can also watch episodes online- free to watch, courtesy of ad revenue. The actors get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display; the producers get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display. The writers currently don’t get any of that ad revenue.

Because television is going for the value-added model, Metafilter Towers also has a website that features along with the usual forum, gallery, and fantoys, mini-episodes which complement the aired episodes. The actors get paid scale for appearing in these mini-sodes; the writers may or may not get paid for writing these mini-sodes because there’s no established scale for them.

And fans are collectors, so they like to buy the episodes from iTunes. The actors get a percentage of that purchase, the producers get a percentage of that purchase and the writers probably get nothing, because there’s no established scale for that.

At the end of the season, Metafilter Towers will be on an exclusive 7 DVD set with outtakes and behind the scenes documentaries, whee! The actors get a percentage of all sales, the producers get a percentage of all sales. The writers get a one time license fee.

Since Metafilter Towers is a hit, it’s going to sell four million copies this year- the actors get X% of four million copies’ worth; the producers get X% of four million copies’ worth. And next year, it sells another couple of million, so the actors continue to get paid for their work, the producers continue to get paid for their work, but the writers got a one time licensing fee.

This isn’t a strike over champagne in the writers’ room and caviar for lunch every day. It’s a strike for basic rights- the producers alone aren’t entitled to ALL the profits from online distribution and DVD sales, and they’re not entitled to additional writing for free.

A writer’s contract is specific- she will get scale or X amount for Y number of episodes, including all rewrites and polishes on that number of scripts. If you write one episode of Metafilter Towers, you should get paid for writing one. If you write fifteen mini-sodes for the website, you should get paid for writing fifteen mini-sodes for the website.

Nobody likes a strike, but we need this one to establish basic guidelines for digital media, and to amend the home video clause now that television shows are available on home media. Producers claim they have no idea how much money they’re making on online display (which is untrue, they publish their stats to brag about them,) and they claim that DVD sales only recoup the expenses of making the show in the first place which again, is generally untrue.

Shows profited long before DVDs, on first run ad revenue, and worldwide and syndication rights, which they still earn now. (And it’s even easier to make that money now because you no longer need 100 episodes to syndicate; cable partnerships and short syndication deals are the norm now. Profit starts almost immediately now.)

So, yes, aspiring scabs, it would be a great time to get started in screenwriting if you don’t mind working for free, and watching other people profit from your work long after your one-time licensing fee is gone. But don’t forget- everybody else (even the producers we’re negotiating with right now) are unionized, too. They may love your scabby scripts today, but when the strike is over, you may find your career in the industry over completely.

Let’s dissect this…if you worked for a factory, would you want to work your regular salary for your regular hours making your regular parts, but then a new state-of-the-art computerized vehicle comes out, and your boss wants you to make state-of-the-art parts for it…for free?  Or say you are a checkout person at the local grocery store.  Would you want to get paid for working your normal hours doing your specified job, but if a product comes through that is “new and improved”, you wouldn’t get paid for the time you spent handling it?  Or imaging you’re a house painter…you get paid for painting white houses, but not paid for painting green houses?  Or if you’re a landscaper, you get paid for planting flowers, but not evergreen trees?

But, think about this…every strike that is put on in this country hurts more than just the strikers.  When members of an auto company strike, it hurts more than just the company they are striking against.  It hurts those in other shops, perhaps non-union ones, who make parts for the striking workers.  It hurts those who sell cars.  It hurts those who want to buy cars.  People are put out of work who have nothing to do with the original strike.  How is this strike different than any other that goes on in this country, other than it is put on by those in the entertainment industry, and the picket lines are manned by people who make more than I’m liable to see in a five-year period?

And let’s talk bout that for a minute.  There is the idea out there that writers in Hollyweird are paid extravagant amounts of money, and some are.  But figures I’ve seen range from anywhere from $5000 to $200,000 a year for writers.  And I’d guess that’s about right, considering when you’re new you’re starting at the low end of the scale, just like any other job.  Then you have production people, who make anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000 a year.  In the Midwest, $75K is nothing to sneeze at, but out in California it’s propbably hard to make a decent living on that much, let alone save money for the future or for such a time as when you might be unemployed.  So for those on the low end of the totem pole, Internet and DVD residuals are probably the difference between making the mortgage payment and losing their house.

And who says that just because someone makes a large amount of money for their job, that they shouldn’t be paid fairly for the amount of work they do?  After all, if they are paid fairly, with a good contract in place, the people just starting out at a lower salary will be fairly paid according to that contract as well.

Basically, to get back to the original point…while Ellen might not want to go back to work, she has to honor her contract just like anyone else.  There’s a no-strike clause.  Pretty self-explanatory.  It may suck, but it is in the contract.  To lose her show may not hurt her financially, but it certainly would hurt those who don’t have multi-million dollar accounts to fall back on.  And Ellen isn’t the only one crossing the picket line…other workers held by the same contract are having to do the same.  For Ellen to continue to sit out in defiance of her no-strike contract could cost her the show, and then there will be no job for the writers to return to.  The head honchos have them by the proverbial balls.

But, like I pointed out in a previous post, this is probably what the head honchos want…this is exactly what they are counting on.  They know that people who work together care about each other, and nobody wants to be the reason that someone else is fired, strike or no strike.  The pressure is on from the major studios for writers to come back early, with little to no changes to their contracts, as a guilt offering to preserve other people’s jobs.  Mark my words, more people than just Ellen will be forced back to work out of loyalty to their coworkers…what they are striking for is right, but right don’t pay the mortgage or feed their children.  It’s the proverbial rock and hard place.

While the networks might be trying to find replacement hosts for their late-night gabfests, I doubt they will find any takers…people just will not do it.  Plus, let’s face it, who will want to appear on a show with a replacement host during a strike?  Dave, Jay, Jimmy, Conan, and others may soon find themselves faced with the same decision, Ellen just did it first.  Unpopular, perhaps, but in the long run it just might keep all the below-the-line people in work until such time as a decision can be reached.

And let’s remember this…no less a titan than the late great Johnny Carson (my personal most favorite talk show host of all time) had to return to work early during the last big writer’s strike, in 1988, to save the jobs of the crew of The Tonight Show…the behind-the-scenes people without whom he would have had no show.