Edwards, Actors Stand Up At Writers’ Strike Rally
Presidential Candidate Among Nearly 1,000 On Hand At Largest East Coast Guild Gathering
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/27/2007 9:11:00 AM
(Rally Photo Gallery)
New York – At a large East Coast rally for striking TV writers, Sen. John Edwards Tuesday came forward to support the scribes and once again vowed not to cross any picket lines -- which means he may boycott an upcoming CBS-sponsored Presidential debate.
“This is all about fairness,” Democratic Presidential candidate Edwards told the crowd at the lunchtime rally at Washington Square Park. “It’s about opportunity. It’s about making sure those who create the work that generates revenue actually gets to share in that revenue. That’s what this cause is about.”
Edwards was the main attraction, and a key speaker, at the star-studded Solidarity Rally that the Writers Guild of America East held in Manhattan. Nearly 1,000 people -- including national and local labor leaders, and local politici
ans -- were on hand for the rally, in support of the strike against film and TV studios.
The long list of celebrities and actors at the demonstration included Tim Robbins; Danny Glover; The Sopranos' Edie Falco, David Proval, David Chase and Joe Pantoliano; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s Aasif Mandvi; Tony Goldwyn; Sex and the City’s Kristen Davis; former national Screen Actors Guild president Richard Masur; Mad Men’s John Slattery and Michael Gladis; Californication’s Evan Handler; Anthony Edwards; Eric Bogosian; Gilbert Gottfried; Julianna Margulies and Damages Michael Nouri.
The WGA has been on strike since Nov. 5 against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Even as the rally took place in New York City, negotiators for the WGA and the AMPTP were sitting at a bargaining table in California, their second day of talks this week. The hurdle to a deal is the issue of residuals for content that is used on new-media platforms.
At Tuesday’s rally, Edwards pointed out that earlier this month, he was on a WGA picket line in Los Angeles, in support of the strike.
“I was with you on the West Coast just a week or so ago, and I was proud to march and walk the picket line with you at that time, and I’m proud to be with you here today.” Edwards said.
“I myself have cancelled appearances on Ellen and The View in solidarity with you,” he said. “I’ve also made clear that there’s a scheduled Presidential debate in Los Angeles for the ninth or tenth of December, that if the CBS workers go out on strike, I will not participate in that debate. We’re all in this together.”
The WGA represents CBS News employees, who have authorized a strike as part of their contract talks with CBS. If there is a strike, Edwards and most of the other Democratic presidential candidates, including Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, have said they will not cross a picket line to participate in the Dec. 10 debate that CBS is scheduled to broadcast.
Robbins and Glover were among those addressing the rally, with Robbins criticizing the trade press’s coverage of the strike, and the notion that the strikers are Hollywood millionaires.
“The editors of Variety [sister publication to Multichannel News] are happy to imply that absurdity on their front page,” Robbins said. “We are here today simply for reason, for fairness, regardless of the ludicrous spin coming from the trade newspapers and from the Titanic mansions high above Beverly Hills. This is not a strike of millionaire writers. This is a strike of middle-class writers, middle-class writers trying to remain middle class.”
Robbins told the crowd, “This is an appeal for fairness and decency. The Writers Guild is not asking for anything outrageous, just their fair share of the new income generated in the new media in the 21st Century. We are not marching up to Mulholland Drive with torches in our hand. You titans can keep your uber mansions, just help your writers pay their rent.”
Glover accused the studios of being greedy, and said that “We have to fight that greed.”
The other speakers at the rally included New York Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Jerry Nadler; Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers; Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council; Denis Hughes of the New York State AFL-CIO and Sam Freed, president of SAG in New York.
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