I was (and remain) pissed off that the late night hosts went back to work before the WGA strike ended. These guys are Guild members who were clearly not ad-libbing. If Jay, Conan, Jon and Stephen composed their thoughts seconds before tape rolled, I maintain they wrote something...

I also didn't appreciate what was a dirty little secret on the picket lines... late night writers choosing not to picket their own shows. Never mind the overwhelming majority of Los Angeles-based screenwriters who dutifully picketed outside their respective studio gate.

But anyway... that's done, I suppose.

In a return to relative normalcy, Stephen Colbert welcomed his crew back. Holy shit, this was funny:

Well, this strike is just about over. I went into this membership meeting anxious, but also recalcitrant. I only received the summarized points of of the new agreement an hour or so before the meeting. So, fairly pissed off, I bombed down to Times Square and the took my seat in the Crowne Plaza Hotel ballroom to listen to a summarized presentation of what I expected to be an old fashioned Hollywood Ass-Fucking, as the old-time Sammy Glick sort might have postulated, by our erstwhile Negotiating Committee.

Instead, I left fairly impressed, relieved and hopeful.

We didn't get everything we wanted. Didn't get a lot of what we wanted, actually. And we certainly didn't get as much as we damn well deserved. 17 days of what's now called a promotional window to watch programs online without having to pay writers their justly due residuals is odious in my opinion... even if the studios maintain that TiVo and DVR watching has changed the way viewers watch programming for the first/initial time.

But I can and will support my leadership and vote to ratify this deal.

We established jurisdiction over new media and digital delivery. We got a decent number off of the holy distributor's gross for internet rentals, electronic sell through, etc. Most important, we stood together, we stood strong, and we got far more than they ever thought they'd have to give us. I didn't believe this was possible when this strike hit the streets, but I do believe it now.

Bottom line, before this deal, if/when you bought or rented THE TRIPPER on iTunes or Apple TV, I got, as my Italian grandmother would say, "Ungots!"

Now, I get a piece of the distributor's pie, as I and my co-writer rightly deserve.

Terry George, writer/director of IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and HOTEL RWANDA and tough-as-nails member of the WGAE Negotiating Committee described the alternative to not taking this deal today, at our maximum point of leverage: nuclear winter. In his own words, this man (a former IRA member) negotiated terms with the British Army and he never faced down such a cold, soulless adversary as he did in the AMPTP.

There was a bit of a schism in the room over whether to support the Neg Com in immediately lifting the strike action and ending the pickets so everyone could get back to work on Monday.

But many of us said fuck that -- we want the 48 hours our constitution allows for an expedited vote. In the interest of solidarity, which we achieved and maintained in never-heard-of-before fashion during this work stoppage, this seemed to be the prevailing course of action. It seems the WGAW meeting fell out in similar fashion.

Back to work, likely, on Wednesday (or, in my case, to trying to set up a new project and find a job) after a hastened vote on Monday by the looks of things. Nobody told us what to do. I'm very proud of that. The media was reporting "Back To Work Monday" and we threw them a justified curve. It happened first, on the East Coast, amongst the WGAE like so much has happened by, for and to us before the sun rose on Los Angeles and those wearing t-shirts instead of parkas could hit the picket lines.

I'm pleased we stood together this last time. It puts us in the best position possible going forward, with an eye on our next contract (which would need to be banged out, if not struck over, in May, 2011 btw).

And I am intensely proud to be a member of the strong, victorious WGAE.

I'm not holding my breath. That DGA deal was a joke. Must have been. But I'm keeping an open mind this time.

I've honestly been holding off posting anything about the supposed 'breakthroughs' we've been hearing about. My Strike Captain has been wonderfully sobering in keeping us rank and file up to date and undaunted. We're on strike. We're not going back for a deal that's less than fair.

That said... let's see what leadership has to tell us. Huge membership meeting this Saturday in both New York and Los Angeles.

I'll report what I learn... and how much angst it activates in my inner revolutionary's gut... after I've had a change to digest things.

Just, please... media... non-WGA people... industry types... etc.... back the fuck off. If the deal doesn't work for me, I'm not voting for it and I know many of us feel the same way.

The strike is over when the WGA membership says so.

We were supposed to rally in front of the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle (you'll always be the NY Coliseum to me, baby girl).

A sign of good faith as bargaining resumes between leadership and management? We shall see...

United Hollywood has the lowdown on the recently struck deal between the DGA and the AMPTP, dissecting all the pros and cons as they see it. Very useful and illuminating.

Working Life has their own analysis (which I'm going to digest later today).

I agree with John Rogers, honestly. This is a deal that seems pretty good considering the Guild which struck it doesn't really depend on residuals the way the WGA membership does, and has struck over.

This deal seems to suck for TV people. And since, as a feature writer, I have the relatively unique perspective of marching the picket line with mostly television people... I suspect I'm going to hear a lot of misgivings in my circular walkabouts this coming week.

Honestly, the single most annoying thing I hear from my non-WGA Hollywood-type friends, colleagues and associates is that the DGA's acceptance of the studios' terms represents some sort of fait accompli... as though we, the writers who started and caused this whole labor mess, will have no choice but to accept what the directors got and end our strike.

Why?

Hey, I think this covenant between the directors and the bosses is a good step toward our own settlement. It's shady in that it clearly shows the AMPTP has not been remotely interested in bargaining with us fairly before getting the easier to roll Directors Guild to agree to more favorable terms. But we're apples and oranges here. And while I know the prospect of getting back to work is going to tempt some of our membership to really consider taking what we can get and ending the walkout... I don't see us caving unless the residual numbers come up substantially.

And why, oh why, don't I see that happening easily, quickly or willingly on the part of management?