Breakthrough in WGA talks

Sides closing in on tentative deal

By CYNTHIA LITTLETON, DAVE MCNARY

Talks between WGA leaders and top studio execs on Friday and Saturday have been productive enough to generate cautious optimism that a settlement to the three-month-old strike may soon be at hand.

WGA negotiating committee head John Bowman and WGA West exec director David Young had a lengthy meeting Friday with News Corp. prexy Peter Chernin and Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger that was described as having gone well overall, despite some tension at the outset. It's understood that those conversations continued on Saturday, though it was not clear if it was by phone or face-to-face.

Insiders said there was enough progress being made to raise the prospect of WGA leaders bringing a contract proposal directly to the boards of the WGA West and WGA East, possibly bypassing the resumption of formal bargaining between the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Insiders indicated that lawyers for both sides were exchanging drafts of proposed contract language this weekend.

WGA's 17-member negotiating committee and the WGA West's board are already skedded to hold separate meetings on Monday, at noon and 3 p.m., respectively. People close to the situation cautioned against putting a timetable on the process, given the rocky road of the negotiations to date.

Chernin and Iger began the informal talks with WGA toppers on Jan. 22, on the heels of the AMPTP sealing a deal with the Directors Guild of America that the studios aim to use as a template for a WGA pact. A big stumbling block for the WGA is said to be the terms agreed to by the DGA for web streaming of TV shows and movies. The United Hollywood blog reported Saturday that "creative solutions to the biggest differences between the AMPTP and the WGA have gotten the tentative and cautious approval of both sides."

Neither WGA or AMPTP reps would comment on the status of talks in accordance with the news blackout both camps have agreed to.

Going into the weekend, studio toppers were said to be frustrated with the lack of substantive progress in the talks, which were designed to lay the groundwork for the resumption of formal bargaining.

The AMPTP and WGA last met in a formal session on Dec. 7. WGA has been on strike since Nov. 5.

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