Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Continued Talks Hold Off Writers Strike in Hollywood

Aired May 02, 2001 - 09:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move on to the drama playing out in Hollywood and the effort to avert a writers strike. Talks continued for about three hours after the writers' contract expired just after midnight Pacific time. And negotiators return to the bargaining table later today.

CNN's Sherri Sylvester joining us -- she is in Los Angeles with more.

Sherri, good morning.

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And, as you said, talks did break off at 3:00 a.m. We're still waiting for that Hollywood happy ending. And we may be waiting for a few days to come.

Now, the good news is that they have not ordered a strike authorization vote among the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild. So that's a good sign. And they are coming back to try to hammer out some of those issues at noon today. They do have a lot of issues to work through.

And just to give you an idea, Daryn, back when Marcus Welby was on the air, in 1970 -- that's when the pay structure was set that the writers are currently working under, in terms of overseas residuals. So some of these formulas really seriously need to be restructured in terms of video cassette, DVD and cable -- Internet as well. So there's a lot of work to be done.

KAGAN: A different world when Marcus Welby was treating the people in Santa Monica. I remember the show a little too well. Sherri, it's not just the writers that are watching this, but a lot of people over in Hollywood. The actors would be up next month possibly -- to go on strike.

SYLVESTER: Right. That's correct. And the actors were hoping to take a page from the writers' script. They were going to watch how their negotiations went and then follow them and see what kind of deal they could get.

Well, that has made the producers take a little bit of a harder line with the writers. They say, "If we give you this deal, then we have to up the percentages for the actors as well." The actors have drawn up their list of demands and they are tentatively set to begin their early talks May 10. This is just two weeks away, so we'll see if these writers can get their issues resolved before the same producers go back in and start trying to negotiate with the actors.

KAGAN: Sherri Sylvester in Los Angeles. Thank you Sherri.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com