Tinseltown braces for writers’ strike

HOLLYWOOD — Television and film writers, actors and crew members around town are canceling vacations, working overtime and squirreling away savings while they still can.

Talent agencies, post-production houses and equipment rental shops have drawn up plans to slash expenses and payrolls while caterers and special-effects houses scramble to find jobs that reduce their dependence on the entertainment industry.

All over Hollywood, people are bracing for a strike.

Writers could walk out as early as Thursday if their union can’t hammer out a three-year employment contract with the studios to replace the one that expires at midnight on Halloween.

It would be the first writers’ strike in 20 years — and more painful than the last one, in 1988, which lasted five months.

The timing would be unfortunate, given the already disruptive housing downturn and, lately, the wildfires.

“If it (cost the city) $500 million in 1988, a slowdown of that length would have over a $1 billion impact today. I’m very concerned,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Because of the scores of businesses that rely on the entertainment industry, a long walkout would inflict pain beyond Hollywood’s studio gates.

Although tourism and international trade employ more people, entertainment remains the region’s signature industry, accounting for about 250,000 jobs and as many more that are indirectly tied to the business.

If a strike were to occur, one of the hardest-hit groups would be tens of thousands of technical workers. Electricians, camera operators and other blue-collar crews work under separate contracts.

Production would not come to a complete halt. Writers for commercials, sports programs and reality TV would be free to work because they are not covered under the WGA contract.

Filming on movies with finished screenplays would continue. Television programs with a stockpile of scripts would keep being made. Networks appear to have enough shows written to carry them through most of the fall TV season. Several popular series, however, could run dry as early as December.

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