Artfulwriter.com is must-see for strike-watchers (WSJ)

By Nancy Vialatte

A blog run by screenwriters has become a must-see stop for Hollywood strike-watchers. The Wall Street Journal today takes a look at www.artfulwriter.com and the pair of WGA members who have emerged as influential public voices in the debate.

Craig Mazin, who co-wrote "Scary Movie 3," and Ted Elliot, who co-wrote "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," run the blog which is watched by both WGA leadership and the studios as a gauge of opinion among the guild's 12,000 voting members.

Hollywood is looking for signals of how strongly guild members feel about a strike. After months of bluster, starting over the summer, negotiations for a contract between Hollywood studios and the Guild got tough last week: Some bargaining sessions collapsed and the union set a strike authorization vote deadline for Oct. 18. It seems an unscripted writers' strike in Hollywood could happen sooner -- perhaps by the end of this month -- rather than later.

As the union talks progress, the blog has become a focal point for writers to publicly hash out what to do next. Last week, for example, Mr. Mazin's post justifying his decision to vote "yes" to authorize a strike eventually drew 180 comments from his readers, some of whom identified themselves while others remained anonymous.

While Mazin supports the authorization, he has been arguing against a hastily called strike and has been railing against the guild leadership. The blog has provided the most-public forum for the discussion ahead of informational meetings for guild members being held this week.

"When it comes to union matters, I am the only game in town on this right now," Mazin says. "I do very little to endear myself to (the guild) leadership, but I go after both sides depending on who I think is screwing up on the particular day."

Mr. Mazin has staked out a position that is somewhere between hardcore union activists and the companies they work for. "Both sides have mismanaged the issue," he says. "The studio proposal is nuts and inflammatory and will absolutely precipitate a strike if they stick to it, but on the other hand I'm extremely critical of the WGA leadership as they've backed us into a corner."

"You have to admire his passion because he is a loyal, loyal unionist and you can just see him trying not to undermine his union," AMPTP�s Barbara Brogliatti told the Journal. "He's trying to bring some sanity to all of this."

"The blog has been a bit of a touchstone and a bellwether as a place where I can go either as a board member or as a writer to take the temperature reading," says Aaron Mendelsohn, a WGA board member who also sits on the union's negotiating committee, told the WSJ. "There's no water cooler, so often writers have to turn to these message boards and blogs to get a sense of what everyone else is thinking."

Mr. Mazin says he gets "nervous calls from the guild" about his posts. John Bowman, chairman of the WGA negotiating committee, says: "I like Craig and I think it's fine that he's having a conversation with writers, members of the guild and the general public on his blog. But blogs tend to be conversations of the like-minded and not really the reflective of the guild membership at large."