Writers, AMPTP Set to Meet Today

Today could be the beginning of the end of the three-month writers strike.

Informal negotiations between WGA leaders and several moguls are set to start today with the goal of mimicking the process used by the Directors Guild of America to reach its deal last week -- laying the groundwork and sorting out potential deal breakers prior to going into formal bargaining.

With the town seeing more jobs vanish each day, the talks will be scrutinized microscopically along with the details of the DGA pact. Even the most optimistic believe it will take at least two weeks to work out a Writers Guild of America deal -- a scenario that would allow the Oscars to proceed Feb. 24 without WGA picket lines.

Screen Actors Guild topper Doug Allen warned Monday that actors will not cross WGA picket lines to attend the Oscar ceremonies at the Kodak Theater. And he downplayed optimism about the DGA deal being used to reach pacts with the WGA and SAG.

"The rush to anoint this agreement as the 'solution' for the industry is premature," Allen said. "Without more specific details, the DGA/AMPTP agreement cannot be authoritatively described as good or bad; much of it is simply unknown."

The two front-and-center players at today's talks are expected to be WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman and News Corp. chairman Peter Chernin. WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and exec director David Young, Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger and CBS topper Leslie Moonves are all expected to be involved.

Neither side confirmed the timing of the get-together, and both maintained no-comment responses Monday. But optimists see the lack of polarizing rhetoric -- previously employed with vigor -- as a sign that both the guild and the majors want to give the informal talks a chance to succeed.

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