History of Loathing Fuels Labor Unrest

The current Hollywood labor difficulties are the culmination of generations of animosity, dating to the earliest days of talking pictures and studios' resentment of the sophisticated New Yorkers they employed. With the Writers Guild of America set to strike at midnight tomorrow, the LA Times takes a look at a long, troubled marriage that's currently on the rocks.

“Moguls never saw any real difference between their writers and the carpenters,” says a historian. Writers, meanwhile, have long loathed studios for altering their work. After decades of union-busting and blacklisting, today’s studio heads seem to equate writers with stenographers. For the scribes, negotiations are a way to battle such treatment. On both sides, ill will is inevitable. (More Hollywood writers' strike stories.)