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Late-Night Comedy Scribes Find New Outlet

Blogs allow 'fun of working, without stress or pay'; talks resume

By Lucas Laursen,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 26, 2007 1:44 PM CST

(Newser) – Striking late-night comedy writers have some serious issues—no jobs and, worse, no creative outlet. When the jokes went from "60 to zero," in the words of a "Colbert Report" staffer, many aimed new blogs and videos squarely at the studios on the other side of the picket line. The result? A platform and a growing audience, reports the LA Times.

Says a Letterman writer of LateShowWritersOnStrike.com, "It's all the fun of working on the show, without the stress or the pay." The sites, a stark contrast to professional publicity machines, may have contributed to the studios' agreement to resume talks. Negotiations today went so well that an end to the 4-week job action is near, reports Deadline Hollywood Daily.

A placard showing Dorothy from the film Wizard of Oz  is seen as thousands of Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers along with actors, musicians, politicians and members from other unions march down Hollywood Boulevard Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007, in Los Angeles on the 16th day of the WGA strike...
A placard showing Dorothy from the film "Wizard of Oz" is seen as thousands of Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers along with actors, musicians, politicians and members from other unions march down...   (Associated Press)
Television writers, from left, Barry Julien and Mike Brumm, writers for The Colbert Report, and Bill Scheff, right, a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman, joins a Writers Guild of America picket line outside News Corporation headquarters as the union's strike continues in New York, Friday, Nov. 9,...
Television writers, from left, Barry Julien and Mike Brumm, writers for "The Colbert Report," and Bill Scheff, right, a writer for "The Late Show with David Letterman," joins a Writers Guild of America...   (Associated Press)
Actor Robin Williams, left, Eric Stangel, center, and his brother Justin Stangel, both head writers for the Late Show with David Letterman, march in the picket line with others during the fourth day of a strike by television and film writers, Thursday Nov. 8, 2007, at the Time Warner Center...
Actor Robin Williams, left, Eric Stangel, center, and his brother Justin Stangel, both head writers for the "Late Show with David Letterman," march in the picket line with others during the fourth day...   (Associated Press)
Matt Roberts, a writer for the Late Show with David Letterman hands out material near the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in New York.  Striking television and film writers took their fight to the money men Tuesday, marching on Wall Street to complain that the nation's media...
Matt Roberts, a writer for the "Late Show with David Letterman" hands out material near the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in New York. Striking television and film writers took their...   (Associated Press)
A striking writer holds her Apple iPhone with an electronic moving banner expressing her support  for members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), outside the NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. Both sides were set to resume contract talks Monday, Nov 26, 2007. The Writers Guild...
A striking writer holds her Apple iPhone with an electronic moving banner expressing her support for members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), outside the NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., Friday,...   (Associated Press)
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