Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers

Nick Counter, who as chief negotiator for the major studios became the designated nemesis of Hollywood labor, is retiring after more than 25 years on the job. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Friday that Counter will retire when his five-year contract expires March 31. The move was widely anticipated. In fact, Counter, 68, was expected to retire last summer, but those plans were delayed by the ongoing labor dispute with the Screen Actors Guild.

Spurred by the day-old employment contract signed by the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood's writers and the major studios agreed Friday to resume talks, hoping to reach an agreement that would end the nearly 11-week-old strike, according to several people close to the matter. Writers Guild of America leaders plan to meet as early as Tuesday with News Corp. President Peter Chernin and possibly other top executives, reviving talks that studios broke off early last month, the people said.

Hollywood's striking writers, signaling a possible thaw in the 3-month-old labor dispute, have agreed to drop two demands that studios have long viewed as non-starters. Leaders of the Writers Guild of America told top studio chiefs during a meeting Tuesday that they would ditch previous proposals to unionize writers who work on animated movies and reality TV shows.

The striking writers behind Jon Stewart's fake news show and Stephen Colbert's fake talk show came here to explain to real lawmakers Wednesday a strike that has crippled creative television and threatens to wreck the Oscars. But knowing it can be difficult to get a lawmaker's attention when not in a Learjet or on the links, the brains behind two of Comedy Central's most-watched shows couched the issues in terms Washington could understand: a mock debate.

The strike is over. Hollywood's costly 100-day walkout came to a widely welcomed end Tuesday after members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to go back to work. More than 90% of the 3,775 writers who cast ballots in Los Angeles and New York voted to immediately end the work stoppage, capping the entertainment industry's most contentious labor dispute in recent history.

Writers Guild of America members overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract Tuesday, officially ending a labor dispute that resulted in Hollywood's biggest strike in two decades. More than 90% of the 4,060 members who cast ballots in Los Angeles and New York voted in favor of ratifying the contract, a show of support that was widely anticipated after guild leaders touted the pact as a landmark agreement. "This contract is a new beginning for writers in the digital age," said Patric M.

The major Hollywood studios called on the Screen Actors Guild on Thursday to put their final contract offer to a membership vote, a proposal the union rejected, continuing the stalemate in negotiations. As expected, the largest actors union did not accept what the studios called their final offer, which they said contained more than $250 million in improvements over the previous three-year contract, which expired June 30.

Four days after actors called for bringing in a federal mediator to resolve stalled contract negotiations, the studios finally delivered a response: OK, but don't expect much. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the studios, said in a statement Thursday that "we are, of course, willing to meet with a federal mediator in the hopes of achieving our fifth guild agreement this year."

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees agreed to a tentative three-year contract with the major Hollywood studios Wednesday, becoming the fifth union this year to conclude a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The proposed agreement was modeled on similar pacts negotiated by writers, directors and the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, that established pay terms for programs streamed on the Web.

With the collapse of mediation talks between the major Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild, the warring parties wasted little time launching campaigns aimed at discrediting each other while courting the sympathies of actors who will cast ballots in a strike referendum next month.