Share this Mister Wong Webnews Power-Oldie Linkarena Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Jumptags Upchuckr Simpy StumbleUpon Slashdot Netscape Furl Yahoo Blogmarks Diigo Technorati Newsvine Googlize this Blinklist Facebook Wikio Meneame Diggita Tags writers strike entertainment Hollywood

Hollywood is in a near panic. According to the New York Times: "a writers' strike will have an immediate impact on more than 200,000 workers in the movie and TV industry here and the thousands more who produce or sell entertainment elsewhere in the United States and abroad."

The ripple effect of a strike could have a large, area-wide negative impact on the economy of Southern California, already damaged by the collapse in home sales and recovering from the damage of October's Santa Ana wind-driven fires. The entertainment industry contributes an estimated $30 billion annually, or about 7 percent, to the economy of Los Angeles County.

The Los Angeles Times noted: "A prolonged strike would destabilize Southern California's signature industry and spur a domino effect across the Los Angeles economy, throwing untold numbers of people out of work."

First of all, this writer is not unsympathetic to the thousands of people who may become unemployed as a result of the collateral damage emanating from the writers' strike. As one who was, himself, forced to flee Los Angeles County as a result of unemployment in the early 1990s, I understand their plight. Southern California has been blessed with natural beauty — where the Pacific Ocean and towering mountains are within sight of each other — and a climate more pleasant than almost anyplace else in the United States. Having to give up the "California lifestyle" involuntarily is difficult, indeed.

The Hollywood entertainment industry is another matter. I had a birds-eye view of the mindset of that community while briefly working for Daily Variety, which for many years has been the 'bible" of the industry. (Remember the headline: Sticks nix hick pix in the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy?)

Of course, Daily Variety was a mismatch for me, but one must put food on the table somehow. It was evident that my conservative views on moral issues such as abortion and "alternative lifestyles" (several of Daily Variety's editors were conspicuously "gay") irritated my coworkers and hastened my departure from Hollywoodland.

What I confirmed during my employment on Wilshire Boulevard was that those who espouse the values of what might be called Middle America are not held in high esteem in Hollywood — and the scripts upon which virtually all TV and movie productions are based reflect that bias. It is not accidental that Americans searching for "family fare" on their TV set or when attending the movies might as well be panning for gold — it's not impossibile to find, but it's rare.

Maybe, just maybe, a nice long Hollywood writers' strike will have a positive cultural effect on America. Families might turn off their TV sets, read a good book, or actually engage in stimulating conversation!

TrackBack URI for this entry