Stars Come Out In Force To Support Striking Writers

If Hollywood writers are on strike, shouldn’t their picket signs be blank?

That’s the kind of joke you might be hearing on late night talk shows if they were still in production. But the voices of the plug fests have been reduced to echoes of the past in reruns, as those who write the words and scripts for your favourite shows remain off the job.

The writers want a piece of the lucrative DVD market and future profits from Internet and other new media sales. Producers claim it’s simply an area where they’re not prepared to surrender any ground, potentially sewing the seeds for a long and bitter dispute.

Picket line duty can be lonely, but on the first day at least, the scribes weren’t marching in obscurity. They had plenty of star power to keep them company. Jay Leno, whose show is in hiatus until the impasse is resolved, handed out donuts to the strikers on his motorcycle.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Seinfeld” fame took time off from shooting what scripts were completed for her “New Adventures of Old Christine” to carry a sign in line with the Hollywood picketers. “How this is resolved will directly affect our union, too,” she explains, reminding that the actors themselves will be in a similar position next year. Many stars believe whatever the writers get will set a precedent for their own deals, so they’re standing behind them in solidarity.

That may have been what led Steve Carrell out to carry a sign of his own. The man who heads “The Office” refused to show up for work on his series, along with several cast members who are also writers. Co-star Rainn Wilson called in sick. All those absences meant that while completed scripts are available for the hit sitcom, producers were only able to shoot two scenes.

Ellen DeGeneres, whose show airs weekdays on Citytv, also took the day off, although her program still has a few new episodes in the can. “Ellen did not go to work today in support of her writers,” assures publicist Kelly Bush.

Back on the east coast, Tina Fey of “SNL” and “30 Rock” fame also walked the line outside NBC. She’s in an odd position, serving as both writer and star in her series.

The strike is still in its early stages. The last one, in 1988, lasted 22 weeks, cost a billion dollars and forced all scripted shows to go into non-stop reruns. What will happen if the programming well goes dry? In addition to all those repeats, you can expect to see a lot of news, reality and game shows, none of which rely heavily on script writers. And you may even see some programs from Canada, England and Australia wind up on the major networks, as executives look to fill a lot of time with very little product.