Union orders writers to turn over scripts

By Carl DiOrio

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Striking Hollywood screenwriters must turn in their unfinished projects by Friday so that union officials can ensure they don't secretly work for studios during the walkout, which is expected to be lengthy.

Their counterparts on the East Coast must also turn in their work, although a deadline has not been set.

The Writers Guild of America, which went out on strike against the studios on Monday, has used such script-validation programs on at least three other occasions. But as a practical matter, there's little guild officials can do to enforce participation in the program.

On the TV side, an enforcement committee will attempt to correlate the number of scripts turned in and the number of episodes going before the cameras during the strike.

But WGA West general counsel Tony Segall acknowledged Wednesday that participation by screenwriters is "kind of an honor system."

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), the bargaining arm of the studios, sent a letter to the West and East Coast branches of the WGA on October 19, ordering officials to cease and desist all efforts connected to their script-validation programs.

Segall said the guild will ignore that demand.

"They sent the same letter back in 1988 (the last time the guild went on strike)" he said. "We didn't comply then, and we won't now."