Hollywood Writers' Strike

[SWTXBelle]

It is ironic this is on Greekchat - so many of our sororities were founded at a time when it was considered "unladylike" to attend college! Our founders were progressive pioneers who weren't content to merely sit by the fire and do needlework. They sought an education, equal to that given to men, ladylike or no.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

It is ironic this is on Greekchat - so many of our sororities were founded at a time when it was considered "unladylike" to attend college! Our founders were progressive pioneers who weren't content to merely sit by the fire and do needlework. They sought an education, equal to that given to men, ladylike or no.

An excellent point. Not only that, several GLOs were founded in a protesting reaction to prejudices / incidents of racism. (For example, AOII got started up in response to a Jewish girl getting denied a bid to another GLO, on the basis of religion.)

[AOII_LB93]

Originally Posted by CutiePie2000

An excellent point. Not only that, several GLOs were founded in a protesting reaction to prejudices / incidents of racism. (For example, AOII got started up in response to a Jewish girl getting denied a bid to another GLO, on the basis of religion.)

No, AOII was not founded because of discrimination. She was founded because all of our founders wanted to be in the same organization as they were friends. It wasn't like, "Oh I'm Jewish and I got denied, let's start our own!"

From our website: "Barnard College, in the late 1890’s, was the first separate college for women to be affiliated with a great men’s university such as Columbia University. AOII’s four Founders were in the class of 1898, young, and unlike most of the women who had entered Barnard in previous years. They were friendly, adventurous, frank and merry, and enthusiastically devoted to each other and to the class of ‘98. Determined to make a democratic, unostentatious society, the four women, Stella George Stern, Helen St. Clair, Elizabeth Heywood, and Jessie Wallace climbed a little winding stair into the stackroom of the old Columbia Library. This little room was rarely used and stored Anglo-Saxon tomes and ancient vellum manuscripts. While the four sat in a deep window seat, pigeons outside and snow lightly falling, they pledged one another at the beginning of the year 1897."

ETA (this post from an old thread on GC in which irishpipes posted): AOII has a connection to Kappa Kappa Gamma. Barnard College (of Columbia University) was founded in 1889. Kappa chartered a chapter there in 1891. The classes were very small, and because the entrance requirements included knowledge of Latin and Greek, in addition to may other rigorous subjects, most students were slightly older than the traditional college students because they had to study after prep school in order to pass the entrance examinations. Since the classes were small, Kappa traditionally admitted to membership the entirety of each class. The class preceding the class of our founders was significantly larger and Kappa could not take everyone. As a result, the College needed a new fraternity. This need, along with other conditions, led to the founding of AOII. Our founders pledged themselves in December 1896 and officially became Alpha chapter of AOII on January 2, 1897.


So no, we were not founded because one of our founders was denied entrance to Kappa.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

I guess the strike has stopped affecting me since I've not had TV since we moved to our new house. It's amazing the amount of stuff you find to do instead of watching TV.

[smiley21]

I saw on the news yesterday that the strike is costing Hollywood $80 million A DAY! Also, the broadway writers are joining them. Wow.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by smiley21

Also, the broadway writers are joining them.

That's interesting. I wonder if it's mainly for moral support. I can't imagine that there's a constant demand for fresh Broadway scripts like their Hollywood counterparts. But, I'm pretty far removed from the Broadway scene, so I have no idea how much new material there needs to be.

I hope the writers' strike ends soon, but it doesn't look promising.

[SWTXBelle]

Word from my friend who works on Law & Order - the scuttlebutt is that the producers aren't interested in bringing the strike to a close because the actors and directors' agreements are coming up for renewal soon, and if they settle the writers' strike it will set a precedent. So they are more than willing to just sit tight. This really is awful for everyone who works on these shows and will be without a paycheck when production closes down - not to mention the audiences of these shows. They are predicting 6 - 10 months for the strike (course they are just guessing).

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Word from my friend who works on Law & Order - the scuttlebutt is that the producers aren't interested in bringing the strike to a close because the actors and directors' agreements are coming up for renewal soon, and if they settle the writers' strike it will set a precedent. So they are more than willing to just sit tight. This really is awful for everyone who works on these shows and will be without a paycheck when production closes down - not to mention the audiences of these shows. They are predicting 6 - 10 months for the strike (course they are just guessing).

Yeah, the blog from Jenna Fischer mentioned the actors contract is up in 2008 and they want the same residuals so it is in everyone's best interest to get them.. except the crews.

[mu_agd]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

That's interesting. I wonder if it's mainly for moral support. I can't imagine that there's a constant demand for fresh Broadway scripts like their Hollywood counterparts. But, I'm pretty far removed from the Broadway scene, so I have no idea how much new material there needs to be.

The stagehands for Broadway all went on strike last week because their union couldn't reach an agreement with the producers.

[SydneyK]

^^^ Yeah, I knew about that. Smiley21, however, said that the Broadway writers were also going on strike.

IMO, and again, I'm not familiar with Broadway's particulars, it's easier to deal without writers (on Broadway) than stagehands. Without writers, they can simply not put new shows out there... but if they don't have the labor to help with production, then they're outta luck.

That's why I wondered whether the Broadway writers' strike was mostly for moral support for the Hollywood writers.