O'Brien, host of NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" will cover the salaries of his nonwriting production staff -- nearly 80 people -- for the foreseeable future, an NBC Universal spokeswoman confirmed. O'Brien will foot the payroll bill starting next week, barring a resolution in the WGA work stoppage, which wrapped its 25th day on Thursday.

*****

Like David Letterman at CBS, O'Brien made the decision to step up in a big way to take care of those who help him put on the show every night. But unlike Letterman, who owns his "Late Show," Craig Ferguson's "Late Late Show" and the Worldwide Pants production banner that employs those staffers, O'Brien is tapping his own bank account to save NBC U employees on a Peacock-owned show from getting the ax, even temporarily. O'Brien's gesture to his staff comes as his own eight-figure salary has been suspended since the strike forced his show to halt production.

O'Brien is understood to be motivated by the deep sense of loyalty that many of his staffers have shown him over the years -- and probably will continue to after he relocates from Gotham to the West Coast in 2009 to take over "The Tonight Show.

To My Fellow Members,

After four days of bargaining with the AMPTP, I am writing to let you know that, though we are still at the table, the press blackout has been lifted.

Our inability to communicate with our members has left a vacuum of information that has been filled with rumors, both well intentioned and deceptive.

Among the rumors was the assertion that the AMPTP had a groundbreaking proposal that would make this negotiation a "done deal." In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.

From streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.

For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15 minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300. They continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet.

In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse "promotional," and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).

The AMPTP says it will have additional proposals to make but, as of Thursday evening, they have not been presented to us. We are scheduled to meet with them again on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I felt it was essential to update you accurately on where negotiations stood. On Wednesday we presented a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals. Our entire package would cost this industry $151 million over three years. That's a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%. We are falling behind.

For Sony, this entire deal would cost $1.68 million per year. For Disney $6.25 million. Paramount and CBS would each pay about $4.66 million, Warner about $11.2 million, Fox $6.04 million, and NBC/Universal $7.44 million. MGM would pay $320,000 and the entire universe of remaining companies would assume the remainder of about $8.3 million per year. As we've stated repeatedly, our proposals are more than reasonable and the companies have no excuse for denying it.

The AMPTP's intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating. Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of SAG, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together.

Best,
Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

According to my sources, both sides spent the session recapping where they'd left off negotiations back on November 4th, which was the last time the WGA and AMPTP faced off. "So they basically went through all the proposals on the table: what they'd already agreed upon, and where they needed to go from here," an insider explained to me. "Tomorrow, they really start advancing the ball forward."

There will continue to be a news blackout on the contract talks, meaning no end-of-day statements by either the AMPTP or WGA, "because no one wants to be the one to derail any progress." (My lips are sealed about the site of the meetings.) Both sides plan more negotiating sessions not just for Tuesday but also for at least Wednesday. "It's anyone's guess where this process goes," said a source. "Today, they spent time on old business. Tomorrow, they handle new business -- and that's where the rubber can really meet the road."

With a mixture of offbeat jokes and familiar Letterman bits (the unflappable Hello Deli owner Rupert Jee has video cameos), the writers offer up self-deprecating anecdotes about their strike experiences, peppered with jabs at their corporate adversaries. (One entry by Steve Young, "Talking to Children About the Writers' Strike," suggests assuring them: "The Writers Guild will always love you very, very much. The media companies would sell you to the Gypsies in a second if they thought it would boost their share price." Quipped Young: "It's all the fun of working on the show, without the stress or the pay."

*****

When the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced plans to resume talks today, one factor that apparently contributed to the detente was the fear among some studios that the blogs and videos were effectively casting them as villains. "They're our version of electronic samizdat," said Michael Winship, president of WGA East, alluding to underground publications distributed in the former Soviet Union. "The humor is devastating." Perhaps the most prolific purveyors have been writers for late-night comedy shows, who are accustomed to quickly satirizing current events. "We have the rapid-response model," explained Rob Kutner, a writer for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," who worked with his colleagues on a "Daily Show"-esque video report about the strike, delivered by writer Jason Ross from a makeshift set in front of the picket line.

"It is important to us that people understand what we're doing and that we're not just willfully taking their shows off the air," said "Daily Show" writer Tim Carvell. "But it also just felt so good to write jokes again."

Philip Pullman, who was educated at Ysgol Ardudwy in Harlech, is already an honorary fellow of the university. The writer will take seminars for Bangor students and host discussions on literature and narrative structures. He said he was "delighted" to accept the role because he associated north Wales with his first real writing.

"It's not too much to say that my awakening to the pleasures and responsibilities of literature took place in Miss Enid Jones' English class at Ysgol Ardudwy in Harlech," he said. Speaking to BBC Wales last year, Pullman said he was "intoxicated" by the landscape of the region as he was growing up.

"I wanted to be a painter when I was a teenager and I spent a lot of time drawing and learning to look at things." Pullman's appointment in the arts and humanities department follows careers as a teacher and a teacher trainer. He has written more than 30 books altogether with his most famous works being the best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy. The last book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass was the first children's novel to win the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2002.

"The workers at CBS News have been without a contract for close to two and a half years. It is my hope that both sides will reach an agreement that results in a secure contract for the workers at CBS News but let me be clear:

"I will honor the picket line if the workers at CBS News decide to strike.

"America's unions are the backbone of America's middle class and I will always stand with America's working men and women in the fight to ensure that they are able to earn a fair wage."

The Horror Writers Association, on behalf of its writer members, stands in support of the Writers Guild of America strike in seeking appropriate compensation for writers when their work is distributed digitally, either via DVD or Internet downloads. Although HWA is not a union, it is an organization of writers that advocates for authors' rights. Writers Guild of America and its demands fall solidly into this category. All writers will be affected by the outcome of this strike, and we stand in solidarity, resisting those who seek to distribute our work on the Internet, DVD, or any format without fair compensation.

In a $100 million defamation suit filed in New York Tuesday, the firebrand former publisher sues, censures or cites Rudy Giuliani, Rupert Murdoch, Mickey Mantle, Bill O'Reilly, O.J. Simpson, Roger Ailes and Bernard Kerik. Regan accuses her former employer, News Corp., of engineering a campaign of dirty tricks against her that allegedly involved leaking lies that she was openly anti-Semitic, disgracing and embarrassing her when she tried to publish O.J. Simpson's fictionalized account of the murder of his wife and her friend, and suggesting she lie about her affair with a married New York City police commissioner to protect former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential dreams.

In a 72-page complaint, Regan's attorneys claim that she was the victim of a "deliberate smear campaign orchestrated by one of the world's largest media conglomerates for the sole purpose of destroying her credibility and reputation. "This smear campaign was necessary to advance News Corp.'s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions," read the court filing.

The complaint charges that one unnamed senior News Corp. executive "counseled Regan to lie and withhold information from investigators" about her acknowledged affair with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Another unnamed News Corp. executive "advised Regan not to produce clearly relevant documents in connection with a governmental investigation of Kerik," according to the complaint.

• Army Wives - Kim Delaney, Brian McNamara, Sally Pressman, Drew Fuller, Wendy Davis, Sterling K. Brown, Brigid Brannagh
• The Big Bang Theory - Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Jim Parsons
• Big Love - Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn
• Brotherhood - Ethan Embry, Fionnula Flanagan, Kevin Chapman
• Corey in the House - Rondell Sheridan, Madison Pettis, Lisa Arch, Maira Walsh
• Cold Case - Thom Barry, John Finn, Tracie Thoms, Meredith Stiehm, Danny Pino
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Archie Kao, Marc Vann, Wallace Langham, Liz Vassey, David Berman, John Wellner
• Desperate Housewives - Doug Savant, Nicollette Sheridan, Dana Delany, Tuc Watkins
• Dexter - Keith Carradine, James Remar, C.S. Lee
• Dirt - Ian Hurt, Josh Stewart
• Everybody Loves Raymond - Ray Romano
• The Game - Tia Mowry, Pooch Hall
• George Lopez Show - George Lopez, Constance Marie, Valente Rodriguez
• Grey's Anatomy - Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight, KaDee Stickland, Amy Brenneman, Justin Chambers
• Jericho - Ashley Scott, Bob Stephenson
• Kyle XY - Jamie Alexander, April Matson, Chris Olivero, Bruce Thomas
• Las Vegas - Vanessa Marcil
• Mad Men - January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Rich Sommer
• My Boys - James Kaler
• New Adventures of Old Christine - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Clark Gregg, Hamish Linklater, Alex Kapp Horner, Tricia O'Kelley
• Numb3rs - Dylan Bruno, Diane Farr
• Private Practice - Kate Walsh
• The Riches - Minnie Driver
• Rules of Engagement - Patrick Warburton, Megyn Price, Oliver Hudson, Bianca Kajlich
• Til Death - Brad Garrett, Kat Foster
• True Blood - Anna Paquin, Sam Trammell
• Wildfire - Lori Loughlin
• Without A Trace - Poppy Montgomery, Enrique Murciano
• Women's Murder Club - Scott Gemmill, Paula Newsome, Laura Harris
• Other Celebrities: Ben Stiller, Lisa Kudrow, Frances Fisher, Camryn Manheim, Edie McClurg and Susan Savage.

But if the strike goes on past the New Year, things start to look a bit more dicey. Every production chief faces the anxiety-filled challenge of actually proceeding with greenlit projects that will shoot under unprecedented duress, and "bubble" projects that have solid scripts but incomplete casting. An estimated 50 or so projects across studios are at the "go" stage, among them the next James Bond movie, "The Da Vinci Code" prequel "Angels & Demons" and "The X-Files" sequel, rumored to be titled "Done One." A producer who has five films on the bubble, however, estimates that as many as 75% of the "go" projects are actually "up in the air." Inevitably, some will end up on hold or the chopping block.

*****

To proceed with a project during the strike means no polishes, no response to executive notes, no fixes for actors uncomfortable with their lines, no rethinking of elaborate setpieces that don't work. Even under the best of circumstances, screenplays require writer-assisted tweaking right up until the first day of principal photography and sometimes throughout the shoot.

*****

Sony, for example, has at least two big-budget, high-profile "go" films that may have incomplete scripts and/or major casting holes. Paul Haggis admitted while walking the strike line last week that his script for "Bond 22," which is skedded to shoot in December, is not locked. Similarly, the script for "Angels & Demons," which is based on Dan Brown's wildly popular prequel to "The Da Vinci Code," was rushed to meet the Nov. 1 deadline. That film also has no players signed beyond star Tom Hanks. Furthermore, the Denzel Washington starrer "Pelham 123 " is rumored to have script problems.

But I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never "air," but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip.

Things have gotten ugly and the lines of communication have broken down completely between the guild and the studios. Perhaps it's not too late, though, for both sides to rally around the one thing we still have in common: our mourning for the way things used to be. Instead of fighting each other, maybe we should be throwing a wake for our beloved TV. Because the third stage of grief is bargaining.

And bargain we must, because when television finally passes on, there will still be entertainment; there will still be shows and films and videos, right there on a screen in your living room. And just as the owners of vaudeville theaters broke down and bought hand-crank movie cameras, the studios will figure out a way to make absurd amounts of money off of whatever is beaming onto whichever sort of screen.

And we'll still be writing every word.

Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song died Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84.

Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's biographer. From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality.

Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old "enfant terrible." Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, street-wise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.

This week Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had interviews scheduled with Karen Greenberg, author of The Torture Debate in America (Cambridge Univ. Press), Robert Reich, author of Supercapitalism (Knopf), CNN talking head Lou Dobbs, author of Independents Day (Viking), and former UN Ambassador John Bolton, author of Surrender Is Not an Option (Threshold). No interviews have made it on air. And The Colbert Report planned to interview David Levy, author of Love And Sex With Robots, AJ Jacobs author of The Year Of Living Biblically, and radio producer David Isay, author Listening Is An Act Of Love.

"For the right author, they are the gold standard," said Lisa Johnson, v-p executive director of publicity and marketing for Dutton and Gotham. Gotham author Jared Cohen was scheduled to appear next Monday on The Colbert Report to talk about his book Children of Jihad. "It is his first book and getting him booked on Colbert was a coup."

Johnson pointed out that Stewart and Colbert's shows are not the only late night gab fests that hosted authors: The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is also known for promoting books. Johnson's author Jenny McCarthy, whose latest book is Louder than Words, had an appearance cancelled this week due to the strike.

"It's not as if our business is going to collapse," said Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Knopf. "But we publicists are desperate to get our authors in front of readers and these are lost opportunities, especially as we enter the holiday shopping season."

And Leno's chief writer doesn't expect Leno back anytime soon. "I talk to Jay every day, and he will not be the first [late-night host] to cross the picket line," said Tonight Show head writer Joe Medeiros, also a strike captain for the Writers Guild of America. "So they are looking at guest hosts as one possibility so all those people don't have to lose their jobs."

Medeiros on Friday expressed anger at NBC for pulling the plug on the staff so quickly. "This is the way that NBC treats the No. 1 late-night talk show that makes them $50 million a year and has been No. 1 for 12 years?" he said, noting that NBC even turned off his NBC e-mail account.

Even prior to the strike taking effect, many knew that the nonwriting late-night show staff members from all networks would probably begin to see layoffs within two to three weeks if their hosts did not resume their on-air duties.

Mere told me young Boreanaz had also been there earlier that day. I was really touched, but my actor-friends were very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. They understand that the issues at hand affect the future of the entire creative community here, and that the writers, by virtue of being first, will set a precedent that affects all the guilds. That is why we writers have to be firm, intractable and absolute in our dedication to getting a fair deal. And that's all we're talking about: a fair deal. For us, and for generations of artists to come.

Sounds pretty damn pompous, no? "Generations to come"? Yeesh. But it's true. Our culture, our government, our corporate structures have all gotten pretty used to taking care of ourselves at the expense of our children and their children. Part of this is simple greed, part is immediate practicality trumping long-view perspective, and part is perfectly understandable fear. It's easier to take what you're given, not protest, not make a fuss. A lot of people will suffer grievously if this strike isn't quickly resolved, and the men and women who voted for it know that. But like so many things - our eco-system being the most obvious - if we don't make it work now, what's to come will be much worse.

Let me be clear on one point: I know I have it easy. I've done well, and I'm grateful that I can weather a long winter. Compared to what the studios have made off me my share is tiny and cute, but I'm in no position to complain. But take that differential, apply it to someone who's just getting by when they deserve better. Now take it and- well, just take it, 'cause when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there's nothing there for the artists. There's no precedent; these media didn't exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We're not just talking about an unfair deal, we're talking about no deal at all. Four cents from the sale of a DVD (the standing WGA deal) sounds exactly as paltry as it is, but in a decade DVD may have gone the way of the eight-track. We have to protect the rights of the people who tell the stories, however they're told.

*****

This is an era of change, and for the giant conglomo-tainment empires, it will either be the Renaissance or the Ice Age. Because we will not stand down. Writers can be replaced, as we are constantly reminded. But so can companies. Power is on the move, and though in this town it's been hoarded by very few, there are other companies with newer ideas about how to make money off of - or possibly, wonderfully, with - the story-tellers. Personally, I like things almost the way they are. I truly hope the executives negotiating for the AMPTP make the few simple concessions that will allow us to work with them again. I want to work. I have this idea, for a show about a girl... I even have the actress for it. And if we strike effectively, maybe she won't have to.

I am hearing it on good authority from a highly reputable source that none other than former President Bill Clinton -- long a friend of the entertainment industry -- has let it be known to intimates that he would make himself available to help break the Writers Guild of America strike impasse with the studios that at the moment has no new talks planned.

"He could absolutely serve as a modern-day Lew Wasserman," the source confirmed. "Bill Clinton is uniquely positioned because he doesn't need anything from this. It would strictly be about bringing the sides together. I'd say the only possible deal-breaker could be if his wife's team somehow feels that it may be perceived as a negative for her Presidential campaign, but I don't really see how it could."

*****

It leads to another question that's already being asked with increasing volume -- namely, where is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in all of this? He has obviously made a decision to stay out of the picture -- but why? He's in the rare position of being both a high-level politician and a Hollywood superstar. And this strike quite clearly stands to have a major negative economic impact on his state. Weird that he should be so resolutely committed to staying on the sidelines.

LORRAINE Bracco on the current writers' strike: "Someday actors will strike, too. Look, HBO made $300 million in 'Sopranos' DVD sales. They sold it worldwide to A&E for another $200 million. I figured we'd share in that, and my agent said, 'You'll be disappointed.'

The show didn't make us big money. When it began nobody figured cable was anything. They said, 'Nobody looks at cable.' Even our creator David Chase, who was part of the earlier writers' strike before 'Sopranos' went on the air, didn't negotiate deals on residuals. At the time he actually said, 'Who cares about cable?' "

Before midnight, the WGA issued this statement:

"Early today, the WGA completely withdrew its DVD proposal, which the Companies said was a stumbling block. Yet, the Companies still insisted on the following:

"--> No jurisdiction for most of new media writing.

"--> No economic proposal for the part of new media writing where they do propose to give coverage.

"--> Internet downloads at the DVD rate.

"--> No residual for streaming video of theatrical product.

"--> A 'promotional' proposal that allows them to reuse even complete movies or TV shows on any platform with no residual. This proposal alone destroys residuals.

"--> A 'window' of free reuse on the Internet that makes a mockery of any residual.

"The AMPTP made no response to any of the other proposals that the WGA has made since July. The AMPTP proposed that today's meeting be 'off the record', meaning no press statements, but they have reneged on that."

Sunday's last-ditch effort focused on those viewed as voices of moderation, such as "ER" showrunner and former WGA president John Wells. Conversations among key players from both sides focused on exploring possible concessions in hopes of luring the WGA back to the bargaining table and away from picket lines. Among key players pushing to jump-start the bargaining process -- CBS topper Les Moonves, Disney's Robert Iger, Fox's Peter Chernin and Warner Bros. Barry Meyer.

In a potentially positive development, the closed-door talks were still in progress more than five hours later. The move came with WGA members told that they're expecting to spend at least 20 hours a week on picket lines. The WGA East was planning to begin pickets at Rockefeller Plaza outside NBC this morning; the WGA West had announced a dozen high-profile locations for picketing including CBS Radford, CBS Television City, Culver Studios, Disney, Fox, Hollywood Center, NBC, Prospect, Paramount, Raleigh, Sony, Sunset Gower, Universal and Warner Bros.

With a strike potentially causing a major disruption to daily business, key players on both sides were seeking not to craft an entire deal but to simply delay the strike for a few days in order to give negotiations another chance. And the major focus appeared to be to get talks moving without the relentless saber-rattling that's dominated for the past year.

The walk-out threatens an instant jolt to television talk shows like Late Show With David Letterman, which rely on guild writers to churn out monologues and skits. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno will all revert to repeats on Monday, at least for the time being. And if the strike drags on, audiences could see the eventual shutdown of soap operas, TV series and movie productions, as they exhaust their bank of ready scripts.

In the near term, 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 dispute may also signal more labor trouble to come, as directors and actors face similar issues when their contracts expire next June. Over the long haul, multiple strikes could lead to a drastic overhaul of the economics of Hollywood. They could redefine the industry’s relationship with its highly unionized work force at a time when DVD sales are cooling and changing movie and TV markets have workers and companies alike vying for their perceived fair share of a yet-to-be-identified next digital bonanza.

"I'm afraid that everybody's in for a terrible time," said Norman Lear, the writer, producer and entrepreneur whose career spanned the disruptions of the 1980s — when Hollywood weathered five strikes by its guilds — and the years of relative peace that preceded and followed that tumultuous decade. The leaders of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East were expected to order their roughly 12,000 members covered by a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to stop work and be assigned picket duty when the strike begins.

Officials called a meeting of the union's 12,000 members for Thursday night and were expected to discuss whether to walk out. Guild members recently authorized their negotiators to call the first strike since 1988, if necessary. "The guild has never had the resolve to go the distance," said Harris Goldberg, screenwriter of "Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo." "They feel that if they don't do it now, they're never going to be able to do it again." Respect is also at stake, with many writers feeling they have never commanded the same clout in the entertainment industry as actors and directors. "I don't think it's something we can negotiate for," said Paul Guay, who co-wrote the movies "Liar, Liar" and "Heartbreakers." "What we can negotiate for is money. How we assess respect and worth in this town is money."

*****

The key financial issue is the talks involves changing the formula for paying writers a share of DVD revenue then applying the same equation to money made from material offered over the Internet and other digital platforms. Studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, are dead set against increasing DVD royalties. Writers and actors have been fighting for years to reverse what they see as a huge mistake made at the dawn of home video, when no one was sure if selling movies on VHS cassettes would ever make money.

The unions agreed to ignore the first 80 percent of revenue from the tapes - and later DVDs - assuming most of the money represented the cost of manufacturing and distribution. Writers settled for just 1.2 percent of the remaining 20 percent, a figure that amounts to about 3 cents on a DVD that retails for $20. Writers are now asking for their share to be calculated on 40 percent of revenue and argue the same formula should be used for digital distribution because studios have almost no costs associated with that technology. Consumers are expected to spend $16.4 billion on DVDs this year, according to Adams Media Research. By contrast, studios could generate about $158 million from selling movies online and about $194 million from selling TV shows over the Web.

Finally, this gets underway with a standing ovation for the WGA committee that has been leading the way during these labor negotiations. It's a full house, and everyone is at rapt attention as leaders discuss where negotiations stand.

A few minutes into the gathering, there is no more uncertainty: There will be a strike, leaders tell the thousands of WGA members in attendance. Leaders will send out a press release tomorrow afternoon, telling members precisely when the strike will begin. The Screen Actors Guild president says the actors guild is in full support of the strike and will stand by the writers for as long as it takes.