Talk show circuit gets time out
LOS ANGELES -- David Letterman has time to make another guest appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Jon Stewart can try out his satiric jokes on his family before unleashing them on a national TV audience. And Jay Leno can take long motorcycle rides or tinker with his collection of antique cars.
All three talk-show hosts will have more free time after the Writers Guild of America went on strike Monday against TV networks and movie studios.
Late-night comedy was the first casualty of the walkout that left the shows with no one to fashion clever quips about the issues of the day.
The first strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with noisy pickets on both coasts after last-minute negotiations Sunday failed to produce a deal on payments to writers from shows offered on the Internet.
No new negotiations were scheduled, although the writers guild negotiating committee did plan a meeting of its members.
Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said he expected a long standoff.
"We're hunkered down for a long one," he said. "From our standpoint, we made every good faith effort to negotiate a deal, and they went on strike. At some point, conversations will take place. But not now."
Writers said the next move was up to the studios.
"My hope is that it won't be too long," said John Bowman, chief negotiator for the writers. "We have more reason to get together than not."
Television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, who had his reality show taken off the air after getting caught using a racial slur, will not be extradited to Mexico to face a pending appeal of kidnapping charges against him, a judge ruled Monday. The U.S. government had been trying to send Chapman, his son Leland Chapman and a third man to the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, where they were charged with kidnapping Andrew Luster, a Max Factor heir who had jumped a $1 million bond on charges that he drugged and raped three women.
Robert Goulet's name appeared for years on the marquees of the Las Vegas Strip and will be there again the day of his funeral. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has asked hotel-casinos to honor the late singer and actor by featuring his name on their marquees Friday. The big-voiced baritone died Tuesday in Los Angeles of pulmonary fibrosis while awaiting a lung transplant.