Strike While the Irony's Hot

The failure of the Writers Guild to whip up much passion about Jay Leno's return to late night shows, I think, how little juice the current strike has. Leno is a guild member, and in a stunning bit of illogic claims that it's okay for him to deliver his nightly monologue because he writes it himself. He also says he's doing his show out of concern for his 100 employees who aren't writers but are affected by the strike. In other words, Leno can esentially weaken the Guild's position by undermining the strike, while remaining blithely unconcerned about the thousands of other non-writers whose incomes are affected. It's pretty agressively anti-union, but nobody's taking much notice. Meanwhile, the networks have trotted out two new mindless "unwritten" offerings, American Gladiator redux and The War of the Dancers, both of which are attracting huge numbers of viewers, reminiscent of a cat who will sit staring at glittery tinsel for hours on end. I'm betting that most people won't really give a rat's hoo hah about missing the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, as long as they've got something with bright lights and loud noise to keep them entertained.