Hollywood on Strike!

An Industry at War in the Internet Age

Jonathan Handel

  BOOK RELEASE PARTY!

 Jonathan Handel's new book Hollywood on Strike! chronicles and analyzes the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike and ensuing Screen Actors Guild stalemate that lasted through mid-2009.

Copies of the book will be on sale, and the author, who is an entertainment attorney at TroyGould and a contributing editor for The Hollywood Reporter, will sign copies and offer a few remarks as you mingle at the Showbiz Store & Cafe.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase.

One lucky attendee will win a copy of Final Draft AV, courtesy of Final Draft, Inc

A chronicle – and a clear-eyed analysis – of the 2007-2009 Hollywood labor strife

The Writers Guild went on strike in 2007. The big issue: fees for programs released on new media such as the Internet. The strike was settled one hundred turbulent days later – but then the Screen Actors Guild spiraled out of control, unwilling to accept the same terms but unable to muster a second strike. As the national economy collapsed, idled writers and actors sacrificed millions of dollars in film and TV wages in order to pursue pennies in new media. All told, the turmoil lasted about two years.

But why? Analyzing events as they unfolded, Los Angeles entertainment attorney and journalist Jonathan Handel lays bare the contracts, economics and politics swirling behind the paradox of Hollywood labor relations. Handel is a uniquely qualified guide: a former associate counsel at the Writers Guild, his law practice at TroyGould focuses on new media and entertainment.  He was described as “one of the most-quoted sources on the strike,” and recently taught a course on entertainment unions and guilds as an adjunct professor at UCLA School of Law. Handel covers entertainment labor as a Contributing Editor for The Hollywood Reporter and his writing also appears on Forbes.com and the Huffington Post. As a commentator, Handel has appeared in the media hundreds of times.

The 2007-2009 contracts, so hard fought, brought scant months of labor peace: renegotiations began in 2010, and recur every three years. That makes this book, and the author’s blog at jhandel.com, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Hollywood in the digital age.

The book includes 80 pages of reference materials: abbreviations/glossary, graphic timeline, index, and more. Also included in a Highlights list of selected sections for readers who wish to focus on milestone events and analysis.

Jonathan Handel is an attorney practicing entertainment, new media and technology law at TroyGould in Los Angeles and is also a contributing editor at The Hollywood Reporter, where he covers entertainment labor and other business matters.