Twelve writer’s from America’s Next Top Model have apparently gone on strike due to the fact that the show’s producers denied them entrance into the Writers Guild of America, West.
In response, the writers walked away and started a (peaceful) protest outside the office, where they were joined by some WGA members and also SAG member, Alan Rosengerg.
Membership in the WGA certainly has its benefits–health insurance, pensions, payment standards, residuals and actual credit for being a writer. (The Top Model writers currently hold other titles, like “story producer,” it being a reality show and all, and don’t see any of the money that comes from the rampant repeats on VH1.)
America’s Next Top Model heads to the CW in the fall, which, along with a handful of new shows, will basically be airing a collection of favorites from UPN and the WB, including Top Model, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars and 7th Heaven.
“We have no interest in jeopardizing our positive working relationship,” the strikers said in a joint statement. “But what we are asking for isn’t unreasonable. There is a double standard being applied as our peers in dramatic television work under the protections of a WGA contract. We should too.”
In the case of an unscripted series like Top Model, writers hammer out story outlines, edit footage into workable plots and, yes, even feed people lines sometimes. Much like writing a script, only without the good actors.
“If you shoot hundreds of hours of footage, if you didn’t edit it into something, you’d have something” nobody would want to watch, WGA spokesman Gabriel Scott said. “That’s all storytelling.”
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