Comedian Jay Leno was hauled in front of his own union’s trial committee Wednesday to address charges that he broke guild rules during last season’s writers strike, a full year after the alleged violations.
The NBC late-night host was a prominent backer of the Writers Guild of America during the 100-day work stoppage, but he alarmed union officials when he announced on the air that he was penning his own monologues while the strike was still in full swing.
Leno contends that he did nothing wrong. He has the highest profile among a handful of writers whose cases are being reviewed by the committee, which will make a recommendation to the board on whether any action should be taken. Possible penalties include a reprimand, a fine and even expulsion from the union.
Guild leaders said Leno violated strike rules, which bar union members from performing “struck work” that would otherwise have been done by a WGA member.
The incident created internal divisions within the union, which did not want to alienate the “Tonight Show” host, who brought doughnuts to writers on the picket line and publicly championed their cause.
Now, these guys know how to bring teh funny!
Comment by Rob Crawford on 2/26 @ 12:16 pm #
“I ad-libbed, so fuck off.”
Comment by BuddyPC on 2/26 @ 12:23 pm #
You know what’d be funny? The Writer’s Guild going after Bill Ayers for ghostwriting Obama’s book.
Comment by kelly on 2/26 @ 12:28 pm #
Whatever Leno wrote for himself couldn’t be any less funny than what his writers comeup with.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/26 @ 12:32 pm #
Conan takes over in a few months and then later I think Mr. Leno person will have a different show all his own. This show doesn’t necessarily need to have any scripted elements. Prime time is a lot more zero-sum than I think the thuggy little union scriveners unnerstand. The pie sure ain’t getting any bigger anytime soon.
Comment by B Moe on 2/26 @ 12:33 pm #
Apparently clowns don’t taste funny after all.
Comment by Pablo on 2/26 @ 12:52 pm #
Whose idea was it to give Jimmy Fallon a talk show?
Comment by kelly on 2/26 @ 12:59 pm #
All the late night shows are skewering the new prez and his administration every night, right? RIGHT??
Comment by TheGeezer on 2/26 @ 1:08 pm #
Prime time is a lot more zero-sum than I think the thuggy little union scriveners unnerstand.
Dead on.
Comment by dicentra on 2/26 @ 2:21 pm #
Those show-biz unions are hard-core. If you’re working on a union set and you want to sit on an “apple box” for a sec, you can’t pick it up and move it yourself: you have to ask a grip to do it for you.
When Glenn Beck was doing his Christmas Sweater tour, he ran into union insanity all the time, like having to reprint a whole slew of programs because one of the names was missing a middle initial. And not being able to hold rehearsals unless certain people were there.
Comment by scooter (still not libby) on 2/26 @ 2:30 pm #
Sort a funny considering that Leno got the job in the first by filling in for Carson during the writer’s strike back in the early 90s precisely because he could write his own material. So this time he’s saving his OWN show by doing what he did to save someone ELSE’S show almost 20 years ago; last time it got him a permanent gig, and this time it’s getting him dragged in front of the Union.
Comment by scooter (still not libby) on 2/26 @ 2:35 pm #
I remember reading something in one of Lew Grizzard’s books about working with Union workers in the newspaper biz. Apparently, if you even TOUCHED something a union worker had typeset he could dump it on the ground and start over. Ol’ Lew was pretty pissed about that, if I recall.
Seems to me there’s a consistent trend with regard to how various sects of people react when society corrects for a (very often) real injustice and then proceed to abuse those concessions in nearly tyrannical fashion, but damned if I’ll try to articulate it intelligently.
Anyone who feels compelled to say “it’s never stopped you before” can kiss it.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 2/26 @ 3:33 pm #
My favorite story involves a brother who got in trouble for moving copier paper from the supply closet to the copier. That’s a Teamster’s job, don’tchaknow.
Comment by Techie on 2/26 @ 3:50 pm #
There was once a time and a place for unions, and they did good work, but many of them have become archaic. It’s like saying “Man, I’m glad that cancer is gone. I just really enjoy this chemo though. Keep the IVs flowing”.
Comment by Ruth H on 2/26 @ 3:50 pm #
Leno was a writer for Carson at one time, probably when he did the show as a fill in.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 2/26 @ 4:09 pm #
Why would you need a union to protect yourself from those beautiful people in Hollywood? I thought they were all one big happy family?! And oh, so compassionate for the underdogs of the world.
Do I need to put a /sarc here? No, I thought not.
Comment by geoffb on 2/26 @ 4:27 pm #
“card Check”, live it, love it, die by it.
Comment by geoffb on 2/26 @ 4:29 pm #
I really hate the keyboard on this laptop.
“Card check” pimf.
Comment by BJTexs on 2/26 @ 4:34 pm #
If you ever want to experience real anxiety try plugging in your own extension cords at The Jacob Javits Center in NYC.
Comment by kelly on 2/26 @ 4:42 pm #
Personal experience, BJT?
Comment by Rusty on 2/26 @ 5:04 pm #
Here’s something to think about next time you fly. The Machinists Union ,who represent aircraft mechanics, consider aircraft mechanics unskilled workers.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 2/26 @ 5:41 pm #
My favorite union story involves Buckminster Fuller.
He arrived in a strange city to give one of his legendary multi-hour lectures, and was told that he was obligated to hire two union stagehands for the event.
“Why do I need stagehands? I just talk.”
“Union work rules. Gotta hire ‘em.”
So… rather than bitch about it, he called up a piano rental company and had two pianos delivered to the auditorium.
During his lecture, he stopped every five minutes or so, looked at the stagehands, and said “Now I need *that* piano moved over *there*, and *that* piano moved over *there*.”
Heh.
Comment by Phil on 2/26 @ 5:56 pm #
Ok folks, this stuff is starting to get a little creepy in how much it hits home.
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2009/02/25/interior-decision-on-oil-shale-locks-away-american-energy-resource-larger-than-total-reserves-of-middle-east/
I work in the aviation industry and had this oil shale development gone through, our company would have expanded significantly in this region, providing high paying private sector jobs and lots of tax money for Baracky’s socialist agenda. In fact, we had targeted this region as a growth area when we thought it was likely that this oil shale project would be approved. Heck, even Baracky said expanded domestic oil production was a priority of his during several debates.
Well guess what suckers, he lied to you.
And those jobs we would have created are now never going to see the light of day.
Folks, we’re truly fucked. And libtard-fucks, I don’t mean “we’re” fucked as in conservatives are fucked. I mean “we’re” fucked as in America is fucked. And since you presumably live here, that means you too.
Comment by Phil on 2/26 @ 5:58 pm #
Btw, while we turn away from domestic oil shale development, we’re importing millions of barrels of oil from the Alberta province in Canada as they do PRECISELY what we just banned.
In the era of Hope and Change.
Comment by Sdferr on 2/26 @ 6:12 pm #
This joke — for it has been shown to be a thoroughgoing fantasy by now — of “Hope and Change”, the execrable slogan of the now past Obama for President campaign, really ought to be put away for good I think, to be replaced by a slogan more fitting to the project underway.
Something along the lines of “Lies and Deception” or “Mendacity and Theft” would perhaps be more appropriate. Or work on it folks. Find something apt.
Comment by maggie katzen on 2/26 @ 6:15 pm #
Dope and Mange
Comment by kelly on 2/26 @ 6:24 pm #
Cope and Strange.
Comment by kelly on 2/26 @ 6:25 pm #
Mope and Derange.
Comment by maggie katzen on 2/26 @ 6:30 pm #
Slope and…
Comment by router on 2/26 @ 6:45 pm #
lies, damn lies, and barackytalk
Comment by dicentra on 2/26 @ 6:53 pm #
Heck, even Baracky said expanded domestic oil production was a priority of his during several debates.
Betcha forgot to check the expiration date on that one, eh?
Baracky is consumed by grandiose fantasies. He is not thinking in terms of what works but what is Big, Bold, Brave, and Glorious.
This is why we see such overt nonsense in Washington: they don’t have the same goals as the average American. They want to increase their power and influence; we just want to pay the bills.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 2/26 @ 7:13 pm #
People tuned in to hear Jay, not you guys.
That is the difference, and yes, you are as disposable as lawyers, and nearly as common.
Dicentra - that may be where a lot of actors get big heads - there is always someone to move and dust the chair, they never get someone saying, ‘Look, meat, I’m busy; move the bleepin’ chair yourself or are you helpless?’ I think being made to wipe off their own chair and set it would be a good character-building exercise.
Techie: That is important - back over a hundred years ago Unions really had a place, but once safety and hours and all of the workplace issues were legislated, all Unions mostly became was wages and benefits. The old company town abuses and the worker injured on the job without any help abuses are long gone.
For example (IIRC) - if a Great Lakes freighter has damage to a rail stanchion that has to be reported and repaired correctly to Coast Guard inspection requirements. Nothing ad-hoc at all.
Comment by pdbuttons on 2/26 @ 8:28 pm #
slippery slope and chump-change
Comment by Sdferr on 2/26 @ 8:30 pm #
Too kind buttons. Growl a little, at least.
Comment by pdbuttons on 2/26 @ 9:15 pm #
meow
Comment by Ernie on 2/27 @ 10:04 am #
Yes and it truly was his BEST material ever. He was back top being actually funny again, not homogenized by a team of NBC writers. You go Jay.
Comment by Jack Wayd on 2/27 @ 10:24 am #
jay was funniest during the strike. my wife and i commented every night: i hope the strike lasts forever! it’s too bad his sidekick didn’t strike.
Comment by ExurbanKevin on 2/27 @ 11:10 am #
If elocution professors and speech coaches go on strike, am I allowed to talk?
Comment by Mark on 2/27 @ 1:38 pm #
Gimme a break. Unions are the dregs of society. I love how they just decide to not work when things to go their way. You know what…thats life and thats a career pal. It doesnt always go your way. Unions are what is killing American workers. Well… that and Obama.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 2/27 @ 7:58 pm #
Shouldn’t it be “Hope for Change”? As in ‘When Barky gets done with the US exonomy we can all stand on street corners with tin cups and hope for change‘..
Comment by Swen Swenson on 2/27 @ 8:30 pm #
“Exonomy”. Heh. That’s gotta be Freudian..