Writers gab while a hot Fox talking head waits to file a report
It was voting day. Two days after the big meeting at the Shrine Auditorium, we were due to turn out at the WGA Theater and vote. Not on the contract, mind you, but on whether or not to go back to work before the contract was signed.
Sound confusing? It gets worse.
WGAW members were to report in person to the Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, or send in a proxy form, naming another writer as their proxy holder. In most shareholder elections of this kind, they usually offer the names of different board members who will vote the way you want. Here, it was Pat Verrone for Yes, and a couple of other guys, presumably zanies, for No.
So, about a dozen of our guys signed their proxy over to me. I mean, it probably wouldn’t make a difference, they could send it directly to Patric [sic], but they wanted to be sure their vote was counted.
I showed up early with John, Marvin and Larry, and we got in the end of the line, getting ready for the trudge toward the news cameras and into the building. Things got going pretty much on time, but when we got inside, there were two pieces of bad news.
1. Marvin is a member of the WGA East, and was not allowed to vote.
2. They lost one of the proxies I was supposed to vote.
Of course, they had no records of proxies, membership rolls, nothing – it was all back at Guild Headquarters. I was informed by an extremely stressed-out woman that there were a lot of proxies that were illegible. A lot? Oh my God.
I left my name and the list of proxies with someone at the help desk, and came home to wait it out. About an hour later, I got a call to come back – the missing proxy had been found. In fact, it had never been lost, it was in my packet at the Guild, but the person putting together the ballots had miscounted.
Whew! And just in time, because the Guild workers were all heading over to the WGA Theater to count the ballots. Wait a second, to count… the ballots…
Oh man, I hope there isn’t a recount!
