The Writers Guild of America has sent a letter to members warning them not to work for the upcoming variety show hosted by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne being produced by FremantleMedia North America, the company that produces American Idol, The Price is Right , and Million Dollar Password , During its negotiations with Fremantle, the WGA said, the production company "wanted to treat certain portions of the show as 'reality content,' not cover the writers who create it, and lower the compensation of the WGA-covered writers, arguing that they would only be responsible for writing part of the show." Fremantle's demands, it insisted, amounted to an "aggressive undermining of our contract." For its part, Fremantle insisted that the WGA had broken off negotiations "after only a few phone conversations" and then "implemented their usual mendacious strategy of feeding misleading and erroneous information to the press."

09/10/2008