Harlan Ellison delivers another subtle message at Paramount; 2007
Nick Counter, the stonewalling negotiator for the AMPTP that battled with SAG and the WGA (and sorta the DGA, I guess, although they always seemed to just skate by at the tail end of all the blood-letting) died today.
from Nikki Finke:
Counter wouldn’t budge on the issues, and instead sat, and sat, and waited for the other side to get frustrated and start taking issues off the table. It was a successful albeit torturous and disrespectful tactic, one that did not endear him to the unions who often made accusations that he bargained in bad faith with them. Several unions even filed formal complaints about him with the National Labor Relations Board. Counter handled almost all the negotiations that led to and then settled the 2007/2008 Writers Guild strike. On the picket lines, WGA strikers often made signs caricaturing Counter in unflattering ways.
I don’t see a statement yet from the WGA, but the statement from SAG is a bit too mushy and filled with warm fuzzies, if you ask me.
“His long tenure as head of the AMPTP was typified by reason, compassion… flashes of wry humor…an evident respect for actors and admiration for their unique contribution to the art and business of entertainment.”
Seriously?
I’m not in the WGA or SAG, I didn’t know Counter or any of these players, but as a casual (albeit closer than many who opine on the internet) observer to the 2007 strike I can say that there weren’t many kind words about the man and his tactics on the strike lines or in print during that period, to put it mildly. Of course, once it was all over, coverage seemed to exonerate him and put all the blame on the writers, which is not to say that the WGA didn’t make mistakes and share the blame, but to wipe the slate clean for the AMPTP and Counter is just ridiculous and a sad outcome.
I believe that you should say kind things about someone after they die, but I really hope the WGA holds back on the lovey huggies and keeps it to professional accolades, like he was a “worthy adversary,” a “tough negotiator” and “consummate professional.” That’s enough, right? Don’t need to say he had the eyes of a saint and the heart of a warrior bear (they are Hollywood writers, after all).
As for the above pic, I snapped this of Harlan Ellison at the Paramount gate in 2007. Prescient?
On that day, Ellison called Counter and the lot of his AMPTP colleagues rats and scumbags, if I remember correctly, in that hilarious but almost disturbingly angry Harlan Ellison way. But that’s why we love him.
Until Ellison sues me for posting this picture on my rinky-dink blog without his permission, that is. Spare me, Harlan Ellison legal team — I don’t want to sleep with the fishes!
-Dan Calvisi
West Hollywood
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Nikki Finke reports today that the WGA issued their statement:
Writers Guild of America, West and Writers Guild of America, East issued this statement this weekend from presidents John Wells and Michael Winship on behalf of the WGAW and WGAE:
“The Writers Guilds of America, West and East mark the passing of Nick Counter, longtime president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and convey their deepest sympathy to his family.”