Based on a couple of conversations over the weekend, I'm going to slightly revise my statement about a possible WGA strike and move in the direction of cautious optimism. From what I hear, they are talking, and seriously — which has not been the norm in any Hollywood labor negotiations for quite some time. We seem to have convinced them we have a fair amount of solidarity — something that has either been in too-short supply since the early eighties or we had it but couldn't make anyone believe it. More importantly, they believe we have it now, months in advance of the expiration of the current contract. Some years ago, I was on a committee at the WGA which studied the long '88 strike and attempted to determine what could be learned from it. One key finding was that, once the AMPTP makes its first "final offer," they have a devil of a time, for internal reasons alone, moving off it, agreeing even among themselves to an improved offer. Ergo, the time for a Guild to show its resolve is not, as it has been with past WGA strikes, after we got an unacceptable offer thrown at us; the time is before Management gets locked into a lowball. While it's too early to be confident they'll arrive at a deal and head off a work stoppage in May, I do think the current Guild leadership has avoided at least one big sand trap. Maybe.