Jay Walking

Yesterday, Jay Leno was the subject of some press reports that cast him in a bad light for declining to pay the salaries of Tonight Show staff members who have been laid-off because of the strike. Today, it's being reported that he is paying their salaries on a week-to-week basis, but he's being portrayed in a bad light because he didn't come through faster with the assurance…or something like that.

Here's a link to the article and I'm a little mystified. The staffers were laid off on Friday and on Saturday, Leno's producer was phoning around to assure them they'd be paid. That's not soon enough? The guy's shelling out a pretty large piece of change to people who don't even work for him — they work for NBC — and the response is that morale among the staff members is low because of Jay's behavior? That strikes me as finding a negative where there isn't one. Last night, I spoke to one Tonight Show employee who painted quite a different picture and who said that everyone there understands that Jay is having some tough negotiations with the network that are unrelated to the strike.

But this article seems to be going out of its way to spin positives into negatives. Here are a couple of examples…

"A lot of people don't want to work for Jay anymore," another staffer said. "His true colors have shown. We were told he won't cross the picket line until David Letterman or Conan O'Brien do so that he can look like the good guy to the WGA."

Even assuming that's a true summary of Leno's mindset — and it may not be, since it's at best an anonymous third-hand source from someone who may have been speculating in the first place — so what? If Letterman, O'Brien and Leno all stay out until the strike is over, they will be "good guys" to the WGA. That's all the guild is asking of them.

Beyond Leno's misplaced optimism about the financial well-being of his staff, he further damaged himself — in the eyes of some workers — with his public behavior. While he privately expressed concern for the jobs of all staff members, to the media he seemed preoccupied with supporting striking writers, including handing out doughnuts to picketers and mugging for press photos.

Translation: At a time when his staff members were still being paid, Leno was out supporting his union. In case no one's figured it out, the WGA has asked actors and performers to come out, join the picket lines and be photographed with us.

Just what is it Leno allegedly did wrong here? The staffers had not yet been laid off and might not have been laid off if, as many were speculating, the strike was close to a settlement. Apparently, he was supposed to not go out and back his guild. He was supposed to be lining up jobs for these people who don't work for him and might not have been laid off…this, despite the fact that employees are being laid off all over town and no star is helping them find work, and most aren't offering a dime out of their own pockets. (It is apparently only late night talk show hosts who are expected to come up with their staff's paychecks during a strike, not stars of sitcoms or dramas or anything else.) I don't get it.

I like the fact that Jay went out and bought doughnuts for the picketers. It's a good, blue collar way of telling America that he's behind the strike, as if closing down his show wasn't enough. I helped run the picketing of NBC in '88 and I don't recall Mr. Carson coming by and passing out crullers. That strike might have lasted a few weeks less if he had.

Actually, because I usually picket over at CBS, I really like the fact that Drew Carey, who's inside there most days hosting The Price is Right (a show without writers, let's note) has been arranging for pizzas to be sent out to the WGA members marching about outside. One day, he arranged for a dozen to be delivered and one writer outside told a reporter, "We want to thank Drew for sharing half his lunch with us."