Hollywood Babble On & On #1041: Rivers, Writers, Legendary's New Home, & A League

JOAN RIVERS & THE WRITERS

The WGAE is mad at Joan Rivers over the treatment of the writers for her show Fashion Police on the E! Network. The non-union writers are claiming that they're owed over a million in back pay by the show, get no benefits, and are otherwise denied any decent treatment on a show that has a profit margin thicker than a castle wall.

Joan Rivers, as the chief show-runner, and grimace gargoylesque face of the show is getting a lot of the blame for the problems, and rightfully so. She started her career as a joke writer for talk shows and game shows, and should remember how hard it was for her then, and for her employees now, but she's acting like she doesn't.

This can mean one of two things. 

1. Either she's completely clueless about the causes of the dispute.

2. She's just pretending to be clueless, but is in fact a rather heartless hypocrite.

The WGAE is right to do whatever it takes to fix this dispute. She's deliberately warping the market and enriching herself by literally taking from her employees. She knows better and should act better.

LEGENDARY FINDS A NEW HOME

Legendary Pictures has inked a new deal to co-produce movies with Universal Pictures starting in 2014.

Forbes explains what Legendary will be bringing to the revivified Universal. Which is basically its very deep pockets, its founder Thomas Tull, his good instincts for pairing projects and filmmakers, and his good relations with some of the top money-making talent out there.

Anyway, it looks like a good deal for Universal.

Let's hope they don't blow it.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY TELEVISION?

The Fox Network has commissioned a "put pilot" based on Alan Moore's comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

A "put pilot" is a TV pilot where the network has to pay the producers and stakeholders a cash penalty if it doesn't go to series. It's the sort of deal a network gives if they're pretty sure that the show has a lot of potential.

Now a lot of people may disagree after the disastrous 2003 maladaption that Fox plopped onto movie screens. A failure so bad that its star Sean Connery literally quit acting after it.

Will this proposed TV series be any better?

It can't be any worse. Any better, well that's a very tall order.