Clooney Versus The Writers Guild Of America



(image via nypost)

George Clooney is interesting because he stands out as something of a paragon of moral virtue in Hollywood, a decidedly pagan city. Not that we have anything against pagans, per se (Averted Gaze). It is always interesting, though, to see a Reformer-type personality do battle with, say, the amoral paparazzi, or, worse, the big-and-stupid Fabio (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). The paparazzi, in particular, never have a chance. Their amorality and lack of any sort of moral compass -- think: TMZ -- make them look, in the public arena, downright reptilian against Clooney's upright attacks.

But there is a downside to being so publicly "upright" (The Corsair pours himself a glass of aged champagne). Over-morality, self-righteousness, an inability to bend, can precipitate a backlash in the public arena of a fickle democracy with, we cannot fail to note, a low attention span. So we are a bit worried that Clooney, whom we admire, is going overboard, offsetting the goodwill he gains from featuring the screwball comedy Leatherheads -- a clever career stretch -- by getting into a moral argument with the entire Writer's Guild of America. From Cinematical:

"No sooner do I write an adulatory post about George Clooney than I come upon this story about the trouble he's been having with the Writers' Guild of America over credit for the Leatherheads screenplay. He's so upset at the way he's been treated that he's gone "financial core" at the Guild, which is an irreversible decision making him a limited, non-voting, dues-paying member. He says he would have quit altogether, but that would have basically prevented him from working as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

"According to Clooney, the original Leatherheads script by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly had been bouncing around for almost two decades before he took it, rewrote it as a screwball comedy, and got the project greenlit. He believes that he wrote all but two scenes of the resulting film. But when the credit squabble went to arbitration before the WGA last fall, the guild determined that Clooney didn't deserve screen credit for his work. That was the end of the line for him (he declined to appeal), though he kept the matter quiet at the time because of the ongoing writers strike.

"David Poland thinks this is a whiny and petulant move on Clooney's part, using a 'chainsaw to operate on a papercut.'"

The WGA, you'll remember, is fresh off just beating what can only properly be construed as the entire studio system. And, granted, moral stances ought not be mitigated entirely by whether or not one can win a particular battle on any given Sunday, but Clooney ought to remember, Writers ... often get the last word.