Monday, March 3, 2008

Writers Guild chief adjusts to post-strike life


By Steven Zeitchik
56 minutes ago


NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) -
Patric Verrone was heading
into a building at Boston's Harvard Business School when a
voice and footsteps suddenly got louder behind him.

If Verrone was surprised by last week's encounter, he kept
a relaxed expression, shaking the student's hand and chatting
with him about his career and relationship.

Such is the labor leader's life, which since the WGA strike
ended three weeks ago has been marked by a strange mix of
executive suspicion and rock-star fame. The mild-mannered and
wry 48-year-old, who with his black hair brushed flat against
his head can sometimes look like a boy at his confirmation, is
accosted on the street by fans. They want to talk about the
strike and the digital future, dish on producers and,
sometimes, just bask in his presence.

Whether you believe the adoration is warranted probably
depends on how you felt about the resolution of the 100-day WGA
strike. But the encounters belie a larger question.

Just what does Verrone do these days?

Media, he says. Enforcement of the contract. And
contemplate his next step. "I don't know if I'm going to write
a book or go on a speaking tour," he said in an interview. "And
it's up to me to go back to making a living."

Having finished a set of DVD movies for his Fox hit
"Futurama," the comedy writer (he also was behind the Jon
Lovitz
cult hit "The Critic") is working on developing online
content, in a move that might be motivated by philosophy as
well as practicality. After a set of intense negotiations with
the country's biggest moguls, continuing to write for the big
networks in at least the immediate future might be tricky.

Verrone tempers his new-media efforts with realism.

"There's not a lot of money," said the man who made
new-media payment the central issue of the strike. "It's easy
to create a one-time phenomenon. The trick is how to get people
coming back."

Verrone's personality mixes a sophisticated take on labor
and digital issues with a geekier sensibility you'd expect from
an animated writer; he is the kind of person who remembers that
"Beans Baxter" and "Mr. President" were among the early Fox
shows. In his spare time, he also crafts figurines of Supreme
Court justices
and other historical figures, which he sells on
eBay (http://myworld.ebay/pverrone/). Antonin Scalia is the
most popular by far, if you were wondering.

Having survived Hollywood labor strife, would he consider a
run for political office?

"I spend a lot of time working on cartoons and puppets," he
said. "So politics seems like the next phase."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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