Exclusive Interview on the Writers Guild Strike from Justine Bateman

While the Writers Guild strike has hit a standstill, the effects are just now beginning to be felt. People have been out of work for days; stars have been out for photo ops; perhaps bearing the greatest load of all of these people are the union workers themselves. Union workers are the ones who are out on the picket lines more than any; union workers are the taking an even bigger hit than any celebrity or big time company executive. And life goes on; in large part; as it does their cries for being accepted grow fainter and people begin to become accustomed to the "new" normalcy.

In some corners, it is go time. I recently was able to sit down and speak with actor and vocal Screen Actors Guild board member Justine Bateman on the set of her latest show, "Stick Fly" at the LA Theatre Worksl We spoke about a great deal including the future of entertainment, the current stake of this strike, and her claim that "in the future people will look back to this point in time and say it all started with the Writers Guild strike of 2007."

Justine Bateman is perhaps best known for her role as Mallory Keaton on the 1980's hit television sitcom "Family Ties." However rather than live in syndication for all eternity, Ms. Bateman was able to transcend that and move forward with a respectable body of work on her own terms.

When asked about how long she thought something like this Writer's Guild strike would continue, she seemed pretty plain spoken about it: "I personally think it will be a long time. I'm just one person but this is the first point of the deconstruction of the business of films and TV. And it's completely necessary and it's painful."

As many of us are already aware the sticking point for the writers in the Guild has to do with "new media" and the contract that they have yet to have. It's fairly cut and dry in many people's eye: the networks are running websites and collecting ad revenue but where does that money end up? Not in the pockets of writers or actors, that much is clear.