Studios, WGA to resume negotiations

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The Writers Guild of America and top Hollywood studios have agreed to resume negotiations toward ending the ongoing writers' strike.

With the entertainment industry nearly crippled by the labor dispute, and the recent successful negotiations by the Directors Guild of America, both sides have agreed to resume negotiations, the Los Angeles Times said Friday.

Talks between the two sides completely fell apart in early December, but WGA President Practic M. Verrone confirmed that renewed negotiations will take place.

"Everyone wants us to get back into negotiations, and that's what we intend to do," Verrone said.

The Directors Guild has been applauded by some for reaching a contract agreement, despite the fact the employment contract did not include benefits Hollywood writers have been seeking.

"I'm really impressed how mindful the DGA was that the deal had to be good enough to put the whole town back to work," writer-director Scott Frank told the Times. "They were under enormous pressure and they seemed to have delivered"