WGA-ATA Showdown

Due in part to public health circumstances beyond everyone's control, the WGA isn't going to trial against WME and CAA over packaging fees next spring after all. "The parties' threshold discovery disputes and the COVID-19 pandemic have created significant litigation delays, which have caused unforeseeable delays in…

The WGA on Wednesday provided details of its deal with ICM Partners on a new franchise agreement, a pact pretty much in line with one the guild inked last month with UTA. The deal that will also allow ICM to again represent WGA members for covered writing services also satisfies a clause that will end TV packaging by…

UPDATED, 12:06 PM: It’s a done deal. ICM Partners and the WGA just confirmed that the agency has signed a franchise agreement with the guild which will allow the agency to once again actively represent WGA members.    "We are looking forward to getting back to work for our writer clients," ICM Partners Co-President…

Now that UTA has signed the WGA's franchise agreement after lengthy negotiations, speculation is mounting over which of the other Big Four agencies – WME, CAA or ICM Partners – will be the next to sign. Sources tell Deadline that WGA West president David A. Goodman told members at a captains meeting Tuesday night that…

The WGA told its members Wednesday that the sunset clause in its newly struck agreement with UTA "ends the practice of packaging" at the agency on June 30, 2022, and that "until then packaging is only permitted with the informed consent of the writer." The guild also said that the deal allows the agency to have "have…

2ND UPDATE, 9 AM: UTA co-president Jay Sures just sent an email confirming the deal with the WGA — and it’s a labor-relations whopper. “After many long discussions and significant work by both sides, we've successfully found middle ground that sets asides our core differences,” Sures stated in the three-page letter…

The Big 3 talent agencies have won another skirmish in their ongoing legal battle with the WGA over packaging fees – this time over a protective order they proposed that would prohibit the guilds' in-house lawyers from having access to certain confidential financial and business records that the agencies have agreed…

Hollywood's Big 3 talent agencies estimate that it will cost them more than $10 million to produce all the documents the WGA is seeking in discovery as their yearlong legal battle over packaging fees winds its way slowly towards trial next March. The WGA, however, says the discovery costs to the agencies will be much…

“We look forward to proceeding with discovery and then to trial,” the WGA told its members today of its yearlong legal battle with the Big 3 talent agencies. That’s despite a stinging, but not total, loss in court Monday, when a federal judge dismissed a large chunk of the guild's antitrust lawsuit against WME, CAA…

UPDATED with WGA statement, 8:56: Saying the WGA’s claims were “gutted,” Hollywood’s Big 3 talent agencies declared “a resounding victory” in a statement reacting to a federal judge dismissing huge chunks of the union's antitrust lawsuit against them today. In its own statement later, however, the WGA said it plans to…

One year after the WGA ordered thousands of its members to fire their agents in a dispute over packaging fees and agency-related production entities, neither side shows any signs they are willing to give in. At least where it comes to the four biggest packaging agencies – WME, CAA, UTA and ICM Partners – writers have…

EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED with WGA statement: The Big Three talent agencies, locked in an antitrust lawsuit with the WGA, have asked a federal judge to temporarily stay discovery on certain documents sought by the guild, saying there is a "clear possibility" the guild's counterclaims against them will be dismissed. On…