Stars and strikes

Hollywood stars had started a strike. The costs mount and sets stand empty in a dispute that has paralysed Hollywood.

Behind one knot of pickets at the massive Paramount lot on Melrose, beneath palms wreathed in Los Angeles mist, is the gate Gloria Swanson drove through in Sunset Boulevard. Swanson played a silent movie star stranded by the talkies. And, of course, she shoots the writer. Last week, the Writers Guild of America posted at least 60 picketers, many wearing red T-shirts with a "United We Stand" logo, outside Paramount on day one of the first walkout by Hollywood screenwriters since 1988. By Thursday, as hundreds of writers picketed 14 studios in Los Angeles, the Paramount protesters included the Reverend Jesse Jackson and a board member from the Screen Actors Guild. This time the revolution is digital and the writers are the ones who feel stranded.