Quiet on the Set: Actors and Writers Strike

While survival may be easy for some — particularly screenwriters, who can tap away on projects during the downtime — it will be brutal for others. The cruelest twist is that as the studios and talent play their billion-dollar game of chicken, it's the little guys who'll end up roadkill.

''I tell everyone, it doesn't affect David Kelley, but it affects me,'' says Michael Waynes of Executive Car Care Service, a car-washing company based on the Paramount lot. And while reps for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) — the union for movie, television, and stage crews — declined to comment, it seems likely the strike will encourage Hollywood's growing focus on overseas production. ''You have an industry that's international,'' says Jack Kyser, chief economist for the L.A. County Economic Development Corporation, who estimates potential lost wages at $636 million per month. ''Producers can go to Canada, Australia, Europe. And actors can follow the work [when the strikes are over] — but the crews are left behind.'' Without jobs.

''I don't get the sense that people remember how awful the last strike was,'' sighs one studio exec. ''It was devastating. Money gets spent at car dealerships, restaurants, manicure shops, clothing stores. Businesses went under. People lost their homes. Who wins if this happens?''

Nobody. And that's why hope of avoiding an entertainment apocalypse remains. ''Maybe this is the Y2K of filmmaking,'' Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight, says with a laugh. ''Maybe we'll all wake up on New Year's and nothing will happen.'' A pleasant thought, but how about waking up and being able to see a good movie? ''I guess I find it unthinkable you could go to the multiplex and see no stars,'' sighs Buena Vista's Jacobson. ''I feel like where there's a will, there's gotta be a way. We won't let audiences down. Somehow.''

Amen.

Strike 2001 Winners and Losers

WINNER: Screenwriters with spec scripts (deals-a-poppin')
LOSER: Theater owners (forced to run James Belushi and Mario Van Peebles movies previously earmarked for Starz!)

WINNER: Reality-TV producers (Girls Gone Wild: The Best of Mardi Gras hits prime time)
LOSER: Film and TV crews (''Hmmm, wonder if porn's hiring?'')

WINNER: Europe, Australia, and Canada (foreign films rule!)
LOSER: Hollywood and New York City (the vacant-set capitals of the world)

WINNER: L.A. restaurateurs (short term: huge new talent pool)
LOSER: L.A. restaurateurs (long term: no customers)

WINNER: Broadway (we're thinking Russell Crowe and Meryl Streep in Streetcar)
LOSER: Broadway (we're getting Freddie Prinze Jr. and Lin Shaye)

WINNER: Books (gotta kill time somehow)
LOSER: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (a Mary Higgins Clark cover? It's about time!)

— Additional reporting by Scott Brown, Jeff Jensen, Dave Karger, Lynette Rice, and Allison Hope Weiner