Writers Picket Leno Show

Striking writers from the Writers Guild of America picketed outside NBC Studios in Burbank as tapings resumed for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Leno’s late-night talk show has been dark since the start of the Nov. 5 walkout by television and film writers. The show is not using any writers for its return to the air, which features as a guest Republican presidential candidate Michael Huckabee. Leno has been a vocal supporter of the writers who went on strike after failing to negotiate a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The main sticking point between the two sides is how much to pay the writers when their work is distributed online and to mobile devices. In a letter to the membership WGA East President Michael Winship said the pickets outside NBC were not aimed at Leno but the network and its corporate owner. “Our purpose is to continue awareness of our strike and the media conglomerates against which we strike, and to encourage performers, politicians and others to honor our picket line and not appear as guests on these struck programs,” Winship wrote. Picketing outside the major studios in the Los Angeles area resumes Jan. 7.