• Associated Press via Yahoo, Monday, October 8, 2007 10:45 AM

Talks between Hollywood writers and studios broke off over the weekend, raising the specter of a strike that could cripple the TV industry. The Writers Guild has been talking with studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers since July. Friday's negotiations ran for just an hour, and are not scheduled to resume until Tuesday. Each side is blaming the other, hurling accusations of intransigence and showing their frustration at the slow pace. The current contract expires Oct. 31, and studios and TV networks have begun stockpiling scripts.

In 1988, a strike lasted 22 weeks, and losses to the industry were pegged at $500 million. Bones of contention this time around include a proposal to delay paying residuals until producers have recouped their costs, guild negotiators say, as they push for doubled payments on profits made from DVD sales--along with union pay and benefits to writers working in reality television and basic cable.

"We have had six across-the-table sessions and have been met with only silence and stonewalling," says J. Nicholas Counter III, president of the motion picture alliance. "We are farther apart today than when we started, and the only outcome we see is a disaster." But the writers are not buying the residual plan: "Our members will not stand for that," the guild says. "The entertainment industry is successful and growing like never before. Writers, whose creativity is at the heart of that success and growth, are committed to sharing in it. "

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