Striking Up Romance: How Single Scribes Are Pairing Off on the Picket Line

The e-mail sent by WGA strike captain Hilary Winston, executive story editor on My Name Is Earl, to hundreds of striking writers on Nov. 7 read, "Single Writer Picketing Seeks Single Writer Picketing.... It took one very funny and ridiculously tall writer to come up with the idea and one sympathetic married writer to name the place. So... [join us for] Single Strikers Picketing Thursday." The tall scribe (he's 6-foot-4) Hunter Covington who came up with the idea is a staff writer on My Name Is Earl. He and Winston were talking about being single and how hard it can be to meet people in Los Angeles, and as the conversation steered back to the strike, Covington was inspired to merge the two causes: writers fighting for their cause, and the search for love... or at least a date or two.

He enlisted Winston to share the idea to her mass e-mail list, and the result was fantastic. "We had about 60 people throughout the day come to the Single Writers area," said Winston. "People really had a great time. Hunter met someone, and I talked to a really great guy, and we exchanged information as well. Everyone just wanted a way to connect and share their strike experience with others who understand what we're going through. The writers who are married or in a relationship can go home to their significant others and talk about the strike. We thought this would be a great way for singles to do the same thing."

It's good old-fashioned lemons turning into lemonade. And there have been a lot of lemons during the first strike week, including an obvious disconnect between producers and writers, plus the sting of the media backlash in Los Angeles. "The L.A. Times and even the Hollywood Reporter get most of their revenue from movie and TV ads, so they have a reason to back up the studios," says Winston. Luckily, several cast members and showrunners, including major players like The Office's Steve Carell and Earl creator Greg Thomas Garcia, have given the writers a ray of hope by refusing to cross picket lines. "That was a really moving gesture to me," said Winston, "[Garcia] walked off with two episodes left and left his baby in the hands of a new director. Made sure the crew was paid for both episodes, and came out to support us."

So now that the first singles event went so well, does Winston want to do it again? "Definitely. I’ll send out another e-mail this week, and then we'll see." Winston and her friends might possibly make it a weekly event for the duration of the strike. "We just wanted to do something fun and make some connections with people who are in the same boat. It's not like any of us were shy or embarrassed by being single, so we thought, while we're picketing, we may as meet new people and have a little fun." — Reporting by Erin Fox

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