Delia Ephron: It's all about the Internet

NEW YORK--As she marched on the picket line in front of Rockefeller Center today, screenwriter Delia Ephron (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” “You’ve Got Mail”) said she was distressed that the writers had been forced to strike.

“I think it’s awful,” said Ephron, who was writing two scripts for Sony Pictures until the work stoppage. “It’s going to be so hard on everyone. It’s very hard to weather a strike –- they go on a long time. It will be very difficult. Most people don’t have huge bank accounts, and it’s rough.”

Despite that, Ephron said she felt the move was essential. “My parents were guild members, and we would have never gotten anything without striking,” she said. “Writers always have to do the work of all the guilds, in a way. We’re the first to strike. We’re the reason that there’s healthcare and pension plans."

“The Internet issue is enormous," she added. "This is a strike about Internet, Internet, Internet. We’re very united on this subject. This is a very clear case. We know why we’re striking. We know how important it is. We know how much money is at stake. Ten years is a good run for a writer in the Writers Guild. And you need that money, you need those residuals to live. We know how important it is.

“I think the writers will stay out as long as we have to stay out. It gets very rough. But we have to.”

More news on the strike

--Matea Gold