Writers Guild Presidential Candidate John Wells calls out Verrone
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
John Wells fired back at the outgoing president of the Writers Guild of America, West, accusing Patric M. Verrone of lying about his involvement in last year’s contract negotiations.
Verrone and John Bowman, who chaired the guild’s negotiating committee last year, alleged in a missive last week to union members that Wells kept them in the dark about his ‘negotiations’ with the Directors Guild of America, which reached an early contract with the studios while the writers were on strike. The men said Wells’ actions undermined their own bargaining efforts.
But in his own letter to members, Wells accused the men of ‘mischaracterizing’ his actions. Wells, a candidate for president in elections that will be decided Sept. 18, wrote that he was not involved in the DGA negotiations and never claimed to be. Rather, he said he was attempting to ‘find out whatever I could about the details of the deal they were planning to negotiate, which would inevitably become the basis of our deal.’ He added that he was also trying to ‘lend much needed credibility to our very strained relationship with the DGA.’
Moreover, Wells said he briefed negotiating committee members on several occasions, and cited specific meetings and e-mails in which he communicated with Bowman about the DGA talks. Two members of the guild’s negotiating committee confirmed that Wells did in fact keep them informed about the DGA negotiations.
‘Let me say simply and directly that Patric Verrone and John Bowman are not telling the truth, and that they know they are not telling the truth,’’ Wells wrote. He further accused the men of ‘besmirching my name in order to win an election for their colleague Elias Davis.’
Verrone and Bowman had no immediate response. They are backing Davis, who is the union’s secretary treasurer, and sought to portray Wells, the executive producer of NBC’s ‘Southland’ and the hits ‘ER’ and ‘West Wing,’ as someone who is too close to management. Wells’ supporters have cited his experience as a former guild president and his deep knowledge of the business.
-- Richard Verrier
