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David J. Young Named Executive Director of WGA West
From: www.writerswrite.com

" The Board of Directors of the Writers Guild West named David J. Young as the WGA's new executive director. Young has been in the position on an interim basis since last September.

Young replaces John McLean, who was ousted last year. Young's appointment must be confirmed by the 9,500-member guild, which represents Hollywood TV and film writers.

The veteran labor official brought more aggressive tactics to the guild as it seeks to make major gains for writers in such areas as reality TV, animation and digital downloading.

Strong women and edgy plots about relationships are replacing the heated passion and ripped bodices of swooning damsels in distress traditionally associated with romance novels. Some of the more than 500 authors signing their books at the Romance Writers of America's 26th annual conference last week said the genre is not about smut or trash and is no longer exclusively for women.

"It's not all lace and moonlight and heaving bosoms. That's all nice, but it's about a lot more than that," said Emily Giffin, author of best-sellers such as "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue." Giffin, 34, who left a career at a New York law firm to pursue writing, sipped an Amstel Light as she signed books for fans and explained that her books focus on relationships, romantic and otherwise.

Sari Robins, another former attorney, said she is tired of people dismissing romance novels as poorly written fluff. "I write intelligent heroines," she said. "The writing is solid. I take a lot of pride in how good the books are. I think people don't realize how hard it is to get published and that to get published it really has to be good."

"My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The author of "The World According to Garp" and a string of other bestsellers said he and King felt like "warm-up bands" for Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series, and who has said two characters will die. King, who shot to fame in 1974 with "Carrie," said he had confidence that Rowling would be "fair" to her hero. "I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls," King said in a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's effort to kill off the character of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

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Rowling, a Briton whose books have sold 300 million copies worldwide according to her publishers, said she was well into the process of writing the final book. "I feel quite liberated," she said. "I can resolve the story now and it's fun in a way it wasn't before because finally I've reached my resolution, and I think some people will loathe it and some people will love it, but that's how it should be." "We're working towards the end I always planned but a couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve," she said, declining to elaborate.

Asked about the wisdom of killing off fictional characters, Rowling said she didn't enjoy killing the major character who died in book six -- for the sake of those who haven't read it yet she avoided naming the victim -- but she said the conventions of the genre demanded the hero go on alone. "I understand why an author would kill a character from the point of view of not allowing others to continue writing after the original author is dead," she added, leaving the door open to the worst fears of some fans -- that Harry could die.

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Rowling noted that Irving had killed off many more characters than she had. "When fans accuse me of sadism, which doesn't happen that often, I feel I'm toughening them up to go on and read John and Stephen's books," she said. "I think they've got to be toughened up somehow. It's a cruel literary world out there."

Under the seven-figure pact, Singer, the director of such blockbusters as "X-Men," "X2: X-Men United" and most recently "Superman Returns," will develop three scripts for the network, one of which is guaranteed to go to pilot. Singer, who will develop the projects through his company Bad Hat Harry Prods., will executive produce and direct the pilot.

This is the first formal television deal for Singer, who spearheaded the early development of Sci Fi Channel's critically praised series "Battlestar Galactica," executive produced the channel's miniseries "The Triangle" and directed and executive produced the pilot for Fox's medical drama "House."

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What sets Singer's deal with ABC apart from other high-profile, three-for-one pacts is that it is not tied to a studio. This gives Singer the flexibility to develop with writers at any studio. This was the decisive factor in setting up the deal at ABC, Singer said. "I like the freedom," he said, adding, "and ABC is a good network." In his development, Singer is open to all genres, including comedy. Bad Hat Harry's head of production, Alex Garcia, will oversee the development process for the company.

Even if you never intend to watch any of the films, the capsules make for good morning reading. Consider this taut kiss-off of The Matrix Revolutions: "Ferocious machine assault on a battered Zion. Stop frowning, Neo; it's finally over." Appreciate, if you will, the efficient setup and slam of the 2 Fast 2 Furious capsule: "Ex-cop and ex-con help sexy customs agent indict money launderer. Two fine performances, both by cars."

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Howard Thompson invented the Times capsule style in the 1960s and continued to write them on contract after his 1988 retirement, according to his 2002 Times obituary. Among his greatest clips cited in the obit were assessments of The Guns of Navarone ("Allied commando mission. Strong on scenery but weighs 10 tons."); Matilda ("A boxing kangaroo. What the world needs now."); and The Wrath of God ("They said it, we didn't and it's pretty close.").

But a host of problems have plagued the industry in recent years, forcing publishers to reconsider ways in which to raise money, including giving more prominence to advertisers by tapping into areas of the paper that were once considered sacred. This month, The New York Times began selling advertisements on the front of its business section; the paper had already been selling ads on the front of the Metro section on Sundays.

The Wall Street Journal already sells ads on the front of some individual sections, including Marketplace and Money & Investing, and last year began selling ads on the front pages of its overseas editions.

In Britain, consumers are more accustomed to finding advertising on front pages of papers like The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times (which is also distributed in the United States). USA Today, part of the Gannett Company, has run a strip ad along the bottom of its front page since 1999 and now most Gannett papers also run front-page ads.

"As a traditionalist, I'm not thrilled by the idea," said Bob Steele, who specializes in ethics and values at the Poynter Institute, which studies journalism. Front pages, he said, should be reserved for what the collective community considers to be news.

On the heels of its $25 million purchase last week of Wired News, publishing giant Conde Nast on Thursday announced yet another acquisition by its Web arm.

CondeNet said it has purchased NutritionData.com, a health and nutrition information site with about 600,000 monthly unique visitors. The site will now join a roster of other CondeNet food and health sites as the company attempts to reach out to female readers.

Meanwhile, Conde Nast's Wired News purchase, which reunited Wired.com with Wired Magazine after an eight-year split, seems aimed at a predominantly male audience.