Collection Industry Reps Shoot Scenes with Jim Belushi

Several collection industry reps got a taste of Hollywood on Friday, shooting a scene with comedian Jim Belushi, and just missing the strike called by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) that began today at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time for members based on the East Coast. The West Coast members went on strike three hours later. The strike is expected to be honored by the Screen Actors Guild. 

Jim Belushi, as host of the recent Debt Connection Symposium & Expo Charity Event in New York, asked attendees for donations to several children’s charities and donated a walk on part for his TV series "According to Jim" to the top donor. Based on the generosity of the audience, and the bidders, Jim included two walk on parts, with two people in each. With the strike looming, all four collection industry representatives were filmed in their walk-on arts Friday today on the set of "According to Jim."

The Symposium reported that Bruce Davis of Corporate Receivables, Inc. and Adam Cohen of Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd were two of the top donors to the charities. In all, over $218,000 was raised for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, at the Black Tie Gala and Tribute Awards ceremony.

The Writers Guild voted by a 9-1 margin last month to authorize its leadership to declare a strike. J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which represents the movie studios and television networks, called the guild’s proposals untenable.

The wide gulf between the two sides, the writers’ anger over past contracts and their animosity toward management all have led to predictions of a long strike. The first casualty of a strike would be late-night talk shows, which likely would be forced into reruns.

Primetime programming is unlikely to be affected until January because of episodes that have already been produced, but not aired. Additional episodes can be made using scripts that have been completed, but not filmed or taped yet. A lengthy work stoppage will cause television production to be interrupted.

A WGA strike in 1988 was the last to cause a major disruption in the entertainment industry. It lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry an estimated 500 million dollars. "If it (cost the industry) 500 million dollars in 1988, a slowdown of that length would have over a 1 billion dollars impact today," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Times. "I’m very concerned."

A strike would have a trickle-down effect, affecting everyone from entertainment industry technicians to restaurant waiters, gardeners, florists and dog groomers.