Patience

That's what screenwriter Craig Mazin counsels, in his latest post on the Artful Writer blog about the writers' strike.

His Sunday posting predicted that the Directors Guild might reach an agreement with the producers as soon as Monday. Well, that didn't happen, but the trade papers have reported that the DGA and the producers have met daily since formal talks began on Saturday. And as a veteran of innumerable contracts talks, I can confirm that talking is always better than not talking.

Mazin, who has written several movies produced by the Weinsteins, was involved in the negotiations that led to the Weinsteins signing an interim WGA contract last week. Today's trades report that the WGA has also signed interim deals with Spyglass Entertainment and Media Rights Capital (MRC). The latter deal is especially interesting as MRC has a deal for online distribution of original Web cartoons developed by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy).

What neither I nor Mazin can confirm is whether a quick DGA settlement will make any immediate difference in the stalemate between the producers and the Writers Guild, which have not talked since mid-December.

Finally, I have followed Mazin's blog since long before the strike began, and there have been some issues on which I've disagreed with him. But nothing compares to our agreement that this is stupid.