Few issues during the November 2007/February 2008 writers strike stirred as much anger and emotion as whether Writers Guild, West, member Jay Leno violated the unions strike rules during his return to hosting The Tonight Show. The WGAws investigation into Leno was conducted with utmost secrecy. Last month, Hollywood found out Leno had not been charged but only because his name did not appear on the press release of offenders cited by the WGAw trial committees.
Sources close to Leno asked me to post on my Web site that he was unanimously cleared. I have no problem with them bringing charges. But the unfair part is that when youre innocent, because of all the secrecy, no one shakes your hand and says, Welcome back into the fold, Leno was quoted by my sources as saying.
Now, Ive learned that both Leno and the guild investigating panel asked WGAw president Patric Verrone, among others, to make public the final report and transcripts of the hearings involving Leno. But Verrone et al. refused. So why was the Guilds excuse confidentiality since Leno willingly waived his? Or was Verrone more concerned about his own questionable conduct?
Only because I was releasing some of the findings did the WGAw finally release the report. The guild determined it owed Leno a public apology because Leno had been done a disservice and his reputation harmed.
I believe that the WGAw was withholding this report because it puts Verrone in a bad light even as his side is running for spots in the guild election. And that is just wrong.
I dont understand why Leno himself wont go public. Because it might go a long way to healing the wounds created during the strike when almost every working writer except Lenos own staff was hating on him. And that animus has intensified since The Jay Leno Show was announced, because writers blame him for stripping NBCs schedule of five hours of scripted prime-time programming a week, depriving WGA members of jobs.
My sources relay Lenos comments to them this way: I understand why these guys are still mad at me. I know what the animosity is about. But, if I wasnt on, NBC would still program five nights a week of Dateline or Biggest Loser. ... For whatever reason, the network doesnt want more scripted drama. So The Closer, The Shield, Burn Notice, all these wonderful shows are on cable.
I do feel that Deadline Hollywood owes Leno an apology, so I offer it to him now. I praised Lenos many visits to the picket lines, often with cups of Starbucks and boxes of donuts, in the first months when The Tonight Show was dark. But I became one of his harshest critics after he went back to work in January 2008.
My e-mail box filled at that time with allegations of strike-breaking by Leno. Soon after, WGA members brought formal complaints against Leno of violating guild rules against writing for struck companies, and the guilds Strike Rules Compliance Committee (SRCC) began its investigation. Leno became the only late-night host to face a review over how he was able to keep doing his nightly monologue, and he was questioned by a WGA, West, trial committee.
One of the most persistent rumors was that Verrone had previously worked for Leno on The Tonight Show and therefore gave him a pass to write his own monologue. While Verrone had indeed worked for The Tonight Show long ago, it had been for host Johnny Carson, not Leno.
At one point, members of one late night shows writing staff contacted me because theyd heard from a writer in the room when Verrone met with Leno. It was claimed that Leno matter-of-factly told Verrone he was going to write his own monologue and Verrone seemed fine with it. A late-night producer called Verrone to complain, and Verrone reputedly told him the union would not go after Leno. That is, until I broke the story of the Leno-Verrone meeting that December 2007, and then Verrone had to pretend to be outraged, the sources told me.
The union has demonstrated to every striking writer that there is no punishment for violating their rules, opening the door for across-the-board scabbing, one late-night writer wrote me at the time. Verrone has put his personal relationships ahead of the cause.
It didnt matter that on the air his first night back, Leno respectfully acknowledged the worthiness of the WGAs demands. But at the same time, he admitted his own strike-breaking creative process whereby I write jokes and wake my wife up. Thats why, on January 3, the WGA told Leno that he had violated its rules.
The WGAws trial-committee report details most of what I posted during the strike: At Lenos meeting with WGAw leadership on December 31, 2007, Leno was told by Verrone that the guild was grateful for his public support of the strike, and he would not face disciplinary action for writing his monologue, since he was being pressured by NBC to return to work.
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