Thousands are bit players in Hollywood strike

updated 2:46 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2007

LOS ANGELES - They’re not on screen or on strike, but somewhere way behind the scenes in Hollywood, legions of workers are off the job as writers strike against studios.

A growing number of caterers, hairdressers, set builders, crew members and people who rent everything from trucks to portable dressing rooms have been idled in this industry town, as filming shuts down and studios yank funding from production companies.

With no deal is sight, the toll will only mount.

Already, at least seven sitcoms, including “The Office,” have stopped production along with other popular shows such as “Desperate Housewives” and “24.”

More shows are expected to be forced into hiatus sooner than expected as their creators and producer-writers close ranks with strikers and withhold their services.

About 75 writer-producers, known as “show runners,” marched Wednesday, pledging they would withhold their editing and administrative services in hopes of shutting down their own shows.

In response to the strike, studios have started canceling development deals with writers who have set up shop on studio lots but have yet to produce scripts for new shows.

The end of those deals would put hundreds more writers, assistants and other support personnel out of work.

“If there is a trickle-down, I am at the absolute bottom of the list,” said Jean Hodges, a food stylist who cooks burgers, turkey dinners and other prop food for use on sets of such TV shows as NBC’s “Chuck” and ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters.”

Video   Scoop: Hollywood on hold Nov. MSNBC.com's Courtney Hazlett talks with MSNBC's Alex Witt about the film and TV writers strike. MSNBC

Like many “below the line” workers who make far less than writers, actors and directors, Hodges sympathizes with the push by writers for a bigger cut of money from DVD sales and shows offered on the Internet.'

But she is also worried about the potentially devastating effect on her livelihood.

“We’ll be lucky if we get a second-half of the season on many of the shows I work on unless they settle pretty quick,” she said.

Like many of the lighting directors, prop masters and other support staff attached to network shows, Hodges will be looking for work outside the entertainment industry and may not be available to return to TV work, even when production resumes.

She said it took two years for her business to fully recover from a slowdown in 2001 that came after studios rushed to complete projects ahead of a threatened walkout by writers and actors that never happened.

With the writers strike still in its first week, economists said it’s impossible to fully calculate the financial effects. The last writers walkout in 1988 lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry $500 million.

The entertainment industry contributes an estimated $30 billion a year to the Los Angeles economy, or about $80 million a day.

As work slows and people lose income, the effects will spread to non-entertainment companies as people stop eating out at restaurants or take other steps to save money.

A study commissioned in 2001 by then-Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan concluded that a possible walkout of several months by writers would put 130,000 people out of work. Nearly one-third of those jobs would never return, the study concluded.

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