A tentative agreement has been made between the Writers Guild of America and the major studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The deal will go forward to a representative sample of the writers in various meetings held today, and then onto the WGA will formally meet on Sunday to possibly endorse the contract to their members, meaning writers could be back at their keyboards come Monday.

That's good news all round I think. The story comes from Variety.

Looking at the article I happened to pop over to the AMPTP site, and I found just how they regard their writers as the anti-writers strike adverts attest.

The first is a counter that shows how much money the strike is costing writers, the second is another counter which shows how much the strike is costing the Los Angeles crew members, both use figures from 2006 as an example.

Then there's the advert showing how much the writers earn in comparison to other occupations such as Airline Pilots, Surgeons, Doctors, Firemen, Policeman and Teacher.

What they seem to be oblivious to is how much they earn in comparison to them all, that seems to be a figure that isn't even mentioned. I might suggest that before you go casting statements like that you think about how your own figures look in comparison.

I'd like to see comparative figures for producers, studios, etc., and I'd love to see their attempt at emotional manipulation turned on themselves. They are sure as hell earning tons more than any of the people listed on that site, writers included.

Surely this shows that these people are underpaid for what they do, not that the writers souldn't get any more money for the work they are producing. These much more affluent AMPTP members and studios who don't want those earning less than them to earn any more for their work.

However, looking at their "Dollars & Sense" page gives a much more intelligent view of facts and figures, by then it's too late though, I've already seen the bittered face of their marketing campaign.