The strike deadline of midnight came and went last night, with Hollywood screenwriters and movie and TV studios still deadlocked over even which issues should be discussed. No further discussions were planned for today (Thursday), but neither was there an announcement of strike plans. That could come as early as tonight following a meeting of the Writers Guild of America membership at the Los Angeles Convention Center. "If you have an office on a studio lot, you may want to box up your personal items when you leave work on Thursday," the WGA's leadership advised members. However, entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel told the Los Angeles Times, "The guild would look completely unreasonable if it struck immediately, particularly since they've introduced a federal mediator." Producers have maintained that the guild's demand for a greater share of DVD and Internet revenue is a non-starter given tight profit margins on DVDs and tiny sales of online product. The WGA replied, "Every issue that matters to writers ... has been ignored. This is completely unacceptable."

New York magazine is miffed that Universal Studios is describing American Gangster as an "original" rather than an "adapted" screenplay. While the film is said to have been based on a New York magazine article titled "The Return of Superfly," by Mark Jacobson, sole writing credit is given to Steve Zaillian, who wrote the screenplay. In a statement to L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, Universal responded that the writing credit determination was made by the Writers Guild of America and that Universal was simply "following their direction." The studio also noted that while the magazine article "was used as research material," many sequences and characters in the movie did not appear in the article, including the character of Richie Roberts, played by co-star Russell Crowe.

American Gangster is expected to float like a butterfly to the top of the box office this weekend without much worry that Jerry Seinfeld's animated Bee Movie will sting like a bee, industry analysts are predicting. Today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times quoted box office trackers and various industry sources as predicting that the gangster biography will "dominate" ticket sales. "The word around town is the film is tracking through the roof with urban audiences ... and urban audiences hold tremendous clout at the box office." Paul Dergarabedian, president of the movie tracking firm Media by Numbers told the Times. The Times, citing "several movie industry sources" said that the film should probably take in $40 million over the weekend. Its only major competion is Seinfeld's family-oriented Bee Movie.

Two days after a Hollywood Teamsters official appeared to encourage members of the union as "individuals" not to cross writers' picket lines "whether it is sanctioned or not," the technicians' union IATSE notified its members that they could lose their jobs if they followed suit. "The IATSE contracts contain provisions that require us to continue to honor our contracts," the message said. "These 'no strike' provisions require the IATSE to notify our members of their obligation to honor these contracts and continue working. Any individual member who chooses to honor any picket line is subject to permanent replacement."

Six years after The X-Files aired its final episode and ten years after a movie version of the show was released, Fox has scheduled a second theatrical sequel to be released on July 25, 2008. The studio said Wednesday that the movie will reunite David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, but it provided no further details about it, except that shooting is expected to begin in February in Vancouver, where most of the original TV series was filmed.

Holding off a challenge from the DVD debut of Disney's Meet the Robinsons, Paramount/DreamWorks' Transformers remained at the top of the DVD lists in both sales and rentals for the second consecutive week last week, according to Home Media magazine. On the rental chart, Transformers dropped just 14 percent as it added $8.6 million to its DVD gross.

Running United Artists is "kind of like film school," Tom Cruise has told Entertainment Tonight. In an interview scheduled to air tonight (Thursday), Cruise added that the studio, which he now heads, seems to him "like a dorm with all hands on deck. We're all very supportive and very honest." Asked about his marriage to Katie Holmes, Cruise sounded far more subdued than he was when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show and jumped on a couch at the mention of Holmes's name. The marriage is, he said, "all very good, all very lovely. ... I have a lot respect for her as an artist, as a woman. She's a very strong gracious woman."

CBS's Criminal Minds made an easy transition from Mandy Patinkin to Joe Mantegna Wednesday night. Mantegna's debut on the show drew a 9.4 rating and a 15 share, making it the highest-rated show of the night. It beat ABC's Private Practice, which scored a 7.7/13. NBC had a tough time for the night as a two-hour edition of Phenomenon and one hour of Life together averaged just a 3.8/7. Without baseball playoffs, Fox had an even tougher time, averaging just a 2.9/5 for the night.

A&E has suspended production of its Dog the Bounty Hunter series after the National Enquirer posted a nine-minute tape of the show's star, Duane 'Dog' Chapman, ranting often incomprehensibly and employing racist insults directed at his son Tucker's girlfriend, who is black. Excerpts of the tape were uploaded on other celebrity websites, including TMZ, whose headline read, "Dog Goes Nuts." On Wednesday night A&E issued a statement saying, "We take this matter very seriously. Pending an investigation, we have suspended production on the series. When the inquiry is concluded, we will take appropriate action."

Conservative family organizations and liberal consumer groups joined in condemning media consolidation at a public hearing of the FCC on Wednesday. Don Isett of the Parents Television Council, the group primarily responsible for generating the majority of letters the FCC receives condemning "indecent" programming, blamed consolidation for allowing a few persons in the media to determine what the general population will be permitted to watch. Later, Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project told the commission: "Effective local service requires institutional and personal attachments to the community."

In a unanimous vote, the FCC on Wednesday ended the ability of cable companies to make exclusive deals with apartments condos, and other multiple-unit buildings. The commission said that its decision will permit phone companies and other telecommunications providers to compete against the cable companies on price and services. The decision was condemned by Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, which said that residents of such buildings "will lose the benefit of significant concessions building owners have been able to negotiate on their behalf."

Putting original episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on USA Network has significantly boosted ratings for the cable network, it said Wednesday. The spinoff series, which moved from NBC to USA on Oct. 4, have averaged about 4 million viewers, according to the network. Although small by previous L&O standards as a broadcast network offering, the figure represents a 95-percent jump from the time period average a year ago for the cable network.

Unlike 1988, when the last strike by the Writers Guild of America occurred, the public will have the Internet and video games to turn to as an alternative to TV, thereby reducing the pressure on the writers and producers to settle, the Washington Post observed today. In an interview with the newspaper, Greg Garcia, a writer and producer on NBC's My Name Is Earl, told the newspaper, "What scares me is that during the last strike, in 1988, people were longing for the TV shows to come back on. ... Kids today, you take TV away, they'll say, 'big deal' and they'll click on the computer."