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By J.P. DEVINE 11/18/2007

Those are the jokes, folks. But it’s no longer funny. Screenwriters are on strike and, as a retired member of the guild, I support it. Not only that, but now it’s personal. My youngest is an actor’s agent in Beverly Hills who depends on working actors. She writes from the front.

“Agencies as small as mine, Progressive Artists, are generally known as ‘boutique agencies.’ Boutique agencies that have been hit the hardest are those who specialize in representing writers, who are now not working. Under California law, agents get 10 percent of what their clients make, and that’s all, so if the clients are not working, the agency is not making any money.”

Sorry, Jillana, I told you to stick with the law.

My oldest, a publisher’s account executive who hawks the written word, brought boxes of cupcakes to the writers at CBS, alongside Jay Leno and Eva Longoria (”Desperate Housewives”), who brought pizzas and cookies. Union.

Rich writers you say? Most of them, and some are central Maine kids, are just making their bones in the business, living in Los Angeles, where a one-bedroom starts at $1,500 and homes start at $2 million. But it’s more than that. It’s about recognition. Do you know Steve Young, Matt Roberts or Jeremy Weiner? Of course not, but you laugh at their stuff on late night comedy.

Did you know the actors on “The Office” are also the writers, like Rainn Wilson and B.J. Novak?

George Bush is famous for “Axis Of Evil?” Ronald Reagan for “It’s Morning In America?” Really? Did Marie Antoinette really ad lib “Let them eat cake?” C’mon, there was some guy in a dungeon with a quill.

Rip back the green velvet curtain and we see that the real Wizard is the writer, not the comic. Without the word, there is no laughter. Shakespeare knew that and so does Conan O’Brien.

Keep this in mind. This is not about salaries. It’s about residuals, the money that keeps coming in when the fingers can’t type anymore. It’s about the “new media” on the Web, where more and more people are watching their shows and producers are making money from the ads.

This is not about millionaire writers like David Kelley who can afford a pied-a-terre in Maine. Most writers make far, far less. The guy who replaced my roof makes more than some show writers.

As the battle takes place in the streets, let’s take the real body count: The studio caterers, wardrobe people, script girls, typists, grips, those guys and girls who move the cameras and lights around and the new kid gag writer trying to hawk a joke. It’s the “invisible” people who provide and clean wardrobes, the cue card holders, gofers who bring coffee. All are feeling the pinch. If this strike lasts as long as the one 20 years ago, those jobs will be gone. It’s the economy, stupid.

Yes, to those of us without a Mercedes parked under a palm tree in the front yard, it’s just an annoyance. It only means that “24” has shut down. Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, David Letterman and “The Office” are on re-runs.

So gather around the set and enjoy “America’s Top Model,” “The Biggest Loser” and “Dancing with the Stars.” And when they shut down and the screen finally goes dark, and you’re playing Monopoly with the kids, maybe writers will get some respect. J.P. Devine, a freelancer, lives in Waterville.

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