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By LYNN ASCRIZZI
Staff Writer 11/09/2007

Staff Writer

Hollywood writer Jeff Gottesfeld remembers walking through the lounge in the Foss Woodman dorm at Colby College in Waterville years ago.

"I was looking at the girls watching soaps like 'The Young and the Restless.' I was feeling so superior. I thought: 'They're watching the soaps? You've got to be kidding!' Now, here I am writing it," said Gottesfeld, a 1977 Colby graduate.

Today, he lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where he and his wife Cherie Bennett are associate head writers for "The Young and the Restless."

On the white board behind his desk is outlined episode 8,796 of the daytime TV soap opera. That script, turned in only one day before the Hollywood writers' strike, may be the last episode they work on for some time.

On Monday, they joined 3,000 of their fellow writers on the picket line after the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers failed to cut a deal on how much writers are paid when shows are offered on digital media, such as the Internet and DVDs.

"I was reluctant to join the strike. It's not anything any of us are dying to do. We're individual writers. We're not making $5 million a year, like Steve Zaillian," he said of the screenwriter, director, producer of "Schindler's List" fame.

Gottesfeld and Bennett started working as staff writers for "Smallville" a number of years ago, which paid about $3,000 per week, he said.

They began writing for the CBS soap opera last year. They also wrote the script for "Broken Bridges," a Paramount movie released in September 2006. And they have carved out a major niche as young adult fiction writers.

"It's been a really good last two or three years," he said.

Much of what people see on TV and in the movies is the work of a diverse group of guild writers. And, like Gottesfeld and Bennett, some work at getting tangled soap opera relationships back on track.

"We shape stories over the long term, so the dialogue and action work on a day-to-day level. We write a script a week and rewrite two or three scripts per week," he said.

For he and Bennett, that means a combined 110-hour work week.

Now, their writing has come to a nerve-wracking halt.

"People don't absorb entertainment the way it was when I was a kid," Gottesfeld said. "Our 15-year-old son, Igor, does not really watch TV. He will download 'Heroes' streaming at the ABC Web site or go to Blockbuster, get a DVD of 'Lost' and watch it on the go."

Writers only get four cents per DVD sold, he said.

"That's the writer's cut. If there were four writers, they'd have to divide the money. It's not so laughable. 'Heroes' is downloaded 90 million times. We (writers) have got to figure out something on Internet downloading and streaming. When they (producers) make money, we should make money," he said.

Gottesfeld, 50, hopes the strike will get settled soon.

Also on the picket line with Gottesfeld and Bennett are Lewiston native Lynsey Dufour, script editor for "The Young and Restless," and Christian McLaughlin of Fort Kent, one of the show's writers.

"We're a little Maine-centric crew on this."

Lynn Ascrizzi -- 621-5731

lascrizzi@centralmaine.com

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