The ongoing talks between the WGA and the AMPTP continued to look promising through the weekend, but the writers couldn’t help but have fun with the studios’ claim that they made their “best and final offer.”
After the statement was made late Saturday before talks continued today, union members took to X to have a little fun with the AMPTP’s choice of words.
It inspired Mike Flanagan and a few others to come up with possible movie titles, should Hollywood ever decide to chronicle this hot mess of a negotiation. “Best Final Offer. 2 Best Final. Best Final Offer: 3D. Off4: The Best & The Final. BFO 5: The Finalest Offer,” he wrote.
Eden Danger followed with a few of her own: “OFFER FINAL OFFER BEST & FINAL OFFER LAST & FINAL OFFER SMART & FINAL OFFER FINAL OFFER TOKYO DRIFT.”
Warren Leight riffed on the phrase by drawing a comparison to David Brooks’ now infamous post about the $78 he spent on a meal in a New Jersey terminal. “The AMPTP’s last, best and final $78 meal at a Newark Airport,” Leight wrote, next to a picture of Brooks’ supposedly pricey burger and fries.
SAG-AFTRA member Mike Puateri weighed in with “I said to my wife, “Okay I’ll wash the dishes tonight but you have to dry them. This is my LAST, BEST, AND FINAL OFFER. Then I dried the dishes.”
Comedy writer Mark Agee shared that “I have given my best and final offer to the doctor with the last matching heart for my transplant. If he doesn’t take it I walk.”
The faux Carol Lombardini on X even came through with a post that read “please WGA, just accept our last best and final offer so we’re not forced to come back again and give you the even-better last-last double-best bottomless Oreo dream extreme offer-tini.”
She then followed up with “we’re having so much fun we’ve jointly decided to do a last best and final day of negotiations” when talks went into Sunday.
Speaking of the fake Lombardini, actor Paul McKinney wrote, “The AMPTP made their “last best and final offer” but then forgot to insert language demanding the identity of so that’s why they’re meeting on Sunday.”
Some WGA members weren’t so amused at the phrase, even though many folks took the time to point out that the words were straight-up legalese. “A “last, best, and final offer” is reserved for the negotiating party who has all the power,” wrote former Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff. “The CEOs took 140 days to come to the table. It’s beyond irresponsible. It’s the opposite of powerful.”
Added David Slack, “When you’ve already made your “last, best, and final” offer three times and then been forced to make a better offer because you can’t make your only product without us — maybe just stop calling them “last, best, and final”?
Added Scott Collette, “Should the AMPTP’s last, best, & final offer not be suitable, then I think the WGA can make the case that a federal mediator is needed. Would love to hear CEOs defend their salaries & historic losses to the FMCS, & open the studios’ books to the gov’t to try to make their case.
