Writer-Producer Denis Leary: 'I'm Striking Against Myself!'

[Brian Damage]

Denis Leary by Larry Riley/FXIt's been good news, bad news for Denis Leary, who, not long after learning that Rescue Me had been picked up for another season, saw the FX series put in limbo by the WGA strike. Explaining the duality he must contend with as a writer and producer on the show he helped create, Leary told TV Guide at Tuesday's 7th Annual BASH for New York's Bravest to Benefit The Leary Firefighters Foundation, "One part of my body isn't talking to the other part. I'm in physical strike against myself."

Leary appreciates where the writers are coming from in their asking for compensation in new-media playback — an outlet where producers allege no money is being made to share. "If a guy says, 'I want a raise' or whatever and you say, 'But there's no money here,' the truth of the matter is that if there is nothing, you just bulls--t and go, 'Yeah, sure, I'll give you a raise' — if there is nothing to be had." But since producers are putting up a fight, Leary surmises, "there's a pile of money someplace, and without a script, you don't really have anything anyways, so it's about time the writers got their cut. That's how I feel as a writer."

Especially since the longer the strike goes on, the longer the wait until Rescue Me can resume starting and snuffing fires. "We can't write until there's some resolution," Leary says, "so we're just waiting."

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-en...eary/700018009