Letterman’s company seeks own writers deal

NEW YORK – David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, jumped Saturday at the chance to negotiate independently with the Writers Guild of America, saying it was eager to make a deal with its striking writers and get new episodes of its late-night shows back on the air.

The move by Worldwide Pants, which produces the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” could bolster the union’s efforts to break apart the alliance of studios and networks with which it’s been at loggerheads.

Hours after the union told its members it would try to break the logjam by dealing with individual companies, Worldwide Pants Chief Executive Rob Burnett said the company would take the guild up on its offer.

“Because we are an independent production company, we are able to pursue an interim agreement with the Guild without involving CBS in that pursuit,” Burnett said in a statement, adding that the company told the WGA when the strike started that it would be willing to make such a deal consistent with the guild’s demands.

WGA officials did not have an immediate response as to how quickly negotiations with the company could proceed.

Bill Scheft, a veteran “Late Show” writer and the program’s WGA strike captain, greeted Saturday’s developments with relief.

“This would be too good to be true,” Scheft said. “It’s totally pro-writer, which is what Dave has been throughout. Ideally, other people would then fall in line.”

A spokesman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers dismissed the union’s tactic, saying the guild was “grasping for straws” and that its members were unified.