Michael Yarish/NBC, Chris Haston/NBCDid you want fries with that strike? 'Cause this just about the best strike story we've heard in the past 100+ days.
My Name Is Earl creator and head writer Greg Garcia told us the following, and it blew our minds:
I'll be completely honest with you, there's so much math involved in all of [the strike], I don't understand any of it. So, my whole thing during the strike was just stay out of the way...So, I just got a job at [a major fast food chain], and I was working there for a month. I'm serious. I was a cashier. I just checked out. It was great.
Ha ha. Very funny. Big-deal show runner works at McTuckyFriedTaco or Shmack in the Wienerschnitzel for a month. Sounds like a good plot for a TV comedy.
Except, dude, he was not kidding.
Two different amigos de Greg assure me he did in fact work the cashier at a well-known national fast-food chain during the strike. (He asked us not to name the chain for reasons we dare not imagine.) And though he couldn't understand the math of the WGA-AMPTP contracts, apparently he made change on Snappy Meals like nobody's business.
Tomorrow, we're talking to Greg again, and we'll ask probing follow-up questions like, "Wait, seriously seriously you worked at [major fast food chain that remains nameless]?!" and "Why?" and "How come you went for the fast food instead of like, the video store, or the gym?
(For you who missed this week's chat, we also spotted Chad Michael Murray's pretty new love interest, Michaela McManus of One Tree Hill, handing out locker keys at our gym just last week.)
So, in the meantime, we wanted to ask if you've spotted any other showbiz types taking odd jobs during the strike-mandated hiatus—just 'cause we find it fascinating. Post your sightings in the Comments below, and then check back tomorrow for more My Name Is Earl dish—supersized!