Glory be, hallelujah! The headline on the front page of the New York Times yesterday was, and I quote: “Writers Reach Tentative Deal With Producers.” Michael Cieply reports:

An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appeared close, as union leaders representing 12,000 movie and television writers said Saturday that they had reached a tentative three-year deal with production companies. The strike, which began Nov. 5, remains in effect until the governing boards of the two writers’ guilds gauge the sense of their membership in mass meetings on both coasts this weekend and decide whether to end the walkout. The mood at the New York meeting on Saturday afternoon was one of supportive optimism, with a touch of wariness, while at the Los Angeles gathering late in the evening the crowd frequently cheered the guild leadership.

The end to the writers strike is good on so many fronts–for the writers who deserve to be compensated financially for their hard work, which we all enjoy, for the industry of workers who depend on writers for their livelihood, not to mention those of us here at Idol Chatter who love to blog on all things TV series and movie-related. (Insert big, happy optimistic sigh of relief from this particular blogger.)

And, for my part, I am going to say a special prayer of thanks to St. Lucy, the Patron Saint of Writers, and St. Clare of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Television Writers (funny, I couldn’t find one for screenwriters specifically) for their intercession in this situation.
I hate to admit how much I rely on television and “my shows” in the weekly ritual department, but as the writers strike has dragged on and my shows have slowly disappeared to the point where there is almost nothing taping on the DVR for the entire week, I’m looking forward to getting back to my nightly makeshift (perhaps a little pagan) worship. Huzzah!