John F Davis <73455.43@compuserve.com> asks:
> how did the British rags figure out what she was GOING to say
> while she was still saying "I'll be there"?

No...let me stress this again: there was never any meeting here.

The meeting you *might* be thinking of was the one where we
brought in the actors to explain to them the differences in syndication
vs. cable residuals formula. That took place some weeks before.

If it helps, let me break down the dates for you a bit:

July 9th: the Variety and Reuters pieces appear saying Claudia's
has left the show. WB wants to know where Claudia stands, and we need
to know because at this point I've finished writing the new 422, and am
about to start on 502 (actually the first S5 episode). I hear about
this when Claudia, I and the rest of the cast are in the UK at
Blackpool. The WB need for urgent clarification is conveyed to
Claudia's agent.

July 10th: I reinforce to Claudia, at the pub in the DeVere
hotel, that unless she confirms through her agent by noon Friday, the
11th, that she wants to be on the show, the offer will be withdrawn,
that she will have, to all intents and purposes, passed on the offer.

July 11th: there was no "final comment," no meeting...again, we
are still in the UK. For there to be a final comment, she or her agent
would have had to actually *speak* to someone. But no call came from
either Claudia or her agent. There was NO response at all. Thus, the
offer was finally and reluctantly withdrawn because we were simply out
of time, and having been told that silence = a pass on the offer, there
was no longer any reason to maintain the offer. She passed.

July 12th: Jeff goes to Claudia and on his own, tries to
convince her to try and work this out on Monday, that if her agent
makes contact first thing, maybe this can be worked out. This is not a
position that I told him to advance to her, he did this entirely on his
own, hoping that she could still come back from her decision. Bruce
and other cast members also try to talk to her about this, concerned
about her decision.

July 14th (Monday): Claudia leaves the convention mid-day,
announcing that she is going to go to a photo shoot.

The weekend of July 19th-20th: I'm at ComicCon in San Diego,
where I learn that Claudia, at another convention, has announced that
she was fired from B5. And that, to paraphrase, is where the blitz hit
the fans.

I know you keep trying to find some way that maybe I wasn't
there, perhaps to save me from the situation...but I was there for
every bit of it; having the room 4 doors down from Claudia at the time,
I couldn't be *more* in the thick of it unless I slept on the floor of
her room.

jms