I don't know what Wodehouse said, but up to the point where my information is current, he probably wasn't. Conditions for writers in Hollywood have always been varying shades of atrocious.
For instance, Harlan Ellison, who seems compelled to document the atrocities in car-crash detail, recounts several multi-million-dollar production deal meetings where the executive with whom he was meeting hadn't even read the script. Also, if you really want a wince-worthy anecdote, look up his story about doing a pitch for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and being asked to put Mayans in the story segment that dealt with pre-human times... If that's not good enough for you, look up the anecdote where he was giving a pitch -- which must, by contract, be done verbally, with no "spec writing" allowed under hard-won union rules, and someone taped his oral presentation without his knowledge or consent, transcribed it, and wanted to use it as a first-draft screenplay. No matter what Lubachevsky said about the secret of success, if you do that crap to Harlan Ellison, you'd better be prepared to be on the receiving end of a hurricane made of trouble...
Another friend of mine who writes screenplays (and other things) for a living describes being jollied through the negotiation phase more times than he can count, only to have deal after deal scrapped suddenly with no compensation to him. (Print writers often get what they call a "kill fee" if a tentative agreement has been made but then the work doesn't see print, and the rights revert to them automatically. With screenwriters, I'm under the impression that reverting the rights is nearly impossible.)
(no subject)
For instance, Harlan Ellison, who seems compelled to document the atrocities in car-crash detail, recounts several multi-million-dollar production deal meetings where the executive with whom he was meeting hadn't even read the script. Also, if you really want a wince-worthy anecdote, look up his story about doing a pitch for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and being asked to put Mayans in the story segment that dealt with pre-human times... If that's not good enough for you, look up the anecdote where he was giving a pitch -- which must, by contract, be done verbally, with no "spec writing" allowed under hard-won union rules, and someone taped his oral presentation without his knowledge or consent, transcribed it, and wanted to use it as a first-draft screenplay. No matter what Lubachevsky said about the secret of success, if you do that crap to Harlan Ellison, you'd better be prepared to be on the receiving end of a hurricane made of trouble...
Another friend of mine who writes screenplays (and other things) for a living describes being jollied through the negotiation phase more times than he can count, only to have deal after deal scrapped suddenly with no compensation to him. (Print writers often get what they call a "kill fee" if a tentative agreement has been made but then the work doesn't see print, and the rights revert to them automatically. With screenwriters, I'm under the impression that reverting the rights is nearly impossible.)