The Saddest Story You'll Hear Today

Being an unkept woman

This is a sad story. Wait, let me start first with the happy part of the story, since that’s relevant to the sad part. Last year, quite unexpectedly, I got a big, thick envelope from Anthem Blue Cross, informing me that I qualified for health insurance through the Writers’ Guild. Hallelujah! This caught me by surprise, to say the least. I’ve belonged to the Writers’ Guild for many years, but I had earned only a trifling amount on Guild-sanctioned projects (that is, screenwriting for film or television) so I never reached the threshold for perks like a pension or health insurance. The most I ever got were screener DVDs during award season and invitations to a few lectures by directors.

Photo by Valeria Reverdo on Unsplash

I always wondered about this mythical golden embrace of the Guild, since many writers — most famously Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne — quested after that insurance package so strenuously that they took on Hollywood assignments just to qualify for it. I never gave it much thought because I never imagined I’d earn enough in film or television to even come close. I dutifully paid my quarterly dues in the Guild to stay in the union, but that was it.