Jimmy Kimmel Pays Staff, Shuts Up About It

Hero: Jimmy Kimmel wins the award for Late-Night-Show Host Who’s Secretly Paying His Non-Writing Staff During the Strike and Managed to Keep It a Secret the Longest. [TMZ]

Leno Fires Staff, Waits a Day, Pays Them: On Friday, NBC fired the Tonight Show’s non-writing staff of 80 employees. Then, after a bunch of them complained to Variety, he decided to pay them, at least for this week, out of his own pocket. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Writers Claim Victory, Sort Of: The picketing writers have been selected as I Want Media’s 2007 Media Person(s) of the Year, narrowly defeating the Facebook kid and, presumably, Tay Zonday. [I Want Media]

Awkward! Nikki Finke reports that AMPTP president Nick Counter’s daughter and son-in-law are WGA members, which probably made their Thanksgiving even more tense than ours. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

No End in Sight: Variety reports that the writers’ strike is expected to continue till at least March. Great — if you thought this post was hilarious, just imagine how funny our strike coverage will be in February! [Variety]