Strike Two.(The Talk of the Town)(writers strike and Broadway stagehands walkout)

The twin strikes that shut down the entertainment industry this month--walkouts by Broadway stagehands and by movie and television writers--have had, for the most part, separate spheres of fallout. Around the theatre district, chorus girls, trumpet players, tourists with dreams of seeing "Mamma Mia!," and bartenders have all been affected; elsewhere, the writers' strike has disrupted the routines of literary agents, craft-services professionals, stuntmen, and couch potatoes. At least one person has felt the brunt of both strikes: Cara Hannah, who is employed as a wig stylist at "The Phantom of the Opera" and at "Saturday Night Live."

Hannah has been working at "Phantom" for four months. She is responsible for the application and upkeep of more than a dozen wigs, she said recently, including those of Piangi, Meg, Buquet, and "a couple of slave girls." She also does some part-time work at "Saturday Night Live," fulfilling what she calls "a lifelong dream." On November 2nd, she worked an eight-hour call, fitting mod wigs for a James Bond parody starring that week's host, Brian Williams. Afterward, the two of them shared an elevator ride; things were good. That day, the Writers Guild moved to strike. Hannah was bummed, but not as much as she was the next weekend, when Local 1, the stagehands' union, announced its walkout and "Phantom" was shut down as well. "It was like, strike one, strike two," she said. "I'll be damned if I have strike three."

In need of a paycheck, Hannah looked for temporary employment at a theatrical-wig shop, with no luck. She filled out applications at a few salons, and when those didn't pan out she interviewed for an "unnameable" position at Macy's. (It had something to do with Santa Claus.) "I just got desperate," she said, "and Daniel, my fiance, saw that." Daniel Sullivan, an actor, sent out an e-mail to his friends in the theatre community, announcing the opening of Chez Sullivan Salon, "a charming hair paradise" situated in the bathroom of their apartment, in midtown, where they live with their two kids. "Broadway's loss is your gain!" he wrote. "And NBC's loss is your additional gain!" The salon, he promised, would offer "cheap-o" rates: ten dollars for men's haircuts, twenty-five for women's, two bucks per foil ...