As of 9/24, the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) had come to a tentative agreement with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers). SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is still on strike. The specifics of the strike negotiations can be found at the link after the article. The agreement includes increases in streaming residuals, protections from AI, and protections for the writers room. The writers guild credits the successes of the strike to the endurance of the protestors. However, not all actors and writers endured throughout all 146 days.
A “scab” is someone that crosses the picket lines of a strike. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA have been extremely intolerant of these individuals. Both guilds have rules in place that restrict scabs from becoming members in the future. Additionally, any individual who crosses a picket line is aligning themselves with the studios attempting to take away job security for writers and actors. Careers will be permanently damaged by individuals who decide that their interests trump those of the writers.
Drew Barrymore was a well known child actress and nepo-baby whose talkshow “The Drew Barrymore Show” halted production at the beginning of the strike. However, on the 10th of September Ms. Barrymore decided that the rules of the strike didn’t apply to her and announced she was going to begin production on the fourth season of her show. Barrymore is a member of SAG-AFTRA, which is still on strike as of the 2nd of October, and her returning to work is not a violation of the rules of the strike as proposed by the guilds. This does not excuse her behavior. By deciding to return to work in the midst of the strike as a member of SAG-AFTRA, even if she follows all the rules the guilds proposed, she is showing that she cares more about making more money than about the job security of writers and actors. As a result of this, the writers decided to picket her show and delayed its return. Her behavior conflated with her membership in the lineage of one of Hollywood’s biggest dynasties presents her recent actions as selfish and entitled. Barrymore did not do herself any favors with the tearful apology she posted to social media. The prose she so eloquently orates upon nearly brings a tear to one’s eye. One of the most emotional lines is “I know there’s nothing I can do that will make this okay for those it is not okay with”. Upon further examination of the syntax of this comment, it is unclear how Ms. Barrymore has a talk show in the first place if she struggles so much with linear sentence structure. She also says she’s “been through so many ups and downs in her life, and this is one of them”. She said she “won’t polish [her apology] with bells and whistles”, so at least we know she’s not completely incapable of telling the truth. There have been lots of good apologies, and lots of bad apologies, and this is definitely one of them.
Bill Maher has an HBO talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher”, on which he interviews various celebrities and political figures. He’s known for his irreverent behavior, so it was not shocking when he announced the return of his show in the midst of the strike. Maher claimed he scheduled the return in the face of the months of stalled negotiations, and backtracked once both guilds (the WGA and AMPTP) returned to the table. Maher said part of his decision rested on the fact that he was “not willing to see so many below-the-line people suffer”.
In July of 2023 ABC decided to move forward with alternate writers for the soap opera “General Hospital” to ensure continued production on the show. “Alternate writers” means writers that aren’t part of the WGA but are willing to participate in struck work. The actors on General Hospital are covered by the Network Code, but the writers are not. This makes the entirety of the new writing staff scabs. One writer for “General Hospital” commented that this may be necessary to ensure the longevity of soap operas. However, if groups of writers that are not members of the WGA are willing to take the jobs of those on strike then the struck companies are able to continue the mistreatment of their employees with the support of those that they mistreat.
Collin Everett (@CollinUrrMom) is a TikToker with over 9 million followers. Oddly, only about 1 in 10 of his videos gets over a million views. On the 17th of July, 2023, Collin announced his intentions to produce a sequel to the Chris Farley movie Tommy Boy called Tommy’s Boy and cast himself as the lead role, Chris. He says “since the writers are striking, he might have an in”, which is absolutely disgusting. Openly admitting to the fact that you side with corporations over the little guy is crazy enough, but admitting that you intend to profit off of the mistreatment of writers and actors to make a sequel to a Chris Farley movie from the 80s is absolutely insane. The good news for Collin kept coming; his next post announced that a Christian streaming service wanted to cast him in a lead role. What they didn’t tell Collin is that he was probably the only person they could find to take the role. He claims they called him the next John Candy and would “pass his videos around the conference table”.
Low and behold, Mr. Everett posted an apology on the 21st of July after announcing he was going to be quoted in the New York Times. He also proclaims that he stands with the unions against corporate greed, in complete contradiction to what he was saying only a few days before. In a now deleted TikTok, Everett made himself look extremely stupid. He mentioned that he supports small indie films like Schindler’s List. He also said there were two types of films, cinema verité (a type of documentary), and artifice (a word meaning something that’s fake). This is quite an unusual comparison, especially because he used the examples Schindler’s List, and Nightcrawler, neither of which is a documentary. It is unclear what his intention was with this very unusual claim.
SOURCES
https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba
https://ew.com/tv/drew-barrymore-talk-show-backlash-explained-strike/
