Hollywood is shut down.
With the TV and film writers strike already in its third month, about 160,000 television and movie actors announced plans Thursday to go on strike. It’s the first time since 1960 that both the writers and actors have been on strike, essentially grinding Hollywood to a halt.
In an angry speech, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said, “What is happening to us is happening to all fields of labor. I’m shocked by the way the people we have been in business with are treating us. It is disgusting. Shame on them. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.”
Two of the core issues are compensation and the use of artificial intelligence. When it comes to AI, actors are worried that the technology could be used to replicate their previous work without the actors’ approval or the actors being compensated. For example, AI could be used in a sequel to a hit movie or even something as simple as re-filming a scene with AI instead of an actor and, again, the actor would not be compensated for their time.
The actors union also wants increases to minimum wages as well as increases to residual money — that is, royalties for reruns when shows become hits, or films are distributed on other platforms.
The strike is mostly for actors who aren’t famous. However, many top film and TV stars — A-listers such as Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence — are striking as well.
So what does this mean for you and me, the consumer of TV and movies?
The New York Times’ John Koblin wrote, “Unless there is an immediate resolution to the labor disputes, the fall television lineup is almost certain to be affected. Instead of new episodes of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ or ‘Abbott Elementary,’ the ABC fall lineup in September will be populated by a combination of reality series, game shows and reruns. That means lots of episodes of ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,’ ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘Judge Steve Harvey.’ Likewise, the Fox broadcast network announced its fall lineup on Wednesday, and it is packed with unscripted series like ‘Celebrity Name That Tune,’ ‘The Masked Singer,’ ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and ‘Snake Oil,’ a new game show hosted by David Spade.”
Late-night talk shows already have been airing reruns because of the writers’ strike. If the strikes last into the fall, shows such as “Saturday Night Live” also will remain shut down.
In addition, it’s impacting other events. While there is an actors’ strike, actors will not participate in press events or premiers promoting their movies. On Thursday in London, actors from one of the most anticipated movies of the year, “Oppenheimer,” walked out of the premier. That included actors Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh.
Before leaving, Damon told a reporter, “If our leadership is saying the deal isn’t fair, then we gotta hold strong until we get a deal that’s fair for working actors. It’s a difference between having health care and not for a lot of actors, and we gotta do what’s right for them.
Actors also will not do any campaigning for the Emmy Awards, which nominations were announced this week.
Drescher said, “The eyes of the world and, particularly, the eyes of labor are upon us. What happens to us is important. What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor. When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, we have a problem.”
She also said, “Wake up and smell the coffee! We demand respect! You cannot exist without us!”
And now to notable media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review …
- Could Disney sell ABC? Disney CEO Bob Iger certainly hinted that Thursday in an interview with CNBC, saying the network “may not be core” to the business. And what about ESPN? There is speculation that ESPN, along with possible Disney “strategic partners,” eventually will become a direct-to-consumer product. Iger said, “Whether it’s content value, whether it’s distribution value, whether it’s capital, whether it just helps the risk of the business to some extent — but that wouldn’t be the primary driver. If they come to the table with value that enables ESPN to make a transition to its direct-to-consumer offering, then we’re gonna be very open-minded about that.”
- Former New York Times sports staffer Lynn Zinser with a damning and insightful (and extremely well done) piece in Editor & Publisher about what it was really like to work for the Times sports section: “NYT Sports: An Obituary.” Zinser writes, “As Times writers and editors, we had to be better than everyone, not just because our readers expected it, but also because our disapproving bosses were always lurking. I remember my welcome lunch when I was hired in 2003, a group of new hires invited to then-publisher Arthur Sulzberger’s office. As he asked all the others about their careers and their interests and what they hoped to accomplish, his only question for me was how I thought the Giants might do that season. My spot at the bottom of the Times totem pole might as well have been monogrammed, but at least my introduction to it came with a nice salad.”
- In Thursday’s newsletter, I wrote how McClatchy laid off three Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists this week. Michael Cavna spoke with all three in his story for The Washington Post. Jack Ohman, who had been at the Sacramento Bee, told Cavna that he was “stunningly blindsided,” adding, “I felt like I had been T-boned at an intersection. Devastated.”
- A powerful investigation in the Indianapolis Star about a horrific growing phenomenon. Mary Claire Molloy with “American Annihilation: US families face a unique danger – murder from within.”
- My Poynter colleague, Kristen Hare, with “L.A. Times launches De Los ‘to explore all things Latinidad.’”
- Axios’ Sara Fischer with “AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI.”
- The Washington Post’s Laura Wagner talks to the students whose investigations led to Northwestern University firing its football coach: “Inside the college newspaper investigation that got a football coach fired.”
- A country music star is at the top of the country charts with a cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” The Washington Post’s Emily Yahr with “Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs and the complicated response to ‘Fast Car.’”
- And one more from The Washington Post. Taylor Lorenz with “That dangerous TikTok trend on the news? It’s fake.”
- By far, my favorite read of the day: The New York Times’ Michael Wilson with “The Glamorous Stranger Next Door Knew Everyone. And She Needed Help.”
- Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina with the “Top 10 Most Influential Personalities in Sports Media.” (The list does not include executives, but instead it’s “sports media figures who constantly draw the attention of athletes, set the agenda for sports conversations and generate massive reaction from sports fans.”)
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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