The Los Angeles Showrunner Solidarity Day Picket: Helping the Showrunners from the Studio to the Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Writers Guild
Union leaders believe it’s up to studios to improve their offer. The studios have rejected that demand, but it is a position supported by many Writers Guild members, including numerous showrunners. On Tuesday in Los Angeles, writers like Alexi Hawley (“The Rookie”) and Scott Gimple (“The Walking Dead”) helped stage a well-attended “showrunner solidarity day” picket at Fox Studios.
“This was the companies’ plan from the beginning — not to bargain, but to jam us,” guild leaders said shortly afterward. “It is their only strategy — to bet that we will turn on each other.”
Steve Levitan, whose credits include the sitcom “Just Shoot Me!” and the movie “Modern Family,” told a reporter that nobody is looking for ways to disrupt the leadership of the guild. We are always trying to find ways that anyone can help.
Two people close to Ryan Murphy said he had a heated discussion with Chris Keyser, a senior Writers Guild official. Mr. Murphy set up a $500,000 fund to help workers who don’t work on his shows. People say he had $10 million in requests in a few days.
The New Online Auction to Support the Writers and Actors Strike in the Mid-Augmented US Film and Television Industry
You know how it is when you get a 12th clue for the New York Times crossword, and you think to yourself, “I really would have liked to seeNatasha Lyonne here.”
It’s not the scenario you’ve been dreaming of, but it might be if you have a budget of more than $2,100 to bid in the new online auction to support the ongoing writers and actors strike.
The auction is hosted through Ebay and organized by the Union Solidarity Coalition, which is pledging to financially support crew members who lost their health insurance as the film and television industry ground to a halt this summer.
You can pay up to $3,095 for a mural by the writer, or Bob Odenkirk and David Cross to go out for dinner, and you could also pay for Busy Philipps to be your friend at a pottery class.
John Lithgow will paint a watercolor portrait of your pup ($4,050) and Adam Scott will take it for a one-hour stroll ($2,025). The cast of Bob’s Burgers will write and perform a song just for you ($3,050) and the cast of The Bear is shelling out a sartorial boost in the form of a signed blue apron ($1,525).
There are also things you can buy such as Tom Waits’ fedora, Brit Marling’s wolf hoodie and a Hawaiian shirt cosigned by “Weird Al” Yankovich.
There are also one-on-one virtual hangouts with the likes of Sarah Silverman and Zooey Deschanel, promising everything from career coaching to relationship advice, a form of screen time more intimate than catching your breath.
The Writers Guild of America first called a strike in early May and was joined by the actors’ guild, SAG-AFTRA, in July. (SAG-AFTRA also represents most of NPR’s journalists, but under a separate contract.)
Some unions are fighting for increased compensation and regulations for using artificial intelligence. There are unconfirmed reports of negotiations at a standstill.
The offer was full of “loopholes, limitations and omissions” that were too numerous to single out according to the statement from the WGA.
Source: Now’s your chance to solve a crossword puzzle with Natasha Lyonne
What is the matter with “death of theirs” in electroweak phenomenology? (Theory on the issues of Drescher and the studio)
Fran Drescher toldNPR last week the conversation couldn’t move forward unless the studio bosses put aside their financial greed and started acting with compassion.