Daily Digest: A Starry Rally at the Rock has Big Names... But Few Directors
➕ Stiehm on the picket, Rushfield's revelations
Things seemed considerably quieter on some pickets in L.A. today, but New York saw a rousing Rally at the Rock outside NBCUniversal that brought out marquee names. A writer I know who attended the event relayed the star-studded guest speaker list: John Leguizamo, Cynthia Nixon, Neil Gaiman, Busy Phillips, Wanda Sykes, Kal Penn and Tony Kushner.
“This is not a good look for you, AMPTP,” I’m told Kushner said. “You think shamelessness is another superpower.” (He got the crowd so amped that my friend overheard a guy say, rapturously, “I would follow this guy into hell.”)
A number of other unions reportedly showed up and showed out. According to Deadline, “We’ve get every frickin’ union in the city of New York in the house!” WGA exec director Lowell Peterson said. Well, sort of. I’m told there was a dearth of directors at the rally. In its official capacity, the Directors Guild has notably been in the midst of negotiations with the AMPTP since May 10, with a mutually agreed upon media blackout.
Even so, I clocked concern from several writers today on both coasts that the DGA maybe had stepped back from its reportedly fiery rhetoric at the multi-union rally at The Shrine during Week One of the strike, even before the blackout started. According to my writer pal in New York, who was around for the last strike in 2007-08, the DGA is “NEVER NEVER NEVER with us,” and she was “hoping this time would be different.”
Meanwhile, in L.A., Netflix got some picket karaoke going this afternoon. Spotted on the strike lines before the singing revved up were the writers room of the streamer’s new To All the Boys spinoff series, XO, Kitty: Hanna Stanbridge, Sarah Choi, a writer named Chris Martin who inexplicably resembles Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and showrunner Sascha Rothchild.
Over at the Fox lot, WGA president Meredith Stiehm was out and about as L.A.’s teachers union and Suits writers joined the picket lines.
Elsewhere on The Ankler…
Richard Rushfield on the now “wildly optimistic” idea that this labor battle could end in July, in his not so-optimistically headlined piece The 6-Month Shutdown Scenario that highlights what he’s learned from conversations around town:
It seems clear that there's not going to be any movement on the writers until the DGA and SAG are resolved one way or another. Both contracts are currently set to expire on June 30, five weeks from now.
So this can go one of two ways: they make a deal, or they don't make a deal.
In the latter scenario, all hell breaks loose and we'll see you all on the other side.
In the former, one imagines the two guilds would, given the current climate, want to present the deal as the result of a hard-fought battle, concessions extracted at the point of the sword, etc. With the writers out, they won't want to portray it as, we got together one Saturday, ordered some bagels and whitefish, and hammered it out in time to get in nine holes at Bel Air before dinner.
In this environment, both guilds will want to draw this out as long as possible, possibly with extensions to keep the talks going. Or even a brief walkout.
Which puts you in July at the earliest before they are done, quite possibly later.
Read all the possible outcomes and informed intrigue here (particularly fascinating bit about various DGA members moving to be put in charge of post-production). On main at The Ankler.
Today’s Strike News
What would it take for songwriters to have their own strike? “Unlike the WGA, musicians for a variety of reasons are simply not in the same level of organization right now. That’s the fundamental barrier,” says an organizer with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW). (Pitchfork)
How Tony Kushner, Jeremy O. Harris and other acclaimed dramatists saved this year’s Tonys telecast. (New York Times)
The WGA formed its first picket line in New Mexico, outside the set of J.J. Abrams’ HBO Max series Duster. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
Picket Sign of the Day
As spotted in New York: “Strength in numbers and we hate math!”
