Daily Digest: Love on the Picket Lines
Writers are aiming for real-life rom-coms while on strike as mixers and matchmakers join the fray
Organized labor is serious business, but picket lines can be convivial places — especially ones populated by witty TV and movie scribes. So, some writers thought, why not make a few meet-cutes happen off the page while the WGA strike is in full swing?
At Roadside Taco on Wednesday night, two blocks from the Universal Studios lot, at least 200 writers and strike supporters turned out to decompress from a day of picketing and maybe meet a match, thanks to a singles mixer spearheaded by several writers in tandem with LJMatchmaking, an entertainment industry-focused service founded by TV writer Jaydi Samuels Kuba.
Just an hour into the event, one blue-haired writer, Kim, was seeing success.
“I am here looking for love, and some cute boy already bought me a drink so I’m excited,” she said. “I might get his number later.”
The idea sprung from a conversation Samuels Kuba had with Lopez vs Lopez showrunner Debby Wolfe and writer Marcos Luevanos. Along with Lauren Rosenberg, they decided to host a mixer in Week Two of the strike.
“We’re already out picketing anyway, and it’s something we already have in common with each other, so what better icebreaker than the strike to get to know someone, start talking to someone, maybe have a romance come out of it,” said Luevanos over the din of music and chatter on the patio.
Netflix, the designated Big Bad of the strike, has been the hot ticket in town for picketers, buoyed by celebrity strikers, a surprise Imagine Dragons concert and a seething demand for better streaming residuals. But some organizers have been urging writers to show up at other studios, particularly ones with sprawled out gates, such as Universal.
“That was the whole reason we did it here,” says Wolfe. “We heard there wasn’t a good turnout.”
Plus, there are tales of couples who met during the 2007-08 strike. By all accounts, that Hollywood work stoppage produced quite a few love matches.
Writer and podcaster Laura Birek recalls that time, when she was a web developer for NBC.com, and she felt “terrible” about having to cross the picket lines every day to go to work.
So she brought “solidarity doughnuts” to the picketers one day, and happened to run into Corey Evett, a “cute writer guy” whom she had met years earlier at a mutual friend’s poker night. They “picketed back and forth together for about an hour” in the early morning before Birek reluctantly had to clock in for work.
Afterward, Evett friended Birek on MySpace (because 2007). It would take him another six months to ask her out, though. Why? Because when the strike ended, Evett had to get back to the CSI: Miami writers room and help to crank out “basically a full season in half the time,” said Birek.
It wasn’t until his season wrapped that a first date finally happened. Fast forward to 2023, and the pair, who have been married now for about seven years, have a 4-year-old and 2-year-old together.
While the strike means that Evett is back on the picket lines this week, it all makes her feel “a little bit nostalgic.”
“If it wasn’t for the last writers strike, my whole life would be different,” she says.
Back at Roadside Taco, the vibe is festive, tittering with a nervous energy — both from the strike and the potential to meet someone new. There are drinks and dogs and writers running into familiar faces. And it’s not the only effort to play matchmaker: co-organizer Deanna Shumaker has been encouraging picketers to share their interests — men, women, everyone — through color-coded tape on their picket signs.
“We want to get back to work, but we just want our demands met, because we’re asking for very reasonable things and again, we feel like in the meantime, life doesn’t stop,” says Luevanos. “Why not look for romance while you’re doing your due diligence and picketing the AMPTP?”
Today in Strike News
With the Los Angeles hospitality union’s support, film and TV shoots might not be able to use the city’s array of hotels while the strike is ongoing. (The Hollywood Reporter)
When David Zaslav gives Boston University’s commencement address on May 21, he’ll be greeted by a horde of picketers, the guild announced today. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Though Zaslav will stay the course and speak despite the protests, Ted Sarandos has dropped out of a gala in New York that was intended to honor him due to “the threat to disrupt this wonderful evening.” (Variety)
Slated to air a month from today, the Tony Awards are in serious trouble amidst the strike, with one source telling the New York Post that they’re “hanging on by fingernails.” (New York Post)
With big tech’s influence on entertainment at the forefront of the negotiations, writers on the picket lines have made clear their intention to not become a part of the “gig economy.” (Variety)
And the answer is: What is union solidarity? In unity with the strike, Mayim Bialik is leaving Jeopardy! one week before her current hosting stint was slated to end. Ken Jennings will take over in her place. (Deadline)
Picket Sign of the Day
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Additional reporting by Matthew Frank
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