The Whisper Campaign Behind the Supposed Showrunner-Writers Guild Spat
➕ 'Endless union summer' is upon us. Are you ready for it?
Are you ready for “endless union summer”? Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “hot labor summer,” but it’s the moniker bestowed on the town’s concurrent labor movements by California Federation of Labor exec secretary-treasurer Lorena Gonzalez, speaking at the SAG-AFTRA solidarity rally that traveled from Netflix HQ to Paramount Studios today.
The robustly attended rally included remarks from SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, Harold and Kumar’s Kal Penn and John Cho (“We got the munchies for a fair deal!”), and other stars.
Drescher reportedly scrutinized the studios for “cannibalizing other businesses to become more and more powerful and more and more connected to Wall Street than they are to the foundational contributors of the business.”
This follows Tuesday’s showrunner solidarity rally at the Fox lot, which turned out more than 500 Writers Guild of America members and more than 150 SAG-AFTRA members, according to local strike captains. The series of gatherings come as many industry workers feel the 135 days of the writers strike and 62 days of the actors strike begin to weigh on them as the work stoppages run well past Labor Day. Showrunners left piles of gift cards for IATSE members and other support staffers, “the people that are honestly the most vulnerable in this work stoppage,” said James Stoteraux, co-showrunner of Gotham Knights (and as you may recall, the first sponsor of Andrea Alba-von Buren and Olivier Alerte’s strike biz Dean’s Coffee).
“Nobody wants to be on strike,” Gotham Knights co-creator and Vampire Diaries’ Chad Fiveash told me at the picket on Tuesday. “But as writers, we want to see our livelihood go away even less. So we will go on strike, we will go on the picket line, because we believe that this is an existential fight — that if we don't hold the line here, writing is not going to be a viable profession in, I don't know, two years, three years.”
Both events also took place amid a rocky week for the rumor mill, in which top showrunners were reportedly engaging in heated conversations with the guild (more on that below). Tuesday’s picket partly aimed to nip that concern in the bud.
“I do think that even with this large of a membership, it is really impressive how much people have stuck together and look out for each other,” Stoteraux said.
During the 2007-08 strike, “there was a bit of more division about, ‘Is this really worth fighting something now, as opposed to waiting?’” he recalled. “I think it proved to be very smart. I think a lot of people now look back at that, and even if they were not entirely in agreement over some of the goals and aims of the ‘07 strike, I think looking back it proved to be pretty, you know, almost right on as far as what they were fearing.”
Watch our entire chat with Stoteraux and Fiveash here:
Elsewhere on The Ankler
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about this alleged showrunner mutiny-in-the-making that now seems to have been poked at from all angles by various news outlets. My colleague Peter Kiefer (with a minor reporting assist from me) documented a behind-the-scenes look at what industry sources tell us really happened:
When it comes to the WGA, it wasn’t too long ago that the major agencies were saying all the “right” things. Days after the strike began May 4th, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel said his company “completely supports” its clients. In July, CAA’s Bryan Lourd took it a step further and personally showed up on a SAG picket line in New York City. Both Emanuel and Lourd — heads of the two most powerful agencies — have offered to help broker peace. It wasn’t unusual even to see an agency-sponsored ice cream truck or pizza lunch on the picket lines.
In recent weeks, however, there’s increasing evidence that solidarity between the WGA and at least some agents is, at best, a tenuous alliance.
Case in point: the so-called canceled meeting between WGA leaders and a few top industry showrunners that has sent an information-starved industry, Xanax-ing through a never-ending strike, into an absolute tizzy. How did a proposed meeting between some showrunners and WGA leadership spin so wildly out of control? The answer, according to several sources? Agents.
“A couple weeks ago, there was a coordinated campaign through the agencies,” a source who supports the guild and is familiar with its thinking tells The Ankler. “They were getting in the ear of clients saying [the WGA] are being crazy, they are totally unreasonable, you have to have a coup.”
Read the rest of the story here, for paid Ankler subscribers.
Today in Strike News
It’s official: Marvel VFX artists have unanimously voted to unionize as they face increasingly tight deadlines and immense workloads. (CNBC)
California lawmakers are taking a stand in the fight against A.I., as Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give actors and artists an out on vague clauses in contracts that allow studios to use machine learning to digitally clone them. “There’s an increased concern that technology will be used to supplant their services,” Kalra said. “There’s no doubt that everyone has the right to control their own image and likeness as well as their voice.” (Los Angeles Times)
Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra, meanwhile, said at a BofA conference that “AI is an unbelievable tool for the writers. Every writer we talk to says, ‘We’re using AI to speed up our process and make it better.’” (Deadline)
Amid the outcry over her show returning during the dual strikes, Drew Barrymore has been dropped as host of the National Book Awards. “The National Book Awards is an evening dedicated to celebrating the power of literature, and the incomparable contributions of writers to our culture,” the National Book Foundation, which organizes the ceremony, said in a statement. “Our commitment is to ensure that the focus of the Awards remains on celebrating writers and books, and we are grateful to Ms. Barrymore and her team for their understanding in this situation.” (Los Angeles Times)
Following in Barrymore’s controversial footsteps, daytime series The Talk is also set to return next week. (Deadline)
Not since one of the first unionized group of strippers appeared on the picket line has there been such a strike-related dance protest, with Jamie Lynn Spears donating her Dancing With the Stars salary this season to the two striking unions. “I have this unique opportunity where I was offered a chance to work when my community cannot work,” Spears said on Good Morning America. “I figured I’ll do this and I will donate my weekly salary to SAG, WGA and just give back to them at a time where they can’t even give to themselves.” (Variety)
Fox has had to adapt to the strike by making their fall schedule reality-heavy, but the executives at the network aren’t overly concerned with how the slate will fare: “We’re really kind of bullish,” Allison Wallach, president of unscripted programming at Fox, said. “We are able to launch the shows that we have always planned on doing, so it hasn’t really shifted for us.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Additional reporting for Today in Strike News by Matthew Frank.
Disclosure: Elaine Low is an inactive member of SAG-AFTRA.
Picket Scene of the Day
