Writers Guild and Studios Met Today, Will Meet Tomorrow to Keep Negotiating
The two entities said so in a joint statement to the press
In this information-starved environment, on Day 142 of the Writers Guild of America strike, it is tempting to try to decipher some kind of subtext from virtually any kind of update from official entities.
After some weeks apart, the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers went back to the negotiating table today. Per reports from the entertainment trades, the meeting was a well-attended one, with four CEOs of major studios present: Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav.
And the two negotiating parties released a rare joint statement at the end of the day:
The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.
Staccato! Succinct! What does it mean?
A first instinct might be to peg that as progress, that both sides were feeling at least chummy enough to issue a terse statement together. And if you squint hard enough, you could probably conjure some subtext, or read something into the update coming at the end of business hours instead of in the wee hours of the night.
But honestly, any analysis would likely be over-analysis at this stage, so it’s probably best to leave it as is and wait for more official updates — or hopefully a deal — to come down the pike. Get some rest, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Today in Strike News
As above-the-line workers fight for a new contract, below-the-line workers are preparing for a potential labor battle of their own next summer, and wish that they’ll be supported by those currently in the throes of striking. “I can only hope that our writers and actors will appear in solidarity if a strike is authorized by IATSE in the future…but it’s tricky,” says prop master Emiliano Rios. (Vanity Fair)
Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor won a key lawsuit against A.I. in India on Wednesday, as the Delhi High Court ruled that nobody will be allowed to use Kapoor’s name, image, likeness or voice without his express permission. “I’m very happy with this court order, which has come in my favor, and I think it’s very progressive and great for not only me but for other actors also,” Kapoor says. “Because of the way technology and the A.I. technology, which is which is evolving every day [and] which can completely take advantage of and be misused commercially, as well as where my image, voice, morphing, GIFs and deep fakes are concerned, I can straight away, if that happens, send a court order and injunction and they have to pull it down.” (Variety)
At the International Broadcasting Convention, many speakers talked about the use of A.I. as a means of revolutionizing editing processes across the industry. “We see A.I. as a co-pilot, to help a creative person do the work they are doing,” Avid CEO Jeff Rosica said. “[In time], it could learn the way an editor visually structures a story.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Former stars The Rock and John Cena are both returning to the ring in the absence of acting work. (TVInsider)
Actor Gerald Mcgee has also used the labor halt to return to the sports world, coaching youth football down in Missouri and trying to impart life lessons on the children while doing so. “It’s like I teach the kids, everything you do give it 110 percent and I try to give it 110 percent to make it better and greater,” he says. “If you want to be a singer, give it all and be a singer. If you want to be a writer, give it all and be a writer. What I’m doing is trying to teach kids, especially in my community, that as long as you try to achieve it, you can believe it.” (WLOX 13)
Back in the 2007 writers strike, David Letterman, who owned both The Late Show and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, paid both shows’ staffers out of his own pocket before signing an interim agreement with the WGA to resume the series. “To me, it was one of his finest moments,” Letterman writer Bill Scheft says. (Rolling Stone)
Additional reporting for Today in Strike News by Matthew Frank.
Disclosure: Elaine Low is an inactive member of SAG-AFTRA.
Please don’t take this too harshly Elaine, but your beat is the strike. CNBC’s David Faber just reported that the strike is likely to end tomorrow. (And if it doesn’t end tomorrow, then it won’t end until 2024.) That is major info that has to be in an update like this.
In my never to be humble opinion, the real reason we’re seeing actual movement in the talks between the WGA and the Alliance is because the studios’ big guns are the ones speaking and not Carol Lombardini.
She’s insisted on using the outmoded negotiating tactics from 30 years ago. Well, guess what? Times have changed and those tactics are no longer acceptable.
Sadly, the likes of Zaslav, Iger and the like aren’t exactly heroes, either. But it’s finally time to see some movement. Where’s Lew Wasserman when you need him?