‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Talks SAG-AFTRA Strike Ending & Questions If He Needs Movies Anymore

For a Friday that is time for reflection and giving thanks, host Billy Ray and returning original host Todd Garner welcomes WGA president Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. They talk with the guys about the lessons learned from the long and brutal six month strike that is finally and mercifully over. The guild leaders advise IATSE and Teamsters negotiators what to expect when their deals expire next July. They also review a negotiation that in their minds never had to turn into such a protracted process. The gains made by their guilds could have been achieved if only the signatories had sent in the CEOs earlier to the bargaining table, and stopped trying to work from a contract and negotiating moves that were hopelessly outdated in the streaming age. Coming in for particular criticism here is AMPTP negotiator Carol Lombardini. After Billy Ray recalled watching Lombardini cancel catering and then announce that the WGA walked away from the table in 2017, Stiehm said this time the head negotiator for studios responded to rejection of an offer by the WGA negotiating committee by presenting the contract to membership and releasing the full offer to the media. Ray and Garner will do one more Strike Talk by the way, and to the editors, that is another thing to give thanks for.

John Oliver took a jab at Apple TV+ during the latest episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight.

New Zealand has voted the pūteketeke as its “Bird of the Century” after John Oliver announced on his show earlier this month that Last Week Tonight was taking up the mantle of “official campaign manager.”

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher on Monday scolded “naysayers” and “contrarians” who have criticized the union’s new contract. Drescher defended the agreement during a Zoom meeting for SAG-AFTRA members on Monday morning. “Sadly there have been some naysayers who have exploited this momentum of ours,” Drescher said, appearing in a bathrobe from her home.

Less than 48 hours before SAG-AFTRA members begin voting on ratifying their new deal with the studios, the actors guild has released an extensive summary of the potential three-year contract.

Following today’s vote by the majority of SAG-AFTRA‘s National Board to approve the tentative agreement reached with studio CEOs and the AMPTP earlier this week, the actor’s guild has released more details of the deal.

The studios wasted no time Friday responding to the SAG-AFTRA National Board’s vote to approve the new tentative agreement between the guild and the AMPTP.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Friday laid out how the actors’ 118-day strike was ended and their thoughts on the deal with the AMPTP.

SAG-AFTRA national board approved its new contract with the major studios with an 86% approval vote, sending it to membership for ratification. The official approval was announced by the guild at a press conference Friday afternoon, which finally got started at around 3:20 p.m. after an 80-minute delay.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher is speaking out about the union’s new three-year contract with studios, putting an end to the actors strike that lasted 118 days.

The actors are set to vote on the tentative agreement with the studios after the SAG-AFTRA national board approved the deal.

In a full-circle moment, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher is holding a press conference at 2 p.m. today in the James Cagney Boardroom of the guild’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters, the same place that she fired up the troops with her strike-launching speech on July 13.

Fran Drescher, the union’s president, has not only secured tentatively a historic three-year deal with studios but also garnered praise from some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Among them, George Clooney who expressed sheer astonishment at the deal.

The International Federation of Actors (FIA) has praised SAG-AFTRA for taking on an “incredible fight for all performers around the world.

in the person of its president, Fran Drescher) and the major Hollywood studios (AMPTP). It’s a rinse-and-repeat following on the heels of the writers’ guild (WGA), which ended its strike in early October after five months as TV scribes headed back to their writers rooms to crank out late-night monologues or plan for new episodes of their series.“I’m thrilled it’s over,” former “Parks and Recreation” co-star Jim O’Heir told me from Kansas City, where he’s starring in a play (“Catch Me If You Can”) during his strike-enforced downtime from television.

The SAG-AFTRA strike is finally over after 118 days.

Selome Hailu Hollywood may soon be back in business. SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). If ratified, the new contract would end the actors union’s historic 118-day strike.

Tyler Perry is speaking out on the SAG-AFTRA strike, now in its 117th day, as it appears a possible deal is getting much closer.

As Kelsey Grammer says in his 2020 low-budget action movie Money Plane, “Whatever you want to wager on, the money plane has you covered. You want to bet on a dude f*cking an alligator? Money Plane.”

EXCLUSIVE: Today’s meeting between SAG-AFTRA and an expanded group of studio CEOs has just ended as the guild scrutinizes the AMPTP‘s long awaited response to their last comprehensive counter.