SAG-AFTRA & WGA Message Amplified At AMPTP Headquarters Today With Help From Political Group

Luc Besson’s DogMan has become one of the first films to receive a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement that will allow talent to do press during the upcoming festival season. Actors will be allowed to promote the pic at its upcoming premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

In the wake of yesterday’s upbeat news that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the WGA are heading back for talks this Friday, SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says that as far as actors go, it’s still crickets from the producers.

Seth MacFarlane is giving back in a major way.

The New York City Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor passed a resolution today in support of a fair contract for striking actors and writers.  

Taylor Swift remains the uncontested queen of throwback references and Easter Eggs!

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler will join striking actors and writers on the picket line Thursday morning at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, she joined picketers outside Netflix offices in New York City. “When we fight together, we win together. And we won’t stop fighting until workers have a fair contract!” she tweeted the other day.

Snoop Dogg is showing his support for the SAG-AFTRA and WGA members who are on the picket line.

The hand-drawn picket signs were, like several of the people carrying them, wrapped in waterproof plastic at a rain-soaked march in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. But a passer-by could still see the images: Bender, the cranky robot from Futurama; BoJack, the half-equine hero of BoJack Horseman; Courage, the pink-hued canine star of Courage the Cowardly Dog; and several more beloved cartoon and animation characters going back the original, Mickey Mouse. 

SAG-AFTRA will hold a mass rally in Times Square on Tuesday morning. It’s expected to be the biggest rally in NYC since the strike began on July 14. Celebs scheduled to attend the “Rock the City for a Fair Contract” rally include Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, Lauren Ambrose, Christine Baranski, Matt Bomer, Tituss Burgess, Liza Colón-Zayas, Gregory Diaz, Jennifer Ehle, Nancy Giles, Danai Gurrira, Jill Hennessy, Marin Hinkle, Stephen Lang, Arian Moayed, Wendell Pierce, Corey Stoll and Merritt Wever.

SAG-AFTRA has granted more waivers in recent days that give permission to indie projects to shoot during the current strike, including the independent film The Summer Book starring Glenn Close. Other recent projects that will be allowed to shoot include the TV series Underdeveloped and Sight Unseen.

EXCLUSIVE: For those awards strategists wondering whether stars from indie U.S. films can promote at the fall film festival troika, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says “We’re looking at that issue.”

Following SAG-AFTRA’s clearance of AppleTV+’s Israeli spy series Tehran and New Line’s horror movie Watchers –prolific projects from AMPTP studios that the guild remains in talks with– in their interim agreement process, some producers and filmmakers in town have been miffed.

TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis said the dual strikes crippling Hollywood have “zero impact” on his company’s operations due to the Hispanic media giant’s programming supply chain.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French film guilds representing authors, directors and producers have released a joint letter pledging their “full solidarity” with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strike. “This battle that’s shaping tomorrow’s industry crosses borders. It’s also ours,” reads the letter, which was signed by the ARP (authors, directors, producers) and SRF (society of French directors), the governing body of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The letter says the double strike “signals a turning point where the questions of sharing of wealth and integration of new models and AI are central.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger already made his perspective clear about the ongoing guild strikes last week before the SAG-AFTRA one commenced. Now it’s Netflix CEO’s Ted Sarandos‘ turn.

French cinema guilds L’Arp and La SRF have put out a joint statement declaring solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

https://t.co/ZUOkfMbM0lFor those wondering, the City Controller is the paymaster, auditor and chief accounting officer for the city of Los Angeles, with a mandate to provide transparency on city policies, operations and data.Read more here.Our Office is investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.The trimmed trees are LA City managed street trees.(Before and after photos below) pic.twitter.com/xczw0bTdh9Trees can be trimmed by a StreetsLA Urban Forestry Division (UFD) crew as part of its trim cycle, or as part of a Council District’s trimming allotment.A business can also obtain a permit to trim a tree.

Editor’s note: Almost a week into the first joint strike by the actors union and the writers guild since 1960, there are picket lines all over LA and NYC. Yet there are no new negotiations planned between SAG-AFTRA or the WGA and the studios and streamers. Despite the silence and divisions between the parties, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland insists that a pathway to a new contract and a better future for all is possible.

The Haunted Mansion world premiere at Disneyland was the first major movie premiere affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike. None of the on-screen talent was at the event but director Justin Simien did address the elephant in the room.

IATSE President Matt Loeb is calling on the studios to provide health care benefits to below-the line workers who might lose them if they fall short of qualifying during the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes, as the companies did during the Covid pandemic.