WGA Rallies With L.A. Unions: ‘It’s Going to Be a Hot Labor Summer’

pic.twitter.com/5UJ3Ddm0TkTV writer Tom Smuts, who is married to WGA president Meredith Stiehm, said he was there when the incident occurred.“In the past five weeks coordinating production pickets in Los Angeles and Georgia, no one else has treated us like that,” he tweeted. “And we in the WGA and Teamsters will stay here in solidarity – in Los Angeles, New York, New Mexico, Georgia and wherever else we need to be – until our labor and dignity are respected again.”A Lionsgate spokesperson told TheWrap that the company takes “acts of intimidation and threats of violence seriously” and that they are investigating the incident “thoroughly.”“As we continue to investigate, we have sent home the individual involved,” the studio added. A WGA spokesperson told TheWrap it is “working closely with members who were endangered during this incident to hold this individual accountable.”“Workers should not be threatened with physical harm when exercising their right to publicly protest and picket against unfair wages and working conditions,” the guild said.

A reality TV crossover couple? Grayson Chrisley caused a social media frenzy when he took to Alabama Barker’s Instagram comments.

Rumer Willis is opening up about her own unique experience with giving birth to her baby girl, Louetta Isley Thomas Willis.The 34-year-old actress recently sat down for a lengthy interview with the podcast, and recalled her journey giving birth at home with help from her doula back on April 18.Surrounded by her boyfriend, Derek Thomas, her mom, Demi Moore, and her sisters — Tallulah and Scout Willis — Rumer explained that everything was going according to the birthing plan, but labor came on hard and fast, and she «dilated from two to eight inches in about an hour.»This meant she quickly had to move into a bathtub to begin pushing, but her doula realized that her water was still intact.«She was checking me and felt my water bag bulging, but still not popping, which was wild,» Rumer recalled. «So, I was like, 'Well, should we break it?' She goes, 'Well, can.' I'm like, 'What?!' I was like, 'Are you serious?'»Serious indeed, Rumer decided to take matters into her own hands. «I reached my finger up there, and I'm feeling and it was crazy,» she shared.

UK actors union Equity has joined the AI debate full throttle by developing a toolkit that, amongst other things, attempts to prevent performers from having their performances cloned.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA congratulated the Directors Guild of America on reaching an agreement with the studios on Sunday, but both groups stressed that the deal does not change their own goals. Both guilds are intent on pushing back against “pattern bargaining,” in which the terms of the DGA deal are typically applied to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. The WGA has been on strike for a month, while SAG-AFTRA begins its negotiations on Wednesday. “Our bargaining strategy has never relied upon nor been dependent on the outcome or status of any other union’s negotiations, nor do we subscribe to the philosophy that the terms of deals made with other unions bind us,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the executive director of SAG-AFTRA, in a statement.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. screenwriters are set to gather in London’s Leicester Square in support of the Writers Guild of America and its ongoing strike action. The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is inviting members to join a major June 14 protest for the U.S. writers strike, which has passed its first month. The protest is part of the Global Day of Solidarity, which is organized by the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe, of which WGGB is a member. WGA members, as well as members of the Federation of Entertainment Unions, will be joining the protest, according to the WGGB.

The leaders of the Writers Guild, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and the Teamsters have issued a “joint statement of solidarity” with the Directors Guild in its final scheduled week of contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, saying that they “stand alongside our sisters, brothers, and kin in the DGA in their pursuit of a fair contract.” Their statement comes on the 30th day of the ongoing WGA strike and 21 days after the DGA began its contract talks with the AMPTP.

Hot 97 Summer Jam drops into Elmont, NY’s UBS Arena for one night only bringing some of the genre’s biggest stars along for the occasion.Just a few of the headliners set to appear include Cardi B, Ice Spice, Coi Leray, Fivio Foreign and French Montana.They’ll be joined by GloRilla, Lil TJay, Lola Brooke, NLE Choppa and Kenzo B.Plus, iconic Yonkers natives The Lox aka Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Jadakiss will perform as well celebrating the history of hip-hop.Thankfully, tickets are still available for the one-night-only event.In fact, at the time of publication, we found some seats going for a perfect price point: $97 before fees on Vivid Seats.For fans that want to get closer to the action, lower-level seats can be scooped up for $176 before fees.$182 before fees is the lowest price available for floor seats.Want to know more about the annual extravaganza?Keep reading.We’ve got all the Hot 97 Summer Jam news you need below.All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.In addition to the aforementioned heavy hitters on the bill, here are all the additional acts taking the stage at this year’s Hot 97 Summer Jam starting at 2 p.m.

Reese Witherspoon indulged on a family girls trip around Paris.

The Writers Guild of America West received the most robust support from their sister unions in Los Angeles at the “Unions Strike Back” Rally on Friday evening.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Colin Farrell, Mariska Hargitay, Danny Strong, Paula Pell, Rachel Dratch, Michael Kelly and Craig Zobel were among the stars who came out to the writers strike picket line outside Paramount Global’s New York City office in Times Square Thursday. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y., and local politicians spoke at the event in support of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) cause against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that has led to a four-week-and-counting work stoppage due to the organizations’ inability to ink a new contract May 1. “This is about what’s right. We’ve seen income inequality grow exponentially over the last decade; and in your business, it has never been more present,” Gillibrand said to the crowd, filled with not only WGA members, but also those from SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters, among other unions. “We see writers working hard every day to produce content and we have an unfair playing field. Not only does AI want to displace our writers, they simply can’t. AI generates content based on what’s been written before the work you did last year, and the year before. It’s not original. It’s not imaginative. It doesn’t come from the human heart. It’s not about a human experience. It’s not about what people actually want to learn about or know about or see or experience. That is what writers bring to the equation every single time. So this strike is so important for the future of this country. It’s about the value of workers; workers and what they create is fundamentally valuable.”

Three Floors” opened with a high-profile belly flop, festival-stalwart Nanni Moretti returns to Cannes with “A Brighter Tomorrow,” a comeback of sorts that also airs a list of grievances and could serve – should need arise – as a closing statement.Not that it likely will. Funny and endearing in some places, and typically grumpy and old-fashioned in others, “A Brighter Tomorrow” should, at very least, keep Moretti far from director’s jail for years to come.

SAG-AFTRA and Cameo for Business (C4B), the celebrity digital marketplace that connects talent with fans and brands, have reached what the guild is calling a “groundbreaking” agreement that allows its members to work under a SAG-AFTRA contract and count their C4B earnings toward their pension and health benefits.

Gabrielle Union is falling for Keith Powers in their upcoming Netflix movie, The Perfect Find.

Members of the WGA East employed by Hearst Magazines Media have overwhelmingly ratified what the guild is calling a “groundbreaking” first contract that covers some 560 writers, producers and editors at 28 of the publishing giant’s brands, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver, Oprah Daily, Seventeen, Elle, Redbook and Woman’s Day.

EXCLUSIVE: UK company Architect was recently founded by sales executives Calum Gray and Max Pirkis, together with Patrick Fischer and Richard Kondal of financier Creativity Capital.

Christopher Vourlias Ukraine’s cinema union issued an open letter on Thursday calling on participants of the Cannes Film Market to halt all business with Russia. The statement asserted that releasing films in Putin’s pariah state is akin to “support for terrorism” amid its ongoing war of aggression in the Eastern European nation. The letter, which was written by the Ukrainian League of Cinemas, singled out a number of leading international indie distributors and sales agents — including Lionsgate, STXInternational, FilmNation, A24 and Pathé — whose films have been released in Russia since the start of the war. “Continuing to do business in Russia means supporting the Russian terrorist state with taxes,” the statement read. “These taxes are then turned into weapons with which peaceful Ukrainian cities are destroyed, and our friends and colleagues are killed and maimed.”

Blake Lively is back in action.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Directors Guild of America is continuing its negotiations with the AMPTP, as companies hope to get a deal that could play a role in ending the two-week-old writers strike. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America told members Monday that the guild is winning the “PR war” against the studios, as members share their stories in the media. “It seems the whole world is on our side,” wrote Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, a WGA East vice president, in an email to members titled “Our Momentum Grows.” “Members’ individual stories of our broken system — of getting by on ten weeks of work a year, of residual checks amounting to pennies — are resonating with the public. They understand we are losing out on the middle-class American Dream. We are not the elite. We are just like them. We are them.”

EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson is returning to the director’s chair for the first time since 2016 Oscar winner Hacksaw Ridge with movie Flight Risk, which will star Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg.