WGA Sends Out Strike Rules To Members As Potential Hollywood Labor Shutdown Looms Next Week

The official Spring bank holiday falls on Monday, May 29 which means payments delivered by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), including Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance, due on that date will be made early on Friday, May 26. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is expected to announce similar changes to scheduled payment also due on that date.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher has told her members that as the union prepares for its upcoming contract negotiations, which start June 7: “We must focus on modernizing our outdated and conservative contract. It is essential that we reshape our agreement to better reflect the new digital and streaming business model that is rapidly changing our industry.”

Billy Ray and Todd Garner recap the second week of the WGA standoff on Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. They then interview with John Wells, producer of shows from ER to The West Wing and former chief negotiator for the WGA.

Kim Kardashian is signalling for help.

EXCLUSIVE: “This is about setting the course for the industry for the future,” said Directors Guild of America chief Lesli Linka Glatter today on the guild upcoming talks with studios and the WGA strike that stated this week. “We’re in a team sport. We’re only as good as our teams.”

There are health fears and an affair close to being 'rumbled' on Coronation Street next week. It's no secret to viewers of the ITV soap that Sarah Barlow is playing with fire as she secretly flirts up a storm with Damon Hay behind her husband Adam's back.

Jennifer Lopez is hard at work promoting her new Netflix movie!

The on-air auditions to be Tucker Carlson’s replacement now are drawing from Donald Trump’s White House.

continuing on for the time being. As Whoopi explained on Tuesday, “We did the show anyway, because we want to keep everybody employed, and we want to do our best, and we support our writers ’cause we know what they’re going through.”She noted at the top of that show that the lack of writers, for them, means that “you’re gonna hear how it would be when it’s not, you know, slicked up.” In each episode since, she has begun each show by reminding viewers that those writers are still on strike, so she and her co-hosts are essentially improvising the entire show.Such was the case on Thursday, as Whoopi noted that they’ll likely remind audiences that the writers strike is happening at the start of each episode for as long as the strike continues.

Kai of K-pop boyband EXO is set to enlist in the military next week.The news was shared by Kai’s label SM Entertainment on May 3, announcing that the K-pop idol will enlist in the South Korean military on May 11. In accordance with South Korean law, all able-bodied men over the age of 18 are required to serve in the military for up to two years.SM Entertainment said that Kai had been preparing new music with boyband EXO, but is set to enlist early “due to a recent change in regulations of the Military Manpower Administration”, per Soompi.

called out NBC for only paying the “Tonight Show” staff through the end of the week as the WGA strike unfolds, the show’s crew will now be paid by NBC through the end of next week. Fallon is expected to pay his staff a third week out of his own pocket. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will also follow suit with Meyers paying his staff for a third week.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large CBS has put on hold plans to announce its fall 2023 schedule at a reveal event in Los Angeles on May 9. The network will still share its schedule next week, but instead likely by traditional press release. The party, which was to take place at NeueHouse Hollywood (next door to CBS’ new Hollywood headquarters), was to have served as a replacement for the traditional upfronts event that CBS always held in New York at Carnegie Hall during upfronts week. (Paramount Global, which took over the CBS Wednesday slot during upfronts last year, earlier opted not to continue the upfronts week presentation this year. Filling that Wednesday time slot this year on May 15 will be Netflix, in its inaugural upfronts appearance.)

What was long feared has come to pass, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could not reach a new contract agreement. At midnight, May 1, the WGA went on strike with picketing scheduled to begin in front of Hollywood studios and networks beginning Tuesday afternoon.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America has detailed the vast differences between writers and the studios that led to the first strike in 15 years, which will begin Tuesday. In a lengthy document, the guild spelled out its proposal for a TV staffing minimum, which would range from six to 12 writers per show, based on the number of episodes. That proposal is a non-starter for the studios, which declined to make a counter-offer. The guild also wants a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment per season, ranging from 10 weeks to 52 weeks. The studios likewise rejected that proposal and did not make a counter-offer.

in the midst of negotiations for a new contract, “Late Night” host Seth Meyers spoke out in solidarity with the WGA and acknowledged the potential of his NBC series going dark should a strike occur.“I am deeply proud of the fact that I get to be a professional writer and I bring this up because as of Monday at midnight, there might be a writer’s strike,” Meyers said on Friday’s episode of his traditionally goofy “Late Night” YouTube program “Corrections.”“If a writer’s strike happens, that would shut down production on a great many shows, and I’ve been through this before in 2007, 2008. There was a very long strike when I was working at ‘SNL,’ and it was really miserable, and it doesn’t just affect the writers, it affects all the incredible non-writing staff on these shows, and it would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through, especially considering we’re on the heels of that awful pandemic that affected obviously not just showbusiness but all of us.”Meyers expressed his gratitude for the negotiators at the table and threw his full support behind the WGA.“I’m incredibly grateful that there are negotiators for both sides sitting and talking.

Picket signs are being prepared to possibly hit the streets next week, but talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers appear to have taken a productive turn in the past 24 hours.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America issued a detailed set of strike rules to its members on Tuesday, advising them that they will be barred from writing, pitching or negotiating for work if a strike is called. The guild also spelled out the rules for showrunners and other “hyphenates.” WGA members who are also producers, performers, or directors would be legally allowed to continue working, provided they do not perform any writing services. “The Guild strongly believes that no member should cross a WGA picket line or enter the premises of a struck company for any purpose,” the guild stated. “Under applicable law, however, the Guild may not discipline a hyphenate for performing purely non-writing services.”

Manchester United sent scouts to watch Benjamin Sesko over the weekend as he scored in RB Salzburg's Austrian Bundesliga play-off clash with SK Sturm Graz, according to reports.

Funny Girl star Lea Michele and Tony-winning MJ actor Myles Frost will announce the 76th Annual Tony Award nominations on Tuesday, May 2.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed scheduled payments including State Pension, Universal Credit and Carer’s Allowance which are due on the May Day bank holiday next Monday will land in bank accounts this Friday, April 28. Payments from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) such as Child Benefit and Tax Credits will also arrive early.