Fran Drescher Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher took to Instagram to express her condolences over the passing of Friends star Matthew Perry.

Saturday Night Live season 49 is back in its third week with a roller coaster of feels.

William Earl “Saturday Night Live” breakout Sarah Sherman portrayed SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher in a Halloween-themed sketch that took aim at studios, the guild’s controversial Halloween costume recommendations and “The Nanny” star herself. The sketch portrayed children running around in IP-branded Halloween costumes getting halted by Drescher, who was there to “teach you how to do Halloween during a strike.” That includes SAG-AFTRA asking members to not wear costumes based on movie or TV characters, or else “we would be promoting the companies we’re striking against, which makes all of these children a bunch of adorable scabs.” Drescher then recommended safe costumes like “Harry Potter, as described only in the book” and “minor characters from the Bible.” Pointedly, after Drescher says “That’s why we’ve been picketing for 100 days” and another character responds, “That must be exhausting,” she deadpans back, “Hey, did you just call me exhausting? Well, a lot of people have.” The quip could have been a response to recent A-list pressure on Drescher and the guild to make a deal quickly.

Already widely mocked on social media, SAG-AFTRA‘s infamous Halloween costume guidance received more drubbing on Saturday Night Live.

EXCLUSIVE: Sunday will not be a day of rest for SAG-AFTRA leadership and the studios this weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA and the studios don’t have a deal, but they are planning on talking more.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer More than 3,600 SAG-AFTRA members have signed an open letter stating that they would rather stay on strike than “cave” to a bad deal. The group, calling itself Members in Solidarity, includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jon Hamm, Maya Hawke, Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo and Bryan Cranston, among many other notable names.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer When it comes to life’s most difficult negotiations, sometimes you need a squishy friend by your side. That’s SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s policy for the contentious ongoing contract talks her union is embroiled in with Hollywood’s major film and TV studios.

Negotiations scheduled Wednesday between SAG-AFTRA and the studios didn’t happen after all — and everyone’s good with that.

SAG-AFTRA kicked off its National Convention 2023 under the banner “Future Forward Union Power.”

SAG-AFTRA’s first industry-wide strike in more than 40 years hit the 100-day mark. “SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will meet for bargaining on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at SAG-AFTRA Plaza.

SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, began its strike on July 14 over an ongoing labour dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Talks between the two parties restarted on October 2, but broke down again on October 11, with studios saying that negotiations were “no longer moving us in a positive direction.”The two sides have so far failed to come to an agreement over a deal, with SAG-AFTRA demanding increased pay, a share of streaming revenues and protection against actors’ images and voices being replicated by artificial intelligence.

Editor’s note: On the 100th day of SAG-AFTRA’s strike, the 160,000-strong guild and the studios are once again not talking, and no new negotiations are planned. Writers are back at work, but with no actors deal, Hollywood production remains shut down. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher asserts that it doesn’t have to be like this, that the economic suffering has to be solved. But first, she writes, the studios have to return to the bargaining table and stop playing games with the industry and people’s livelihoods.

Concerned that a prolonged actors strike would bring long-term, irreparable harm to the industry, Hollywood’s biggest stars on a Zoom call this week with SAG-AFTRA leaders pledged to commit $150 million over three years to remove a cap on union dues to bring more coin to guild coffers, and they suggested a streamer residual structure that would put actors on the bottom of the call sheet before them, in hopes that getting money faster would help more struggling actors qualify for benefits.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer On the first day of the SAG-AFTRA strike in July, union president Fran Drescher was asked how long she expected it to last. “We’re set up to go six months if we have to,” Drescher said. It hasn’t been that long yet.

Former SAG-AFTRA president Melissa Gilbert has blasted a SAG-AFTRA message that urged its members not to dress up as characters from struck companies this Halloween.

Ethan Shanfeld After SAG-AFTRA urged its members not to dress up as characters from struck companies this Halloween, former president of the actors guild Melissa Gilbert is calling out the costume guidelines as “silly bullshit” and “infantile.” “THIS is what you guys come up with? Literally no one cares what anyone wears for Halloween,” Gilbert wrote on Instagram in response to the union’s Halloween suggestions. “I mean, do you really think this kind of infantile stuff is going to end the strike? We look like a joke.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer In her two years as SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher has worked assiduously to bridge the factional divides that have long beset the union. “Member unity will be my greatest legacy,” she promised in her campaign statement this summer, and she sought reelection.

As SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher took to Instagram Thursday night to thank George Clooney and other A-list actors for their “extremely generous” proposal which they hoped would help end the current impasse between the guild and the studios, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee also addressed the offer in a letter to the membership Thursday.

Thanks, George. But your proposal to take the cap off union dues in order to end SAG-AFTRA‘s strike isn’t legally compatible with the union’s contract.

A plan put forth this week to SAG-AFTRA by George Clooney and other big stars to potentially kick start stalled negotiations with the studios is “worthy of review and consideration,” says the union’s chief negotiator.

George Clooney presented a proposal to SAG-AFTRA leadership during a Tuesday afternoon Zoom call in an effort to find a way to resolve the three-month-long actors strike with the studios. But the proposal is likely dead on arrival. Sources with knowledge of the situation say the group of some 15 stars, which includes Tyler Perry and Scarlett Johansson, held a follow-up call last night with SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee.

EXCLUSIVE: Ted Sarandos may have insisted today that he and other studio CEOs want to end the over three-month long actors strike and “get everyone back to work,” but for SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, the Netflix boss is full of nothing but hot air.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer A group of A-list actors is adding pressure on SAG-AFTRA leadership to find a way to resolve the actors strike, which has now lasted 97 days. George Clooney, Tyler Perry, Scarlett Johansson, and others held a Zoom meeting on Tuesday afternoon with Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director. Though the tone has been described as “supportive,” the actors did not call the meeting merely to express support.

Negotiations between the studios and the striking actors guild may have come to a sudden halt last week, but according to Netflix today everyone is still talking – even when they aren’t.

EXCLUSIVE: Some of Hollywood’s biggest names met with the leadership of SAG-AFTRA today to get the lowdown on the breakdown of talks with the studios and streamers last week.

Valerie Wu Intern Hollywood is mourning Suzanne Somers, star of sitcoms “Three’s Company” and “Step by Step,” who died Sunday after a long battle with breast cancer. The actor would have celebrated her 77th birthday on Monday, Oct. 16.

In an interview of the Today show this morning, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called the AMPTP’s walk out on strike negotiations this week “wrong,” “unfair,” and “disrespectful.”

Ellise Shafer SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher made an appearance on the “Today” show Friday morning to share her perspective on why the union’s talks with the AMPTP broke down. “It really came as a shock to me because what does that exactly mean and why would you walk away from the table? It’s not like we’re asking for anything that’s so outrageous,” Drescher said.

In a move not attempted by actors at San Diego Comic-Con, Trainspotting and Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor took the stage at the Javits Centers today at New York Comic-Con to discuss himself, not struck work during what is the 92ned day of the SAG-AFTRA strike.