SAG strike news: Universal Studios accused of pruning trees to remove shade for picketing actors and writers
Los Angeles picketers are scattered between several studio lots
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Your support makes all the difference.Universal Studios has been accused of trimming the trees that lined its studio lot and provided shade for striking actors and writers.
On Monday (17 July), following the first weekend of the historic Hollywood shutdown, comic Chris Stephens tweeted a photo showing the bare trees.
“Quick shoutout to the good people at @UniversalPics for trimming the trees that gave our picket line shade right before a 90+ degree week,” Stephens wrote.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators unanimously recommended a strike after talks with the AMPTP broke down last week.
Additionally, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May. Both groups demand increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by AI.
Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny and SAG president, said studios’ responses to the actors’ concerns had been “insulting and disrespectful”.
In light of the historic double strike, several actors and writers have shared personal horror stories of Hollywood studio greed.
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger condemned the threatened strike action as “very disruptive” at the “worst time” as well as calling the expectations of writers and actors “not realistic”.
Kevin Bacon joins actors protesting against Hollywood studios: ‘I’m here for the working class’
Orange Is the New Black star claims cast members held second jobs due to poor salaries
Devon Sawa claims he wasn’t ‘paid a cent’ for Final Destination 5 cameo in deleted tweet
Matilda child star and John Cusack share horror stories on Hollywood studio greed in support of SAG strike
Devon Sawa claims he wasn’t ‘paid a cent’ for Final Destination 5 cameo in deleted tweet
Devon Sawa has joined the throng of actors sharing horror stories from the industry amid the SAG-AFTRA union strike, which has ground Hollywood to a halt.
Final Destination star Sawa, 44, reportedly took to Twitter on Friday (14 July) to allege that he was never paid for his cameo in Final Destination 5 (2011).
Sawa’s character Alex Browning – the lead in the original 2000 Final Destination film – briefly makes an appearance in the franchise’s fifth instalment using footage from the first film.
Read more:
‘Final Destination’ lead also claimed he wasn’t told he was in the movie despite being invited to the premiere
Actors’ union and screenwriters’ union have banded together in the fight for fair wages and higher streaming residuals
The Office star David Denman gives clear explanation of streaming residuals
“Streaming residuals” has become a buzzworthy term thanks to the ongoing strike. Now, if you felt like it was too late to ask: What exactly are streaming residuals? Have no fear, The Office’s David Denman has broken it down for you.
“Netflix, they created a model that everyone else followed,” the actor told The Associated Press while on the picket lines in Los Angeles, “which is, we’re going to buy you out. We’re going to pay for your services for a cycle, which would be three months.
“And it doesn’t matter if you watch that show one or you watch it 100 times, you’re not going to get any more money because more people watched it. The only person that makes more money is the person who licensed that to Netflix.”
Offering an example, he continued: “So Universal [Studios] licensed that to Netflix. And when it was the number one show on Netflix, they’re able to make a significant profit off of that, but that doesn’t trickle down to the blue-collar actor like me.”
George Clooney and Alec Baldwin have voiced strong support for the action
In a statement shared with the PA news agency, Clooney said: “This is an inflection point in our industry. Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living.
“For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors that journey starts now.”
In a video posted to Instagram, Baldwin congratulated the union for calling the strike in order to protect its “rank and file” members.
“I don’t think anybody really wants a strike but they don’t want to continue under the unfair contracts that we’re working under now,” he said.
“So congratulations to everybody and I hope this is over right after we get everything we want.”
Retired actor Russ Tamblyn tells picketers not to ‘sell out like Ronald Reagan did'
Retired actor Russ Tamblyn, best known for his role in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story, has offered actors and writers currently striking some advice from his early days on the picket line.
“Stay in there and keep striking,” he told People in a new interview. “And don’t sell out like Ronald Reagan did.”
The 88-year-old actor, who’s been a “proud member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1949”, was a part of the monumental Hollywood shutdown of 1960.
The SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in March 1960, led by Ronald Reagan, who was the union president years before his US presidency, came to an end five weeks later after the union struck a deal with studios.
Studios agreed to actors earning residual payments for films produced in 1960 and after, but for projects they had worked on before 1948, they would earn zero residuals.
“I was pretty upset when I found out that Reagan gave away the residuals for actors that worked in the 1940s and the 1950s,” Russ said. “Because I did most of my films, most of them in the 1950s.
“So that really cut me out of the loop, and I thought it was pretty crappy,” he added.
When will the actors’ strike end?
Following the Screen Actors Guild’s (SAG-AFTRA) recent decision to join the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in the strike against studios – which has effectively shut down Hollywood – there’s been a significant question looming overhead: How long will this last?
Read more:
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said actors’ union is ‘looking for the long haul’
Equity stands in ‘total solidarity’ with sister union SAG-AFTRA
In response to SAG-AFTRA’s calls for a strike, after negotiations with AMPTP over fair wages and higher residual payments fell apart, its sister union Equity, which represents performing arts and entertainment industries in the United Kingdom, shared a statement in solidarity.
“Equity stands full square behind our sister union in their claim, and the action their Board have agreed to take. Equity too is experiencing bullish engagers attempting to undermine its collectively bargained agreements. SAG-AFTRA has our total solidarity in this fight,” General Secretary of Equity, Paul W Fleming said in a statement.
California Representative Adam Schiff joins LA picketers
California’s US House of Representative Adam Schiff joined Los Angeles picketers on Monday (17 July) in the fight for “workers”, who he argues “ought to share in the nation’s prosperity”.
Universal Studios gets heat for allegedly trimming trees that gave SAG strikers shade in 90 degree weather
Universal Studios has received backlash for allegedly pruning the trees that shaded striking actors and writers, protecting them from California’s high temperatures.
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Los Angeles picketers are scattered between several studio lots
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