Hollywood Feud: Actors & Writers Strike in Battle Against Studio "Feudal Lords"
The ongoing actors' strike has now entered its 63rd day, with SAG-AFTRA leaders intensifying their denunciations of studio executives, tagging them as "petty tyrants," "land barons in feudal times," and "would-be feudal lords" in the recent issue of the SAG-AFTRA Magazine. The triggering event was the collapse of contract negotiations on July 13 following four weeks of bargaining attempts, with the strike commencing the subsequent day. Despite the union leaders' repeated appeals for resumption, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has yet to respond.
In her editorial for the Magazine, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher accused the AMPTP of deliberately withholding negotiations. Drescher charged them of penalizing the union members' legal right to strike and condemned the notion of them treating the union members as mere serfs under their dominion.
"The studios' unmistakable contempt and sheer disregard for the creative individuals upon which their empires depend is repugnant and offensive", says Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the guild’s national executive director and chief negotiator. He took issue with the studios' dismissive public statements and alleged ill-treatment of the union members during negotiations.
The guild’s executive vice president, Ben Whitehair, sees the strike as more than a mere contention over proposals to the AMPTP. He articulates it as a struggle of whether workers should benefit from their labor or be left with scraps reluctantly doled out by executives.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild has been on strike since May 2. Their negotiation efforts witnessed days of bargaining with the AMPTP, which resulted in a counteroffer to the guild's original demands on August 11. The WGA pitched counterproposals on August 15, but the AMPTP's unchanged offer, published on August 22, ignored the WGA's recent counterproposal.
Now, let's put a little bit of lipstick on this pig.
Feudal lords and barons? Ah, Hollywood: a realm where your average Monday can teleport you back to the Middle Ages, sans the bubonic plague (thank heavens for small mercies). Recent events have seen the knights of SAG-AFTRA crossing swords with the so-called feudal overlords aka AMPTP: or as I've taken to calling them, the All Mighty Power Tower Protection.
Fran Drescher has been quite the modern Joan of Arc, calling out the AMPTP's stonewalling strategies, striking with the sharp sword of words. With the "castle" of Hollywood besieged by strikes, one can't help but note the needless battle for power and control, all the while forgetting how crucial actors and writers are to the kingdoms they've built.
Then there's Crabtree-Ireland: Sir Duncan, as I prefer: who's been bolstering the barricades with word-bombs that could make the fortresses of Hollywood shudder. And Whitehair, whose role seems akin to a seasoned bard reminding everyone about the heart of the matter: 'The common folk VS the nobility'. Very 'Robin Hood, Men in Tights,' if you ask me.
The Writers Guild is equally drawn into this historical melodrama, throwing scrolls of counterproposals like paper-plane missiles at the thick fortress walls: only to find them fluttering back, ignored. It's basically a game of catch, but less 'catch' and more 'duck and shield'.
Overall, Hollywood seems to have woven itself into a bit of a medieval tapestry: except this one lacks the charm of court jesters and goblets of wine. Instead, we have a contentious standoff and jug of discontent that's bitter and hard to swallow.
As an admirer of Hollywood, the theater of dreams, I find it hard to digest this current reality as anything but a black comedy. I promise to keep tuning in, fingers crossed, in hope of a fair resolution: the finale that this saga truly deserves!
