Fran Drescher Says George Clooney, Et. Al Proposal To Lift SAG-AFTRA Dues Cap Wouldn’t Be Legal

Tyler Perry is speaking out on the SAG-AFTRA strike, now in its 117th day, as it appears a possible deal is getting much closer.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Tyler Perry appeared on “CBS Mornings” and was asked to speak publicly for the first time about the SAG-AFTRA strike, which remains ongoing after the union responded to the AMPTP’s “best and final” offer by saying the two groups still differ on “several essential items.” Although Perry praised SAG-AFTRA negotiators, he also said the union needs to realize when it’s won “for now.” The media mogul noted that SAG-AFTRA is only negotiating a three-year contract, inferring that it might not be the best strategy to continue prolonging the strike so the union can get everything it wants now when more negotiations are in store in the future. “Here I am, a studio head and an owner of a streamer, but also understanding how it is for the working actor,” Perry said. “I get what we’re fighting for…I paid Cicely Tyson $1 million for one day of work because when actors get to a certain age they’re pretty much discarded.

EXCLUSIVE: Today’s meeting between SAG-AFTRA and an expanded group of studio CEOs has just ended as the guild scrutinizes the AMPTP‘s long awaited response to their last comprehensive counter.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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: After meeting on a Tuesday Zoom call to figure out how to end an actor’s strike that will shortly stretch beyond 100 days, a group of Hollywood’s biggest stars laid out to SAG-AFTRA leaders a groundbreaking proposal that amounts to the town’s biggest earners defraying the costs to AMPTP signatories by eliminating the cap on membership dues, to be used to bolster health benefits and other areas that SAG-AFTRA is trying to shore up.

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.