Kenya Barris & Noah Hawley Set Meeting With WGA Leadership As Showrunners Highlight Solidarity On Picket Line

It was everything everywhere all at once Thursday in New York City: Striking actors getting ready for contract talks were joined by writers who have just wrapped up theirs at a rally in Manhattan that also highlighted Asian American Pacific Islander culture in film and television. 

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The strike is over, but the fight is not yet won. On Wednesday, as the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike formally ended after 148 days, Variety spoke with newly elected WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson about the end of the work stoppage at the East coast guild’s membership meeting to discuss their tentative three-year MBA agreement with the Hollywood studios.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Negotiations between the WGA and studios CEOs on a deal to end the nearly five-month long writers’ strike look within sight.

This is Day 144 of the WGA strike and Day 71 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

WGA picket lines on the West Coast swelled Friday in response to the call from guild leaders for a strong turnout on the streets as labor and management negotiators gathered for a third consecutive day of talks aimed at ending the more than four-month-long strike. In Hollywood, Netflix and Paramount saw big crowds of WGA and SAG-AFTRA pickets gathered by 9 a.m. The past week has been chock full of rumors spread by social media and private online and text channels that a deal is in the offing.

The WGA is heading back to the bargaining table with the CEOs of Netflix, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday.

The writers are waltzing after Dancing with the Stars after all.

Gavin Newsom said in an interview today that he has been “deeply involved with talking” to both sides of the long-running Writers Guild strike and “we’re going to be meeting again later this week.”

BreAnna Bell Sherri Shepherd attempts to clear any confusion regarding The “Sherri” show’s return amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in her Season 2 return on Monday. The actress and comedian opened the show addressing the controversy, telling viewers that the talk show is not in violation of the guild’s strike rules by returning despite other shows like “The Talk” and “The Drew Barrymore Show” going on pause shortly after announcing their returns.

As Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher reverse their decisions to return to their talk shows, Sherri Shepherd is gearing up for her return.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer A meeting that had been scheduled for today between the leaders of the Writers Guild of America and a group of concerned showrunners has been postponed as the guild prepares to resume contract bargaining talks with Hollywood’s major studios next week. The meeting was set to take place on Friday. Kenya Barris, Noah Hawley and Sam Esmail have been among the showrunners seeking insight from WGA leadership to restart talks and bring an end the strike, which is now in its 137th day.

A meeting between a group of leading showrunners including Kenya Barris and Noah Hawley and WGA leadership has been canceled.

Margot Robbie has joined her fellow actors at the picket line in show of her support for the SAG-AFTRA strikes in LA.The Barbie star took part in the SAG-AFTRA rally from Netflix Studios to Paramount Studios on Wednesday (August 13). She was seen wearing an oversized t-shirt which read: “SAG-AFTRA ON STRIKE!,” and also held up a black, white and yellow sign with the same message.READ MORE: Hollywood on strike! Every question about the actor and writer protests answeredSpotted directly behind Robbie at the rally was fellow Australian actress Samara Weaving, who was holding the same sign.The SAG-AFTRA union, which consists of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, announced its strike in July after contract negotiations broke down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), who represent major studios like Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, Warner Bros.

As the SAG-AFTRA strike clocked its 62nd day, and the WGA’s 135th, the former held a massive solidarity march today from Netflix HQ on Van Ness Blvd to the Melrose gates of Paramount to juice guilds’ spirits with the entertainment industry work stoppage running past Labor Day.

EXCLUSIVE: Fran Drescher is less concerned with meeting of several showrunners with WGA leadership this week and more concerned with studios and streamers getting back to the bargaining table to make a fair deal.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor After more than four months on strike, many showrunners are getting restless. Writers Guild of America leaders are fielding a stepped-up volume of inquiries from prominent members who are frustrated with the duration of the work stoppage and looking to understand the guild’s strategy in engaging with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. In response to this heightened activity, multiple sources say several guild leaders are set to meet in person with a group of showrunners on Friday at WGA West headquarters.

This is Day 130 of the WGA strike and Day 57 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Sony’s Dumb Money fired off their TIFF world premiere tonight, and while the mega ensemble cast of Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley and more couldn’t be there due to actors strike, the pic’s director Craig Gillespie, producers Teddy Schwartzman and Aaron Ryder and scribes/EPs Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Shuker Blum were.