Lionsgate, WGA Investigate Incident Between ‘BMF’ Producer, Striking Writers

With music thumping and marchers dancing, the mood was upbeat at the Latine Salon picket staged Wednesday by members of the Writers Guild of America outside NBC Studios in Manhattan. But the collective’s main speaker wanted to be clear on something. 

Late-night comedy writers are facing “oblivion” if the Writers Guild loses its eight-week-old strike, according to late-night comedy writer and WGA negotiating committee member Greg Iwinski, a former writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

At the start of the writers strike, The Animation Guild, an entirely separate union to the WGA, came out in support of the labor action, pledging to “stand in solidarity” with WGA members.

Kim Kardashian is feeling the burn from striking Hollywood writers after a seemingly innocuous tweet raised hackles.

A gunman is on the run after blasting a young victim in the head. The victim is in a stable condition following the shooting in north Manchester earlier this week.

went on strike after failing to reach an agreement with major Hollywood studios over fair compensation, particularly in the wake of the expansion of streaming services since the last major contract dispute in 2007. At that time, the union fought for greater funding for writers' rooms and DVD residuals. Because most films have a lengthy production process, the writers' decision to strike will not immediately affect most releases of completed movies slated for the upcoming year.

Actor Dermot Mulroney, promoting his new Disney+ Marvel series Secret Invasion, walked off the set of ABC’s The View in an episode airing today, expressing his support for striking WGA writers.

Spike Lee was not on the speakers list at a rally Thursday morning for striking film and television writers outside City Hall in New York. But one of the Brooklyn-born filmmaker’s best-loved movies, 1989’s Do the Right Thing, kept cropping up as local elected officials took turns calling for studio executives to resume negotiations with the Writers Guild of America and help end a strike now in its eighth week.

Ryan Murphy is responding allegations.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of two-part series about the writers strike crossing the 50-day mark.

EXCLUSIVE: “We are today… WGA!” was the cry outside Cologne Cathedral yesterday evening in Germany, where around 50 protestors held a rally in solidarity with their WGA counterparts in the U.S.

Massive release date changes were fairly commonplace over the past few years, as we watched the COVID pandemic shift entire distribution strategies for film studios. Now, it appears the WGA Strike has finally shown its impact on film releases, at least over at Disney, as the studio delays some of the biggest films on its schedule including new “Avengers,” “Star Wars,” and “Avatar” films.

The head of the country’s largest labor union joined striking Writers Guild film and television writers at a rally on Monday outside the New York City offices of streaming giant Amazon and said the writers’ cause has the support of workers from across unionized labor. 

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor “The Simpsons” occupies a unique perch in the history of global television. At 36 seasons and 750-plus episodes and counting, the Fox animated franchise been a steady engine of employment for writers, producers, directors, actors and other Hollywood artisans for more than a generation. The show’s legacy was saluted Friday morning with a “Simpsons”-themed Writers Guild of America picket gathering outside Fox Studios that drew dozens of staffers past and present. In the context of labor battles over the future of TV, “The Simpsons” is seen as an example of the kind of employment and the kind of series that is disappearing in the new era.

Jean Elie is a talented actor, producer, and writer with Haitian roots. He gained recognition for portraying Ahmal Dee, Issa Rae’s brother, on HBO’s Insecure and for his guest appearance on ABC’s American Crime. In addition to acting, Jean has collaborated with major companies like Puma, Showtime, Anheuser Busch, HBO, and Prime Video as a brand influencer. 

A day of picketing the set of the Starz/Lionsgate series BMF in Atlanta turned dangerous for WGA writers Brian Egeston and Gabriel Alejandro Garza. Egeston claimed in a series of tweets Thursday afternoon, accompanied by photos, that BMF line producer Ian Woolf, driving an SUV, pointed the vehicle at Egeston “as though it were a weapon and slammed the breaks within six feet of writers.”

The Writers Guild wants to take a bite out of Apple.

Norman Lear showed solidarity to the striking writers Tuesday by posting a sympathetic message on his Instagram page.

ATX TV Festival had to change up many elements of their lineup. Specifically, they added a panel specifically about the strike, which began in May. On Saturday, Beau Willimon, the president of the Writers Guild of America, East, moderated a conversation between WGA West’s Zoanne Clack and Julie Plec and WGA East’s Greg Iwinski, who is on the negotiating committee. “We did not focus group, we did not go in and ask a management company what we should be asking for,” Iwinski, who has written on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” said at the top, explaining that they asked the 11,000 members what they were asking for and received 7,000 surveys back. “We brought these arguments to the studios and presented our solutions. And I had gone into the expectation that it would be a very difficult negotiation, and that we would be in a situation where we would be presented with a deal that was not great, but hard to say no to. And that is not what happened. We did six weeks of negotiations and at the end of it, we were still incredibly far apart.”

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. screenwriters are set to gather in London’s Leicester Square in support of the Writers Guild of America and its ongoing strike action. The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is inviting members to join a major June 14 protest for the U.S. writers strike, which has passed its first month. The protest is part of the Global Day of Solidarity, which is organized by the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe, of which WGGB is a member. WGA members, as well as members of the Federation of Entertainment Unions, will be joining the protest, according to the WGGB.