Penelope Koechl To Receive WGA East’s Richard B. Jablow Award For Devoted Service

After two years of collective bargaining, the WGA East has filed another unfair labor practices charge against Hearst Magazines Media – this time for giving employees a raise while in contract negotiations with the guild. The guild, which says that this violates federal labor law, represents some 500 of the publishing giant’s editorial, video, design and photo staff at more than 25 brands, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver, Oprah Daily, Seventeen, Elle, Redbook and Woman’s Day.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the esteemed Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.   The Johnny Mercer Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer. Tim Rice was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.  

Alison Hammond had a big night at the BAFTA Awards on Sunday (February 19) after making her co-hosting debut. The presenter, who is a regular face on This Morning, joined legendary actor Richard E. Grant at London's Royal Festival Hall to host this year's annual film awards.

Following in the footsteps of comedy stars such as Stephen Fry and Richard Ayoade, this year’s BAFTA film awards will be hosted by Hollywood actor Richard E Grant and This Morning presenter Alison Hammond. Dressed to the nines for one night only, the charismatic duo will be joining forces as the reveal the winners of this year’s closely run awards race, to see who will get to take home of of the iconic BAFTA mask trophies.

Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss were among the stars who celebrated Vivienne Westwood's life and fashion career at a memorial service in London on Thursday. Guests from the worlds of fashion, music and films attended Southwark Cathedral on Thursday afternoon to pay their respects to the designer/punk pioneer, who died in late December aged 81. According to London's Evening Standard, the dress code for the memorial was "if in doubt, dress up", and many guests adhered to the suggestion, wearing some of Westwood's punk designs and bold, colourful outfits.

took to Twitter in a livestream, showing themselves delivering what appeared to a Valentine to BDG chief executive Bryan Goldberg. However, the item was actually an unfair labor act charge, which the group filed hours prior.The writers’ actions come after BDG allegedly laid off 39 unit members, with three active union members — Collette Reitz, former editor at “Elite Daily;” Emma Sarran Webster, former editor at “Mic,” and Sophie Worm, former video editor at “Some Spider.” The members say the company never shared a reason for their decision to layoff the three union supporters.“These three unit members did not squarely fit into the categories BDG laid out to the WGAE representatives – or in the Company’s public messaging – regarding the layoffs.

The WGA East has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Bustle Digital Group, claiming that three of the 39 guild members who were laid off there recently were terminated “in retaliation for their concerted, protected union activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.”

Mikel Arteta might be plotting Pep Guardiola's downfall this week but the Arsenal boss' management success was very much made in Manchester.

WGA East-represented news writers and producers at HuffPost have ratified a new three-year contract. According to the guild, the pact was approved unanimously by the 91-member bargaining unit employed at the online news site.

Hiran Abeysekera, who won the 2022 Best Actor Olivier Award for his performance of the title character in the London stage production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi, will lead the Broadway cast when the play arrives at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre next month.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will be this year’s recipient of the WGA West’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. The lifetime achievement award, which goes to members who have “advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter,” will be presented March 5 during the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

In a show of solidarity, more than 400 film and TV writers – including Adam McKay, David Simon, Tina Fey, Alfonso Cuarón, Lilly Wachowski, John Waters and Alan Zweibel – have signed a petition calling on MSNBC to negotiate a fair first-time contract with the WGA East for the cable news network’s news writers and producers.

The six-member editorial staff at Talking Points Memo has voted unanimously to ratify the WGA East’s new three-year contract with the political news website.

The Costume Designers Guild said Tuesday that two-time Oscar nominee and Grammy, Tony and Emmy winner Bette Midler will receive the Distinguished Collaborator Award at the 25th Costume Designers Guild Awards.

“I have never given Boris Johnson financial advice and know nothing about his affairs,” BBC Chair Richard Sharp declared this morning repeatedly of his relationship with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sharp also revealed he was working in Johnson’s Downing Street Home in the months leading up to applying for the BBC Chair role.

Podcast content creators at Crooked Media, complaining about the “degradation of our working conditions,” have unionized with the WGA East. According to the guild, an “overwhelming majority” of the podcast company’s 55 content creators have signed cards to unionize and are calling on management to voluntarily recognize the guild as their collective bargaining representative.

The WGA East and HuffPost have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract, averting a threatened strike. The guild’s contract with the online news outlet had been set to expire last night at midnight, and 98% of its 91 writers and editors had signed a pledge vowing to strike if a fair deal wasn’t reached.

WGA East members employed as writers and editors at the HuffPost news site are threatening to go on strike if a fair contract can’t be reached by Tuesday night at midnight ET.

EXCLUSIVE: Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) is set to star opposite Melissa McCarthy in the untitled New York Christmas movie from Universal and Working Title that we were first to report on.

The Oscar nomination announcement may have come and gone, but some guild award nominations have not. This morning the Writers Guild of America completed the reveal of the WGA Award nominations by announcing the 2023 film nominees.