Carol Lombardini Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The studios, which spent more than 100 days talking tough at the negotiating table with the actors, have congratulated SAG-AFTRA on ratifying its new contract.

The writers strike ended seven months ago, but memories of the picket lines were fresh at the WGA Awards tonight.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer IATSE resumed negotiations with the major studios on Monday, with a day spent focused on items relevant to the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. IATSE began talks earlier this month, as it seeks to address artificial intelligence, see wage increases to make up for inflation, and close a significant shortfall in its pension and health fund. With more than 9,000 active members, the ICG is the largest of the IATSE locals involved in bargaining.

From one “hot labor summer” to the next: Below-the-line workers will sit down with the Hollywood studios Monday to begin talks for new film and TV contracts.

In many ways, longtime International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees president Matthew Loeb is the personification of that Teddy Roosevelt adage of “speak softly, and carry a big stick” …well, maybe except for the speak softly part.

For a Friday that is time for reflection and giving thanks, host Billy Ray and returning original host Todd Garner welcomes WGA president Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. They talk with the guys about the lessons learned from the long and brutal six month strike that is finally and mercifully over. The guild leaders advise IATSE and Teamsters negotiators what to expect when their deals expire next July. They also review a negotiation that in their minds never had to turn into such a protracted process. The gains made by their guilds could have been achieved if only the signatories had sent in the CEOs earlier to the bargaining table, and stopped trying to work from a contract and negotiating moves that were hopelessly outdated in the streaming age. Coming in for particular criticism here is AMPTP negotiator Carol Lombardini. After Billy Ray recalled watching Lombardini cancel catering and then announce that the WGA walked away from the table in 2017, Stiehm said this time the head negotiator for studios responded to rejection of an offer by the WGA negotiating committee by presenting the contract to membership and releasing the full offer to the media. Ray and Garner will do one more Strike Talk by the way, and to the editors, that is another thing to give thanks for.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

The lead negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the studios are set to meet later today in what could be the final phase to sealing a new deal and the end to the 117-day actors guild strike.

EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.

EXCLUSIVE: It was all quiet on the SAG-AFTRA negotiations front Thursday.

EXCLUSIVE: There’s real movement in talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios for a new three-year contract,

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA is set to meet again on Wednesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a “productive” day of talks on Tuesday. The sides continue to project “cautious optimism” about resolving the strike, which is now on Day 110. The studios have warned that they must get a deal this week in order to be able to produce partial seasons of scripted network TV series.

EXCLUSIVE: It will be neither trick nor treat tonight as SAG-AFTRA and the studios plan to continue talking over the next few days in search of a deal to end the 110-day strike that has become a Hollywood nightmare.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA leadership continued to bargain with the major studios on Sunday, but despite growing optimism around the industry, no deal has been reached yet. The union presented its latest proposal to the studios on Saturday. The two sides were said to be engaged in “productive” talks through the weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP continued to communicate intermittently Sunday as they close in on possibly reaching a new deal that could end the 108-day strike.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiations have ended for the day, as the studios and the union plan to keep working on a deal to end the 107-day strike. It’s not clear yet when the next bargaining session will be, as negotiators are still working out the schedule. The union delivered its latest response on Saturday, and is awaiting word back from the studios.

SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP are back at the table today for more talks to resolve the actors strike that has been going on for over 100 days.

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

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.

The latest round of talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA on ending the 92-day strike have collapsed tonight and now he Fran Drescher-led guild are accusing the AMPTP of using “bully tactics” and “the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA.”

After less than two weeks, the latest negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios and streamers have broken down and been “suspended,” according to the AMPTP

EXCLUSIVE: As the writers guild members almost unanimously approved a hard fought new contract with the studios and streamers this week, and the still striking actors are back at the bargaining table today with CEOs, the Directors Guild of America really wants its members to know it got them “extraordinary gains” with their deal early this summer.

EXCLUSIVE: More than 2,300 film and TV producers on Tuesday are delivering a message to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: leave us out. The group delivered a petition to AMPTP President Carol Lombardini this morning demanding the dropping of the “P” from the acronym of the organization that just concluded a brutal negotiation with the WGA, and hopefully is in the final stages of a SAG-AFTRA deal after one of the longest strikes in Hollywood history.

There was no picketing Monday by SAG-AFTRA members due to the Indigenous Peoples Day holiday, but the leadership of the actors guild did return to the bargaining table with the studios and streamers.

One down, and more to come.

SAG-AFTRA is set to sit down with the studios today to restart talks on a deal for the actors.

Back at the bargaining table Monday for the first time in more than two and a half months, SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios and streamers have a long way to go to make a deal – even with the momentum gained by the end of the writers’ strike.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large A lot can happen in 146 days. When the Writers Guild strike started in May, Drew Barrymore was one of its early folk heroes, when she stepped down as host of the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity. But four months later, Barrymore became one of the strike’s most reviled public figures when she tried to rationalize the decision to bring back her daytime talk show in the midst of a work stoppage.

EXCLUSIVE: (Updated with SAG-AFTRA statement) As the WGA leadership and members move forward on the scribes’ tentative agreement with the studios and streamers, the 160,000-strong actors union could be sitting down with the AMPTP within days.

The ongoing talks between the WGA and the AMPTP continued to look promising through the weekend, but the writers couldn’t help but have fun with the studios’ claim that they made their “best and final offer.”

EXCLUSIVE: The roller coaster ride of the Writers Guild and the Hollywood studios trying to seal a deal to end the writers’ nearly 5-month-long strike isn’t over yet.

The Writers Guild brass and studios CEOs were working tonight to close a deal to end the scribes’ strike , but it seems they aren’t quite there yet.

Billy Ray, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director and producer who has used his downtime during the Hollywood labor strife between shifts on the picket lines to turn Strike Talk into a tour de force that has demystified the issues and explained the inflection point that made this standoff unavoidable, this week strikes his most hopeful tone in the 21 podcasts he has done so far.

EXCLUSIVE: A second day of direct negotiations between the Writers Guild and studio CEOs has concluded this evening.

EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild and studios and streamers are set to meet again tomorrow for further talks on a new contract for scribes.

Broadcasting union Bectu has waded into the U.S. labor dispute with an open letter to the AMPTP, urging it to financially support UK crew who are “suffering hardship” and to “resume negotiations” with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.