SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher “Shocked” By Negotiation Breakdown: “It’s So Unfair, So Disrespectful”

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

Already widely mocked on social media, SAG-AFTRA‘s infamous Halloween costume guidance received more drubbing on Saturday Night Live.

EXCLUSIVE: Sunday will not be a day of rest for SAG-AFTRA leadership and the studios this weekend.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer When it comes to life’s most difficult negotiations, sometimes you need a squishy friend by your side. That’s SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s policy for the contentious ongoing contract talks her union is embroiled in with Hollywood’s major film and TV studios.

SAG-AFTRA kicked off its National Convention 2023 under the banner “Future Forward Union Power.”

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.

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.

Concerned that a prolonged actors strike would bring long-term, irreparable harm to the industry, Hollywood’s biggest stars on a Zoom call this week with SAG-AFTRA leaders pledged to commit $150 million over three years to remove a cap on union dues to bring more coin to guild coffers, and they suggested a streamer residual structure that would put actors on the bottom of the call sheet before them, in hopes that getting money faster would help more struggling actors qualify for benefits.

Former SAG-AfTRA president Melissa Gilbert is not pleased with the union’s new Halloween costume guidelines for actors on strike.

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.

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.

Thanks, George. But your proposal to take the cap off union dues in order to end SAG-AFTRA‘s strike isn’t legally compatible with the union’s contract.

EXCLUSIVE: Some of Hollywood’s biggest names met with the leadership of SAG-AFTRA today to get the lowdown on the breakdown of talks with the studios and streamers last week.

SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is very happy with Taylor Swift and not so happy with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Ellise Shafer SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher made an appearance on the “Today” show Friday morning to share her perspective on why the union’s talks with the AMPTP broke down. “It really came as a shock to me because what does that exactly mean and why would you walk away from the table? It’s not like we’re asking for anything that’s so outrageous,” Drescher said.

In a move not attempted by actors at San Diego Comic-Con, Trainspotting and Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor took the stage at the Javits Centers today at New York Comic-Con to discuss himself, not struck work during what is the 92ned day of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos shed some light on why negotiations between striking actors union SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s biggest producers fell apart. After a blistering statement from the guild in the wee hours on Thursday morning accused the studios and streamers of “bully tactics,” Sarandos hit the main stage of Bloomberg’s Screentime conference and ran headfirst into questions about the breakdown. Sarandos said that Wednesday evening talks ended with the guild proposing a “levy” on on each of Netflix’s roughly 238 million subscribers.

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.”