WGA & SAG-AFTRA Join Labor Organizations Calling On California To Grant Unemployment Benefits To Striking Workers

Drew Barrymore is opening up about returning to her daytime talk show amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Earlier this year, The Drew Barrymore Show host walked away from her hosting duties at MTV Movie & TV Awards in support of the writers.

Michaela Zee Drew Barrymore is returning for the fourth season of her eponymous daytime talk show sooner than expected. Barrymore announced on social media that “The Drew Barrymore Show” will begin its fourth season soon, in accordance with the rules of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. The actor first referred to her decision to step down as host of the MTV Film and TV Awards in May, in a show of support and solidarity to the striking WGA members.

SAG-AFTRA’s presence at TIFF continued into Saturday with a special picket outside Amazon offices here in Toronto with Canada’s commercial actors union ACTRA, who’ve been in a 501 day contract lockout with the country’s advertising agency’s org.

OK, so there was one good deal point –one– to come out of the AMPTP talks with the WGA, as SAG-AFTRA National Executive director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland admitted at TIFF today: It was the streamer’s transparency on viewership numbers.

Insecure star Kendrick Sampson is going to Dallas where SAG-AFTRA is set to hold a rally on Saturday. The visit is significant to Sampson in support of Texas actors navigating the strike under the leadership of Governor Greg Abbott, who he calls an “evil human being”.

The Beverly Hills Temple of the Arts at the Saban Theatre, the largest arts and entertainment synagogue in the U.S., is offering complimentary seating to striking members of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA and their immediate families for its High Holy Day Services on Rosh Hashanah (September 15 and 16) and Yom Kippur (September 24 and 25). Tickets for non-Temple members for both services normally cost $500 each.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are pushing California lawmakers to grant unemployment benefits to striking workers. In California, workers currently do not receive unemployment pay when they are on strike. But state lawmakers are working on a bill, SB 799, that would extend benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks.

This is Day 129 of the WGA strike and Day 56 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA will rally on Thursday at Amazon Studio in Culver City to highlight their push a bill that would provide unemployment insurance to striking workers in California. Striking writers and actors in New York and New Jersey are already eligible to receive unemployment benefits after 14 days on the picket line, but not in California.

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher were in Sacramento last week lobbying California legislators for passage of Senate Bill 799, which would make striking workers eligible to collect unemployment benefits. The bill passed through the Assembly Insurance Committee on Thursday and the Legislature has until September 14 to send the bill to the Governor’s desk.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery expects the ongoing Hollywood strikes to have a $300 million-$500 million negative impact on the company’s 2023 earnings.

Chuck Parker, national executive director of the Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800, said that “it has become frighteningly apparent” that below-the-line workers are “bearing the brunt” of the ongoing strikes by actors and writers. He is reminding his members that help is available for those struggling to maintain their union health coverage and to make ends meet.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New York City filming permits declined 53% year over year in August, which marked the first full month of the year during which both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) were on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Per the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MoME), 364 permits were issued to 157 projects from Aug. 1 to Aug.

Britney Spears’ estranged husband, Sam Asghari, took to the streets of Los Angeles on Thursday to stand in solidarity with his fellow performers as part of the ongoing strikes organized by SAG-AFTRA and WGA.

Megalopolis, the long-awaited passion project from Francis Ford Coppola, is the latest film to land an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA. The film finished production earlier this year so it is unknown what the agreement would be used for but with festival season ramping up it could potentially be getting one in order to be sold on one of the markets or potentially screen an upcoming festival and in need of one for publicity purposes.

“Strike Force Five” is a go.

Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan have unanimously agreed to a one-calendar-quarter extension of health coverage for certain qualified participants who would otherwise lose coverage on Oct. 1, 2023. The extension accounts for jobs that may have been lost in May and June of this year due to the Writers Guild strike. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, SAG-AFTRA since July 14.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Administrators of SAG-AFTRA’s health plan have made a big move to extend health care coverage for members who would otherwise lose their eligibility because of production shutdowns sparked by the Writers Guild of America strike. SAG-AFTRA Health Plan board of trustees voted unanimously to extend coverage by one calendar quarter for some members who would be off the rolls as of Oct. 1.

Gareth Edwards, the director, producer and co-writer of The Creator, is opening up about the timing of the release of his film that draws parallels to the fight between SAG-AFTRA and WGA members against the studios.

SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have suspended picketing at multiple locations in Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday as temperatures are expected to rise.