WGA to Studios: ‘All FYC Production is Suspended’ Due to Strike

Production on Aziz Ansari’s feature helming debut Good Fortune has been suspended amid the writers strike, Deadline has confirmed. WGA pickets forced a shutdown of the Keanu Reeves-Seth Rogen pic Thursday night.

Princess Eugenie is currently pregnant with her second child, and — in a classic mum move — her mother Sarah Ferguson just randomly revealed her due date to a reporter. Speaking to HELLO! Magazine, Sarah mused: “We don’t know what it is yet, but the baby is due by the end of May, I think. So it’s any minute now.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeremy O. Harris is best known as the playwright of “Slave Play,” which picked up a record-setting 12 Tony Award nominations in 2021, but he’s also a producer on HBO’s Emmy-winning “Euphoria.” During an interview as part of Variety and Kering’s Women in Motion talks at Cannes, Harris called on Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav “to make a deal” so that the ongoing writers strike can end and “Euphoria” Season 3 can go into production as scheduled. “All I’ll say is Sam Levinson is not a scab,” Harris said about the “Euphoria” creator not crossing picket lines to go into production. “He’s not a scab. David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Daytime Emmys are once again planning to pivot, as next month’s awards show to won’t go forward as previously planned. With the ongoing writers strike, the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences confirmed on Tuesday that this year’s 50th Daytime Emmys would move from its planned June 16 ceremony to an undetermined later date. “The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards planned for Friday, June 16 on CBS is postponed due to the WGA strike,” NATAS president/CEO Adam Sharp said in a statement obtained by Variety. “In addition, the Creative Arts & Lifestyle ceremony, planned for Saturday, June 17, has been postponed pending a strike resolution. We look forward to our community gathering together as one to celebrate our Golden Anniversary and all of the talented nominees and honorees at a later date.”

Jimmie Allen has been dropped by his music label and he's been yanked from the upcoming CMA Fest lineup. The moves come just hours after Allen was accused of rape, sexual abuse and harassment in a lawsuit filed by a woman Thursday in Tennessee federal court.In a statement to ET, a spokesperson for BBR Music Group confirmed severing ties with Allen.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Country star Jimmie Allen’s label, BBR Music Group, has suspended him, following a lawsuit from an ex-manager alleging that he sexually assaulted her over a period of a year and a half working with him, and an investigative story in Variety expanding on the woman’s allegations. “In light of today’s allegations against Jimmie Allen, BBR Music Group has decided to suspend all activity with him, effective immediately,” said a statement from the label. Other action has been swift. Allen has been dropped as the commencement speaker for tomorrow’s Delaware State University’s 2023 graduation. A press release from the university said that Allen, a Delaware native, had been replaced as commencement speaker by congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester.

Tony Gilroy is standing with the writers amid their strike.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher joined members of her guild marching in solidarity with Writers Guild of America members Monday on the picket lines in front of the entrance to Paramount Pictures’ backlot.Amid this display of solidarity, Drescher is preparing with SAG-AFTRA to begin talks on their own new contract, and she is signaling that actors need major change in Hollywood just as much as writers.“We can’t keep building on a contract that was developed in the 1980s,” Drescher told TheWrap. “I’m hoping that we go in with a new perspective, a different portal to enter the conversation just as we did with other talks that we were successful in resolving.

Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel’s upcoming revival on Disney+, is the latest New York-based TV series whose production has been disrupted by the WGA strike.

Icon alert! Jennifer Coolidge was awarded the Comedic Genius Award at the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards.

tweeted her email notification.“The May 8 screening for ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ has been postponed,” the email from Bateman’s tweet reads.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.” The writer-director reflected comments heard on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York after talks cratered between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union began to strike Tuesday. Apatow explained that he sees the strike as a calculated business move by Hollywood’s largest employers.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards will no longer be held live amid the ongoing writers’ strike, instead pivoting to a pre-taped ceremony that will air Sunday. The network announced the news Friday as the writers’ strike, which officially began Tuesday, continues in Los Angeles and New York City, after a breakdown in talks with studios and streaming services.

MTV Movie & TV Awards will no longer be held live amid the ongoing writers' strike, instead pivoting to a pretaped ceremony that will air Sunday. The network announced the news Friday as the writers' strike, which officially began Tuesday, continues in Los Angeles and New York City, after a breakdown in talks with studios and streaming services.“As we carefully navigate how best to deliver the fan first awards’ show we envisioned that our team has worked so hard to create, we’re pivoting away from a live event that still enables us to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peaks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect, and countless moments that will both surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year," Bruce Gillmer, president of music, music talent, programming and events at Paramount Global, and executive producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, said in a new statement.Drew Barrymore, who was set to host the awards, pulled out of the event on Thursday, announcing that she was standing in solidarity with the striking writers.«I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike,» Barrymore said in a statement to ET.

Marvel Studios is pushing back production on its upcoming Blade starring Mahershala Ali after pre-production was temporally shut down due to the writers strike sources close to the production confirmed to Deadline. Marvel just hired Nic Pizzolatto to pen the script and given that he was just hired and can’t do any work on it during the strike, the studio thought it best to push production on filming till script was ready

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The MTV Movie & TV Awards may still be going on this Sunday without the services of host Drew Barrymore, but the Writers Guild has taken notice. In a short press release on Friday, the guild announced that it would picket outside Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, where the kudocast is set to take place on May 7, at 5 p.m. PT. MTV had already scrapped a red carpet before the show, in the hopes that the awards show would stay off the radar of any pickets. As Variety wrote exclusively on Thursday, Barrymore opted to step down as host of this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards, in a show of support and solidarity to the striking Writers Guild members. She instead agreed to return and host next year’s edition of the kudocast instead.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards are still slated to take place this Sunday but the show will look different than usual.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America West held a rally Wednesday night to demonstrate solidarity with the other Hollywood unions in their collective contract battles against Hollywood’s major employers. About 1,800 guild members attended the meeting at the Shrine Auditorium, and heard from WGA leaders about the reasons behind the two-day old strike. One of the stars of the show, however, was Lindsay Dougherty, the 39-year-old leader of Teamsters Local 399. “We’re all sticking together,” Dougherty told Variety outside the event. “We have an opportunity to change things in this industry, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we’re together.”

CBS’ Fall Schedule Reveal party next week has been postponed due to the WGA strike. The network sent a note about the cancellation Monday night.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which is slated to air live this Sunday from Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger with host Drew Barrymore, will move forward even as a writers strike is now underway. Because it’s live, the kudocast will likely be the first program noticeably impacted by a strike, although insiders close to the show tell Variety they already had multiple contingency plans in place in case. “We are all collectively hoping for the best, we’re hoping for a resolution so that the show can continue on as planned,” one production source told Variety on Monday, prior to the WGA contract expiration and announcement of a strike. “Should we need to pivot, we will. We are working through our contingency plans. This is something that we have been discussing for for quite some time. So we are hard at work. These are very busy hours and days for us… the nature of live events and live shows and live programming is to be able to pivot when things come up. Those are all skills that we have honed very well over the last few years.”