Writers Get Creative With Picket Line Slogans: “What Would Larry David Do?”

With just the CW left tomorrow, the near-talent-free upfronts are winding down, and shows are still being shuttered in New York City, while on the picket lines in LA there was Mariachism, tacos, tunes and some Mandalorians to galvanize the troops.

LOS ANGELES — Danny Masterson drugged women’s drinks so he could rape them, then relied on his prominence in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for years, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in closing arguments at the actor’s trial.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney has pegged total cash content spending at around $30 billion for this year — but the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike may drive that down, CFO Christine McCarthy said. “If you haven’t noticed we’re in the middle of a writers strike,” McCarthy said, speaking Wednesday at MoffettNathanson’s Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York. The WGA walkout may reduce Disney’s cash spending on content for the balance of the year, she said. At the MoffettNathanson conference, MCarthy appeared alongside Disney president of ad sales Rita Ferro. The two Disney execs spoke a day after the media conglom’s upfront presentation in the Big Apple to ad buyers and brands — which was noticeably light on scripted fare, given the writers strike. Marvel’s Kevin Feige previewed upcoming Disney+ series “Secret Invasion,” featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle, and announced premiere dates for “Loki” Season 2 and “Hawkeye” spinoff “Echo.”

It was a tale of two coasts today, as WGA picketers and their allies targeted Disney’s upfront presentation in New York and also the company’s Burbank lot in Los Angeles. And the two scenes were very different.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Since the writers strike started on May 2, celebrities have turned out to support WGA members picketing for a better guild contract. Actors like Fred Armisen are also writers who are members of the WGA, while some SAG-AFTRA members are walking the line to support their colleagues. Since most TV shows and movies have suspended production until the strike is resolved, stars, writers and filmmakers like Christopher Nolan are taking to the streets to show their support for members of the Writers Guild of America.

America’s dad might be coming to a city near you.Actor, writer, director, author, ten-time “Saturday Night Live” host and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is currently on tour promoting his new book “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.”At all shows on the tour, Hanks will sit down with moderators and discuss the new novel which tells the story of a huge Marvel-like superhero flick called Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall” and the comic book it’s based on.There’s only one problem — Hanks has only two Q&A’s remaining on his tour schedule.The “Cast Away” star is set to appear at San Francisco’s Sydney Goldstein Theater on Tuesday, May 16 and Portland, OR’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday May 18.Thankfully, if you’re hoping to catch Forrest Gump/David S. Pumpkins/Woody/Mr.

Bad Sisters creator Sharon Horgan has joined the writers strike for her U.S. projects, but is continuing to work on Season 2 of the Apple TV+ series.

Rep. Katie Porter joined writers on the picket line at the Culver Studios in Los Angeles on Friday in solidarity with the ongoing WGA strike.

Mandy Patinkin is feeling the rage.

On the West Coast, the chief negotiator for the striking Writers Guild of America, Ellen Stutzman, is more than a week into an existential battle between the 20,000 union members she represents and the movie and television studios that are, for now, not at the bargaining table. 

Imagine Dragons, in solidarity with the writers strike, showed up at the Netflix picket line to support writers.

Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing theater actors and stage managers, is inviting its members and allies to join the WGA picket line outside HBO and Amazon offices tomorrow.

On the seventh day of the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios, guild leaders from both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, including actors union president Fran Drescher, hit the picket lines at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles.

Latino WGA members and their allies descended upon Universal Studios en masse Monday beginning at 5 a.m. to picket on the sixth day of the Hollywood writers strike.

This is a dark moment for frazzled members of the writing fraternity.

Day 3 of the Writers Guild of America strike against Hollywood studios dealt with a few L.A. rain showers but continued strong turnout at 10 Los Angeles locations as well as at Silvercup Studios and Seret Studios in New York City.

The Writers Guild of America began its second day of strike action Wednesday, picketing several sites throughout Los Angeles beginning at 9 a.m. as well as at Netflix headquarters in New York City. In L.A., protests were beginning to wrap as scheduled by around 1 p.m.; they will resume Thursday morning.

Alison Herman TV Critic “Your life is fascinating,” a friend tells comedian Pete Davidson, in character as comedian Pete Davidson. “I don’t know what it’s like to live it, but goddamn, do we have fun watching it.” It’s never a good sign when we have to be told, rather than shown, how interesting a person or project is meant to be. Yet that’s precisely the position in which “Bupkis” decides to put itself. The Peacock comedy is the second Davidson vehicle to draw heavily from the “Saturday Night Live” alum’s autobiography, after “The King of Staten Island” in 2020. In the style of director Judd Apatow, that feature film was already bloated; “Bupkis” takes the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour tale and stretches it out for another four, to diminishing returns.

EXCLUSIVE: “We told them, and we told them for six weeks of negotiations, what they needed to address to meet writers demands, and have a real negotiation,” exclaims WGA Chief Negotiator Ellen Stutzman from the picket line today on the now-shuttered talks with the studios. “They refused the whole time.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Writer and comedian Adam Conover blasted David Zaslav, the Warner Bros Discovery CEO, during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, a company Zaslav also oversees. “David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of the network I’m talking to you on right now, was paid $250 million last year, a quarter of a billion dollars,” Conover said during his interview with CNN correspondent Sara Sidner. “That’s about the same level as what 10,000 writers are asking him to pay all of us collectively, alright. So I would say if you’re being paid $250 million — these companies are making enormous amounts of money. Their profits are going up. It’s ridiculous for them to plead poverty.”