Signs of life, heresy from a former studio head, and a comedy writer’s accidental comedy
Day 3 of the most inconsequential strike in recent memory yielded little more than the day previous – but, a beggar can’t be a chooser.
It was delightful to see new articles on the work stoppage in The Hollywood Reporter, and DEADLINE, this morning, otherwise I’d be feeling like a writer on strike in Hollywood.
The industry will almost certainly be transformed – just not in the way the two unions are expecting.
‘With the sides remaining far apart, we estimate an agreement increasing compensation under new collective bargaining agreements will ultimately cost Moody’s-rated companies an additional $450 million to $600 million a year for each year of a new three-year contract for all three guilds (DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA)’ Begley wrote. ‘There is great play in these estimates, and some of this increased cost, particularly for television production, is likely to be passed on to buyers.’
How many industries can contend with absorbing those kinds of costs, even if some of them are passed along to buyers, and ultimately, consumers? Not many of which I know.
‘In a prolonged strike in which new theatrical Hollywood tentpole product is spread more thinly or runs dry, these companies could face earnings, cash flow and liquidity pressures,’ Begley concluded. ‘After exhibitors, broadcast television and cable networks are also exposed, given they are already in secular decline with rising costs to consumers and a shrinking value proposition relative to direct-to-consumer video-on demand streaming services such as Netflix.’
The studios already own a wealth of older content, or they own the rights to said content – movies, and TV programs (many that millennials and Gen Z find offensive), that can be re-purposed and marketed to different (read as, older) audiences.
Who knows? Perhaps the long forsaken and forgotten demographics of the Baby Boomers and their children (a significant segment of whom will not have bought into the woke religion and drunk its Kool-Aid – who can appreciate comedy) will prove to be a bit of a saviour, especially when the suits figure out that the old movies and TV shows are indicative of what most of the paying public likes, and would pay to see.
Barry Diller, former chairman and CEO of Paramount, outed himself as a heretic and reasonable individual with a suggestion for both sides. I wonder how soon the townspeople of the village will be at the gates of his mansion with torches and pitchforks.
‘There’s no trust,’ he said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation. ‘You have the actors union saying, “How dare these 10 people who run these companies earn all this money and won’t pay us?” While, if you look at it on the other side, the top 10 actors get paid more than the top 10 executives. I’m not saying either is right. Actually, everybody’s probably overpaid at the top end.’
He makes an excellent point. The ones at the top ought to share the wealth, right?
I have no idea if one Mark Ruffalo (net worth: $35MM) is among those top 10 actors to which Diller is referring, but given he’s been part of that mint known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he ought to be. He’s done pretty well for a guy whose agent managed to get him a seat on that gravy train. Surely, he’d be willing to lead by example, wouldn’t he?
Maybe, maybe not.
Mark Ruffalo has raged against Hollywood ‘fat cats’ who he said ‘believe we [actors] are no longer of value’.
Setting aside the fact that I’ve never heard a cat (fat or otherwise) laugh, I don’t recall him questioning the judgement of those same folks who saw fit to value his contribution to the MCU at $15MM.
I only include this because I had no idea the WGA strike was in its 11th week…has anyone let them know that they haven’t been missed?
‘I don’t think social media helps. It hinders, not helps,’ Cox said during an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. ‘I think it points out too readily inadequacies. And the whole woke, what we’ve talked about before, the whole woke culture is truly awful […] and the shaming culture.’
Well, Brian is a little late to the party, but for these folks, better late than never, I guess.
Cox continued, ‘I don’t know where it comes from. Who are the arbiters of this shaming? And it’s very hard to pin them down, and, it turns out, it’s usually a bunch of millennials. And who gave them the halos? I suppose in a way they’re probably saying, “Well you’ve all screwed it up so we may as well do something about it.” But it’s from the wrong principle. It comes from the wrong place.’
In 2022, Cox said, ‘It’s a kind of modern-day McCarthyism, really. It’s a kind of raid on people’s sensibilities in order to reduce them and make them… I don’t know, there is so much hypocrisy involved with the whole thing.’
That, it is – but these modern-day McCarthyists couldn’t care less. They’re on a mission. Presentism rules.
This had to be unintentional – late-night comedy writers (seriously?) – all any of the Jimmys (I’m including Mr. Corden here, as I just have no respect for the talk-show host) have to do is exclaim, “Trump!” at any point in their monologues and the studio audience goes wild.
Has Mr. Iwinski spent any time watching any of these late-night talk shows?
Iwinski, who hosts a weekly, all-volunteer, YouTube Channel comedy show about the strike – which is perfectly legal under the WGA’s strike rules – wrote:
‘A key fight in this strike is over the future of Appendix A in an industry dominated by streamers.’ In television, he noted, Appendix A in the guild’s contract covers almost everything that isn’t a movie or an episodic TV show, including late-night, soap operas, quiz and variety shows and all other non-dramatic shows.
I think he may have hit on the future of writing in Hollywood…
‘The AMPTP’s version of a union deal would leave too many Appendix A writers without fair compensation on the largest entertainment platforms in the world. A world where the already-short 13-week cycles are replaced by week-to-week or day-to-day contracts is a world where writers don’t have enough job security to get approved for an apartment in the cities where these shows are made. A world without a reasonable residual for the reuse of our work is one where writers cannot afford to pay our basic living expenses. And a world where the AMPTP’s too-high budget breaks exclude too many series from coverage is a world where none of the other terms matter.’
If Mr. Iwinski is at all representative of the vast majority of writers in Hollywood, he and all the rest are about to learn something newly laid off employees in virtually every other industry learned decades ago: there is no such thing as job security – not even in a union.
Anyone who seeks to exert as much of his own agency over the trajectory of his career has come to embrace individual contract work. It just may be time for them to join the rest of the workforce in this regard.
Lest anyone conclude that I am delighting in anyone else’s professional struggles, I do feel for the ones who are seriously at risk of losing their jobs, their apartments, or their homes – I have been there, and it is nothing I would wish on my worst enemy (which has been me, all too often). I do wish them the best, and I also hope that they find a different career that is fulfilling, if that’s what is necessary.
One of my favourite fellow Substack writers, Lillia Gajewski, put it best:
I really do wish these people the best of luck, but karma’s a bitch.
Thank you, dear reader, for your time and indulgence. I have no doubt that the longer the strike drags on, the more unhinged some of our beloved celebrities will become – and I’ll be happy to bring it to you.
Until next time…
The strike by Hollywood is the best thing to happen to America since the election of Donald Trump. Those few people who still go to movies will soon drop the habit and by the end of 2024, people will either go back to reading books, engaging with Apple's Vision Pro, or robbery.
It’s a very difficult business. Well, I don’t like the politics of the members, it seems that artificial intelligence will destroy an already destroyed profession. The money that’s being made nowadays and entertainment is in the video game sector.