ICYMI: Pit in a Town's Stomach
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It was a plot too absurd for even the industry’s striking writers to conjure. This week, as entertainment CEOs landed on Gulfstreams and Bombardiers at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley retreat (a.k.a. billionaire summer camp), negotiations between their studios and an industry’s increasingly desperate actors were falling apart. And with just 24 hours to defuse the proverbial bomb, the Feds, called in too late, failed. In the middle of the night — kaboom. Negotiations collapsed. A strike was coming.
The next morning, the industry’s most celebrated CEO, fresh off a two-year contract extension worth tens of millions, took to CNBC — and stumbled. Instead of delivering words of comfort and confidence, Bob Iger scolded a town’s writers and actors. (And made panic-inducing comments that tv “may not be core” to Disney’s business.) Hours later, at a SAG-AFTRA press conference announcing the strike, an anguished Fran Drescher did not mince words. The next day, even more pointed, she called Iger’s remarks “repugnant,” and that “if I were Disney, I would lock him behind doors.”
To quote The Nanny, oy vey!
Our stories and podcasts this week reflected the urgency at hand as a dual strike — and a seeming Nero-fiddling indifference from a town’s leaders — paralyze an industry. (And please remember to join the more than 5,000 Hollywood insiders already subscribed to our FREE daily Strikegeist newsletter).
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Transcript here.
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🪧 Strikegeist
Find reporter Elaine Low out on the pickets as she writes her daily coverage this week. Also, please contact her at Elaine@theankler.com.
SAG-AFTRA Ready to Strike Until 2024, Says Fran Drescher Day 1 of the actors strike brought wrath and enthusiasm to the pickets
'The Jig is Up': Emotions High as Actors Strike at Midnight Hours after Bob Iger's remarks, Fran Drescher fumed: 'We are being victimized by a very greedy entity'
☀️ 5 Days of The Wakeup
Sean McNulty sure knows how to time a trip to L.A.! (See if you can spot him at brunch in Studio City in a few hours…)
🎧 This Week in Podcasts
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The Miserable Multitasking Multiverse
Transcript here
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
🔎 The Optionist
IP Picks: The Race to Row the Atlantic Solo A plucky widower takes on some scammers, a woman thinks her best friend's hubby might be a murderer and a college hazing scandal