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Queen Bitch

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Everything posted by Queen Bitch

  1. Bullying works.
  2. After nearly a month waiting for a response from the studios, they've agreed to return to the negotiation table next week. Collective bargaining works, but it's brutal when dealing with bratty billionaire toddlers who've never not gotten their way. Also, go get y'alls contract, UAW. Maybe we just went first and I'm really blowing up our self-importance, but I hope our guild has helped pave the way this year for other unions to demand what's theirs and refuse to back down.
  3. I won't lie -- frustration, fatigue, and anxiety are really piling up. Folks are getting nervous that this thing will drag into the new year. Solidarity and our collective resolve, however, sure seem to be intact. Case in point: I was in a meeting with guild leadership a couple nights ago when a hack article dropped suggesting an alleged showrunner defector group had tried to set a meeting with the guild to demand an end to the strike, but leadership had allegedly refused to meet with them. (This is basically what ended the '07/'08 strike. Google "the dirty 30" if you want to read more about it.) Leadership calmly explained what actually happened. I'm omitting details here, but I'll copy/paste some nuggets from an article that dropped days later that tracked with everything they told us. And -- as you'll read below -- another emerging foe in this story? Our own fucking agents. Lotta bad actors forcing us to fold and take a shit deal which, sorry, but we're not doing that. Anywho, the cherry on top of the alleged "showrunner defector group" bullshit? There was a showrunner solidarity picket the very next morning, and several hundred showrunners came out to support. The trades are *salivating* for signs of a rift in our lines, of pitting the most successful writers among the least of us... but it's simply not a thing. Not yet, anyway. There was also a massive SAG march yesterday from Netflix to Paramount. I didn't have it in me to attend, but the pictures I saw showed a pretty massive turnout. And Fran once again spit fire in her rally speech. TL;DR: The studios think they can wait both unions out rather than cut a fair deal, that they can pit the 1% writers against the working class writers, but they've made things so bad for ALL writers these past few years that the strike's hardships are justifiable given the otherwise unsustainable status quo. Also, be wary of agents. https://theankler.com/p/friend-or-foe-agents-wga-and-the
  4. WBD announced today they could lose upwards of $500m this year on the dual strikes, after bragging last earning's call that they'd saved $100m. Fun reminder that the WGA estimates the cost to WBD to agree to the writers' terms would be $47m PER YEAR. https://deadline.com/2023/09/warner-bros-discovery-earnings-hit-hollywood-writers-actors-strikes-1235536463/
  5. Yes, the studios took their offer directly to the media after the WGA refused the offer *as is*, which possibly violates labor laws (not that the govt is going to go after them for it, no CR.) The WGA publicly told its members the offer was "not nothing, but not nearly enough." Basically, their offers on room minimums and AI among other things have loopholes you could steer a yacht through.
  6. Happy fuckin’ Labor Day. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-08-31/wga-sag-aftra-strike-studios-amptp-surrender
  7. Hey thanks. Appreciate that. Anywho, this is what corporate greed looks like:
  8. There were 3000 people at the Disney picket yesterday for National Day of Solidarity. We are going nowhere without a fair deal.
  9. Rumor is that Netflix is starting to get very nervous about the strike’s duration impacting the final season of Stranger Things. Contracts have lapsed, and certain actors are vocal about a desire to move on. I don’t know *how* nervous, or how it impacted the timing of the studios finally starting negotiations, but it’s juicy and credible so there ya go.
  10. If Suits is keeping people subscribed to Netflix -- meaning generating $$$$ for the company -- the actors and writers deserve to share in that success. Full stop. This is why we need streaming transparency (and also a fucking counter proposal after 105 fucking days.) THAT BEING SAID... I'm starting to come around to the idea of ST maybe being something we take off the table if it means we get our other asks. If the streamers are going to inevitably become internet broadcast networks by diving head-first into ad-based revenue, those buyers are going to need to see actual data to invest in said ads. So maybe we get it that way instead... but I obviously defer to our negcom on the matter -- we may never be on a dual-strike with SAG again in my lifetime, and the two guilds hold enormous power if they hold steadfast together in their overlapping demands... Also, Tom Morello performed an acoustic set on our lines today. It was a nice little treat.
  11. Half the fun of watching Hot D was calling it Hot D — and I saw that as someone who really liked it lol.
  12. Just reread my response. It’s a mess but I can’t edit it lol. Hot D is covered by Equity, the actors guild in the UK. It’s NOT covered by SAG-AFTRA. That being said, it’s ABSOLUTELY covered by the WGA and should have been shut down on those grounds. There’s absolutely no scenario where you shoot the scripts as-is and don’t change a word on set, despite what the showrunner claimed publicly. He should have walked away — as many of his showrunners colleagues chose to — but he didn’t. Oh well.
  13. The contract for those actors is Equity, not SAG-AFTRA. It sucks, but it’s absolutely the exception, and I’ve read the Equity leadership isn’t thrilled about being a loophole. Maybe they’ll work to close that in the future, who knows? it’s the equivalent of writers currently working in animation, which is largely covered by a totally different union, TAG (The Animation Guild.) They’re currently writing, as they’re under an active contract.
  14. Negotiation over for today. Both sides adhering to the media blackout. Sounds like the studios finally (AFTER 102 FUCKING DAYS) offered a counter to our proposals. No mudslinging is a good sign. Cautious optimism -- feels weird, man!
  15. The studios have officially asked the writers to resume negotiations, starting tomorrow.
  16. Welp, yesterday was 100 days, which was the length of the entire ‘07/08 strike. In those 100 days, the studios have agreed to meet with us exactly one time — last fucking week — to tell us the only way they’d meet with us is if we fully take our biggest issues off the table. Not to negotiate on them or find compromise, but to fully discard them. As you can imagine, our leadership walked away. Who knows when the studios will agree to another meeting, but who cares how long it takes. We’re winning, and our asks are a rounding error in their books. Anywho, we toasted to our strength and our resolve yesterday, then went to an open bar to celebrate. Here’s a little snippet of the moment, which I wish was longer.
  17. Both sides are fairly tight-lipped, but sounds like today was a lot of nothing. The studios (allegedly) continued to reject our proposals while — AFTER 95 GODDAMNED DAYS — offering a single counter of substance. So yeah, lotta nothing burger, sounds like. Meanwhile, today, on day 95, THIS is what the Universal picket looked like: We are going NOWHERE.
  18. "Really proud of my weight loss! All it took was cutting off my arms and legs!!!"
  19. The studios finally (FINALLY!!) reached out to resume talks with the writers, scheduled for tomorrow. It's *not* a negotiation meeting, but rather a meeting to discuss coming back to the table. I was pretty shocked they reached out to us before the actors, as their strategy is always "cut deals with the other two and box in the writers," but it turns out Fran has really, really, REALLY pissed them off with her rhetoric lol. It's a good reminder that these men -- no matter how rich and powerful they may be -- have incredibly thin skin. They're all to rarely (if ever?) challenged, talked down to, or publicly mocked / ridiculed -- and they fucking hate it. FAAFO, etc. It's a reason to be cautiously optimistic, with heavy emphasis on the caution. It's my understanding this was part of the playbook in '07/'08 -- "resume talks" that were never intended to actually be in good faith, force the WGA's hand to decline unserious counters, then run to the press and scream "THE WRITERS ARE BEING UNREASONABLE!!!!!" But if they think they can wait us out or get us to cave/take a weak deal, they've got another thing coming. I hear absolutely no signs of fatigue from fellow writers. If anything, we've only become more resolved and unified, especially with the jolt of the actors now marching alongside us. Whatever happens tomorrow, good or bad, I'll be back on the lines first thing Monday morning.
  20. It's official. Emmys moving from September. Speculation is to 2024.
  21. Nah man, we're genuinely thrilled. We *love* this business, and we want it to succeed. Pretty much everyone I know went to see one or both this weekend. Hell, the Fox line had a Barbie-themed picket weeks ago. Furthermore, success means the studios can't claim poverty. It's partially why any kind of campaign to boycott the movies or cancel streaming services isn't something we'd push for. Financially, we'd never actually be able to make a sizable dent in a studio's bottom line from a grassroots-cancellation campaign, which would make us look weak and foolish as a guild. And creatively -- and this is far more important from where I'm sitting -- if these movies had underperformed, the studios would continue to trot out dinosaur franchises until the end of time, and creative risks would become even more rare. The audiences just very loudly told the studios what gets them to buy tickets in unprecedented droves. Now it's up to the executives to interpret the correct lessons from the weekend. Will they? Probably not -- and *that's* the only (potential) disappointment coming out of such an iconic weekend.
  22. Lotta folks asking that question and I can't really find a clear answer. It's annoying and deflating, but I'm trying to reserve judgment.
  23. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/business/economy/writers-strike-hollywood-gig-work.html#:~:text=As in manufacturing%2C the job,to separate writing from production. Obviously a lot of despair reading this, not that these aren't sentiments I hear basically every time I hang out with fellow writer friends. The good news is, this isn't for lack demand, or some notion that the scripted television business is dying. It's instead short-sided business practices as the studios chase the Netflix model. They want to wring as much out of as few of us as possible, but we're saying "nah, sorry dawg." Took today off to get some writing done, but now I'm itching to get back to the lines. THIS is why we strike.
  24. It’s simple. We need new IP. Almost every sequel has underperformed this summer, some very badly. Indiana Jones likely could have been rebooted when they made the fourth one, but at this point they likely boxed themselves in sticking with Harrison Ford as long as they did. I can’t imagine them successfully recasting and rebooting now. (Which isn’t to say they won’t try.)
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