Tag: Hollywood

  • Harvey Weinstein Case: More Women May Speak Out, Prosecutors Hint At Fresh Charges | People News

    Washington: The Harvey Weinstein case continues to reverberate through legal circles as prosecutors hint at the possibility of issuing a new indictment against the disgraced former movie mogul. Recent developments suggest that more women may be prepared to step forward with allegations against Weinstein, potentially reshaping the trajectory of his legal battles, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

    As per the report by The Hollywood Reporter, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg revealed this possibility during a session at New York criminal court, noting, “Some people who were not ready to speak out in 2020 now appear ready to do so in 2024.”

    Blumberg emphasized the need for a July 9 hearing to facilitate discovery and compliance in light of these potential developments.

    The spectre of additional accusers prompted Blumberg to petition Judge Curtis Farber to urge Weinstein’s defense counsel to refrain from making public statements about witnesses.

    This plea stems from concerns that such actions might deter new claimants from coming forward. Notably, Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, had previously held a press conference outside the courtroom, sparking controversy over his remarks regarding witness statements.

    Weinstein, present in court and confined to a wheelchair, listened as Aidala acknowledged the delicate balance between advocacy and ethical obligations, pledging not to overstep boundaries in the future. Judge Farber, meanwhile, admonished both parties against pandering to the media.

    The legal saga surrounding Weinstein gained fresh momentum after the New York State Court of Appeals overturned his previous rape conviction, citing prejudicial judicial rulings. Despite this setback, prosecutors reiterated their intent to retry the case swiftly, emphasizing its strength.

    Amid ongoing legal manoeuvring, Weinstein’s physical health remains a concern, with Aidala highlighting his client’s “very, very serious medical issues.” However, Weinstein’s mental acuity remains sharp, according to his legal team, confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.

    The presence of key figures from previous proceedings, such as accusers Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley, underscores the gravity of the situation.

    Mann’s steadfast commitment to seeking justice was evident during the recent hearing, while Haley’s attorney, Gloria Allred, stood in solidarity with her client.

    Weinstein’s legal woes extend beyond New York, as evidenced by his prior conviction in Los Angeles. Despite a 16-year prison sentence, Weinstein’s attorneys there are exploring avenues for appeal, particularly in light of developments in the New York case.

  • Veteran Actor Richard Foronjy Dies At 86 | People News

    Los Angeles: Veteran character actor Richard Foronjy has passed away. He was 86. As per Variety, Foronjy, who grew up in the gangster world and went to prison before becoming an actor in movies including ‘Midnight Run’, ‘Prince of the City’ and ‘Carlito’s Way’, died last week.

    Foronjy, born in Brooklyn, NY, saw his first small role as Corsaro in ‘Serpico’, the 1973 autobiographical crime drama that starred Al Pacino as a whistleblower whose work led to an investigation by the Knapp Commission into the department.

    In the 1988 comedy action film ‘Midnight Run’, he essayed mobster Tony Darvo, starring alongside Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

    Foronjy also played a mobster, Peter Amadesso, in the 1993 crime drama ‘Carlito’s Way’ starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn. The film follows Pacino’s character, Carlito Brigante, a criminal who vows to leave the crime life. Among his other roles were parts in ‘Once Upon a Time in America’, ‘Ghostbusters II’, ‘Prince of the City’ and dozens of TV series including ‘Who’s the Boss’, ‘Murphy’s Law’, ‘Silver Spoons’, ‘ The Jeffersons’, ‘Cagney & Lacy’ and ‘Hill St. Blues’.

    Foronjy is survived by his children Charles Foronjy, Susan Argentina, Christine Argentina and Richard Foronjy and 17 grandchildren. He is also survived by his partner, Wendy Odell Chiaro, and three brothers: Charles, Frank and William.

  • Wedding Impossible Star Kim Do Wan “Indian Films Are Excellent In Acting & Direction” | People News

    Kim Do Wan’s Lee Do Han is a closeted gay man who asks his best friend Na A-jeong(Jeong Jong Seo) to get into a fake marriage with him. But, the biggest obstacle is his younger brother Ji Han(Moon Sang Min), who is unaware of his brother’s sexual orientation and is dead set against the marriage. peBut, what happens when Ji Han too falls for A Jeong?

    Actor Kim Do Wan who has starred in hit dramas such as Start-Up, and Doona spoke to Puja Talwar about the show, his character and his love for Indian films and food.

    1. Congratulations, the show is wonderful and your character Lee Do Han though free-spirited has his secrets. What was the one thing that drew you to the character and could you relate to him?

    Kim Do Wan: I chose the role of Do-han because I felt that Do-han is different from the characters I have played so far. When I choose characters, I always want to try new things. Although I always have fears or concerns about playing a new character, there were no particular difficulties with acting Do-han. In regards to personality, we have something in common: we are both introverted and don’t talk much. What’s different is that Lee Do-han is a third-generation chaebol. Isn’t that the biggest difference? 2. Were there any preparations at your end in understanding the character and is there something different you did in this show?

    Kim Do Wan: In the drama, Ji-han has a charming personality. To keep the balance between the characters I tried to stay calm on the contrary to Ji-han. I also think a lot about how to express the differences between my relationship with my younger brother Ji-han and my best friend Ah-jung.

    In terms of styling, I tried to show differences depending on the internal and emotional change. Because Dohan is free-spirited, I let my hair grow a little longer compared to previous dramas. In this way, I tried to make some external differences. 3. What was it like working with Moon Sang Min? How did you all work on your chemistry?

    Kim Do Wan: Moon Sang-min is very charming, bright, and makes people happy, so I was able to work on it comfortably. As the episodes go, there are many scenes, in which we have emotional conflicts. Thanks to Sang-min, chemistry got better and better in those scenes. 4. You have done many genres is there a favorite genre or role you want to try?

    Kim Do Wan: If I get the chance, I want to play an evil role, a really bad villain. 5. Your drama is very popular in India. Have you watched Indian films or tried Indian food? Would you like to visit India?

    Kim Do Wan: Previously, I have seen several Indian films, visiting the Bucheon International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. While watching the movie, I felt that not only the acting but also the directing techniques were all excellent.

    If I get the chance, I would like to visit India. I love curry and naan, so I eat them at least once every two weeks. I want to try it in India.

    Wedding Impossible is available on Viki

  • Late Art Director Nitin Desai Honored at the Oscars – Check Here | People News

    New Delhi: The Oscars paid a heartfelt tribute to the late Bollywood art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai, alongside luminaries like Tina Turner and Matthew Perry, during the 'In Memoriam' segment. The 2024 Oscars, held at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, featured a poignant performance of 'Time to Say Goodbye' by Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo Bocelli.

    The Academy shared a video from the ceremony on Instagram, showcasing the Bocellis' rendition and captioning it as the “Time to Say Goodbye” 30th Anniversary Special Edition during the In Memoriam at the 2024 #Oscars.

    Late Art director Nitin Desai honored at the Oscars

    Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/oR1dAwtoeu#Oscars #Oscars2024 #nitindesai pic.twitter.com/dKCziKDlfc — ANI Digital (@ani_digital) March 11, 2024

    Among the global entertainment figures remembered in the segment were directors William Friedkin and Norman Jewison, as well as actors John Bailey, Robbie Robertson, Richard Lewis, Lee Sun-Kyun, Carl Weathers, Matthew Perry, Andre Braugher, and others.

    Nitin Desai, known for his groundbreaking studio designs and collaborations with filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowarikar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, left an indelible mark with movies such as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (2000), Lagaan (2002) , Devdas (2003), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015). His legacy includes three Filmfare Awards for Best Art Direction and four National Film Awards for Best Art Direction.

    Desai's passing on August 2, 2023, was a significant loss to the film industry, prompting tributes from industry stalwarts and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. He was discovered deceased at his studio in Karjat, Maharashtra.

  • What to stream this week: ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version),’ Emily Blunt and ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’

    By Associated Press

    Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” a Paramount+ documentary on the duo Milli Vanilli examining one of music’s biggest lip-syncing scandals and the horror movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s” are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Julian Fellowes’ “The Gilded Age” back for a second season on HBO and Hollywood’s latest attempt to delve into the opioid crisis with the glossy “Pain Hustlers,” starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— Hollywood’s latest attempt to delve into the opioid crisis is the glossy, starry “Pain Hustlers,” starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia. Based on a New York Times Magazine article (which then became a book) by Evan Hughes, “Pain Hustlers,” on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 27, centers on a pharmaceutical startup, Insys Therapeutics, which engaged in criminal activities like bribery and kickbacks and misleading insurers to push their addictive oral fentanyl spray called Subsys. Blunt plays a high school dropout who gets a job at the company, run by Garcia, where she excels. Directed by David Yates, “Pain Hustlers” was not generally well received by critics at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, but Alyssa Wilkinson wrote for Vox that, though predictable, “’Pain Hustlers’ manages to be lively and moving.”

    — The video game series “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is now a movie, available both in theaters and on Peacock on Friday, Oct. 27. The horror pic, from Blumhouse Productions, follows a security guard (played by “The Hunger Games’” Josh Hutcherson) who accepts a job at an old family entertainment center, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where the animatronic mascots are mobile and murderous after midnight.

    — Filmmaker Paul Schrader rounds out his unofficial Man in a Room trilogy (“First Reformed,” “The Card Counter”) with “Master Gardener,” arriving on Hulu on Thursday. Joel Edgerton plays a horticulturist named Narvel who works on the large estate of a wealthy dowager (Sigourney Weaver’s Norma). Narvel harbors some secrets under his gardening jumpsuits, though, including tattoos and a past with a body count. I wrote in my review that its ideas are many and perhaps not terribly coherent, but there are pleasures in the enjoyable performances from Edgerton, Weaver and Quintessa Swindell.

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM— It was the album that fully cemented her move away from country-pop to mainstream pop superstardom. On Friday, Oct. 27, Taylor Swift will release the fourth release of the six albums Swift plans to re-record, “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” The Taylor’s Version albums, instigated by music manager Scooter Braun’s sale of her early catalog, represent Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Like the others in the series, Swifties can expect five previously unreleased “From the Vault” tracks written around the time of the 2014 album’s initial release, as well as the fan-favorite “New Romantics,” originally released as a Target exclusive.

    — Also on Friday: Barbra Streisand and Columbia Records will release “EVERGREENS: Celebrating Six Decades on Columbia Records” and “YENTL: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition,” arriving a few days before the publication date of her highly anticipated memoir, “My Name is Barbra.” Unreleased tracks abound. Welcome to Streisand season.

    — In preparation for his latest studio album, “Action Adventure,” DJ Shadow took crate digging to the next level: he bought 200 tapes on eBay, a collection that was recorded off the radio from a mix station in the Baltimore/D.C. area in the 1980s, and dove through his vinyl record collection for new music. (That latter is 60,000 records deep, so discovery at home is easy.) If that doesn’t speak to the producer’s dedication to evolving his craft, what could?

    — A new Paramount+ documentary on the German-French R&B duo Milli Vanilli (appropriately titled, “Milli Vanilli,”) examines one of music’s biggest lip-syncing scandals — and suggests Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan’s music producers were pulling the strings and knew more than they let on at the time.

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM— Apple TV+ has a new family-friendly animated series from Dreamworks called “CURSES!” in time for Halloween. When a centuries-old family curse turns Alex Vanderhouven to stone, his wife, Sky, and their two kids Pandora and Russ team up to save him, break the spell, and return stolen artifacts to their owners. John Krasinski is an executive producer. Voice actors include Reid Scott (“Veep”, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”) and Robert Englund (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”). “CURSES!” debuts Friday, Oct. 27 on the streamer.

    — Matt Bomer (“White Collar”) and Jonathan Bailey (“Bridgerton”) co-star as two men who meet and fall in love during the 1950s McCarthy-era. Their love story stretches across the cultural and political milestones in U.S. history including the Vietnam War protests, the age of disco, drug use and nightclubs of the 1970s, and into the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. The story is based on a novel by Thomas Mallon. “Fellow Travelers” will debut Friday, Oct. 27 on Paramount+ and on Showtime on Sunday, Oct. 29.

    — Julian Fellowes’ “The Gilded Age” is back for a second season on HBO. The show features a large ensemble cast including Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector and Taissa Farmiga and takes place in New York during the industrialization period in the late 1800s. This time of extreme wealth and also extreme poverty became known as The Gilded Age, though is often more remembered for its extravagance. The Carnegies, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Morgans are prominent last names from this time period that still have relevance today. “The Gilded Age” series follows two wealthy families, one with inherited wealth and the other with new money, along with their domestic workers. Season two debuts Sunday, Oct. 29 on HBO and will stream on MAX.

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY— In 2010, bestselling writer Alan Wake went on vacation in the Pacific Northwest and never came back. Turns out he’s been trapped all these years in “the Dark Place,” trying to maintain his sanity and write his way out of the nightmare. Enter Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a series of ritual murders that she thinks might be connected to the missing novelist. That’s the setup for Alan Wake II, Remedy Entertainment’s long-awaited sequel to a game that’s become a cult favorite. If you were rattled by the David Lynch-meets-Stephen King vibe of the original, Remedy is promising to lean even further into the creepiness. The horror returns Friday, Oct. 27, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S and PC. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” a Paramount+ documentary on the duo Milli Vanilli examining one of music’s biggest lip-syncing scandals and the horror movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s” are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Julian Fellowes’ “The Gilded Age” back for a second season on HBO and Hollywood’s latest attempt to delve into the opioid crisis with the glossy “Pain Hustlers,” starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
    — Hollywood’s latest attempt to delve into the opioid crisis is the glossy, starry “Pain Hustlers,” starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia. Based on a New York Times Magazine article (which then became a book) by Evan Hughes, “Pain Hustlers,” on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 27, centers on a pharmaceutical startup, Insys Therapeutics, which engaged in criminal activities like bribery and kickbacks and misleading insurers to push their addictive oral fentanyl spray called Subsys. Blunt plays a high school dropout who gets a job at the company, run by Garcia, where she excels. Directed by David Yates, “Pain Hustlers” was not generally well received by critics at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, but Alyssa Wilkinson wrote for Vox that, though predictable, “’Pain Hustlers’ manages to be lively and moving.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    — The video game series “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is now a movie, available both in theaters and on Peacock on Friday, Oct. 27. The horror pic, from Blumhouse Productions, follows a security guard (played by “The Hunger Games’” Josh Hutcherson) who accepts a job at an old family entertainment center, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where the animatronic mascots are mobile and murderous after midnight.

    — Filmmaker Paul Schrader rounds out his unofficial Man in a Room trilogy (“First Reformed,” “The Card Counter”) with “Master Gardener,” arriving on Hulu on Thursday. Joel Edgerton plays a horticulturist named Narvel who works on the large estate of a wealthy dowager (Sigourney Weaver’s Norma). Narvel harbors some secrets under his gardening jumpsuits, though, including tattoos and a past with a body count. I wrote in my review that its ideas are many and perhaps not terribly coherent, but there are pleasures in the enjoyable performances from Edgerton, Weaver and Quintessa Swindell.

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
    — It was the album that fully cemented her move away from country-pop to mainstream pop superstardom. On Friday, Oct. 27, Taylor Swift will release the fourth release of the six albums Swift plans to re-record, “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” The Taylor’s Version albums, instigated by music manager Scooter Braun’s sale of her early catalog, represent Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Like the others in the series, Swifties can expect five previously unreleased “From the Vault” tracks written around the time of the 2014 album’s initial release, as well as the fan-favorite “New Romantics,” originally released as a Target exclusive.

    — Also on Friday: Barbra Streisand and Columbia Records will release “EVERGREENS: Celebrating Six Decades on Columbia Records” and “YENTL: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition,” arriving a few days before the publication date of her highly anticipated memoir, “My Name is Barbra.” Unreleased tracks abound. Welcome to Streisand season.

    — In preparation for his latest studio album, “Action Adventure,” DJ Shadow took crate digging to the next level: he bought 200 tapes on eBay, a collection that was recorded off the radio from a mix station in the Baltimore/D.C. area in the 1980s, and dove through his vinyl record collection for new music. (That latter is 60,000 records deep, so discovery at home is easy.) If that doesn’t speak to the producer’s dedication to evolving his craft, what could?

    — A new Paramount+ documentary on the German-French R&B duo Milli Vanilli (appropriately titled, “Milli Vanilli,”) examines one of music’s biggest lip-syncing scandals — and suggests Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan’s music producers were pulling the strings and knew more than they let on at the time.

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM
    — Apple TV+ has a new family-friendly animated series from Dreamworks called “CURSES!” in time for Halloween. When a centuries-old family curse turns Alex Vanderhouven to stone, his wife, Sky, and their two kids Pandora and Russ team up to save him, break the spell, and return stolen artifacts to their owners. John Krasinski is an executive producer. Voice actors include Reid Scott (“Veep”, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), Rhea Perlman (“Cheers”), Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”) and Robert Englund (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”). “CURSES!” debuts Friday, Oct. 27 on the streamer.

    — Matt Bomer (“White Collar”) and Jonathan Bailey (“Bridgerton”) co-star as two men who meet and fall in love during the 1950s McCarthy-era. Their love story stretches across the cultural and political milestones in U.S. history including the Vietnam War protests, the age of disco, drug use and nightclubs of the 1970s, and into the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. The story is based on a novel by Thomas Mallon. “Fellow Travelers” will debut Friday, Oct. 27 on Paramount+ and on Showtime on Sunday, Oct. 29.

    — Julian Fellowes’ “The Gilded Age” is back for a second season on HBO. The show features a large ensemble cast including Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector and Taissa Farmiga and takes place in New York during the industrialization period in the late 1800s. This time of extreme wealth and also extreme poverty became known as The Gilded Age, though is often more remembered for its extravagance. The Carnegies, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Morgans are prominent last names from this time period that still have relevance today. “The Gilded Age” series follows two wealthy families, one with inherited wealth and the other with new money, along with their domestic workers. Season two debuts Sunday, Oct. 29 on HBO and will stream on MAX.

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
    — In 2010, bestselling writer Alan Wake went on vacation in the Pacific Northwest and never came back. Turns out he’s been trapped all these years in “the Dark Place,” trying to maintain his sanity and write his way out of the nightmare. Enter Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a series of ritual murders that she thinks might be connected to the missing novelist. That’s the setup for Alan Wake II, Remedy Entertainment’s long-awaited sequel to a game that’s become a cult favorite. If you were rattled by the David Lynch-meets-Stephen King vibe of the original, Remedy is promising to lean even further into the creepiness. The horror returns Friday, Oct. 27, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S and PC. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • Hollywood writers strike over after guild leaders approve contract with studios

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood’s writers strike was declared over after nearly five months Tuesday night when board members from their union approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing the industry at least partly back from a historic halt in production.

    The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies. After the vote they declared that the strike would be over and writers would be free to start on scripts at 12:01 AM Wednesday.

    Late-night talk shows — the first to go dark when writers walked out on May 2 — are likely the first shows that will resume. Scripted shows will take longer to return, with actors still on strike and no negotiations yet on the horizon.

    The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves in early October, but lifting the strike will allow them to work during that process, the guild told members in an email.

    After Tuesday’s board votes, the contracts were released for the first time to the writers, who had not yet been given any details on the deal, which their leaders called “exceptional.”

    The three-year agreement includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for – compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence – matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

    The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows of between 5% and 6%, depending on the position of the writer. The studios had wanted between 2% and 4%. The compromise deal was a raise of between 3.5% and 5%.

    The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

    The writers also got the requirement they sought that shows intended to run at least 13 episodes will have at least six writers on staff, with the numbers shifting based on the number of episodes. They did not get their desire for guaranteed staffs of six on shows that had not yet been ordered to series, settling instead for a guaranteed three.

    Writers also got a guarantee that staffs on shows in initial development will be employed for at least 10 weeks, and that staffs on shows that go to air will be employed for three weeks per episode.

    On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

    Writers have the right under the deal to use AI in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use AI.

    Still-striking members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists returned to the picket lines earlier Tuesday for the first time since the writers struck their tentative deal, and they were animated by a new spirit of optimism.

    “For a hot second, I really thought that this was going to go on until next year,” said Marissa Cuevas, an actor who has appeared on the TV series “Kung Fu” and “The Big Bang Theory.” “Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal.”

    Writers’ picket lines had been suspended, but they were encouraged to walk in solidarity with actors, and many were on the lines Tuesday, including “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, who picketed alongside friend and “ER” actor Noah Wyle as he has throughout the strikes.

    “We would never have had the leverage we had if SAG had not gone out,” Weiner said. “They were very brave to do it.”

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in negotiations, chose to deal with the longer-striking writers first, and leaders of SAG-AFTRA said they had received no overtures on resuming talks. That’s likely to change soon.

    Actors also voted to authorize their leadership to potentially expand their walkout to include the lucrative video game market, a step that could put new pressure on Hollywood studios to make a deal with the performers who provide voices and stunts for games.

    SAG-AFTRA announced the move late Monday, saying that 98% of its members voted to go on strike against video game companies if ongoing negotiations are not successful.

    Acting in video games can include a variety of roles, from voice performances to motion capture work as well as stunts.

    Some of the same issues are at play in the video game negotiations as in the film and TV strike, including wages, safety measures and protections on the use of artificial intelligence. The companies involved include gaming giants Activision, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take 2 Productions as well as Disney and Warner Bros.′ video game divisions.

    “It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement.

    Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for video game producers, said they are “continuing to negotiate in good faith” and have reached tentative agreements on more than half of the proposals on the table.

    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood’s writers strike was declared over after nearly five months Tuesday night when board members from their union approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing the industry at least partly back from a historic halt in production.

    The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies. After the vote they declared that the strike would be over and writers would be free to start on scripts at 12:01 AM Wednesday.

    Late-night talk shows — the first to go dark when writers walked out on May 2 — are likely the first shows that will resume. Scripted shows will take longer to return, with actors still on strike and no negotiations yet on the horizon.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves in early October, but lifting the strike will allow them to work during that process, the guild told members in an email.

    After Tuesday’s board votes, the contracts were released for the first time to the writers, who had not yet been given any details on the deal, which their leaders called “exceptional.”

    The three-year agreement includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for – compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence – matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

    The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows of between 5% and 6%, depending on the position of the writer. The studios had wanted between 2% and 4%. The compromise deal was a raise of between 3.5% and 5%.

    The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

    The writers also got the requirement they sought that shows intended to run at least 13 episodes will have at least six writers on staff, with the numbers shifting based on the number of episodes. They did not get their desire for guaranteed staffs of six on shows that had not yet been ordered to series, settling instead for a guaranteed three.

    Writers also got a guarantee that staffs on shows in initial development will be employed for at least 10 weeks, and that staffs on shows that go to air will be employed for three weeks per episode.

    On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

    Writers have the right under the deal to use AI in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use AI.

    Still-striking members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists returned to the picket lines earlier Tuesday for the first time since the writers struck their tentative deal, and they were animated by a new spirit of optimism.

    “For a hot second, I really thought that this was going to go on until next year,” said Marissa Cuevas, an actor who has appeared on the TV series “Kung Fu” and “The Big Bang Theory.” “Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal.”

    Writers’ picket lines had been suspended, but they were encouraged to walk in solidarity with actors, and many were on the lines Tuesday, including “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, who picketed alongside friend and “ER” actor Noah Wyle as he has throughout the strikes.

    “We would never have had the leverage we had if SAG had not gone out,” Weiner said. “They were very brave to do it.”

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in negotiations, chose to deal with the longer-striking writers first, and leaders of SAG-AFTRA said they had received no overtures on resuming talks. That’s likely to change soon.

    Actors also voted to authorize their leadership to potentially expand their walkout to include the lucrative video game market, a step that could put new pressure on Hollywood studios to make a deal with the performers who provide voices and stunts for games.

    SAG-AFTRA announced the move late Monday, saying that 98% of its members voted to go on strike against video game companies if ongoing negotiations are not successful.

    Acting in video games can include a variety of roles, from voice performances to motion capture work as well as stunts.

    Some of the same issues are at play in the video game negotiations as in the film and TV strike, including wages, safety measures and protections on the use of artificial intelligence. The companies involved include gaming giants Activision, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take 2 Productions as well as Disney and Warner Bros.′ video game divisions.

    “It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement.

    Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for video game producers, said they are “continuing to negotiate in good faith” and have reached tentative agreements on more than half of the proposals on the table.

  • Popular daytime talk shows in US to resume production ignoring writers strike

    By Online Desk

    After a five-month shooting break following the strike by the Writers Guild of America, several daytime American talk shows are preparing to resume their production this fall. 

    CBS’ “The Drew Barrymore Show” hosted by actor Drew Barrymore has already confirmed that they will resume the show. Their other talk shows — “The Talk”, “Sherri”, as well as Warner Bros’ “The Jennifer Hudson” show — are all rumoured to be returning to production.

    Production of talk shows was on halt due to the ongoing labour dispute between the writers of Hollywood with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike has shut down the production of hundreds of TV shows, and films over the past five months.

    Earlier, Barrymore received criticism from striking writers, their union, and the public after announcing that she would resume the production of her talk show without WGA writers. “I am … making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, which may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me,” she wrote on her Instagram.

    Following the news, the writers picketed outside the CBS studio on Monday. 

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, “The Talk”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show”, and Sherri are all set to begin their shoot within weeks.

    According to them, even though all these shows are signatories to the WGA’s minimum basic agreement, they have all planned to go ahead with the production without writers from the WGA. 

    After a five-month shooting break following the strike by the Writers Guild of America, several daytime American talk shows are preparing to resume their production this fall. 

    CBS’ “The Drew Barrymore Show” hosted by actor Drew Barrymore has already confirmed that they will resume the show. Their other talk shows — “The Talk”, “Sherri”, as well as Warner Bros’ “The Jennifer Hudson” show — are all rumoured to be returning to production.

    Production of talk shows was on halt due to the ongoing labour dispute between the writers of Hollywood with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike has shut down the production of hundreds of TV shows, and films over the past five months.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Earlier, Barrymore received criticism from striking writers, their union, and the public after announcing that she would resume the production of her talk show without WGA writers. “I am … making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, which may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me,” she wrote on her Instagram.

    Following the news, the writers picketed outside the CBS studio on Monday. 

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, “The Talk”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show”, and Sherri are all set to begin their shoot within weeks.

    According to them, even though all these shows are signatories to the WGA’s minimum basic agreement, they have all planned to go ahead with the production without writers from the WGA. 

  • Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ release postponed

    By Express News Service

    Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, the upcoming biopic of actor and businesswoman Priscilla Presley, scheduled to release on October 27, has been postponed. The film will now hit the theatres on November 3. Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and received a 7-minute standing ovation.

    The film will throw light on Priscilla who was married to iconic singer/performer Elvis Presley. While Cailee Spaeny will star as Priscilla Presley, Jacob Elordi plays Elvis on the screen. The biopic has a script, which Sofia Coppola adapted from Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me.

    The film stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley, while Jacob Elordi plays Elvis on the screen. The memoir talks about her relationship with the superstar singer, spanning her marriage, the birth of their daughter, the fights they had, and the eventual divorce until Elvis’ death.

    Distributed by A24, the film is produced by Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, and Youree Henley. 

    Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, the upcoming biopic of actor and businesswoman Priscilla Presley, scheduled to release on October 27, has been postponed. The film will now hit the theatres on November 3. Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and received a 7-minute standing ovation.

    The film will throw light on Priscilla who was married to iconic singer/performer Elvis Presley. While Cailee Spaeny will star as Priscilla Presley, Jacob Elordi plays Elvis on the screen. The biopic has a script, which Sofia Coppola adapted from Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me.

    The film stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley, while Jacob Elordi plays Elvis on the screen. The memoir talks about her relationship with the superstar singer, spanning her marriage, the birth of their daughter, the fights they had, and the eventual divorce until Elvis’ death.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Distributed by A24, the film is produced by Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, and Youree Henley. 

  • What are Hollywood actors and writers afraid of? Here’s how AI is upending the movie and TV business

    Holly Willis, University of Southern California

    The bitter conflict between actors, writers and other creative professionals and the major movie and TV studios represents a flashpoint in the radical transformation roiling the entertainment industry. The ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild were sparked in part by artificial intelligence and its use in the movie industry.

    Both actors and writers fear that the major studios, including Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. and HBO, will use generative AI to exploit them. Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that learns from text and images to automatically produce new written and visual works.

    So what specifically are the writers and actors afraid of? I’m a professor of cinematic arts. I conducted a brief exercise that illustrates the answer.

    I typed the following sentence into ChatGPT: Create a script for a 5-minute film featuring Barbie and Ken. In seconds, a script appeared.

    Next, I asked for a shot list, a breakdown of every camera shot needed for the film. Again, a response appeared almost instantly, featuring not only a “montage of fun activities,” but also a fancy flashback sequence. The closing line suggested a wide shot showing “Barbie and Ken walking away from the beach together, hand in hand.”

    Next, on a text-to-video platform, I typed these words into a box labeled “Prompt”: “Cinematic movie shot of Margot Robbie as Barbie walking near the beach, early morning light, pink sun rays illuminating the screen, tall green grass, photographic detail, film grain.”

    About a minute later, a 3-second video appeared. It showed a svelte blond woman walking on the beach. Is it Margot Robbie? Is it Barbie? It’s hard to say. I decided to add my own face in place of Robbie’s just for fun, and in seconds, I’ve made the swap.

    I now have a moving image clip on my desktop that I can add to the script and shot list, and I’m well on my way to crafting a short film starring someone sort of like Margot Robbie as Barbie.

    The fear

    None of this material is particularly good. The script lacks tension and poetic grace. The shot list is uninspired. And the video is just plain weird-looking.

    However, the ability for anyone – amateurs and professionals alike – to create a screenplay and conjure the likeness of an existing actor means that the skills once specific to writers and the likeness that an actor once could uniquely call his or her own are now readily available – with questionable quality, to be sure – to anyone with access to these free online tools.

    Given the rate of technological change, the quality of all this material created through generative AI is destined to improve visually, not only for people like me and social media creatives globally, but possibly for the studios, which are likely to have access to much more powerful computers. Further, these separate steps – preproduction, screenwriting, production, postproduction – could be absorbed into a streamlined prompting system that bears little resemblance to today’s art and craft of moviemaking.

    Generative AI is a new technology but it’s already reshaping the film and TV industry.Writers fear that, at best, they will be hired to edit screenplays drafted by AI. They fear that their creative work will be swallowed whole into databases as the fodder for writing tools to sample. And they fear that their specific expertise will be pushed aside in favor of “prompt engineers,” or those skilled at working with AI tools.

    And actors fret that they will be forced to sell their likeness once, only to see it used over and over by studios. They fear that deepfake technologies will become the norm, and real, live actors won’t be needed at all. And they worry that not only their bodies but their voices will be taken, synthesized and reused without continued compensation. And all of this is on top of dwindling incomes for the vast majority of actors.

    On the road to the AI future

    Are their fears justified? Sort of. In June 2023, Marvel showcased titles – opening sequences with episode names – for the series “Secret Invasion” on Disney+ that were created in part with AI tools. The use of AI by a major studio sparked controversy due in part to the timing and fears about AI displacing people from their jobs. Further, series director and executive producer Ali Selim’s tone-deaf description of the use of AI only added to the sense that there is little concern at all about those fears.

    Then on July 26, software developer Nicholas Neubert posted a 48-second trailer for a sci-fi film made with images made by AI image generator Midjourney and motion created by Runway’s image-to-motion generator, Gen-2. It looks terrific. No screenwriter was hired. No actors were used.

    In addition, earlier this month, a company called Fable released Showrunner AI, which is designed to allow users to submit images and voices, along with a brief prompt. The tool responds by creating entire episodes that include the user.

    The creators have been using South Park as their sample, and they have presented plausible new episodes of the show that integrate viewers as characters in the story. The idea is to create a new form of audience engagement. However, for both writers and actors, Showrunner AI must be chilling indeed.

    Finally, Volkswagen recently produced a commercial that features an AI reincarnation of Brazilian musician Elis Regina, who died in 1982. Directed by Dulcidio Caldeira, it shows the musician as she appears to sing a duet with her daughter. For some, the song was a beautiful revelation, crafting a poignant mother-daughter reunion.

    However, for others, the AI regeneration of someone who has died prompts worries about how one’s likeness might be used after death. What if you are morally opposed to a particular film project, TV show or commercial? How will actors – and others – be able to retain control?

    Keeping actors and writers in the credits

    Writers’ and actors’ fears could be assuaged if the entertainment industry developed a convincing and inclusive vision that acknowledges advances in AI, but that collaborates with writers and actors, not to mention cinematographers, directors, art designers and others, as partners.

    At the moment, developers are rapidly building and improving AI tools. Production companies are likely to use them to dramatically cut costs, which will contribute to a massive shift toward a gig-oriented economy. If the dismissive attitude toward writers and actors held by many of the major studios continues, not only will there be little consideration of the needs of writers and actors, but technology development will lead the conversation.

    However, what if the tools were designed with the participation of informed actors and writers? What kind of tool would an actor create? What would a writer create? What sorts of conditions regarding intellectual property, copyright and creativity would developers consider? And what sort of inclusive, forward-looking, creative cinematic ecosystem might evolve? Answering these questions could give actors and writers the assurances they seek and help the industry adapt in the age of AI.

    Holly Willis, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Holly Willis, University of Southern California

    The bitter conflict between actors, writers and other creative professionals and the major movie and TV studios represents a flashpoint in the radical transformation roiling the entertainment industry. The ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild were sparked in part by artificial intelligence and its use in the movie industry.

    Both actors and writers fear that the major studios, including Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. and HBO, will use generative AI to exploit them. Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that learns from text and images to automatically produce new written and visual works.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    So what specifically are the writers and actors afraid of? I’m a professor of cinematic arts. I conducted a brief exercise that illustrates the answer.

    I typed the following sentence into ChatGPT: Create a script for a 5-minute film featuring Barbie and Ken. In seconds, a script appeared.

    Next, I asked for a shot list, a breakdown of every camera shot needed for the film. Again, a response appeared almost instantly, featuring not only a “montage of fun activities,” but also a fancy flashback sequence. The closing line suggested a wide shot showing “Barbie and Ken walking away from the beach together, hand in hand.”

    Next, on a text-to-video platform, I typed these words into a box labeled “Prompt”: “Cinematic movie shot of Margot Robbie as Barbie walking near the beach, early morning light, pink sun rays illuminating the screen, tall green grass, photographic detail, film grain.”

    About a minute later, a 3-second video appeared. It showed a svelte blond woman walking on the beach. Is it Margot Robbie? Is it Barbie? It’s hard to say. I decided to add my own face in place of Robbie’s just for fun, and in seconds, I’ve made the swap.

    I now have a moving image clip on my desktop that I can add to the script and shot list, and I’m well on my way to crafting a short film starring someone sort of like Margot Robbie as Barbie.

    The fear

    None of this material is particularly good. The script lacks tension and poetic grace. The shot list is uninspired. And the video is just plain weird-looking.

    However, the ability for anyone – amateurs and professionals alike – to create a screenplay and conjure the likeness of an existing actor means that the skills once specific to writers and the likeness that an actor once could uniquely call his or her own are now readily available – with questionable quality, to be sure – to anyone with access to these free online tools.

    Given the rate of technological change, the quality of all this material created through generative AI is destined to improve visually, not only for people like me and social media creatives globally, but possibly for the studios, which are likely to have access to much more powerful computers. Further, these separate steps – preproduction, screenwriting, production, postproduction – could be absorbed into a streamlined prompting system that bears little resemblance to today’s art and craft of moviemaking.

    Generative AI is a new technology but it’s already reshaping the film and TV industry.Writers fear that, at best, they will be hired to edit screenplays drafted by AI. They fear that their creative work will be swallowed whole into databases as the fodder for writing tools to sample. And they fear that their specific expertise will be pushed aside in favor of “prompt engineers,” or those skilled at working with AI tools.

    And actors fret that they will be forced to sell their likeness once, only to see it used over and over by studios. They fear that deepfake technologies will become the norm, and real, live actors won’t be needed at all. And they worry that not only their bodies but their voices will be taken, synthesized and reused without continued compensation. And all of this is on top of dwindling incomes for the vast majority of actors.

    On the road to the AI future

    Are their fears justified? Sort of. In June 2023, Marvel showcased titles – opening sequences with episode names – for the series “Secret Invasion” on Disney+ that were created in part with AI tools. The use of AI by a major studio sparked controversy due in part to the timing and fears about AI displacing people from their jobs. Further, series director and executive producer Ali Selim’s tone-deaf description of the use of AI only added to the sense that there is little concern at all about those fears.

    Then on July 26, software developer Nicholas Neubert posted a 48-second trailer for a sci-fi film made with images made by AI image generator Midjourney and motion created by Runway’s image-to-motion generator, Gen-2. It looks terrific. No screenwriter was hired. No actors were used.

    In addition, earlier this month, a company called Fable released Showrunner AI, which is designed to allow users to submit images and voices, along with a brief prompt. The tool responds by creating entire episodes that include the user.

    The creators have been using South Park as their sample, and they have presented plausible new episodes of the show that integrate viewers as characters in the story. The idea is to create a new form of audience engagement. However, for both writers and actors, Showrunner AI must be chilling indeed.

    Finally, Volkswagen recently produced a commercial that features an AI reincarnation of Brazilian musician Elis Regina, who died in 1982. Directed by Dulcidio Caldeira, it shows the musician as she appears to sing a duet with her daughter. For some, the song was a beautiful revelation, crafting a poignant mother-daughter reunion.

    However, for others, the AI regeneration of someone who has died prompts worries about how one’s likeness might be used after death. What if you are morally opposed to a particular film project, TV show or commercial? How will actors – and others – be able to retain control?

    Keeping actors and writers in the credits

    Writers’ and actors’ fears could be assuaged if the entertainment industry developed a convincing and inclusive vision that acknowledges advances in AI, but that collaborates with writers and actors, not to mention cinematographers, directors, art designers and others, as partners.

    At the moment, developers are rapidly building and improving AI tools. Production companies are likely to use them to dramatically cut costs, which will contribute to a massive shift toward a gig-oriented economy. If the dismissive attitude toward writers and actors held by many of the major studios continues, not only will there be little consideration of the needs of writers and actors, but technology development will lead the conversation.

    However, what if the tools were designed with the participation of informed actors and writers? What kind of tool would an actor create? What would a writer create? What sorts of conditions regarding intellectual property, copyright and creativity would developers consider? And what sort of inclusive, forward-looking, creative cinematic ecosystem might evolve? Answering these questions could give actors and writers the assurances they seek and help the industry adapt in the age of AI.

    Holly Willis, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

  • Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK:  Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.

    But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.

    The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.

    Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.

    At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.

    “This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.

    Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.

    Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.

    Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.

    “Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.

    Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”

    Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.

    “It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.

    Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.

    Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.

    “It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.

    Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.

    The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.

    Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.

    “The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.

    NEW YORK:  Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.

    But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.

    The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.

    At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.

    “This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.

    Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.

    Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.

    Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.

    “Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.

    Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”

    Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
    Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.

    “It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.

    Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.

    Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.

    “It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.

    Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.

    The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
    Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.

    Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.

    “The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.