As the Writers Guild of America inches closer to its eighth consecutive week on strike, momentum only seems to be building for the cause.
This week, especially, marked a crucial amplification of the guild’s message. On Tuesday, protests were organized outside of Paramount Studios—a company whose CEO previously said writers “are an essential part of creating content,” but added that they’ve been leveraging “offshore production” during the strike.
“Hi, I’m Nathan Fillion from SAG union here in support of the WGA. You should be too.” #sagaftramember @NathanFillion joined the #WGAstrike picket line at Paramount Studios today! #WGAstrong #solidarity #1u pic.twitter.com/bnWgYgiarU
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) May 9, 2023
By Wednesday, Ryan Murphy’s departure from Netflix and a possible return to Disney made headlines. Simultaneously, the guild was organizing outside of sets in New York, watching Kim Kardashian cross picket lines to film Murphy’s very own American Horror Story.
Doesn’t appear that @KimKardashian is a friend of the labor movement. 🤔 She just now crossed our picket line to work on @ryanmurphyprod Ryan Murphy’s @AHSFX Hamptons, shooting here on 52nd in NYC. 🤷🏻 The workers are in the right. See: all of history #wgastrong #wgastrike pic.twitter.com/CK34h2GPuw
— T Cooper (@RealTCooper) June 21, 2023
Former “Law & Order: SVU” executive producer and current WGA Strike Captain Warren Leight was on the scene explaining that crewmembers had no choice but to cross the line. Otherwise, they’d be “blackballed in Murphy-land.”
Leight took the Tweet down after a spokesperson for Murphy told Variety that the allegations were “absolute nonsense” and “categorically false.”
This all led to Friday morning, in which actor Dermot Mulroney walked out of an interview on The View. According to Variety, he explained to the hosts that he planned to “symbolically walk off in support of the writers” and left the stage before his interview wrapped.
“Since I have such respect for ‘The View,’ a news program with a heart, it was there that I felt comfortable enough to draw attention to the ongoing WGA strike for fair wages and working hours, as I find it incredibly important to continue to support the union,” Mulroney told Variety.
During the last two weeks, zero permits have been provided for scripted television filming across the entirety of L.A. Overall, the region only generated 394 shoot days last week, a number 30 percent less than the same time last year.
