The Latest from the Prospect
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌


View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>

 

JUNE 29, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

What's Turned Hollywood Stars Into Labor Militants

Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and 1,000 other disgruntled actors tell
their union not to meet the studios halfway.

Earlier this week, Fran Drescher, the president of the Screen Actors
Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA),
announced that the union's negotiations with the studios for a new
contract were going swimmingly. The union's members had overwhelmingly
voted to authorize their leaders to call a strike when their current
contract expired on June 30th unless their concerns were met, but
Drescher's missive indicated that a deal was close at hand and no
strike would be necessary.

Yesterday, 300 of the union's most well-known members-including
Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Quinta Brunson, Rami Malek, Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, Brendan Fraser, Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Schumer, Amy
Poehler, Glenn Close, John Leguizamo, and Ben Stiller-released a
statement
<[link removed]>
urging the union to hold out for far more than its leaders appeared to
be willing to accept. Noting the massive growth of streaming (a medium
that generally undercompensates those involved in the creative and
production processes), the threat of AI, and the new requirement that
non-star actors record their own auditions, Streep and Co. declared the
current moment to be "an unprecedented inflection point in our industry,
and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply
not enough."

Since yesterday, more actors, including Charlize Theron and Joaquin
Phoenix, have signed on to the statement. The list now includes roughly
1,000 signatories, among whom, somewhat bewilderingly, is Drescher
herself. It now appears that the negotiations, which had been set to
wrap up tomorrow, will be extended to July 7th.

"With inflation and continued growth in streaming," the actors'
statement continued,

we need a seismic realignment of our minimum pay and new media
residuals, our exclusivity carveouts, and other terms. We also think
it's absolutely vital that the deal restore dignity to the casting
process by regulating how self-tapes are used. This is an enormous
problem for working class actors. And especially as regards Artificial
Intelligence, we do not believe that SAG-AFTRA members can afford to
make halfway gains in anticipation that more will be coming in three
years, and we think it is absolutely vital that this negotiation
protects not just our likenesses, but makes sure we are well compensated
when any of our work is used to train AI. We want you to know that we
would rather go on strike than compromise on these fundamental points.

If the actors do strike, they'll join the industry's writers,
who've been on the picket lines since May 2nd over many of the same
issues. In a broader sense, they'll join the legions of professional
and proto-professional workers (physicians, professors, docents,
university teaching assistants, think-tankers et al.) who've been
joining unions or walking off the job over the past two years. These all
are workers whom their employers can't readily replace; the tens of
millions of retail, factory, construction, and other workers who can be
replaced are still largely blocked from forming unions by the threats of
being fired (generally illegal but also unpunishable) from their
employers.

One problem not on the actors' list is the current ubiquity and market
domination of Marvel/DC schlock blockbusters, in which actors are very
well paid but also concealed behind superhero costumes and cartoon
de-characterizations to the point of indistinguishability. When the
film-going audience is dominated by 11-year-old boys grooving on
Transformers, the lessons of the Actors Studio won't carry an actor
very far.

The rise of the comic-book epics also suggests that AI might well pose a
threat to the studio CEOs themselves. As they all have followed the same
path-eliminating genres that involved actual human beings, heeding
Wall Street's demands for kaboom-a-thons that entrance newly-or
-pre-pubescent boys the world over-there's less and less reason for
the studios to employ human chief executives with skill sets and
preferences of their own, particularly since they're paid huge bucks
that could otherwise go straight to their mega-rich investors. It may be
the case-and most certainly would be in a world where the arc of the
moral universe bends toward justice-that AI will come for Warner Bros.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and leave Meryl Streep untouched.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter <[link removed]>

[link removed]

The Urgency of an I-95 Emergency
<[link removed]>
The response to reconstructing Interstate 95 in Philadelphia was
exceptional. But urban road repairs are very different from building new
projects from the ground up. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

House FAA Reauthorization Bill Would Distort True Price of Airfare
<[link removed]>
The airline industry is using a must-pass bill to decouple government
taxes, fees, and other surcharges from prices listed on airfare
advertisements. BY JAROD FACUNDO

Minnesota Stands Out in Midwest on Abortion
<[link removed]>
After 'Dobbs,' state lawmakers moved decisively to liberalize
reproductive rights laws. BY EMMA J. MURPHY

[link removed]

 

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.  <[link removed]>

Click to Share this Newsletter

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>

The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.

To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.

To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.

To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.