LB: My Favorite SAG-AFTRA Strike Parody

How low has this country’s level of intelligence fallen? Today the Washington Post brought us a humorous and in many ways deadly opinion column about what’s happening in the entertainment industry (and by extension, many other industries) right now, and to make sure it was properly received by readers actually gave it the following oh-so-informative URL:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/13/hollywood-actors-writers-strike-studio-parody/

Did the Post’s powers-that-be really believe this was necessary?

(image via MSNBC. Hmm…I wonder what the network intended by its caption. “Raging,” after all, is quite the loaded word.)

I’m fanatically for the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and certainly agree with Fran Drescher’s quote about the disrespect shown by the spokespeople for what the New York Times calls the “old line studios.” I’m also addicted to a little thing called sarcasm and often find myself using it even when I don’t intend to. Which means that with no coaching needed I thoroughly enjoyed the following and believe you will (or should) too.


It’s fine. We don’t need human actors.
by

([Author’s] Disclosure: Every so often, I try to write a Hollywood thing and it goes nowhere, though sometimes it goes nowhere after someone has paid me an amount of money and we have signed a contract, so I have a dog in the writers strike fight, if not a dog who is my regular employer!)

My dear shareholders! Do not worry about the fact that all the screen actors and screenwriters are on strike.

If there is one thing I have figured out about the meaning of life and the meaning of art, it is that art is something that should be entirely the product of machines and robots while people march around with picket signs and complain that they cannot afford food and housing. Also, no one should ever be paid a residual, whatever that is. I just don’t like the sound of it.

Art, as we know, represents the fundamental human striving to wring profit for a large corporation from a concept that already exists in the culture. It might involve human beings coming together to tell stories with their minds, bodies and faces, but it doesn’t need to. In fact, I think it would be more efficient if it didn’t….

Read it all at the Washington Post


LYMI

    LB

The SAG-AFTRA Strike is a Real Thing Now

(via today's WGAW email!)

The above is how the WGA put it in an email to members. And here’s what NPR had to say just a couple of hours ago:

Hollywood actors go on strike, say it’s time for studio execs to ‘wake up’
by Mandalit del Barco

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors and performers, has voted to go on strike against major studios. Union president Fran Drescher said in a press conference that it was time for studio executives to “wake up and smell the coffee.”

The union’s national board made the decision after negotiations broke down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. After a last ditch effort, monitored by a federal mediator, the two sides failed to come to an agreement….

Read it all at NPR


LYMI

And SAG-AFTRA!
LB

WGA CONTRACT 2023 Update

(via 7/5/23 EMAIL)

The wording of the above update regarding the current WGA strike impresses me. I love how all the meaning is kept solidly between the lines because, factoring in all the elements of the current situation, that seems to me to be exactly the right thing for us to be doing now.


LYMI

LB

We interrupt this blog for–

(Pic taken shortly before the wedding. Ain't she something?)

–Happy Anniversary, Gwen the Beautiful.

Thank you for our 30 years of joy and nuttiness. And, of course, for saving me from myself time and time and, yep, time again.

Life can’t help but be the best when you get as lucky as I did and marry an angel!

(Live! From Paradise! will be back next week.)