Universal Studios has been accused of trimming the trees that lined its studio lot and provided shade for striking actors and writers.
On Monday (17 July), following the first weekend of the historic Hollywood shutdown, comic Chris Stephens tweeted a photo showing the bare trees.
“Quick shoutout to the good people at @UniversalPics for trimming the trees that gave our picket line shade right before a 90+ degree week,” Stephens wrote.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators unanimously recommended a strike after talks with the AMPTP broke down last week.
Additionally, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May. Both groups demand increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by AI.
Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny and SAG president, said studios’ responses to the actors’ concerns had been “insulting and disrespectful”.
In light of the historic double strike, several actors and writers, including Matilda child star and romcom staple John Cusack, have shared personal horror stories of Hollywood studio greed.
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger condemned the threatened strike action as “very disruptive” at the “worst time” as well as calling the expectations of writers and actors “not realistic”.
‘No contracts, no peace’: Actors stage demonstration in New York
Retired actor Russ Tamblyn tells picketers not to ‘sell out like Ronald Reagan did’
Retired actor Russ Tamblyn, best known for his role in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story, has offered actors and writers currently striking some advice from his early days on the picket line.
“Stay in there and keep striking,” he told People in a new interview. “And don’t sell out like Ronald Reagan did.”
The 88-year-old actor, who’s been a “proud member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1949”, was a part of the monumental Hollywood shutdown of 1960.
The SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in March 1960, led by Ronald Reagan, who was the union president years before his US presidency, came to an end five weeks later after the union struck a deal with studios.
Studios agreed to actors earning residual payments for films produced in 1960 and after, but for projects they had worked on before 1948, they would earn zero residuals.
“I was pretty upset when I found out that Reagan gave away the residuals for actors that worked in the 1940s and the 1950s,” Russ said. “Because I did most of my films, most of them in the 1950s.
“So that really cut me out of the loop, and I thought it was pretty crappy,” he added.
