arts
Re: the writers’ strike, someone says the quiet part loud:
“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”
This comes as no surprise at all to experienced writers. Full article here; similar coverage in Vanity Fair is also making the rounds.
Also, if you’re up for the minor hassle of setting up a Medium account, here’s a primer on “free work” in feature screenwriting, a motivating force behind this here Substack.
labor
The first double-strike by actors and screenwriters since 1960 is underway.
And, while the headline’s implication that Hollywood is leading the labor movement made me wince, this LA Times piece provides some good context about other actions happening in California, as well as the role of exorbitant housing costs in making labor conditions untenable. Note that, as mentioned above, the threat of lost housing is an express component of executive strategy. (Are you radicalized yet?)
media
In a must-read article, Book Post details the relationship between privatization and censorship in New York prisons, most recently manifest in stealthily imposed restrictions to reading and writing.
Not the easiest reads this week, but the high-profile SAG-AFTRA strike is promising. Take care.