Ugh: Film Actors Guild Ends 118 Day Strike

I was hoping this would go into the new year.

The studios had given the Film Actors Guild an ultimatum: Either settle now, or we'll just stop holding all talks until next year. They figured there was no point even bothering negotiating during the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years season.

So the Film Actors Guilders finally came to terms.

After a grueling 118 days on strike, SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, a move that is heralding the end of the 2023 actors strike.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. On Friday, the deal will go to the union's national board for approval.

The performers union announced the provisional agreement Wednesday, after about two weeks of renewed negotiations. The development came not long before a deadline of 5 p.m. that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had set for the union to give their answer on whether they had a deal.

The union is so far providing some details of the agreement, more of which will likely emerge in the next few days prior to the union's ratification vote. In a message to members Wednesday night, the union said the pact is valued at over $1 billion and includes pay increases higher than what other unions received this year, a "streaming participation bonus" and regulations on AI. The tentative deal also includes higher caps on health and pension funds, compensation bumps for background performers and "critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities." If the deal is ratified, the contract could soon go into effect, and if not, members would essentially send their labor negotiators back to the bargaining table with the AMPTP.

Just wanted to clarify something I said earlier this week: I have no problem with people saying "the last movie I watched was with John Wayne." The last TV show I watched was... the 1960s/1970s Mission: Impossible TV show on Pluto. It's pretty much the only TV show I watch. Well, that an Just Shoot Me from the 90s.

I have no problem with rejecting Hollywood and in fact loudly champion doing so. Even if someone wants to watch a movie or TV show, there are decades worth of stuff to watch already. No one has to watch modern "entertainment."

Years ago, Kurt Schlichter, who I almost always agree with, wrote something I thought was completely wrong: He said that conservatives needed to engage in the culture, and that included watching crap like Lena Dunham's Girls.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. There are only so many hours in the day and the idea of wasting time watching crap you don't like just to be part of the "cultural conversation," to slightly, maybe, increase conservatives' vote share seems to me the worst possible tradeoff imaginable. If winning elections means I have to watch Lena Dunham's fat ass, then put me down for not winning elections.

But I would like to cover the fall of modern "entertainment" as a business/culture story.

That's not the same as gabbing about who is the Hottest Chris in Superhero Movies, you know. (It's Chris Hemsworth, obviously.)

I don't like being shamed about covering the fall of a woke media giant like Disney with the "I don't watch new movies" stuff, where that's used as a not-so-subtle insult to anyone who's talking about current day media. As if I'm some kind of Disney fanboy tittybaby.

And do note, I'm only talking about Disney fare, not watching it. I haven't watched anything Marvel since... Well I did see the Doctor Strange movie. And that's it over the past few years.

So do continue boycotting Hollywood. I'm boycotting it myself, pretty much.

Just let me cover Disney without not-so-covertly calling me a Silly Child for doing so.

And if you let me do that, you can say "I haven't watched a movie since John Wayne" all you like.

I just watched the Claude Raines Invisible Man. I think that's actually the last movie I watched.

So, actually, I haven't watched a movie since Claude Raines.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:12 PM

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