Hollywood writers on strike PENS DOWN!

CELEBRITIES SHOW THEIR SUPPORT FOR SCREENWRITERS, AS A STRIKE FORCES THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY INTO SHUTDOWN

- Sara Tapia

Stars from the small screen are speaking up and stepping out in solidarity after screenwriters shut their laptops and walked off the job on May 2. Negotiations between their union and Hollywood studios, such as Amazon, Netflix and Warner Bros, failed to come to a resolution over poor pay, with thousands of scribes walking out of their writers’ rooms – bringing production to a halt.

The board of directors for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted unanimously to call for a walkout – its first in more than 15 years – with a statement describing a shifting media landscape where the rise of streaming has led to worse pay and less stable work, along with the looming threat of artificial intelligence in the industry also leaving writers facing an “existential crisis”.