As one in all actuality TV’s royal household crossed the road, placing movie and tv writers joined forces on Wednesday in New York Metropolis with one other group of tradition staff concerned in a pay dispute: musicians.
Whereas a five-piece band performed bopping brass and percussion music, members of the Writers Guild of America, of their fifth week on strike, joined in solidarity with musicians, music-industry staff and their supporters in Midtown Manhattan.
Their meet-up spot on the curb was exterior the headquarters of Penske Media Company, proprietor of Austin-set South by Southwest aka SXSW. The convention is going through criticism for the way it compensates bands. (PMC additionally owns Deadline and different media- and culture-focused publications together with Rolling Stone and Billboard.)
Musicians returned the gesture by becoming a member of the writers at one other rally on Wednesday afternoon exterior the headquarters of Paramount World.
Outdoors Paramount, a queen of stage and display was on the road. Right here’s why SAG-AFTRA member Alfre Woodard is supporting placing writers:
Earlier in the present day WGA strike captain Warren Leight known as out Kardashian for crossing the picket line for Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story.
“Unhappy to report that Kim Kardashian crossed our midtown picket line in the present day,” the previous In Remedy showrunner tweeted. “Ushered previous us right into a freight elevator in her chauffeured Escalade. Writers aren’t maintaining, however Kim Krossed Our Line.”
Leight tweeted a poignant clarification later: “As soon as once more: working actors are required to cross our traces till their contract is up on June 30. It’s not scabbing,” he wrote. “Many agonize over that, march with us on different days, ship statements of help. She has extra leverage than others in her place. She didn’t use it.”
A seemingly unblushing Kardashian, for her half, posted this picture on her Instagram story in the present day:
Kim Kardashian through Instagram
With the WGA bringing their help beforehand on Wednesday, the sooner protest exterior Penske HQ attended by greater than 100 marchers. Their ire was the enterprise mannequin of SXSW, the doubtless career-making music {industry} confab, artist showcase and media competition that pulls hundreds of band members, solo artists and different attendees to Austin each March.
Demanding higher compensation for bands taking part in the Texas fest, members of two actors unions — SAG-AFTRA and Broadway’s Actors’ Fairness Affiliation — additionally had been readily available, together with unionized New York musicians within the American Federation of Musicians Native 802.
The message for SXSW as summarized by one speaker on Wednesday was easy: “Pay your [expletive] bands,” mentioned Sajeev Rau, who belongs to a newly licensed union for staff at a bunch of impartial document labels. The protesters say SXSW is making thousands and thousands of {dollars} yearly on a musical occasion that pays the precise musicians a pittance.
SXSW picketers in Manhattan (Sean Piccoli/Deadline)
SXSW 2023, which featured greater than 1,500 group or solo performers in mid-March, provided every band or solo artist that was booked to play one in all SXSW’s coveted showcases a alternative of a stipend — $250 per band or $100 per solo artist — or a wristband credential without cost entry to competition occasions. It’s a deal that hasn’t modified in additional than a decade, whereas the applying price for competition slots has climbed from $40 to $55, the Austin-American Statesman reported in February.
Representatives for Penske and SXSW didn’t reply to requests from Deadline searching for remark.
One WGA member, comic and author Sasha Stewart, echoed a recurring theme on Wednesday, that writers and musicians are on this battle collectively.
“So once we heard that musicians who make SXSW thousands and thousands of {dollars} yearly are solely getting paid with a wristband or $100, we had been shocked and outraged however not stunned,” Stewart mentioned. “Company media like Penske and the TV-movie studios will all the time demand essentially the most from artists whereas paying the least that they’ll.”
Musicians Employees Alliance member Phillip Golub mentioned that placing writers standing up for musicians in their labor struggles was “extremely highly effective” for him.
“As impartial musicians it may typically really feel like we’re utterly on our personal, and we’re largely unorganized,” Golub mentioned. “And so once we reached out to a number of of those different unions and organizations which can be right here, to see their help is extremely significant to us. It’s significant to them, too, as a result of our struggles are related.”
After speeches and a send-off spherical of “We’ll be again” chants, dozens of picketers marched a number of blocks throughout Manhattan to a rally underway exterior Paramount’s places of work in Occasions Sq., the place New York musician Marc Ribot marched with greater than 130 others whereas taking part in the English horn.
Out on the West Coast, it was horror day exterior Warner Bros. Todd Spence tweeted a photograph of some unhappy-looking fellow picketers who seemed to be our for blood, Ryan Shovey’s signal encapsulated the mayhem of the previous four-plus weeks, and a critter was eyeballing Bobby Miller and others:
For many who would possibly shun horror whereas buzzing “What the World Wants Now Is Love,” there was this gathering exterior Amazon’s L.A. HQ in the present day:
And there was extra for the lovers:
If all that darkness and light-weight merely made of us hungry, meals was again within the highlight on Wednesday. Huge Mouth creator-star Nick Kroll despatched the Yeastie Boys bagel truck to the traces. No sleep until Netflix!
And talking of toons, a bunch of picketers from the Animation Guild swigged some “solidarity juice,” courtesy of the groups at Gray’s Anatomy and Station 19:
Elsewhere in L.A., some former CSI writers bought their fingerprints on picket indicators:
Looking forward to Thursday, a Delight Picket us set for the afternoon exterior Warner Bros., adopted by an afterparty.
Katie Campione, Rosy Cordero, Matt Grobar, Natalie Sitek, Pete White and Dominic Patten contributed to this report.
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