Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new over-the-counter birth control pill is on the way, diversity jobs are disappearing, and the SAG strike is just the beginning. Have a great weekend.
- On the picket line. Hollywood is on strike. SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents performers, joined the Writers Guild of America yesterday in striking against Hollywood studios after contract talks failed. Film and television production will now come to a standstill around the world, as will press tours, social media promotion, and more.
It's the first time in 43 years that actors have gone on strike. Last time writers and actors were on strike together, Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild. This time around, the guild's president is Fran Drescher, star of The Nanny. And Drescher gave a barn-burning speech yesterday shaming studios for failing to reach an agreement.
"I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things, how they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs," Drescher said. "It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment.” (She also responded to criticism that she went to a fashion event in Italy last weekend amid strike talks; she said it was a work event for a brand deal—like many performers in SAG have—and she was on Zoom late into the night trying to reach a deal.)
Studio bosses like Disney's Bob Iger have said they're disappointed by the strike which "ad[d] to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing."
The Hollywood strikes are being watched across industries. A central issue is the streaming business model that has left writers and actors without meaningful residuals for their projects, even as those projects continue to earn money for companies, as this New Yorker piece about the 10-year anniversary of Orange Is New Black outlines.
The other sticking point—with even greater implications—is A.I. Studios, writers, and performers have not agreed on how their work and likenesses could be used to develop A.I.-based content. In a press conference, SAG negotiators said that while studios said they'd offered a "groundbreaking" A.I. proposal, that proposal would have allowed studios to scan the likenesses of background actors and use them in future projects, with no expiration date, without requiring the actor's consent or additional compensation.
As companies across sectors wrestle with what A.I. will mean for their businesses and workforces, the WGA and SAG negotiations provide a preview. Business leaders say that bringing people along on the journey to an A.I.-powered future is the hardest part of this once-in-a-generation transition. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade organization representing Hollywood bosses, has so far failed to convince its labor force to buy into its vision of the future.
As Drescher said in her speech: "The eyes of the world and, particularly, the eyes of labor are upon us."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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