(GoRealNewsNow.com) – Hollywood is figuratively in flames after an already massive strike of screenwriters has now involved thousands of actors demanding more money from studios and rattling the increasingly far-left-dominated film industry.
Mass-scale protest rallies were held in Los Angeles and New York City on Monday, with actors and writers bracing “for a long, hot summer standoff with studios,” The Associated Press reports.
“Picketers emphasized unity between writers, who have been on the lines for more than two months, and performers, who are only on Day 2 of striking — as well as camaraderie between highly paid actors and those with spare screen credits who struggle to scrape by,” the left-leaning news outlet notes.
Last Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) decided unanimously to join the strike over the Writers Guild of America that started on May 2.
Both the actors and the writers demand residual payments from studios that the transition to streaming has erased. They are also protesting against “the unpaid use of their work and likeness by artificial intelligence avatars.”
For now, few from the striking unions expect a deal to be reached soon with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which unites studios, streamers, and production companies.
Kevin Bacon was among the most famous actors protesting on Monday outside Viacom’s headquarters in NYC.
“[My presence here is about] seeing people out here and being aware that not all actors are high-paid actors, that the working-class class people who are trying to make a living,” he said.
“These things are things that I personally can negotiate for,” Bacon said. “But I’m here for the working class middle-class class part of our union who needs these basic provisions in the basic contract,” Bacon elaborated.
Whitney Morgan Cox, a working actor with a role in the CBS series “Criminal Minds,” described the collaboration between actors and screenwriters as “powerful.”
“I don’t think people necessarily realize the energy that writers and actors have, and the stamina, and our ability to commit, that’s all our entire job is about is just committing to something and following through,” Cox said as he protested outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
