Actors and their employers have been divided on issues of pay, the use of artificial intelligence and self-taped auditions.
Here's a look at the key figures in the negotiations to end the new strike, and the people who successfully struck the deal to end the last one.
DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND
As national executive director and chief negotiator for the
He took an unlikely path to get there. Born in
“I get asked to talk to law students about careers from time to time, and I always preface the story by saying I can’t, I don’t encourage you to try to replicate this because I’ve no idea how it happened,” Crabtree-Ireland told the AP in an interview. “I never thought I’d be here.”
He would be tested quickly after getting the job. The first contract talks for film and TV actors under his role as chief negotiator resulted in their first strike in more than 40 years.
His return to the negotiating table now appears to be imminent.
CAROL LOMBARDINI
Across the table from Crabtree-Ireland is
For 14 years, Lombardini has led negotiations for studios in contract talks with all of
Since 2009, Lombardini, has been president and chief negotiator of the
She grew up in a working class suburb of
A respected if adversarial figure in years past, she become the target of much of strikers' vitriol. She appears often on picket signs and is the subject of many parody social media accounts.
THE EXECUTIVES
Lombardini and the AMPTP represent a coalition of more than 350 companies, but as in the entertainment industry itself, a few giants dominate.
Three leaders have come to embody the group:
The trio, along with NBCUniversal chair and chief content officer
As chief executive of entertainment’s biggest behemoth, Disney’s Iger would always have been a target for strikers. But a new contract reportedly worth more than
The industry's shift to a streaming model is behind most of the issues that led to the strikes.
As CEO of Warner-Discovery, Zaslav, for strikers, embodies the entertainment executive who shifts away from elite creative programming toward reality TV and other less vaunted programming, most manifest on Max, the streaming service that under his watch dropped “HBO” from its name.
Before the strikes began he was already scorned by many on the creative side for shelving nearly finished projects like “Batgirl” and turning them into tax write-offs.
FRAN DRESCHER
Drescher was re-elected
Hollywood’s guilds operate like cities that have an elected mayor who sets the agenda, and a city manager who oversees operations more directly. If Crabtree-Ireland is
She engaged in some serious agenda setting with her fiery speech at the news conference announcing the strike on
“When you speak from the heart, people are so responsive,” Drescher told The AP. “Because I guess they see a lot of people that don’t. And so it kind of cuts through the noise when it does.”
Drescher was born, raised and went to community college in
She became a household name when she co-created and starred in “The Nanny.” The series ran on
THE ACTORS' COMMITTEE
You’d be forgiven for thinking SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee was actually a film cast playing a negotiating committee. The group backing up Crabtree-Ireland in the talks is, naturally, full of actors, including
Astin gave a shout out to his mom, who died in 2016, at an
“Any background actors out there, any stunt performers, singers and dancers and puppeteers and pilots? We represent all of you,” Astin shouted. “I invoke the name of my mother
Other members of the committee include “Rent” actor
Ralph told the crowd at a July strike rally in
“This is not about your favorite stars on TV or in motion pictures, uh uh!” she said. “Eighty percent of our union is made up of plain old ordinary people trying to make a living.”
ELLEN STUTZMAN
It is not a role she expected to play when the year began.
Stutzman, also an attorney, took over as chief negotiator for the
She still has the title from her previous role: assistant executive director for the
“We would tell the viewers and the public that writers are fighting to have a career, and to have a viable profession, and to continue to create the shows and movies that people in this country and around the world love,” Stutzman told The AP on the first day of the writers strike in May.
Generally regarded as more low key and less combative than Young, Stutzman played a key role in writers’ 2019 fight with agents, in which WGA members fired their representatives en masse over plans by Hollywood’s major talent agencies to expand into production. The union also sued the agencies, calling the potential move a conflict of interest and a violation of antitrust law. That battle — which the writers won — in some ways served as a dress rehearsal for the strike to come.
Stutzman graduated from the
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