The last major Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike lasted 100 days in 2007-’08, adversely impacting TV and film production. Fast forward to today and recent developments have fueled speculation about the possibility of another walkout as the WGA’s East and West Coast boards have given a greenlight to having members vote on a strike authorization.
If members provide that authorization, the WGA would be able to call a strike if a deal cannot be reached on a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Strike authorization voting will be conducted online and at special membership meetings in mid-April, with the current contract deadline of May 1 looming.
Negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP recently broke off after two weeks of talks. Yesterday the AMPTP formally invited the WGA back to the bargaining table. And now contract talks are set to resume on April 10. Among the key issues are residuals related to streaming platforms, reportedly declining wages in TV over the past three years, and funding of the Guild’s healthcare and pension plans
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More