By Krysta Fauria
CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) --The cast of "Breaking Bad" has reunited to call upon Hollywood studios to resume negotiations with striking screen actors.
"We want you to come back to the table with us," Bryan Cranston said in a plea to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers outside Sony Pictures Studios on Tuesday.
Cranston was joined by Aaron Paul, Jesse Plemons and other members of the "Breaking Bad" universe in an effort to energize picket lines more than a month after SAG-AFTRA joined striking Hollywood writers.
Both guilds are seeking to address issues brought about by the dominance of streaming services, which have changed all aspects of production and pay in the industry.
"The way things were structured 10 years ago made a lot of sense and it made it more possible for journeymen-type actors, actors in the middle that are working just as a hard or harder," Plemons said.
By its final season, which aired more than a decade ago, "Breaking Bad" was one of the most watched and highest rated cable TV shows ever.
The AMC hit series has achieved enduring popularity on Netflix, but its stars say that has not been reflected in their pay.
"I don't get a piece from Netflix on 'Breaking Bad' to be totally honest and that's insane to me," Paul said. "I think a lot of these streamers know that they have been getting away with not paying people a fair wage and now it's time to pony up."
Cranston said they chose Sony for their reunion as the studio behind the Emmy-winning hit, along with its spinoff projects, the AMC prequel series "Better Call Saul" and the Netflix film, "El Camino."
"We're not making them the enemy. They are not villains. These are people that we all will be working with once again at some point," Cranston said. "We just want them to see reality."
Several other casts have joined picket lines during the strike, including actors from "Parks and Recreation" and the cult hit "Jury Duty," drawing a link between popular shows and the actors' strike goals.
Cranston also affirmed SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher's recent comments to The Associated Press that these dual Hollywood strikes are galvanizing a broader movement throughout the country.
"Without organized labor, management will just keep stuffing their pockets. They don't and will not ever just go, 'You know what? I don't think this is being fair to those people. I'm going to pay them more.' It's just not what they do," he said.
Cast members of "Better Call Saul" were also on the picket lines, including Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian, along with the series co-creator, Peter Gould, who has been on strike with the Writers Guild of America since May.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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