The SAG-ging AFTRA-math

Up to now I hadn't mentioned the Hollywood writers' strike because I never had time to discuss it.  Now, however, SAG-AFTRA (SAG used to stand for the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA used to stand for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, but since they merged, they're just meaningless initials now) has gone on strike in solidarity with the writers, and for the same issues: the concerns over artificial intelligence crimping on their craft, the need for better pay and benefits, and a need for more residual payments for their work on streaming services.  Most actors, of course, are not household names, and they're threatened by the new and evolving business model based on streaming, which does not pay residuals. 

"How they plead poverty that they are losing money left and right when they give $100 million to their CEOs," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said.  "If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines."

Wow - that's astonishing!  Fran Drescher is the SAG-AFTRA president now?

Hollywood has now shut down completely, and its best and most talented actors have been silenced.  Fortunately, that's not very serious.  For evidence of that, consider the fact that there's a now live-action movie based on Barbie.  The doll.  (Actually, Barbie is not a doll; it's an action figure that sees too little action and has too much of a figure.)  Hollywood has been going in a silly direction for years with all of these movies based on consumer products and comic books and rarely makes something comparable to modern classics like Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, Save the Tiger, Chinatown, or The Conversation.  The best anyone can hope for is for this twin strike is that it brings down the studio system that makes so many artless blockbusters - once confined to the summer season but now prevalent year-round - and returns us to basic moviemaking, the sort of artistically centered cinema where someone can just make a movie showing two guys talking philosophy in a restaurant, like Louis Malle's masterpiece My Dinner with Andre.  Kids who want to be entertained by Barbie or by Mario can just stay home and play with their toys.  

I'm getting more misanthropic in late middle age, yes . . .