Showstopper! Strikes Plunge Hollywood Into Chaos With Pricey Movie Delays, Pay Battles and AI Anxiety

variety.com:

Fran Drescher, the sitcom star turned actors union leader, preferred to evoke the French Revolution, likening SAG-AFTRA’s struggle to the proletariat’s rebellion against an out-of-touch monarchy. “Eventually the people break down the gates of Versailles,” the “Nanny” star said during a press conference officially announcing the strike.

As if on cue, Disney CEO Bob Iger countered with his own let-them-eat-cake sound bite, telling CNBC’s David Faber a few hours earlier that when it came to negotiating with striking writers and actors, “there’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.” The mogul, who stands to earn as much as $27 million in total compensation this year, delivered his blunt assessment from Sun Valley, Idaho, a bucolic ski resort that hosts Allen & Co.’s annual media conference — an event that some call “summer camp for billionaires.” Fittingly, actors joined Writers Guild of America members on the picket lines on July 14 — Bastille Day.

Ron Perlman, the “Sons of Anarchy” star, adopted a Robespierre-like tone in a viral video message posted to Instagram: “The motherfucker who said we’re going to keep this thing going until people start losing their houses and their apartments … we know who said that and where he fucking lives,” he said, referencing a Deadline report that quoted an anonymous studio executive about dragging out WGA talks to the point where its members face financial ruin. “You wish that families starve while you’re making 27 fucking million dollars a year for creating nothing?

Be careful, motherfucker. Be really careful.” (Perlman has since deleted the video, though it continues to circulate widely on Twitter.) Outside Paramount Pictures that day, with temperatures.