For the first time in six decades, Hollywood writers and actors are on strike at the same time — a cataclysm for hundreds of thousands of film and TV workers already idled by the entertainment industry’s growing labor strife.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which represents some 160,000 performers, announced a walkout Thursday after failing to reach a new labor agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which represents studios including Walt Disney and Netflix. The strike begins at midnight.
The Writers Guild of America, meanwhile has been on strike since May 2, shutting down late-night TV programs like The Tonight Show, halting many projects in progress and imperiling the traditional release of new broadcast TV shows starting in September.