Hollywood Studios Break Off Strike Talks with Actors

The iconic Hollywood sign is pictured on the day members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved a new three-year contract with major studios, in Los Angeles, California, US, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
The iconic Hollywood sign is pictured on the day members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved a new three-year contract with major studios, in Los Angeles, California, US, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
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Hollywood Studios Break Off Strike Talks with Actors

The iconic Hollywood sign is pictured on the day members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved a new three-year contract with major studios, in Los Angeles, California, US, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
The iconic Hollywood sign is pictured on the day members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved a new three-year contract with major studios, in Los Angeles, California, US, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Talks bitterly broke off between Hollywood actors and studios late Wednesday, killing any hopes that the three-month strike by performers would come to an end anytime soon.
The studios announced that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it, despite an offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers strike. The actors union decried their opponents' “bullying tactics” and said they were wildly mischaracterizing their offers, The Associated Press reported.
On Oct. 2, for the first time since the strike began July 14, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks.
When negotiations resumed with writers last month, their strike ended five days later, but similar progress was not made with the actors union.
The studios walked away from talks after seeing the actors' most recent proposal on Wednesday.
“It is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost companies an additional $800 million a year and create “an untenable economic burden,” the statement said.
In a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG AFTRA said that figure was overestimated by 60%. The union said its negotiators were “profoundly disappointed” the studios had broken off talks.
“We have negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter read, “despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”
Actors have been on strike over issues including increases in pay for streaming programming and control of the use of their images generated by artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP insisted its offers had been as generous as the deals that brought an end to the writers strike and brought a new contract to the directors guild earlier this year.
But the union letter to actors said the companies “refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”
From the start, the actors talks had nothing like the momentum that spurred marathon night-and-weekend sessions in the writers strike and brought that work stoppage to an end. Actors and studios had taken several days off after resuming, and there were no reports of meaningful progress despite direct involvement from the heads of studios including Disney and Netflix as there had been in the writers strike.
The writers did have their own false start in negotiations, however. A month before the successful talks, the initial attempt to restart ended after just a few days.
Members of the Writers Guild of America voted almost unanimously to ratify their new contract on Monday.
Their leaders touted their deal as achieving most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier.
They declared their strike over, and sent writers back to work, on Sept. 26.
Late night talk shows returned to the air within a week, and other shows including “Saturday Night Live” will soon follow.
But with no actors, production on scripted shows and movies will stay on pause indefinitely.



Remembering Quincy Jones: 10 Career-Spanning Songs to Celebrate His Legacy

Michael Jackson, left, holds eight awards as he poses with Quincy Jones at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1984. (AP)
Michael Jackson, left, holds eight awards as he poses with Quincy Jones at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1984. (AP)
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Remembering Quincy Jones: 10 Career-Spanning Songs to Celebrate His Legacy

Michael Jackson, left, holds eight awards as he poses with Quincy Jones at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1984. (AP)
Michael Jackson, left, holds eight awards as he poses with Quincy Jones at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1984. (AP)

Few artists have legacies so mammoth their very name could be considered synonymous with the music industry, but then again, most musicians are not the prodigious producer Quincy Jones.

The larger-than-life figure died Sunday night at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family. He was 91 and scheduled to receive an honorary Academy Award later this month.

Across his career, the 28-time Grammy Award winning Jones worked with everyone from Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson with hundreds in-between. The best way to celebrate his legacy, of course, is to listen to the music he made.

1963: Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie's orchestra, “Honeysuckle Rose”

Those looking to kickstart their Jones listening journey at the very beginning of his career could do so with “Liza,” from his first album, “Jazz Abroad,” a joint release with Roy Haynes. For everyone else, look to his arrangements on 1963's “Ella and Basie!,” an album by Fitzgerald with Count Basie's orchestra. Moving from just vocals and bass before building into its own grandness — not to mention, a delightful scat solo from Fitzgerald — “Honeysuckle Rose” from the album is an exemplar of Jones' jazz brilliance.

1963: Lesley Gore, “It’s My Party”

Teenage heartbreak met its match on Lesley Gore's “It's My Party,” recorded when its pop singer was still in her own adolescence. Jones produced the record, with its addictive melodies, percussion and cheerful horn section — emotionally and diametrically opposed to its narrative tale of a girl getting dumped by her boyfriend for her best friend on her birthday. You'd cry, too, if it happened to you.

1964: Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon”

Jones' legacy is defined by an idiosyncratic ability to master various American musical forms with an apparent ease. That is the case of this canonized cover by Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon,” from Sinatra's 1964 album, “It Might as Well Be Swing,” arranged by Jones. The producer set the song to a punchy, swinging rhythm and wistful flute, and the rest is history. You can also thank Jones for “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

1967: Ray Charles, “In the Heat of the Night”

Jones scored the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” which includes its R&B-gospel title track, “In the Heat of the Night,” performed by his good friend Ray Charles. It is soul committed to wax, amplified by the inclusion of a lusty tenor sax solo.

1979: Michael Jackson, “Don’t Stop 'Til You Get Enough”

Perhaps Jones' best-known production partnership is the one he had with Michael Jackson, working with the King of Pop on his culture-shifting albums, 1979's “Off the Wall," 1982's “Thriller” and 1987's “Bad.” The pair met while working on the 1978 movie “The Wiz" — Jones worked on its soundtrack, and Jackson was its star. “Don't Stop ‘Til You Get Enough," with its inventive disco-funk, ambitious production and Jackson's signature falsetto set the stage for the massive career to come.

1981: Quincy Jones, “Just Once”

Put it in the pantheon of great piano ballads: On Jones' 1981 album “The Dude,” James Ingram takes over lead vocal duties for “Just Once,” the big-hearted and bigger-feelings track.

1982: Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”

What songs are more immediately recognizable? An elongated drum and bass lick introduce “Billie Jean,” one of the great genre-averse pop songs of all time, from Jackson's record-breaking “Thriller" album. Here, Jones' production is post-disco, but still funky, still prescient. And time tells the greatest tale: “Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others as the best-selling album of all time.

1982: Donna Summer, “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)”

And now for something completely different: In 1982, Jones worked with Donna Summer on her self-titled album, a dance-forward record that includes the synth-y pop single “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)," which earned a Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance, female.

1985: USA for Africa, “We Are the World”

Nearly four decades ago, some of the biggest stars on the planet — Jackson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen among them — came together for an all-night recording session. The result was “We Are the World,” a pop superhit overseen by Jones, the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Jones “the master orchestrator.”

1989: Quincy Jones with Ray Charles and Chaka Khan, “I'll Be Good to You”

Back in 1976, Jones produced the Brothers Johnson's R&B hit, “I'll Be Good to You,” and then re-recorded the track with Ray Charles and Chaka Khan — an ebullient number with contemporary production, completely transforming the classic.