Hollywood Writers Keep Strike Story Lively by Putting on a Show

Hollywood screenwriters, on strike for higher pay since May 2, are keeping morale up and pressure on the studios by trying to make their picket lines as entertaining as their programs.

Street-side protests in Los Angeles have featured DJs, free donuts and pizza, as well as celebrity appearances and group karaoke to songs like I Will Survive.

Members of bands such as Weezer and Imagine Dragons have performed. Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav played Fight the Power on a boombox outside of the Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. lot, while down the street strikers sang songs from the Broadway show Newsies outside Walt Disney Co. studios. On some days the demonstrations have been devoted to Black, Asian or LGBT writers. Some have focused on particular programs.

On Friday morning, hundreds of writers, actors and supporters marched in front of the Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles in a salute to the Star Trek films and TV shows, a Paramount Global property. Some carried picket signs with photos of cast members or slogans culled from the shows, such as “Live Union and Prosper” and “Khan-tract.” A few came in costume.

“I’m possibly Jean-Luc Picard, but with slightly more hair,” said Andrew Bartels, a producer of NCIS: Los Angeles, as he marched in a red tunic reminiscent of the fictional starship captain. “I showed up not knowing if I was going to look ridiculous in my costume but fortunately it turned out well.”

Film and TV writers walked off their jobs at the start of the month after failing to come to terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which represents companies like Disney and Netflix Inc. in contract talks. They’re asking for higher pay and changes to work rules, such as a minimum number of writers per show. They’re also asking for a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in script writing.

“AI is terrifying,” said actress Jeri Ryan, who played the former borg drone Seven of Nine in two series — Star Trek: Voyager and the newer Star Trek: Picard. “This is a seismic shift in our industry and it’s very important that we stand together and fight,” she said on the picket line Friday.

Besides dealing with the writers strike, the studios are in negotiations with the Directors Guild of America, whose contract is up next month. This week, the Screen Actors Guild said it would hold a strike authorization vote, a prelude to a work stoppage. Its agreement also ends in June.

The writers union is asking scribes to march about four hours a day. There are no specific assignments, and many choose a studio closest to their home, although some locations are getting reputations for being more fun than others.

Simran Baidwan, whose credits include The Good Doctor and Chicago Med, said the picket lines are an opportunity for writers to see each other when they’re not working. She left the set of a show in Georgia when the strike was called and marches near her home in Los Angeles.

Star power goes a long way for everyone in Hollywood. On the Paramount picket line Friday, Congressman Adam Schiff raced to say hello to Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Schiff said the situation for writers is similar to what other workers face around the country, where new technologies result in lower incomes and a “more profound struggle to get by.”

The Democrat, whose district includes several of the big studio lots, said he’s had contact with the companies and their representatives and has encouraged them to reach a deal.

Bakula, the starship captain, said he was on the picket line show his support for the writers.

“As an actor you don’t get anything done without them,” he said.