What A Day - Two Strikes, We're Out

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

160,000 Hollywood actors are poised to strike Thursday, joining WGA members on the picket lines in what could be the first double strike in more than 60 years. This all comes as this year’s coveted Emmy nominations were announced Wednesday morning, further cementing 2023 as a fraught year for the entertainment industry that is already without 11,000 of its writers.A major heat wave has settled in across the South and Southwestern United States, with temperatures in the triple digits from California to Texas to Florida. Climate scientists have said record temperatures and heat waves will keep happening as this planet continues to get warmer.And in headlines: Reproductive rights groups are suing Iowa after the state passed a six-week abortion ban, the Justice Department said that Trump can be held liable for comments he made about E. Jean Carroll while acting as president, and the United Auto Workers union said its members are prepared to strike if automakers don’t meet their demands for a new labor agreement.Show notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, July 13th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Erin Ryan, and this is What A Day, where we're pretty sure a girl dinner is just a charcuterie board. Yeah, remind me why we are gendering meals now. Yeah, I don't even want to know what a boy dinner is. It's horrific. I don't want to know at all. It's in a can. It's definitely in a can. It's in a can. It's definitely in a can. It's in a can. On today's show, the ACLU and other reproductive rights groups are suing

Iowa after the state passed a six-week abortion ban. Plus, members of the United Auto Workers Union are prepared to strike. But first, at the time of this recording Wednesday night, negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP if you're nasty, have still not led to a contract, which means we're T-minus a few hours away from a WGA, SAG-AFTRA double strike, potentially the biggest disruption in the American entertainment industry in generations. Yes. Okay. So Trayvon covered the ins and outs of what SAG is looking for in yesterday's show. So if you want to get caught up with what's at stake here, that is a very good

place to start. But Erin, can you tell us about how the negotiations are going as we get down to the wire here? So AMPTP has taken some pretty big swings over these last couple days, and they've had the exact same number of big misses as time runs out. Great. First, on Tuesday night, top Hollywood brass called in a federal mediator to help unstick negotiations. Some members of SAG criticized the move as a transparent attempt to extend the strike deadline once again. As you may recall, their contract expired June 30th. They've already extended it once. It appears that SAG's negotiating committee are unwilling to do that, however,

so this poor federal mediator had to parachute into Los Angeles and had but a single day to work out some kind of business magic. Yeah, really hoping for their sake that he or she did not fly into LAX, because if you only got a day, that LAX experience is really gonna walk into the Uber lot. That's gonna eat up a lot of your time. Yeah, the seconds count, the minutes count. You don't have time to go in and out of LAX. It's a complete time black hole.

You don't. And surprise, surprise, the studios are not winning the publicity war either. On Tuesday night, a very ill-advised piece ran in Deadline that contained a few alarming claims from anonymous AMPTP members that some observers believe were meant to scare striking members of the WGA, but actually achieved the opposite. First, the article claimed, according to anonymous studio executives, that the studios don't even plan on sitting down with the WGA again until at least October, five months after the strike started. It also contains this troubling passage that went

viral for all the wrong reasons. I'm going to read it to you, Priyanka. Hold on to your butt because it's pretty bad. From the Deadline article, quote, The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses, a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold as ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it, quote, a cruel but necessary evil the studios and streamers next think financially strapped writers would go to wga leadership and demand that they restart talks before what could be a very cold christmas in that context the studios and streamers feel they would

be in a position to dictate most of the terms of any possible deal priyanka imagine as i'm like reading these anonymous studio exec quotes, imagine that I'm wearing a monocle and a top hat. Seriously. I'm holding two big burlap sacks with dollar bill signs printed on the side and I'm smoking a cigar because that is the vibe that I got from those passages. Yeah, seriously. I don't know how anyone could read that today and walk away with anything other than that. It's so cruel. It's so intentionally cruel. They know what they're doing. They're saying the quiet part out loud. And I think people in other industries who have been exposed to this, at least at this point, are like, uh,

that's not okay. If these are the people you're dealing with, there are probably some reasons that you're going to strike. But apparently they want to grinch their way out of this. And the WGA picket line grew three sizes. So love to see it. Yeah, yeah. See, this is why Hollywood needs writers, because those lines, those quotes were like hacky cartoon villainy. Yeah.

A writer could have been like, you guys got to dial it back. But you know, we're on strike. And by Wednesday midday Pacific time, other members of the AMPTP had, shall we say, some notes. According to an update in the deadline piece, quote, these anonymous people are not speaking on behalf of the AMPTP or member companies. We're committed to reaching a deal and getting our industry back to work. Now, that's according to a spokesperson for the organization. I just want to chime in here and remind listeners that the AMPTP has refused to sit down with the WGA since the strike began in May.

So this anonymous statement meant to do damage control for another anonymous statement rings pretty hollow. Oh, and Deadline, by the way, is owned by Penske Media Corporation, which also owns Variety and several other entertainment publications. Its chairman and CEO, Jay Penske, is a member of the AMPTP. Hmm. Wherever could they be getting these anonymous quotes from whenever they need to update a piece? Honestly, shades of Sam Alito on the Wall Street Journal editorial page. It's the very same vibe.

So, you know, while all of this is going on, while Hollywood is basically crumbling, yesterday we kicked off what may turn out to be the weirdest Emmy season of all time. Tell us more about what's happening. Yeah, literally as 160,000 actors prepare to strike alongside 11,000 writers that are already striking, Emmy nominations were announced. Leading the way was hbo's succession the last of us house of the dragon and the white lotus you know that cartoon with a little guy sitting in the house that's on fire and saying this is fine that's what these announcements yeah i mean it's the person reading the announcement yes this is fine this is fine

amid this hbo and all of its blockbuster shows that everybody watched and was talking about all but dominated their respective categories. We also saw Vanderpump Rules get a nomination for unscripted programming. I mean... It was their year. Now or never. Yeah, it made sense for this year. Made sense. There's got to be a category for it.

Nominate that show because riveting. The sublimely hilarious part prank show, part improv masterpiece Jury Duty got a lot of love alongside such hits as Abbott Elementary. I also want to give a shout out to America's sweetheart, Melanie Linsky. Yes, I'm calling it.

She's America's newest sweetheart. She got nominated in two categories for her turns in Yellow Jackets and The Last of Us. Sharon Horgan also got nominated for The Excellent Bad Sisters on Apple TV+. She's amazing. She's incredible. Glad to see her get some love. Listen, I'm not super up to date on my TV in general, but there were things that I was really excited to see too. I mean, first of all, Abbott Elementary, live for it, dive for it, amazing. But I was looking through some of these categories, like best supporting actress in a drama series,

for example, is the one I landed on. It's pretty much every single woman in The White Lotus, which I don't even know who I want to win just because all of them were so fantastic. So a lot of things to be excited about here. But were there any snubs? I wouldn't necessarily be aware of them, but you might be. So please tell us if there were any notable ones this year. Yeah, I'm super Hollywood, Priyanka.

I'm wearing pajama shorts right now, which is extremely Hollywood. But there's always snubs. There are always shows that a lot of people like that don't get the attention that viewers think they deserve. And this year, one of those is Yellowstone, which is the favorite show of your aunt who still posts daily on Facebook. Yellowstone was shut out despite being a huge hit.

It's a huge hit on Paramount+. Tons of people watch it. Yeah, tons of people talk about it, not even just on Facebook. I see it on my Instagram all the time. Oh, yeah. A lot of people like Yellowstone, and it's not a bad show. It's fun. It's soapy. It's like Dallas the time. Oh, yeah. A lot of people like Yellowstone. And it's like not a bad show.

It's fun. It's like soapy. It's like Dallas. It's Montana Dallas. Eventually, when I run out of seasons of Top Chef, maybe. Well, there are also rumors that Yellowstone is kind of like wrapping things up. And usually shows that have been historically snubbed or ignored that are big hits by the Emmys, usually at the end, they're like,

oh, here you go, here's some awards. Right. But they didn't do it this time with the Yellowstone, which is, you know, a surprise. Atlanta was also shut out of major categories after kind of being a darling of the Emmys a few years back. And also Netflix didn't get a lot of love compared to recent years.

The Crown kind of didn't really make any noise at all. Hmm. Okay. So, you know, while all of this is happening, there is also the giant elephant in the room. What does an Emmy ceremony actually look like if all of the writers and all of the actors are on strike? Like that essentially is Hollywood. What else is left? I'm brainstorming a solution right now for the studio executives.

You use AI to generate actors and a script and you make AI versions of the actors give and accept the awards. Their ears are going to look all fucked up. Their hands are going to look all fucked up because that's what AI can do. And the scripts will sound very strange. I honestly think that's the best they could do.

I mean, more realistically, the ceremony, which is scheduled for September, probably won't look anything like previous award shows as, you know, if writers and actors are still striking at the time, they're not supposed to be participating in like press junkets and award shows. And, you know, Comic-Con is coming up in like a week, week and a half. And if SAG is on strike, they're not going to be going to Comic-Con it's gonna be a bunch of studio executives being like watch the new star wars show and a bunch of nerds being like who the fuck are you right but yeah without writers and actors creators to support the projects that they created and bring to life it's not going to be that interesting compared to other years you're left with a bunch of executives and the people who are the reasons that none of

these people that everyone loves and whose work they admire, they're the reason that they aren't there. So, I mean, you want to put them all on display and be like, give America the faces of who's causing them not to see the people they love. That doesn't seem like a smart idea, but I go for it, I guess. Another good bad idea is just have the studio executives walk the red carpet in place of all the stars. And then everybody who enjoys Succession, The White Lotus, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Ted Lasso, whatever. Anybody watching will be like, oh, these studio executives have absolutely no appeal and they suck and I'm totally not on their side.

I am more on the writers and actors side than I ever was before. Please pay them fairly. Please, please just pay them. Yes, exactly. That is what we all hope and want here. If this Emmy situation happens, that would be hysterical. But I think we all agree that give them what they want, please. And thank you. So we can go back to normal. Switching gears just a bit, though,

in case you haven't noticed yet, it is very hot outside. Erin, you're in Los Angeles. What? What? It's burning up over there. Yeah. I've got sweat in parts of my body that I'm like, oh, yeah, I have that part of my body. You know, always nice to be reminded. But just last week was declared the hottest week ever on record for the entire planet by the UN. I imagine that record will be getting broken very soon. That, of course, followed the hottest June ever on record.

You see where the trend is going. It is not a good situation. According to forecasters who warned that the planet could be entering a multi-year period of exceptional heat, these temperatures are the result of continued greenhouse gas emissions caused by the burning of oil, gas, and coal, as well as the return of a cyclical El Nino weather pattern. It's nothing new here. You know what is causing this.

I know what is causing this. We all know what is causing this. We're just reaping what we sow at this point. The mental toll and like the panic that you feel when you're in intense heat is something that's really hard to wrap your head around until you're actually like in it for a prolonged period of time. It's like depressing. It's upsetting, like on a visceral level. I was just in Arizona last week. I was 112 degrees in Phoenix and going outside felt like going into a hairdryer. Yeah. It was so

inhumane, untenable. And people were outside trying to work, trying to do jobs. It cannot be healthy or safe. It's not. It's completely not possible. Yeah. You know, reading some of this reporting, it's like water bottles warp at that temperature. Seatbelts are like burning hot. Like it's just completely unlivable. We were not designed to live in those temperatures. Our planet was not designed to be at these temperatures. It's just, it's not good. So is there any end in sight? Like what are we seeing this week?

I mean, unfortunately not quite at this point. A major heat wave has settled in across the South and Southwestern United States with temperatures in the triple digits everywhere from California to Texas to Florida. To give you a sense of scale here, yesterday morning, over 82 million Americans were under excessive heat warnings or advisories. That is according to the National Weather Service. As I alluded to earlier, this isn't letting up immediately. Parts of the South could continue to see these temperatures until July 21st.

That is more than a week out from today at these crazy temperatures. Oh my gosh. For Texas and Oklahoma, this is a continuation of the heat wave that they were already experiencing. In Texas, hundreds of people have already gotten sick as a result of the temperatures, and more than a dozen have died. In Arizona, temperatures hit 110 degrees for the 13th straight day yesterday. Even hotter temperatures are expected this weekend, so, you know, that's not letting up. And in Florida, coral reefs, which support so much marine life, they generate billions of dollars for

fisheries and for tourism, and they also protect the coast from other extreme weather events. They're facing an unprecedented threat from a marine heat wave throughout the Gulf of Mexico far earlier into the year than when they normally experience peak heat stress. It's not just the U.S. either. This record-breaking heat is happening worldwide. There's a deadly heat wave in India. Sea ice levels are dropping to record lows off the coast of Antarctica. And temperatures in the North Atlantic are averaging 2.9 degrees warmer

than is typical for this time of year. That is just a huge increase, a huge spike in ocean temperatures. It's just really, we are the dog in the burning house. That is us. Yeah, we are the dog in the burning house in so many different ways. This way feels a little bit more literal. Yeah. Like we're literally burning. Certainly. Gosh. I remember when these kind of doomsday scenarios were first coming out when scientists are like, hey, guys, it's really bad. This is worse than anybody expected, right? Certainly. I mean, even for people who are not naive about climate change,

this seems very extreme and also is incredibly dangerous for the millions of people who are under these warnings, especially the ones who are in vulnerable communities or who don't have access to air conditioning or safe drinking water. This is essentially hell on earth. Oh my god. So what are climate scientists saying about all of this? I mean, there is no precedent for a lot of what is happening, but they say that these record temperatures and heat waves, along with the other extreme weather events that we see, will keep happening as this planet continues to get hotter. That is what they have said. It's what they will and heat waves, along with the other extreme weather events that we see, will keep happening as this planet continues to get hotter. That is what they have said. It's what they will keep saying. Commenting on the global temperature highs, Stanford University climate scientist

Chris Field told the Associated Press, quote, a record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future. Obviously, we will continue to follow the heat waves and the extreme weather events. More on all of this very soon, but that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The ACLU and a number of other reproductive rights groups are suing the state of Iowa after its GOP-led legislature passed a six-week abortion ban earlier this week.

Abortion is currently legal in Iowa until the 20-week mark, but the new legislation would outlaw pretty much all abortions once cardiac activity is detected at about six weeks, which is before most people even know that they are pregnant. The bill was pushed through in a one-day legislative session that lasted more than 14 hours on Tuesday. Legislators passed the bill late that night, and by Wednesday morning, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood,

and the Emma Gold Clinic filed a lawsuit asking a district court to temporarily block the measure that has yet to be signed into law. The rush to block the law is likely because it's supposed to take effect immediately after being signed, and Governor Kim Reynolds has already said that she will sign it into law tomorrow.

That does not offer the people of Iowa any time at all to prepare for this. A hearing over whether the rule is constitutional is scheduled for Friday, just before Reynolds is expected to sign the bill into law. We are in the bad place. Here's the thing. I feel like states like Iowa, Idaho, other states that are enacting these extreme bans, straight up don't want people who are in their childbearing years to live in the state. You can be the most pro-life person

in the world, but if you're living in a place like Iowa, Idaho, any place that's like passing a six-week ban, whatever, your access to OBGYN care is going to be impacted by this in an extremely negative way. Totally. You're like going to just lose doctors. You care is going to be impacted by this in an extremely negative way. Totally. You're like going to just lose doctors. You're not going to have access to care. It's not just abortion. It's like all medical care of and relating to having babies.

They clearly don't want any people of childbearing age, but it's unfortunate because so many of those people don't exactly have the option to like up and move just because of this. Like you're really saddling people or at least not in the immediate where this could really affect them. It's bad. Think about like a prospective college student. Totally. If you were deciding between the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa and you're a woman, where are you going to go? I'm going to the University of Michigan. I mean, it is a better school, but you're also in a state where like access to reproductive health care is actually protected.

I think it's very real for college students. Yeah. If it was between two states and in one state there was an extreme ban and in another there wasn't, I would go to the one where there wasn't a ban. A thousand percent. Not because I'm like, I'm going to have so many abortions in college, just because I want the freedom to make decisions about my own body. Also, you want adequate health care. Like, yeah, it's not crazy. Everyone should. Yeah. Call me crazy. I'd like to control what happens in my body. I don't know.

Maybe I'm woke. Wild. Trump can be held liable for comments he made about E.G. and Carol while acting as president of the United States. That's according to the Justice Department, which on Tuesday reversed its earlier position, stating that Trump was protected from a defamation lawsuit because he was acting in his official capacity as president. E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit stems from comments Trump made about her after she accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York City dressing room in the 90s. At the time, Trump called the accusations, quote, totally false and said Carroll was not his, quote, type. Ew.

There you go. In a court filing earlier this week, the DOJ determined that, quote, there is no longer a sufficient basis to conclude that the former president was motivated by more than an insignificant desire to serve the United States government. I feel like that phrase applies to many things he did when he was the president. The letter claims that while Trump's comments were made in a work context,

the allegations themselves were related to a personal incident and that, quote, sexual assault was obviously not job related. Whoa. Big if true. A trial is scheduled to begin

in January of next year. It's important to note that this lawsuit is separate from the sexual assault and defamation lawsuit that went to trial earlier this year, in which Carol won $5 million in damages. Yeah, looking forward to her winning once again, as she deserves to do. Bank of America has been ordered to pay $250 million in fines and customer compensations

in one of the bank's highest financial penalties in years. The payout comes as punishment for double dipping on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards, and opening accounts without customer consent, which is absolutely bananas. Need more info. What? That's crazy. Yeah.

How can that happen? I don't know. And apparently they just get a fine for it. Like that seems like enough to maybe close down the business. But people should be going to jail. Yeah. The move is part of the stricter enforcement that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Biden administration have taken on banks junk fees, which are those bogus fees that you probably see pop up on your statements from banks, debt collectors and airlines.

Bank of America serves 68 million individuals and businesses, making it the second largest bank in the U.S. And they are no stranger to financial scandals in the last decade. In 2014, the Bank of America had to pay $727 million for illegal credit card practices. And just last year, Bank of America was fined $225 million for mishandling unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic. I guess they learned nothing. Wow. They really are a lot of villains and they don't give a shit. Hmm. Well, let's keep finding them. Maybe it'll change their behavior. Inflation cooled to 3% last month, the lowest point since early 2021, bringing some relief to Americans who have been feeling the jump in prices the past couple of years.

The inflation figure was sharply lower from June of last year when inflation was a staggering 9.1%. You might remember gas prices hit a U.S. record average of $5 per gallon last summer. As a Californian, I gotta say, that's every day. I can't really. Okay, is that a lot? I don't know. Now they fall into a national average of $3.54 a gallon. The price of food also rose at a slower rate in June with costs dropping for products like milk, eggs, and meats. Remember when egg prices shot up last year after a bird flu outbreak? I do. I do remember that. Well, in June, they went down more than 7% from the month prior, but prices still remain above the pre-pandemic average cost of about

$1.60 a dozen. Man, I bet the people who hoarded eggs feel silly now. Got a bunch of rotten eggs. Americans also paid less last month for airfares and used cars. While the progress is good news, inflation is still not at the Fed's target rate of 2%. So interest rates are likely to be raised when officials meet later this month. And that means I'm never going to buy a house. Ever. Ever.

Join the club, Erin. We're in it together. We are in it together. We are in it together. The United Auto Workers Union said that nearly 150,000 of its members are ready to strike if automakers do not meet their demands for a new labor contract. Negotiations between the two parties are set to begin today, and workers are asking the big three automakers, that is Ford, Stellantis and General Motors for higher wages after watching the companies rake in record profits over the past

year as well as better health benefits, stronger job security and reinstatement of a cost of living adjustment for workers that was thrown out during the Great Recession. All of that seems fantastic, all of which they should get. The current contract between the UAW and the Big Three expires on September 14th, and it is safe to say that negotiations will be pretty tense. Union President Sean Fain said on Wednesday that he and his fellow union leaders would not hold a public handshaking ceremony with the Big Three before coming to the bargaining table, per their usual longstanding tradition. Instead, Fain exclusively shook hands with his

fellow workers yesterday saying, quote, I'm not shaking hands with any CEOs until they do right by our members and fix the broken status quo of the big three. You're not coming to play. I got to say, if you're somebody who works with your hands, the act of shaking hands with the buttery, smooth fingers and palms of a CEO might be a little bit unsettling to you. I feel like they've got like some rough, solid hands coming in touch with like a, just a lotioned up. No, thank you. It's an all too literal reminder of the difference there. And those are the headlines. harm that these laws have had on people's lives because we really want to hear from you. So please send us a voice note or a written response to wad at crooked.com with your name, where you're from,

and how you've been impacted. If you prefer to remain anonymous, just let us know. We would really love to hear from you. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, fill up your gas tank, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just about union members refusing to shake hands with CEOs like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Erin Ryan. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And pay writers and actors already. Please. Seriously. We're tired of waiting. We want our shows

and they deserve it. What a Day is a production of Cricket Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. Our intern is Ryan Cochran. And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.