Recently, Drew Barrymore, who became popular for starring in the movie "E.T. Alien" and starred in a series of blockbuster films such as "Thunderbolt Girl" and "Scream", suddenly became the target of the American entertainment industry, and was labeled as a "scab" by many Hollywood screenwriters who are on strike, and was also ridiculed and criticized by a large number of netizens on social media.
It happened on September 10, when Drew Barrymore suddenly announced on social media that the latest season (fourth season) of the morning talk show "The Drew Barrymore Show", which he hosted and produced as the executive producer, will resume production on September 11 and will be broadcast on time on September 18, which has stunned Hollywood writers and actors who are on strike.
The first season of "The Drew Barrymore Show" began airing on September 14, 2020, bringing a lot of joy to the American people who were experiencing the epidemic at that time, and was also nominated for multiple TV Emmy Awards. Stripped of commercials, each episode is about 45 minutes long, and mainly includes celebrity interviews, interactive games and funny news feeds. As of July 11, the show has 587 episodes in its third season, and the fourth season has already been finalized by CBS, which was originally scheduled to begin production in September.
The Drew Barrymore Show has aired for three seasons so far.
However, since May this year, the American Writers Guild has begun strike action because it is deeply dissatisfied with the package of agreements proposed by Hollywood giants. Later, the Screen Actors Guild also joined it, and the rare Hollywood double strike brought the entire American film and television production industry almost completely to a halt. New works cannot be filmed, and completed works cannot be promoted by screenwriters and actors. In this context, Barrymore dares to move against the wind and risk the world's condemnation, and it is inevitable that he will be criticized.
On September 11, the show began recording in CBS' broadcast building in Manhattan, New York, and downstairs, a large group of screenwriters also raised a cordon, chanting protest slogans while trying to prevent Barrymore and the general audience invited to record the show from entering the production site. To convey the spirit of the strike, the writers handed out badges with the Writers' Guild logo to those audiences. Two people in the audience of the show pinned their badges to their clothes, and for this reason, they were driven away from the show by several security guards before they even sat down.
According to the two viewers who were asked to leave, the man and woman told the media afterwards that the two did not know each other, but they were both loyal fans of Drew Barrymore, and this time they also registered for the lottery through the Internet and won a place to participate in the show. Moreover, both said that they did not know much about the strike of the screenwriters' union and the actors' union in advance, and that the act of pinning the badge was purely temporary. In the face of the security guards leaving, both said that they were willing to take off the badge and cooperate with the production of the program, but they were still rudely driven, which also made the two indignant, so they simply put on the publicity shirt of the writers' union strike protest, joined the striking crowd, and shouted the slogan of boycotting the Barrymore program group. The two even said in an interview with the media that whether they will continue to be Barrymore fans in the future is probably a question.
The audience who were kicked out of the recording scene of the show told the encounter on social media, which attracted many netizens to like it.
And online, calls for boycotting Barrymore and his work are also loud. Actor Joshua Malina, who played the White House press director in the hit American drama "White House Vice", simply called her a "scab". There is also actor Milana Waynetree, who starred in the American drama "Our Day", who also urgently called on Barrymore to "turn back to the shore". Even Elizabeth Koe, the screenwriter who oversaw the previous three seasons of "The Drew Barrymore Show," switched sides this time, standing in the crowd of protesters outside the building, exhorting the boss not to make mistakes again and again, stressing that the most important thing at the moment is to unite and carry out the strike to the end, "we must fight for more reasonable treatment, we must earn the respect we deserve."
By September 12, protests online and outside CBS headquarters had finally been exchanged for further action by those involved. The organizers of the National Book Awards announced that they had cancelled their original plan to invite Barrymore to host this year's ceremony, citing the current disputes that would cause the public to lose focus and affect the issue of the book award itself.
However, amid the various controversies, the statement of the American Writers Guild has maintained relative restraint and low profile, clarifying that "The Drew Barrymore Show" was started without the participation of screenwriters, and did not say whether Barrymore's own actions were considered sabotage strikes and whether they were scabs. On the other side, the actors' union did not participate in the boycott at all, completely stayed out of the matter, and also made outsiders who did not know the rules of the strike a little confused.
The Writers' Guild indicated that Barrymore's show was made without a screenwriter.
In fact, there is indeed a certain difference between the specific strike measures of the screenwriters' union and the actors' union. To put it simply, the screenwriters' union prohibits the production of any film and television dramas, even TV programs and advertising programs that use the screenwriters of the union. For the Screen Actors Guild, actors are not allowed to participate in the filming, publicity and promotion of film and television works during the strike – except for independent film and television works that have been exempted – but hosting morning talk shows is completely unrestricted. Therefore, not only Barrymore has no problem hosting talk shows, but actress Whoopi Goldberg, who is hosting the talk show "The View" on ABC, does not have to worry about being denounced as "scabs" by the Screen Actors Guild.
As for the writers' union, Barrymore has never been a screenwriter and is not a member of the writers' union, and in the previous three seasons of the show, although screenwriters were used to write various opening statements, funny jokes and game content, but in the fourth season of this filming, Barrymore has already said that no screenwriters will be used, so the writers' union really wants to sacrifice the big killing move of removal, I am afraid that there is no object to punish.
In fact, back in May this year, when the writers' union just began to strike, Drew Barrymore was once praised by them, because the MTV Movie and Television Awards held on May 7, she was originally scheduled to serve as the emcee, but in order to show support for the writers' union's strike action, Barrymore suddenly rejected the invitation, and many screenwriters had enthusiastically praised Barrymore on social media at the time.
It's just that at one moment and another, the original example has now become a scab, and in Barrymore herself's opinion, doing so is really her bitterness. In the post announcing the resumption of production, she roughly said that she quit her job as a host last time because it only involved her, and this time, if the new season of the show is not filmed, a large number of team members will be unemployed.
Some critics point out that Barrymore could have paid team members out of his own pocket to pay team members during the strike if he was genuinely worried about the team's livelihood — indeed, several evening talk show hosts had been doing so for some time — rather than resuming filming as a demoralizing approach. In the final analysis, all film and television programs can not be done by one person, they need a large number of teams, if everyone uses the excuse of having a team to support, then everyone can violate the strike order, it is estimated that it can only make the capital at the other end of the negotiating table, snickering until they can't close their mouths.