Writers strike is not over yet with key votes remaining on deal

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The deal is made, the pickets have been suspended, and Hollywood’s writers are on the verge of getting back to work after months on strike

ByANDREW DALTON AP entertainment writer

September 26, 2023, 12:19 AM

FILE - Striking writers take part in a rally in front of Paramount Pictures studio, Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in Los Angeles. A tentative deal was reached, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, to end Hollywood’s writers strike after nearly five months. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The deal is made, the pickets have been suspended, and Hollywood's writers are on the verge of getting back to work after months on strike. Actors, meanwhile, wait in the wings for their own resolution.

Crucial steps remain for the writers, who technically remain on strike, and for other workers awaiting a return to production of new shows. The next phase comes Tuesday, when the governing boards of the two branches of the Writers Guild of America are expected to vote on the tentative agreement reached by union negotiators with Hollywood studios.

Following the approval from the boards — which is likely — comes a vote from the writers themselves, whose timing is uncertain. The guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in the negotiations, were still finalizing language Monday on their agreement.

That could prompt a delay of Tuesday's voting and has kept union leaders from sharing with writers the details of what nearly five months of striking and hardship has earned them. The leaders have promised a series of meetings later this week where writers can learn about the terms of the deal regarding pay, show staffing, and control of artificial intelligence in storytelling.

The guild's leaders told them only that the agreement is “exceptional,” with gains for every member. A successful yes vote from the membership will finally, officially, bring the strike to an end.

Meanwhile, though their own pickets have been suspended, writers were encouraged to join actors in solidarity on their lines starting Tuesday, just as many actors did with writers in the two months before their own strike started in July.

The studio alliance has chosen to negotiate only with the writers so far, and has made no overtures yet toward restarting talks with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. That will presumably change soon.

SAG-AFTRA leaders have said they will look closely at the agreement struck by the writers, who have many of the same issues they do, but it will not effect the demands they have.

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For more on the writers and actors strikes, visit: https://ift.tt/mT3KLhz

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New book alleges Trump's ex-chief of staff's suits smelled 'like a bonfire' from burning papers

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NEW YORK -- A former aide in Donald Trump’s White House says chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers so often after the 2020 election that it left his office smoky and even prompted his wife to complain that his suits smelled “like a bonfire.”

Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a prominent congressional witness against former President Trump before the House Jan. 6 committee, described the burning papers in a new book set to be released Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, “Enough.”

Hutchinson was a White House staffer in her 20s who worked for Meadows and testified for two hours on national television about the White House's inner workings leading up to and including the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump and Meadows tried to challenge the former president's election loss in several states. Both are under indictment in Georgia for what prosecutors have called an illegal conspiracy to overturn the results.

In her book, Hutchinson writes that starting in mid-December, Meadows wanted a fire burning in his office every morning. She says that when she would enter his office to bring him lunch or a package, she “would sometimes find him leaning over the fire, feeding papers into it, watching to make sure they burned.”

Hutchinson had previously testified to the House Jan. 6 committee that she had seen Meadows burning documents in his office about a dozen times.

Hutchinson said she did not know what papers he was burning but said it raised alarms because federal law regarding presidential records requires staff to keep original documents and send them to the National Archives.

She said one day when Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California came to meet with Meadows, the congressman asked Hutchinson to open the windows in Meadows' office because it was smoky. She said she warned Meadows he would set off a smoke alarm.

Later, in the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when Trump's staffers began packing to move out of the White House, Hutchinson said Meadows' wife arrived to help and asked the aide to stop lighting the fireplace for Meadows because “all of his suits smell like a bonfire” and she could not keep up with the dry cleaning.

A message seeking comment from Meadows' attorney was not returned Monday.

Hutchinson in her book also described a moment on the morning of Jan. 6, when she said former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage as Trump addressed his supporters in Washington.

She said Giuliani slid his hand under her blazer and her skirt and ran his hand on her thigh after showing her a stack of documents related to his efforts to overturn the election.

Giuliani denied the allegation in an interview on Newsmax last week, calling it “absolutely false, totally absurd.”

“First, I'm not going to grope somebody at all. And number two, in front of like 100 people?" he said.

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