Scab Drew Barrymore And Her Talk Show Picketed For Breaking WGA Strike
Has anyone ever seen Drew Barrymore’s talk show? Thankfully, I never have. Via Deadline:
Members of the striking Writers Guild gathered outside the CBS Broadcast Center in New York early Monday morning to protest the restart of The Drew Barrymore Show and to discourage the daytime talk host and her guests from crossing their picket line.
It didn’t work, entirely: In what played out like cat-and-mouse between picketers and the show, Barrymore slipped in undetected to tape a pair of episodes with in-studio audiences at 11 and 1 p.m., as did her guests.
This was Barrymore’s pathetic statement from yesterday on why she’s breaking the strike and doing her show again:
I own this choice. We are in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind. We launched live in a global pandemic. Our show was built for sensitive times and has only functioned through what the real world is going through in real time. I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience.
“I want to be there to provide what writers do so well.” So, she’s crossed the picket line to do her writers’ jobs, and she’s literally admitting she’s a scab. Got it.
As Rich Juzwiak points out, the show itself is struck, so “its very existence is a discussion of itself”:
Along with not writing, WGA members are not promoting their work as part of the strike. Referencing that strike rule, Barrymore says that her show’s return will be “in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind.” Here’s the rub: The Drew Barrymore Show is currently struck as part of the ongoing WGA strike. Its very existence is a discussion of itself.
Barrymore has always seemed sort of delusional (probably all the drugs in the 80’s and 90’s), so it makes sense that she’d end up being a scab, oblivious to the struggles of the very people she employs.
