Actors and writers are on strike together and it looks like it could last a while.

There are deep divides in Hollywood over issues including how creative people should be

compensated in the streaming era, how work is structured, and how artificial

intelligence will be used. Production of TV and film has largely stopped only a few years after an interruption during the early part of COVID

that unsettled viewing habits and delayed both movies and shows. I'm Linda Holmes and today on NPR's pop culture happy hour we're going to explain some of

what's at stake and the different ways it might end and how the strike could

impact viewers.

Joining me today is NPR's TV critic Eric Deggins. We're grabbing Eric in the airport lounge, so thank you for being here welcome back yeah if

you hear you know a musaki version of careless whisper or planes taking off or

someone being pulled back to security to pick up their phone.

All right.

So let's talk about the development of what is now this double strike by the actors and

the writers.

We should stress by the way that this is a double strike and not a joint strike.

These are still two separate unions that will negotiate two separate contracts.

The WGA represents the writers.

SAGAFRA represents the actors.

These two strikes will probably end at different times,

just as they started at different times.

Sag Aftera only went on strike last week.

The WGA has been on strike since May 2nd. Both strikes are against the AMPTP which is the kind of bargaining group that represents the studios and the streamers.

So like Paramount and Disney and also Netflix and Apple and so forth both of these

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