Fran Drescher addresses controversial Kim Kardashian photo during SAG-AFTRA press conference
Drescher explains that she was in Italy as a contractual obligation and continued working to get a deal while away
Aux News SAG-AFTRA
During the press conference this afternoon where SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced that their union will be going on strike tonight at midnight, the duo took a moment to address the backlash that Drescher received earlier this week after Kim Kardashian—who has continued to work on Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story despite the ongoing WGA strike—posted a photo of the two of them together at an event in Italy.
A lot of people on social media criticized Drescher for, at the very least, the terrible optics of apparently attending a big party in Italy while many of SAG-AFTRA’s members were preparing for the strike or engaging in ultimately fruitless last-minute negotiations, but Crabtree-Ireland wasn’t having any of that. A member of the press asked about the backlash, and he stepped in ahead of Drescher to point out that she was there “working” (emphasis his), because that’s what actors do, adding that she was contracted to appear at the event as a brand ambassador for a fashion company, and while there she was still working with the bargaining committee and joining meetings on Zoom.
Drescher added that she had only met Kardashian “seconds before the picture was taken” and that she was there specifically for work, not for fun. She said she was working round the clock in “three different time zones” for the event and regularly checked in with everyone working to get a deal with the AMPTP—a comment that was met with raised fists and claps from the SAG-AFTRA members in attendance, who obviously supported her on that point. There was also some suggestion, primarily from Crabtree-Ireland, that the backlash flames were fanned by the AMPTP to try and generate discord among SAG-AFTRA members and try to turn them against Drescher at a very crucial moment.
He said it was “outrageous” that “they” would “cynically” try to turn people against her, though the original photo was shared on Instagram by Kardashian herself (not that that doesn’t mean it wasn’t orchestrated by the AMPTP) and did seemingly spread naturally on Twitter after that (not that that couldn’t have also been orchestrated by the AMPTP).
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“though the original photo was shared on Instagram by Kardashian herself”I think it’s pretty clear she’s referring to the response to (not the original posting of) the photo
This is all bullshit. Being a “Brand Ambassador” for a company like D&G means going to parties and posing for picture with “Beautiful People” in fancy places. You don’t do that job by tweeting from your couch and participating in Zoom calls. If she had been shooting a movie in New Zealand and commented from the set would that have been a problem? This is what celebrities do. Calling her out for doing her job is stupid and calling it a “bad look” is willfully misunderstanding what your colleague’s job entails.
yeah this is the pretty innocent work of “being a celebrity and spokesperson”. talking about this instead of the conditions forcing workers to strike is absolute garbage
“Bad look” and “optics” both mean “It’s your fault I misunderstood what you did.”
yeah this is such a stupid non story and I’m really starting to get pissed that this site is so adamant on making it “a thing”. Like, just fuck off AVClub. Stop trying to be a stupid gossip site.
Stupid gossip gets the clicks though, and we know Teh Herb is all about them clickszz…
I thought it was an interesting story. I haven’t heard much about the negotiations and didn’t know people were mad at her about this, and I come on this site pretty much every day.
How exactly did they try to make it a thing beyond simply reporting about what people were saying? It’s not like they breathlessly reported the shit out of it like all the fucking Don’t Worry Darling bullshit last year
I can tell you’re not thinking about the clicks.Think about the clicks!
Not only that, with negotiations this big and complex, they are, 90% to 95% of this is being handled by huge legal teams with general direction and input from someone like Drescher. It’s not like she is sitting there reading through hundreds or thousands of pages of legal documents.
Also, at that late stage in negotiations it must have been obvious that the AMPTP was not budging and that a strike was inevitable. Drescher held the line and did not take whatever unacceptable deal was on the table. The rank and file membership would have reason to be angry if she sold them out with a bad deal. The “nose to the grindstone” standard people are holding her to carries this incorrect assumption that if Drescher had cleared her calendar and appeared in person at more negotiation meetings, the AMPTP would have been so cowed that they’d agree to robust streaming royalties and a ban on AI-generated likenesses.It’s obvious that’s not the case, which is why haters have to retreat to huffing, “well, it’s just bad *optics*.”
I stop listening to anyone when they admit that they’re really upset about symbolism instead of something concrete.
True and I would go so far as you wouldn’t WANT her at every meeting. While I don’t know much about her background outside of acting, and even then very little of that, I doubt she has much if any high level negotiation skills that would come in handy. She really is just the face of the union itself, they had whole legal teams to do the heavy lifting. I don’t blame her for striking either, just the whole AI thing is fucking terrible, not only that they, the studios, could just as easily create hundreds of generic background people with a character creator in Unreal Engine 5, there is no need whatsoever to OWN someone’s likeness in perpetuity.
I’ve got a feeling this is going to get a lot uglier before the inevitable agreement gets reached and the AMPTP is going to end up looking like a pack of Trump level d-bags.
This “outlash” is incredibly dumb. I don’t think I have to go into all the details as to why but I’m sure someone will and do it and do it better than I could. People just love being outraged. It’s fascinating to me.
Anger is like a drug. It releases pleasure chemicals in your brain and you get a kind of buzz off of it.
Like heroin, only less good
I’m sure Fran got her job through genuine merits, but there’s something so hilariously surreal that the actor union is being handled by the nanny.
Hell, Ronald Reagan was president of SAG-AFTRA from 1947-1952 and from 1959-1960!
Then became US Prez and tried to kill unions altogether.
And *while President of SAG-AFTRA*, gleefully co-operated with HUAC.
*tried to kill everyone
It’s an election process among the membership, I believe.Besides, that’s Bobbi Flekman, formerly artist relations for Polymer Records.
I tried to make the same Spinal Tap reference, but apparently I have to remain in the greys.
look i love The Nanny as much as the next person, but have none of you infants seen This is Spinal Tap? 🙂
I also find it interesting to hear her talk in her natural voice instead of that annoying voice she has used for her nanny character, and almost everywhere else she appears.
Kinda the reverse of Stephanie Beatriz, best known for her deep and normal-sounding Rosa Diaz voice, but her actual voice sounds like she’s doing a character.
There was a contestant on the last season of American Idol like that. When she spoke, she sounded like an exaggerated cartoon version of Rosie Perez, but when she sang, she sounded like an angel.
Drescher has had her share of challenges and difficulties during her career, including a sexual assault in the mid-80’s and cancer battle in 2000 that make her a suitable candidate to represent her peers.
And some kind of relationship / marriage to that crazy guy who claims to have invented email (long after it existed).
What’s “hilariously surreal” about it? The SAG(-AFTRA) president is always an actor. Drescher’s been at it for nearly 50 years, and more than has proven her strength and intelligence to represent the union. But let’s go on pigeon-holing someone based on one role they played (on a show she produced, btw).
Oh, yeah— we don’t want to miss out on this brain trust. 😀 😀
Miss Fine!
Damn if I didn’t read that in Mr. Sheffield’s voice and almost spit out my coffee.
If you can do your job in your pajamas from home on zoom, she can do hers from Italy the same way.
Given the quality of articles here, they may need a more formal setting!!
This (not necessarily this sites posting of it, but the story itself) reeks of character assassination to try and undermine union striking.I bet there will be more attacks where that come from by, surprisingly, mysterious well funded groups.
Drescher never seemed to me as a talented or good artist. And now she’s the president of the actors’ union?
I like how Kardashian isn’t referred to as a person with any agency in this article.
Sure she is. She had the agency to post the photo of herself and Drescher.Also, this isn’t an article about Kardashian.
Welcome back! We missed your random nonsensical attempts at hot takes.
Dat booty got a mind of its own!
The picture isn’t the best look, especially with that scab, but the response or “backlash” to it is pretty overblown. This is like someone closing down all their work and just leaving email open at 4:45 on a Friday in the summer. Should they really be working those last 15 minutes? Yes. Is that going to have any impact or effect on anything? No. Should anyone care? No, except Frank in engineering who wholeheartedly agrees that extra-long coffee breaks constitute time theft from the company.
Also SAG-AFTRA has an entire bargaining committee who are specifically tasked with bargaining. It’s not like her being at an event meant that no one was actively in talks while she was doing what she had to do.
Right? It’s not like the bargaining process is Fran Drescher on one side of a conference table and a million studio exec lawyers on the other side lobbing proposals back and forth.
A lot of people on social media criticized DrescherA lot of people on social media fell for a studio hit job.
ding ding ding
Fran is a stoopid Saggot!