The ongoing SAG-AFTRA election sounds absolutely vicious
Matthew Modine and Fran Drescher are running for national president, and both sides are out for blood
Film News SAG-AFTRA
Those of us who follow pop culture but don’t work in The Industry only ever really hear about SAG-AFTRA once or twice a year when they decide to hand out awards (and nominations for awards), but SAG-AFTRA does a lot more than decide who gets to take home a little bronze person at the SAG Awards. Every other day of the year, it’s a labor union that works to protect actors, TV personalities, voice actors, and other people who do things that are reasonably similar to acting. SAG-AFTRA has an election going on right now, with outgoing president Gabrielle Carteris (from Beverly Hills, 90210!) endorsing Fran Drescher (from The Nanny!) in her election for national president against Matthew Modine (most recently from Stranger Things!).
This sort of thing is not usually super relevant to us regular people, since we are not actors and we don’t employ actors, but there is something interesting about this election: everybody involved is out for blood. Seriously, if the last two presidential elections were brutal, this seems makes them seem almost pleasant (almost). Here’s a primer, courtesy of Deadline: Drescher is working with Anthony Rapp as part of the “ruling party,” Unite For Strength, with their platform apparently being, essentially, “we’re doing alright, let’s just keep trying to do better.” Modine, meanwhile, is heading up the opposing party, MembershipFirst, with Joely Fisher. Their platform seems to be “this shit sucks, everything we’re doing is bad and we need to tear it down.”
That’s a pretty standard split for any election (“things are okay” vs “things are actually bad”), but apparently some members of the MembershipFirst party are… oh, let’s say problematic. So problematic, in fact, that Unite For Strength released a statement calling on its opposition to “publicly renounce and discontinue harboring” members who “denied George Floyd’s murder, amplified death threats, joined up with the NXIVM cult, threatened to shoot supporters of vaccination requirements, called the January 6 insurrection a ‘set up’ by ‘paid operators,’ falsely spread that Black Lives Matter is a hate group funded by George Soros, and voted against a task force to increase diversity in the stunt community.”
It’s basically a primer on all the ways someone could fuck up over the course of the last two years or so, and the Drescher’s faction is accusing Modine’s faction of all of it. MembershipFirst’s response to Deadline about the statement was literally “we have no response to this bullshit,” adding that “lawyers are involved” and they can “name names” if they want but they “better start putting all their properties in trust.”
Deadline says the thing about shooting people over vaccines came from a tweet someone posted about “unapproved experimental gene therapy” and included the hashtag “#SecondAmendmentIsForThis.” The NXIVM thing is a reference to a photo of a MembershipFirst supporting who was “photographed seated next to alleged NXIVM cult members,” with a lawyer saying that the photo is “completely out of context” and that it’s just an unfair example of “guilt by association.”
Deadline also notes that Unite For Strength doesn’t have its hands totally clean either, with members of both saids having “said, tweeted, and retweeted questionable comments during the pandemic.” Drescher herself, for example, tweeted last year that 5G cell signals are causing cancer, hurting animals, and helping to spread viruses like COVID-19 (Drescher is a cancer survivor who runs the organization Cancer Schmancer). Deadline says that tweet got flagged with one of those “this isn’t true” messages. Everybody’s just calling out everyone else for any potentially questionable thing they’ve ever done.
Weirdly, though, things seem much less contentious when the two sides actually talk. Modine and Rapp have agreed to do a public town hall of some sort, and the leaders on both sides say they support mandatory COVID vaccines and continued mask-wearing. The votes will be tallied in early September, and then… odds are, your life won’t be impacted at all. At the very least, some other famous person will be introduced as the SAG-AFTRA president at the next SAG Awards, and we’ll know that they fought a vicious battle to get there.
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Now now, the Unite For Strength party has apologized for Rapp starring in the movie version of Rent on a number of occasions.
He was in Dazed and Confused and Adventures in Babysitting, so two out of three ain’t bad. Presumably he’s been in other things as well, but I’ll be goddamned if I know what they are.
Star Trek: Discovery, but the less you think about that show, the better.
But he’s the only good character in it!
Culber > Stamets all day. Wilson Cruz makes his job look effortless
Reno is a good recurring character as well.
Oh yeah he was one of the nerdy guys in Dazed. I don’t think I had seen him since then when Discovery started.
This website snidely commenting on other people’s witch hunting is something, I guess
That house has always been made of glass…
“calling out everyone else for any potentially questionable thing they’ve ever done”
The A.V. Club
Matthew Modine also imprisoned and experimented on a shaven-headed little girl after lobotomizing her mother
Also, while working as an FBI agent investigating organized crime, he had an improper relationship with the widow of a mobster.
He also allowed that one motorcyclist, whose group was (checks notes) hacking the stock market, to escape as he tried to chase glory through bringing in the Batman.
I completely forgot he was in that.
Judging by how inconsequential his death was in the end, I’m guessing Christopher Nolan did, too, until shooting day.
“Alright Chris, I’m ready to shoot whenever you need me.”“Birdy? What the hell are you doing here?”
Lmao this one
And then he cowered in his home while he was the deputy commissioner of police, too afraid to do his job
In Modine’s defense he was sexually exploited by an older woman when he was a high school wrestler and further traumatized by two stints in Vietnam.
Also, as a young man, while attending a private school for boys, he and some classmates dressed up in women’s clothing and snuck into a private school for girls to spy on the girls while they were naked in the locker room.
that last one wasn’t only in a movie
And his whole stint as being a pirate should probably be best forgotten.
Oh yeah. He’s the worst. I guess we know who the demogorgon is voting for. See, he wants the whole thing turned upside-down. Looks like the actors can look forward to a world of ARTFA-GAS.
For some reason, I was just reminded of this story:“Lost Modine Paintings Found in NYC”
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=112803
That’s bizarre.
I remember a news item around the time when I first learned about it describing the situation along the lines of saying that the person in question responsible was being charged for having photo albums of Matthew Modine’s when in fact he was not actually Matthew Modine.(I think it did also elaborate that all the stuff found had been reported stolen as per the link I posted too, though.)
Sure, but I really like the idea that there’s a specific provision in law for having Matthew Modine’s possessions while not being Matthew Modine.
Wait Matthew Modine painted a portrait of himself and Nicolas Cage?? I need to see that.
Well he started out as a High School wrestler, and that can sometimes land you on the, ahem, Lunatic Fringe.
I mean, haven’t we all lobotomised someone or other in our day?
He was also involved in a US Army basic training incident where a soldier killed their drill sergeant
Two words: Cutthroat Island.
he also had the nerve to wear a pin and a helmet to make some snarky statement about the duality of man, in Vietnam of all places, then he had to explain the whole Jungian thing to a thoroughly befuddled general…it was super awkward and he should really have been made to stand tall before the man.
I had to pause and re-read when it said that Fran Drescher’s cancer charity is called ‘Cancer Schmancer’ – incredibly on brand.
“Now Cancer, now Schmancer, now Nancer and Fixin’…
Oh stop it, it’s stupid, on Reagan and Nixon!”
If we’re gonna have a fight, let’s see your war faces!Modine!Drescher!Tough call…
The Nanny vs Private Joker. Who you got?
You have this completely twisted: Here’s your homework: SAG-AFTRA Board Candidate Shaan Sharma Addresses “Toxic” Culture Of Union’s Politics As Election Looms
https://deadline.com/2021/08/sag-aftra-shaan-sharma-candidate-addresses-toxic-culture-1234809301/
One time at a Knicks game I had the fortune of getting a pretty good seat, and when the t-shirt guy fired the canon into the crowd, a shirt came toward me, slightly over my head. I jumped up, grabbed it, and yanked it out of the hand of the person behind me. I turned around, and it was Matthew Modine. So I’m rooting for Matthew in this war! Poor guy could use a win!
Did he say you were “a regular menace to society”?
Here to help you be a regular menace to society:
Thanks! I’m tired of being a constipated menace to society.
Menace #2 Society
Frequently when I see that at live sporting events, it’s a portly 32-year old ripping a prize out of the hands of a teary eyed child.
I actually did end up giving the shirt to some kids seated around me. Though now that I think about it, those brats had great seats and life was probably already too easy for them. But what the fuck am I gonna do with a large Modern Family promotional t-shirt?
LOL and here I thought they would have done the smart thing by shooting a KNICKS t-shirt at a KNICKS game, maybe a size XL or something more likely to fit more people. I’m such a naif.
People would actually WANT a Knicks shirt (probably) so that’s never the free shit. Gotta sell those!
My policy is, if there are kids near me, I won’t go for it, but if not, fair game
I was hoping he would have whispered “fuck you, I made out with Linda Fiorentino back in the day and touched her boob when she was shit hot…enjoy your dumb t-shirt”
members who “denied George Floyd’s murder, amplified death threats,
joined up with the NXIVM cult, threatened to shoot supporters of
vaccination requirements, called the January 6 insurrection a ‘set up’
by ‘paid operators,’ falsely spread that Black Lives Matter is a hate
group funded by George Soros, and voted against a task force to increase
diversity in the stunt community.” Well, I’m on The Nanny’s side then.
Drescher herself, for example, tweeted last year that 5G cell signals
are causing cancer, hurting animals, and helping to spread viruses like
COVID-19Wait, what? I mean, it is the obvious lesser of the two, but is anybody passably normal here?
also, is “collective punishment” our path, then? The sin of one is the sin of “the whole team”?
They’re actors.Obviously not.
Oughta be called Hollyweird am I right folks?… I SAID it ought to be called Hollyweird am I right folks? …Whatever, tip your waitresses folks.
It’s showinsanity, not showsanity!
I know I’m in the greys but: Imo, the difference here is that the Unite for Strength’s statement appears to be broadly talking about the opposition base without actual names or specifics relevant to election at hand, Drescher’s comments actually came directly from her, the candidate running. Now, if it turns out MembershipFirst are harboring an abnormal amount of public alt-right shitbags then I’ll eat my words, but seeing as we’re talking about two factions of one of the most notable labor unions in the US, I’m assuming they’re both shades of pretty left.Some cursory research shows that the biggest sticking points for the opposition are better sexual assault protection, and dissatisfaction with changes made to the health plan that increased eligibility requirements, that apparently left a few thousand (mostly seniors) kicked off the plan during the pandemic. The latter sparked a class action age discrimination suit was brought up against the union at the end of 2020 by former SAG prez. Ed Asner because of this. Make of this what you will.
nobody is asking the important question:who has Sorbo endorsed?
Pictured: Matthew Modine, preparing for his role as Old Man Logan
He’s guesting on The Flash as the Kenny Rogers of Earth-2.
I’ve still not actually watched the doc about NXIVM, but I feel like unless they were up to Allison Mack levels of power in the organization, then we should be kind of taking pity on these folks, not chiding them for it. Like… yeah, it’s dumb to get involved with a cult but I feel like it’s kind of messed up to lump being involved with them up with shit like being anti-BLM/insurrectionist supporters/all that other shit. Like I said, don’t know that much about the cult, but unless part of the entry is just signing your name next to “I hate black people”, we ought to feel bad for former members instead of holding it against them.
I have watched the doc, plus another one, and I’ve read Sarah Edmondson’s book and listen to her and her husband’s podcast. Compared to Scientology, your average NXIVM member was a saint. Most of them were victims and most of the victims were just having their money taken for some fake self help (whereas Scientologists, no matter how high up or not they are, will willingly cut family and friends out of their lives if the higher ups tell them to. Which, again, is not as bad as some of the other stuff listed, but still worse than being an average NXIVM member.)
If Drescher can’t appeal to the voting base, she’ll be out on her fanny!
Just remember that in America, your fanny is your bum. Not your minge.
What a shitshow. I guess since we’re talking about actors here, Twitter is a goldmine of opposition research.
I mean, I recently voted in my union’s division elections, and all we got was a little pamphlet where the candidates cheerfully-if-dryly explained their platforms. IIRC three of them didn’t even bother doing that. If any of them were in NXIVM everyone involved kept it on the lowdown.
“publicly renounce and discontinue harboring” members who “denied George
Floyd’s murder, amplified death threats, joined up with the NXIVM cult,
threatened to shoot supporters of vaccination requirements, called the
January 6 insurrection a ‘set up’ by ‘paid operators,’ falsely spread
that Black Lives Matter is a hate group funded by George Soros, and
voted against a task force to increase diversity in the stunt
community.”
What they aren’t telling you is that it’s all just one really busy person. Everyone likes him, but Problematic Dan is kind of a PR liability.
#teamnoone
INT: BACKSTAGE AT SAG-AFTRA CANDIDATE DEBATE(JOELY FISHER enters. She spies MATTHEW MODINE running in circles wearing a large black garbage bag)JF: Matthew, what are you doing?
MM: Gotta make weight so I can wrestle Fran Drescher.
Literally the only reason I clicked this was because my brain went “Wait, dude, that looks like Fran Drescher”.
This calls for an Epic Rap Battle Of History!
I just want to know who’s running from the Judean People’s Front?
he’s over there
*Sees Matthew Modine’s name in any context*(Aloud) “Morgan, Mason, Mathew, and Modine.”
Our lives won’t be impacted at all? Sometimes the difference in who gets elected means the difference of whether or not there is a STRIKE!! And we entertainment consumers are ALL affected by that.
Fran Drescher unironically being the head of an organization called Unite For Strength is kind of terrifying and something I didn’t expect until after the water wars in the 2030s
Modine always gave me bad vibes.
Tom Hanks endorsed Drescher.All I need to know.
As an actor who can name his own terms, Tom Hanks doesn’t need a strong union. In fact, as a producer and someone who can demand a large cut of the gross, he would benefit from an even weaker one.