How The Hollywood Shutdown Is Changing Entertainment Reporting

The entertainment beat is becoming the labor beat.

In case you’ve missed it, the entertainment industry is in the midst of “hot strike summer.” 

On July 14, the SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on strike after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to present a satisfactory contract. In addition to not showing up to set, actors can’t do any press interviews to promote new projects — which means no radio Q&As, appearances on “Hot Ones,” talk shows, magazine profiles, or red carpets (even if it’s a pink carpet for “Barbie”). 

Study Hall spoke to entertainment writers who described how the Hollywood shutdown has impacted their beat and though all were supportive of the needs of striking screenwriters and actors, they agreed that this is a moment of uncertainty. 

Rebecca Alter, a staff writer at Vulture, recalled how when she came back to work the Monday following the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, she realized she wouldn’t be able to conduct follow-up interviews for actors and would have to rewrite copy to clarify that quotes were provided before July 14. She said that without red carpets or talk show appearances to recap, her and her team will have to think outside the box. Now, instead of aggregation, content can be more opinionated (she added that she wasn’t disparaging Vulture’s prior content). 

The Vulture writer noted how some Hollywood trades are pushing “anti-labor” and “anti-union” stories. A few days prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Deadline, for example, came under fire for an article that relied heavily on industry insiders parroting studios honchos’ talking points that some interpreted as threatening writers into submission. Alter’s team, on the other hand, has beefed up its on-the-ground coverage of the picket-lines to highlight striking workers’ perspectives.

“We’re trying to offer them a voice and platform that I think some of these Hollywood trades maybe aren’t,” she said.

An entertainment writer who works at a national outlet said that the combination of both guilds going on strike has “definitely made things more nerve-wracking” and described canceling interview requests for actors. She chose to stay anonymous. According to her, reviews and interviews are “the meat” of her outlet. She predicted that with actors withholding labor and not filming new episodes of TV shows, opportunities for content may soon be “a lot more scarce.” 

“I’m just expecting that we’re going to have a lot less content to run in the fall,” she said.

The entertainment writer said though there hasn’t been a formal meeting about this issue or official guidance from “higher-ups,” she’s discussed it with colleagues. 

“The strike has given us an extra lane of coverage,” she said. “I don’t know if that will balance out in terms of clicks that we’re not getting from interviews.” 

So, what will fill this glaring void? 

The reporters Study Hall spoke to speculated that without Hollywood stars, social media celebrities may have their moment in the sun. 

“The focus is going to shift to the influencers, who are now providing the main source of entertainment,” Moises Mendez II, a culture reporter at TIME, said. “It’s going to be an interesting moment to see how the media shifts.”  

He recalled how two publicists promoting a film had followed up, offering interviews with directors (last month, the Directors Guild of America signed a new three-year contract with the studios and averted a strike).  

Kyle Turner, a culture writer who freelances in addition to his day job, wanted to write more profiles of actors and writers this year. Now that’s likely no longer an option, he wonders whether editors will be more “willing and flexible” to accept his pitches for essays that they had once characterized as “academic and niche.” 

“I swear to God if this turns into only covering TikTok stars, I will kill myself or someone else,” he said. 

“You can say that on the record,” he added. 

Regardless if the content gap is filled with profiles of influencers and directors, or more esoteric essays, it’s clear that the Hollywood shutdown will be the top entertainment story of the year (sorry, Barbenheimer). 

Actors can still grant interviews with media outlets to talk about the strike, which means that rather than plugging their latest film or mini-series, household names like Fran Drescher are now discussing problems that impact countless workers like wages and AI. In other words, the entertainment beat is becoming the labor beat.  

“Whatever industry you work in, the average person has a point of entry because they’ve seen these shows and they know these celebrities,” Alter said. “Watching them have a platform to express why these labor issues matter clearly and show that striking works is important at a wider labor level.”