Dear Gossips,

Deadline reported yesterday that the Television Academy and Fox, which is broadcasting the Emmy Awards this year, have been in talks about the impact that the writers’ strike, and the potential upcoming actors’ strike, will have on the show. The Emmys are currently scheduled to happen on September 18 and according to Deadline, if there is no resolution by mid-July or early August, the event will be postponed until November or January. Writers are essential to the Emmys telecast, it would be impossible to go ahead without them, and the writers guild will not be making an exception for writers to work on the Emmys should there not be a new deal in place.

As for the actors, their current deal expires next Friday, June 30 and there have already been reports that negotiations will extend beyond that date. And all of this is going down just as Netflix dropped the sixth season of Black Mirror and the first episode, Joan is Awful. There’s a lot going on in Joan is Awful – and if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend.

Joan is Awful is about main character energy and the layers of identity we’ve created for ourselves; it’s about how we’ve all given up our privacy; it’s about how we are increasingly entertained by the mess of others while ignoring our own; and it’s definitely a story about who’s telling the story and where those stories come from. When there are no writers, the computers tell the story – and they TAKE the story from the people who are living their own stories through their devices. It’s not that dystopian, right? Like it’s exactly what we’re dealing with right now with the strike and the pushback from creatives about AI contributions.

That applies to the actors too. Last week in a post about Scarlett Johansson and what she had to say about the strike, I wrote about one way AI is affecting the actors, who are being asked to get virtually scanned so their digital likenesses can be cast in multiple projects without them having to show up… which… I mean that’s Joan is Awful. And while my original post about that was focused on compensation structure, beyond the finances there’s also personal and creative control over and artist’s work. What happens to Salma Hayek on the show is not far from the realm of possibility. And all of that must be top of mind in Hollywood right now.

The best thing about Joan is Awful and what we can actually feel good about? Annie Murphy is a f-cking star and she and Salma Hayek together are MAGIC.

Attached: Annie and Salma at a Netflix event on June 13, 2023 in New York City.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Annie Murphy Gossip

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