As columnist Meredith Blake said in The Los Angeles Times put it, “Drew Barrymore spent years building her brand. Without writers, it unraveled in a week.”
Right up top, I will tell you I am a staunch union man. Don't accept the benefits and progress that unions have brought us and then say you don't want to follow the rules.
Case in point: Drew Barrymore's TV show, which has been shut down since summer because of the Writers' Guild of America strike. But last week, it seemed that Drew was turning her back on the union. She announced that her daytime, syndicated “The Drew Barrymore Show” was coming back with new episodes despite the writers’ strike. Her plan was to have the show and not have it include written material, which would have left the nation with a show in which Drew Barrymore ad-libs with her guests.
I mean, you can imagine!
A good point was that she said other workers on the show who have been idled since summer would be able to come back to work and resume collecting their salaries. That's a good point but not good enough. Those people she was looking to help are union members who would not likely cross a picket line.
As the reaction heated up, Drew put out a video in which she repeated that most difficult to prove of Hollywood hypes: “This is bigger than me. My decision to go back to the show — I didn’t want to hide behind people, so I won’t. And I won’t polish this with bells and whistles and publicists and corporate rhetoric. I’ll just stand out there and accept and be responsible.”
She added, pretending to understand: “Nothing I can do that will make this OK for those it is not OK with. I fully accept that. I fully understand that there are so many reasons why this is so complex and I just want everyone to know my intentions have never been in a place to upset or hurt anyone.”
You can see why having her talk without the aid of writers would be a disaster.
So now, this past weekend, she changed her mind: “I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over. I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today. We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon.”
The only way forward for a union member during a strike is to move forward with solidarity. Trying to sneak in through a side door is not good for anyone.
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