Most of the time when a celebrity commits an oopsie, I get a cheap thrill because it’s generally low stakes and since I don’t know them, it doesn’t really affect me. There are, however, celebrities that, while I’m not proud of it, I have some sort of parasocial relationship with. Drew Barrymore is one of them, and I have been in this woman’s corner for as long as I can remember.
That includes making sure I was in the theater opening weekend for the 1998 certified not fresh cinematic entry Home Fries. That’s how deep I ride for my girl Drew. So, it is with love and sadness in my heart that I share that Drew Barrymore is scabbing just to bring back her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, and all I can say is: Drew, what are you thinking?! Scabbing is one of the worst possible things you can do in a labor strike, and this particular labor strike has ramifications that will affect basically every American worker: the right to be paid a fair wage. This sucks, Drew!
Barrymore made the announcement yesterday on her Instagram:
Look, Drew, just because you “own this choice” doesn’t mean your choice doesn’t f***ing suck.
Before we get into more details, let’s go straight to the source on whether the show coming back is OK or not, via WGA East’s recent Tweet on the matter:
Well, damn, there you go. Drew, and her show, are scabbing. If you don’t quite understand why this constitutes scabbing since she won’t be employing writers, Adam Conover has a good explanation:
The explanation is: You’re not compliant if you employed WGA writers prior to the strike, and then come back to production during an ongoing WGA strike. Pretty straightforward, right?
The WGA was true to their word today, and there are picketers outside her studios. Drew! Rethink this! Please! You did not have Leonardo DaVinci be your fairy godmother in Ever After just to have all your goodwill squandered in one fell swoop by scabbing in such a spectacularly awful manner.
Unfortunately, all the Drew Barrymore fan girlies (like me!) may need to entirely switch our allegiance over to her Ever After co-star Melanie Lynskey (who remains an impeccable, union-supporting queen) because it appears that Barrymore has gone all-in on her villain era. At her show’s taping today, audience members who were wearing WGA pins were kicked out of the show. Per The Hollywood Reporter:
Two audience members, who had signed up for free tickets to the taping, were handed WGA pins as they walked in the door by picketers and say they were asked to leave before the show began because they were wearing the pins.
Dominic Turiczek and Cassidy Carter, two New York City-based students, planned to attend the show, after signing up free tickets about a week and a half ago, not aware that the strike was going on. As they walked into the building Monday, both were handed buttons from picketers that read “Writers Guild on Strike.” The two say they were asked to take off the buttons at security, to which Carter complied. Turiczek was still wearing his button as they entered the studio space. He said a crew member spotted the button and asked them both to leave.
What is going on?! She didn’t even give anyone time to change her mind before she scabbed. (You’ll note that today’s airing of The Drew Barrymore show is a rerun, and the guests from today’s taping have not been announced yet.)
Drew Barrymore, of all people, should understand the importance of supporting the strike. She is from a multi-generational acting dynasty that has been making movies for more than one hundred years. Hell, there are pictures out there of her great-aunt on the picket line in support of the actor’s strike in 1919. Drew should know better!
If you’re old, like me, you may recall during the last writer’s strike, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson’s shows were allowed to return to air with WGA writers. That’s because Letterman owned the production company that produced both shows and independently negotiated a contract with the WGA. As you can see by the above WGA Tweet, Barrymore’s production company, Flower Films, has clearly not negotiated a similar agreement.
Look, I’m sure that it’s been weighing on Barrymore that there are non-striking workers who depend on the show in order to pay their bills. However, New York (where her show is filmed) and New Jersey both allow for striking workers to collect unemployment. Additionally, if you google Barrymore’s net worth, many sites seem to think she’s worth north of $100 million. I have no idea how much it costs to support show employees per day, but I have to think that she has the financial ability to offset some of the costs and expenses for her team during this incredibly necessary strike.
This whole situation sucks. It pains me to say this, but Drew Barrymore’s actions suck. She is a scab.
Strikes are supposed to be inconvenient. They are painful. They are also incredibly necessary to prove the point that someone’s labor is important and valuable and must be fairly compensated and protected. Scabbing is bootlicking in the worst possible way. It is selfish, and it is anti-labor. I really expected more from my girl Drew Barrymore, and this one hurts. I don’t know how she can come back from this, but I personally won’t be watching her show or clips from it for the foreseeable future.
(featured image: Big Ticket Pictures, Flower Films)
