Hollywood actors and writers go on strike: SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher blasts film studios

Hollywood actors will go on strike at midnight on Thursday after talks with studios broke down, joining film and television writers who have been on picket lines since May. Studios now face their first dual work stoppage in 63 years, forcing them to halt many productions across the United States and abroad.   

 

Both SAG-AFTRA - Hollywood's largest union, representing 160,000 film and television actors - and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

 

Was Marilyn Monroe a communist?

At first sight the title's question seems ridiculous: What does a Hollywood bombshell with a “ditzy blonde” persona have to do with communist ideology? But sixty years since her death, a controversial Netflix movie (“Blonde”) based on her life raises, once again, the issue of Marilyn Monroe's socio-political views which the U.S. cinema industry fears to address.

Was Marilyn Monroe a communist-sympathizer? Did she have any close ties with Communist Party members? What were her views on the Soviet Union, on Fidel Castro's Cuba and the People's Republic of China? There isn't a straightforward answer to these questions. Back in 2012, files that document the FBI's close scrutiny on Monroe were released.