Hollywood | Portside

June 15, 2023

Tidbits – June 15, 2023 – Reader Comments: Trump Indictment; Killing Blacks a Growth Industry; David Byrne Relents; Readers Respond: “People’s Media” Network; 10 Years of Fight for $15; Eddie Kay Way-Street Naming Ceremony; Cartoons; More

Portside

Reader Comments: Trump Indictment; Killing Blacks a Growth Industry; David Byrne Relents-Musical to Have Live Orchestra; Readers Respond: “People’s Media” Network; Crypto Currency; 10 Years of Fight for $15; Eddie Kay Way-Street Naming Ceremony; more

June 13, 2023

Media Bits and Bytes – June 13, 2023

Portside

How Hollywood became the Marvel Universe

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June 11, 2023

How Hollywood’s Anti-Communist Crackdown Made TV and Movies Bland and Boring

Eileen Jones Jacobin

The conformity of 1950s film and television was the result of the successful McCarthyist purge of leftists — and their genres — from the entertainment industry. The life of socialist screenwriter Very Caspary shows how it was done and what was lost.

May 25, 2023

The Writers’ Strike Opens Old Wounds

Kate Fortmueller Los Angeles Review of Books

While the methods of production and distribution have transformed several times over, every industry-wide strike since 1950 has been about residuals. Residuals have historically been the most hard-fought battles. Now there is streaming, and AI.

May 4, 2023

Tidbits – May 4, 2023 – Reader Comments: Young Voters; Writers Strike; Corporate Evil – Workers Deaths, Polluters, Private Equity, Crypto Currency, Debt Crisis, School Vouchers; SpaceX Explosion; Portside Cooking Controversy; Lots of Announcements

Portside

Reader Comments: Writers Strike; Young Voters; Corporate Evil - Workers Deaths, Polluters, Private Equity, Crypto Currency, Debt Crisis, School Vouchers; SpaceX Explosion; Portside Cooking Controversy; Lots of Announcements; Cartoons; more

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May 2, 2023

Hollywood’s Writers Are on Strike. Here Are Five Things You Need To Know

Anousha Sakoui Los Angeles Times

As streaming content has boomed, the Writers Guild of America says that new media models like Netflix and other online platforms have steadily eroded workers' pay and writers' ability to earn a living in Hollywood. Some 11,500 members are on strike.

April 21, 2023

Friday Nite Videos | April 21, 2023

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AOC & Jordan Klepper on Trump, Clarence Thomas & Ending Violence. Here's Why Writers Are Ready to Shut Hollywood Down. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. | Movie. Paul Robeson Testifying Before HUAC. Farmworkers | John Oliver.

Here's Why Writers Are Ready to Shut Hollywood Down

April 21, 2023

We spoke to writers behind hit shows like Abbott Elementary and Containment to understand why Hollywood writers may go on strike.

March 16, 2023

The Oscars Were Invented To Breakup Hollywood Unions

David Thomson Vanity Fair

Last week's Oscar's ceremony was groundbreaking and historic, let's look at the origins of the awards 95 years ago. It started when the original Hollywood titans wanted an industry free of unions, of residuals, union benefits, well you get the idea.

October 14, 2022

Angela Lansbury Was a Brilliant Actor and a Comrade

Eileen Jones Jacobin

Angela Lansbury, who died this week at 96, was a proud socialist who achieved enormous success in film, theater, and TV. Yet her astonishing range was botched by the Hollywood studio system — preventing her movie career from flourishing even more.

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