Drew Barrymore Sparks Backlash by Returning to Talk Show During Writers’ Strike
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Drew Barrymore sparked backlash on Sunday when she announced that she would be resuming production on her talk show without writers during the ongoing strike. In response, WGA is picketing outside her studio this week.
Drew Barrymore Returns to Talk Show During Strike
On Sunday, Barrymore shared a social media statement explaining her choice to begin filming the fourth season of her talk show amid the ongoing writers’ strike. This decision was especially surprising since Barrymore stepped down from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards host earlier this year in support of the strike.
In her new statement, Barrymore wrote that her position as host of the awards “had a direct conflict with what the strike was dealing with which was studios, streamers, film, and television.” She added, “It was also in the first week of the strike and so I did what I thought was the appropriate thing at the time to stand in solidarity with the writers.”
She then shared her plans to come back to her talk show, writing, “I own this choice … I want to be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience.”
The actress finished her post by writing that she hopes “for a resolve for everyone as soon as possible,” adding that she’s starting the new season of her show “with an astute humility.”
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Barrymore’s Decision Sparked Backlash
The comments on Barrymore’s Instagram post are full of people expressing their disappointment in the star’s decision, with many accusing her of “scabbing,” which is another word for strikebreaking. As one user wrote, “Are you going to walk past your own writers on the picket line?”
USA Today reports that the Writers Guild of America has added The Drew Barrymore Show to its picketing locations on the East Coast for Monday and Tuesday. The talk show is taped at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.
According to Deadline, two college students with tickets to this morning’s taping were kicked out when security noticed their buttons supporting the WGA strike. Cristina Kinon, a staff writer on Barrymore’s show, was among the picketers on Monday. She told Deadline, “Everybody’s doing what they need to do. They’re going on with the show, and we are picketing.”
