Sitting with comedian Jim Gaffigan on Sunday’s episode of the “Club Random” podcast, Bill Maher shared some of his thoughts on the ongoing writers’ strike and the WGA’s demands, some of which he called “kooky.”
“They’re asking for a lot of things that are, like, kooky,” Maher said. “What I find objectionable about the philosophy of the strike [is] it seems to be, they have really morphed a long way from 2007 strike where they kind of believe that your owed a living as a writer, and you’re not.”
He then added that Hollywood has always been about the hustle.
“This is show business,” he said. “This is the make-or-miss league.”
Earlier in a clip of the podcast making its way around social media, Maher raised concern over the non-writers of the industry who are being negatively impacted by the ongoing dual strike of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, which has effectively shut Hollywood production as we knew it down.
“I feel for my writers. I love my writers. I’m one of my writers. But there’s a big other side to it. And a lot of people are being hurt besides them — a lot of people who don’t make as much money as them in this bipartisan world we have where you’re just in one camp or the other, there’s no in between,” he bemoaned. “You’re either for the strike like they’re f–king Che Guevara out there, you know, like, this is Cesar Chavez’s lettuce picking strike, or you’re with Trump. There’s no difference — there’s only two camps. And it’s much more complicated than that.”
Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time” has been off the air since April 28. The WGA went on strike at the beginning of May.
The two sides of the WGA and AMPTP remain significantly far apart, particularly as evidenced by the latest studio proposal, which was offered on Aug. 11 and universally slammed by WGA members after the companies chose to make it public.
Sources tell TheWrap that there have been no further discussions between the two sides since that meeting, though the WGA says it will “remain committed to direct negotiations with the companies.”
