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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Friday 25 august 2023

Fran Drescher says actors strike she’s leading is an ‘inflection

point’ that goes beyond Hollywood

By KRYSTA FAURIA and AN- past five.
DREW DALTON The Screen Actors Guild (it
Associated Press merged with AFTRA in 2012)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fran has had plenty of famous
Drescher believes that the presidents, from James
walkouts that have shut Cagney to Ronald Reagan
down Hollywood are about to Charlton Heston.
something much bigger But few in recent decades
than the actors union she have had as recogniz-
leads, or the writers striking able a name, face, voice
alongside them, or the en- or laugh as Drescher. She
tertainment industry. made her film debut with
Drescher told The Associ- a tiny part in the 1977 John
ated Press the moment is Travolta disco classic “Sat-
about the entire world of urday Night Fever,” and
work, and a larger stand after many similar small but
against corporate leaders memorable roles, nearly al-
who value shareholders ways as brash New Yorkers,
over the people who cre- she starred for six seasons
ate their product. on the sitcom “The Nanny”
“At some point you have from 1993 to 1999.
to say no more,” Drescher, On the show, which she co-
the former “Nanny” star created, Drescher played
who is now president of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher poses for a portrait, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, at the SAG- Fran Fine, a character who
the Screen Actors Guild- AFTRA offices in Los Angeles. Associated Press becomes a children’s care-
American Federation of taker for an upper-crust
Television and Radio Art- “Stranger Things” actor ing “Shame on them. They was able to express myself Manhattan family. The simi-
ists, said in an interview at Matthew Modine in a union stand on the wrong side of as succinctly and sincerely larities between her char-
the union’s headquarters election. history.” and authentically as I did. acter and herself went be-
Wednesday. “I think that it’s But for many members and Drescher told the AP that And I think that it’s fascinat- yond her name: born and
taken on a bigger scope, observers, the day she tru- she had no intention of ing when you speak from raised in Queens, New York,
it’s greater than the sum of ly became president was getting on a soap box that the heart, people are so frank to a fault, and punc-
its parts. I think it’s a con- July 13, when Drescher day. She was supposed to responsive. Because I guess tuating sentences with a
versation now about the gave a rousing, fiery and read a written statement, they see a lot of people nasal giggle.
culture of big business, and for some inspiring speech then take questions. that don’t.” She said the business has
how it treats everybody up at the news conference “I looked at it quickly and Drescher is the first presi- changed vastly since then.
and down the ladder in the announcing that talks had I said, ‘You know what, I dent of the guild to preside “I’m very grateful that I got
name of profit.” broken off and a strike was can’t say this, I really feel over a film and TV actors my big break during that
Drescher, 65, has been about to begin. like I have to speak from strike since 1980. At the time and not this time,” Dre-
president of the actors She lashed out at the the heart,’” she said. “That time, only one woman had scher said. “When I started
guild since September of leaders of the studios and just kind of came out of my led the union. Now, seven on ‘The Nanny’ at CBS, that
2021, when she defeated streaming services, say- mouth, and I’m glad that I have, including three of the was still a family owned
business. You knew who
In his new book ‘The Fall,’ author the owners were and you
could talk to them. And

Michael Wolff foresees the demise of everything has changed.”
In a very different caretak-
ing role today, she has a
Fox News very different view.
“Now, when you have a
business model where the
NEW YORK (AP) — The next “people throughout the story of the great power of
book from “Fire and Fury” Murdoch organization, in- Rupert Murdoch and Fox CEOs are more connected
author Michael Wolff is cluding many with direct News for many years,” he to the shareholders and
both a recounting of the knowledge of Murdoch said in a statement. “This not to the people that ac-
recent past and a predic- and his family.” power is now reaching a tually make the product
tion for the near future. Wolff will offer behinds-the- natural end and ‘The Fall’ that they’re selling,” she
Wolff’s “The Fall: The End scenes accounts of every- brings the story to its clos- said.
of Fox News and the Mur- thing from Tucker Carlson’s ing act.” “I think that you have a
doch Dynasty” will come ousting, to Rupert Mur- Wolff is best known for breakdown that is unsus-
out Sept. 26, publisher doch’s clashes with former “Fire and Fury,” his tell-all tainable.” The Alliance of
Henry Holt announced President Donald Trump about the Trump adminis- Motion Picture and Televi-
This cover image released Tuesday. A spokesperson to tensions within the Mur- tration that sold millions of sion Producers, the group
by Henry Holt shows “The told The Associated Press doch family that mirror copies despite allegations representing the employ-
Fall: The End of Fox News that Wolff, whose previous HBO’s “Succession.” Fox’s from some mentioned in ers, recently restarted talks
and the Murdoch Dynasty” books include “Rupert Mur- decline is inevitable, Wolff the book that he had mis- with the Writers Guild of
by Michael Wolff, releasing America, whose members
Sept. 26. doch, The Man Who Owns contends. quoted or misrepresented have been on strike for
Associated Press the News,” interviewed “I have been telling the them.q nearly four months. q