The SAG AFTRA strike has stopped everything in Hollywood in its tracks.
Well, not everything.
Actors can still do commercials and soap operas.
We may soon see an upsurge of famous faces pitching soap, cars, vacuums, and so on. Of course there are already plenty of A listers in the game. Brian Cox is kind of non stop with McDonald’s and other things.
But the situation may get more out of control as top names go looking for brand affiliations. Brad Pitt for Buick? Meryl Streep for Tide? Anything’s possible! After all Ben Affleck and JLo are already with Dunkin Donuts.
This is because a separate SAG contract was negotiated last year for news shows, talk shows, serials (soap operas), variety, reality, game shows, sports and promotional announcements. So the morning news shows are safe, as are some talk shows, and even “Saturday Night Live.”
The problem with the latter is that while “SNL” actors could technically appear on the show, they’d have no scripts since the WGA is on strike, too. The cast members who aren’t in the WGA could improvise, but NBC would be hitting the censor button every 7 seconds.
As for soaps, the actors must adhere to their contracts. They can picket but they have to show up to work. Unfortunately, the shows are now being written by scabs. Soap fans have already noticed their favorite characters saying and doing odd things. (Not like they weren’t before, lol.) Still, if soaps didn’t make sense before, they won’t now!
And John Oliver? He could just sit quietly in front of a camera and have dramatic readings. But with the WGA strike he, like all the late night hosts, can’t write anything.
