Hollywood Week: SAG, WGA, Union News, AI, Healthcare Breech, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson

Details

Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 14 December 2024 11:27

Written by Janet Walker

The SAG and WGA Unions have had a busy week addressing several critical issues for its membership including a Healthcare Breech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and a stop work order against Village Roadshow for failure to pay.

WGA Hits Back

AI, Artificial Intelligence, which is quickly escalating in every industry and while it has exponential growth and potential in many fields, especially medical, using AI to steal work from creatives is piracy, as it takes the world with credit, permission, or payment.

Hollywood Week: Awards Seasons Begin, Paramount/Skydance Merger News

"Leaders of the WGA West and East demanded that companies take "immediate legal action" against any firms that have used writers' work to train AI tools in a letter sent to the chief executives of Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, Sony, Netflix and Amazon MGM Studios on Wednesday," reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Film piracy, the unauthorized reproduction of work, can be prosecuted, and while tech companies and other AI trainers, utilized bits and pieces of protected property, the belief is that as it is not stolen, captured, or acquired in total, it does not constitute a crime. Many current showrunners and writers, utilize the bits and pieces belief to acquire property from sellers to develop plots, storylines, and recurring narratives, with the caveat the words are used in exactness for the purpose of impressing upon those stolen from the power structure and loss.

Tech companies training AI, essentially, are doing the same. The WGA has no power over the tech companies, just as the individual has no power over the bits and pieces seller who rakes through social media, targets influencers or others, to lift, steal, or acquire work without permission, take all the reward, receive the financial boost, and then is lauded as a creative success.

Golden Globes Announces Nominees in Film and Television

WGA Considered Stop Order

WGA is considering an immediate Stop Order action against Village Roadshow, who is late on paying it writers. "Village Roadshow is late on paying its writers and a stop work order is imminent if they do not do what's necessary," said a WGAW spokesperson to Deadline this morning," Deadline reported.

It is not yet clear if Village Roadshow complied and disbursed payment to those writers owed or if the stop-work order is forthcoming.

SAG Union Healthcare Breech

The Screen Actors Guild Union is being sued by the rank-and-file membership accusing the Union of not protecting the members personal information and failing to inform members in a timely manner among other issues resulting from the September breech.

"The proposed class action accuses SAG-AFTRA of failing to adequately safeguard member data, employ basic security measures and timely notify members of the breach. It brings claims for negligence, invasion of privacy, unjust enrichment and deceit by concealment, among others, and seeks at least $5 million," reported The Hollywood Reporter.

The breech, obtained by an undisclosed party, allowed massive amounts of personal information, to be stolen creating the possibility of exponential harm from minor personal data use to full-on identity theft and financial fraud.

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Announce 2024 Award Winners

Taylor Swift Makes History, Again. . . and Again

Pop icon Taylor Swift has made history again at the Billboard awards, adding ten trophies of 17 nominations to her lifetime total for a career total of 49, making her the most decorated pop star in the history of the Billboard awards.

The awards came on the heels of the announcement of her ERAS tour totals, which topped $2billion in sales across the two year, 149-global-show dates. "Every date on the Eras Tour was sold out, and spare tickets were scalped at eye-popping prices — or traded within the protective Swiftie fan community, often at face value. According to Swift's touring company, a total of 10,168,008 people attended the concerts, which means that, on average, each seat went for about $204," The New York Times reported.

Swift also announced a record setting $197 million in bonus to her team, staff, and workforce, including everyone, from production crew to choreographers to other less visible roles such as merchandise handlers and logistics management.  

She is nominated for six Grammys, including Album of the Year, at the upcoming awards in February 2025.

New York Film Critics Circle Announce 2025 Winners "The Brutalist" Named Best Film

Original Michal Jackson Session Tapes Discovered

In a story that could be the plot of a Hollywood movie, a former California Highway Patrol, who became a storage unit treasure hunter, stumbled on the find of a life. Diamonds? Cash? In the case of Gregg Musgrove, of San Fernando Valley, now a stay-at-home dad, it may turn out to be a combination of both as he discovered unreleased, original, Michael Jackson, DAT, and cassette tapes featuring 15 original and previously unknown songs.

As Sony Music purchased the King of Pop's music catalogue, the new songs, could be worth a fortune, and propel the deceased MJ to the top of the pop charts 15 years since the star died in 2009 . . . or not.

The storage unit belonged to Bryan Loren, a former music producer who is also heard on the tapes. Ownership of the tapes, under copyright law revert to the Michal Jackson Estate, who is aware of the tapes and confirm their authenticity.  To date they have declined to purchase. "They make it clear in the letter, however, that he and anyone else who might purchase these tapes down the line do not own the copyright on the recordings or the compositions, the estate does. Essentially, these tapes can never be released publicly," reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Winners Of The 34th Edition of The Gothams Announced

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and the International Federation of Journalists.