Writers Guild Awards takes shot at Hollywood chief with spoof video

June 21, 2024

The Writers Guild union negotiated their way back to Hollywood after a 148-day strike last year, but the award show last night seems to still feel sour about the whole thing.

The Writers Guild of America showed it was still bitter over their strike with Hollywood bosses at the award show last night, with a spoof of the top negotiator representing studios in the battle appearing on-screen. In the comedy skit, at the Hollywood Palladium ceremony on Sunday night, the celebrity presenting the award interacted with it behind her. However, it may have not been as successful as they hoped, as it appeared to have gone over fans’ heads.

Top negotiator mocked in spoof at Writers Guild Awards show

More than six months after the union’s strike ended, they spoofed Carol Lombardini in a brutal routine at the event.

At around one hour into the show, a picture of Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers president Lombardini appeared on-screen behind host Niecy Nash-Betts. The celebrity interacted with the spoof, where the mouth only moved.

When Niecy asks why she (the spoof) was at the Writers Guild Awards show, it congratulates the co-chairs of the WGA’s negotiating committee during the strike (David Goodman and Chris Keyser) for being awarded the Morgan Cox Award for their service to the union.

It says: “First of all, I want to congratulate all the nominees and winners, especially David Goodman and Chris Keyser for getting the Morgan Cox Award, because when I think of David Goodman and Chris Keyser, the first word that comes to mind is ‘c***s,’ ”

“I gotta say, kudos to WGA executive director Ellen Stutzman. You were one tough negotiator. You remind me of that show Beef, except meaner and less Korean. And all of you writers remind me of The Crown because you think you’re so high and mighty, but you’re really just a bunch of inbred crybabies.”

Groans and laughter were heard from the audience.

The spoof continued: “I love that movie, May December. May December also happens to be how long I was planning to keep the strike going. Just three more months, and you all would have lost your houses. Suck on that, overpaid a**hole content creators.”

It ended with: “See you on the picket line in 2026 beyotches, Lombardini out”

The next year main labor contract for the WGA is up for negotiation, so members could go on strike again.

It’s not the first time

Lombardini has been the top negotiator for Hollywood studios for 15 years. She guides executives at top studios and streaming giants on representing their positions and bargaining objectives during talks with the union.

She tends to keep a low profile, but a spoof account was created on X (Twitter) last year at the height of the Writers Guild Awards strike – before the event last night.

The 2023 strike was the second-longest in the union’s history, with WGA demanding protection over the use of AI in scriptwriting and better compensation for its members after the rise of streaming.

It called for higher wage floors and residuals over projects that do well on streamers, such as Netflix and Disney.