The strikes are going to hit podcasts soon!

And who knew Brett Goldstein had a long-running podcast of his own?

If I were more like my husband and listened to history podcasts like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, I wouldn’t have to think twice about how the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes would affect my weekly podcast schedule. I’d just carry on, all chill and stuff.

But if you’ve read any of my previous ravings, you know that my favorite podcasts are chock full of celebrities, and half the shows in my weekly schedule are episode rewatches. And the SAG-AFTRA strike, which affects the hosts of all of them, forbids them from promoting any work created under their old contracts, which seems to mean they can’t record any new episodes.

So what’s the plan, Stan?

Robbie and Garrett have been banking Delta Flyers episodes in advance and have completely finished the series (wow!). They sent this note out to their subscribers:

Hello everyone!

We just wanted to address some things in light of the SAG strike. Both Garrett and Robbie are members of SAG and therefore this does affect the podcast. But, thankfully it may only affect what we had planned after finishing Voyager. We have all of the podcast episodes for Voyager done and edited. When we heard of the impending SAG strike, we took immediate action and recorded Endgame, plus 2 bonus episodes to get us through August with content, before the strike went into effect.

Thank you for your continued support, and we will keep everyone informed on what happens with the podcast as we also stand with both SAG and the WGA in their efforts.

LLAP

This raises a big question to me. SAG-AFTRA doesn’t want its members promoting “struck work,” but is a Voyager episode that aired in 2001 considered struck work? I don’t think the guild has figured that out yet.

Office Ladies? Parks and Recollection? It’s Not Only Football?

The Office Ladies are likely a few weeks ahead at least, and Scott Porter mentioned they’ve recorded the next two episodes of It’s Not Only Football—one with Minka Kelly!—so I know they have at least two banked as well. I have no idea how far in advance the others record, but they’ll all have to stop putting out new episodes soon, and I suspect these strikes are going to drag on for a long time. This seems to be a historic turning point in the industry.

For the record, I support both guilds. I come from union stock; my great-grandfather, Henry Dworkin, co-established the Labor Lyceum in Toronto. So my disappointment in losing my podcast comes hand-in-hand with my sympathy with the guilds and their causes.

This could get interesting…

I look forward to many Armchair Expert and Smartless episodes that do not focus on upcoming movies and TV shows. I guess they can talk about anything and everything else, which could result in some unusual conversations. Better ones, maybe! And the hosts can still talk to people in all kinds of other professions.

I’m only about a third of the way in to the Armchair Expert episode with Elizabeth Banks and they’ve already had a great discussion (recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike) about the WGA strike and AI. I love that Dax (a WGA writer) wants to argue the points instead of just agreeing.

They talked about how AI could write great movies that would be successful. Here’s what I think, and I warn you, it’s a rather snobby opinion. Hey, come for the gifs, stay for the attitude.

I do think AI could write a Mission: Impossible movie. It would up the ante on the stunts, come up with clever plot twists, generate the dialogue, and make a crapload of money. Avengers movies, John Wick movies, even a Star Trek movie? Sure.

But I do not think AI could write Moonlight. Or adapt Little Women the way Greta Gerwig did. It could write Titanic, which was a “let’s create a narrative around the historical events of this sinking ship” movie, but it can’t write Slumdog Millionaire or Midsommar or Get Out or Marriage Story or Jojo Rabbit.

Elizabeth wondered if it could write Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I’m not sure. I guess it could now. Ha!

I have not seen her movie Cocaine Bear, but I have dreamed about it, which is odd. Anyway, she’s always worth listening to. (Loved her episode with Marc Maron too.)

Themed podcasts can forge onwards

Bad Dates will be fine as long as they just talk about dates, right? Same for Don’t Ask Tig, where they’ll just focus on advice and skip the promotional preamble. They have no reason to close up shop.

But I still have questions!

Can Brett Goldstein and Adam Scott talk about movies they weren’t in?

Does it violate the rules for actors to talk about projects they weren’t in? And even if it doesn’t, is it frowned upon enough to to keep people from doing it? I’m asking because my friend Christine told me that Brett Goldstein has a podcast called Films to Be Buried With where the guest talks about movies they love.

“Every week I invite a special guest over, I tell them they’ve died, then I get them to discuss their life through the films that meant the most to them,” Brett says in the intro to the Adam Scott episode.

Episode 243, and this is the first I’ve heard of it? Where have I been?

Anyway, this kind of thing feels like it doesn’t violate any rules, but according to the latest instructions from the guild, perhaps it does.

That raises yet another question: I just listened to the first few minutes of the episode, and Brett asks Adam, as anyone would, about Severance.

Right. The reason a lot of these celebs go on podcasts even when the topic is random or nostalgic is because it’s a fun way to promote their stuff, so will they still make the time for these chats when they can’t?

Nobody knows how this is going to play out yet or exactly what the rules are, and it might take a while to figure it all out.

No I have not. And therein lies the problem. I want to know now!

In the meantime… Star Trek Las Vegas (The 57-Year Mission) approaches

So in a few weeks, I head to Vegas for my yearly surreal week at the biggest Star Trek convention of the year. I go with all my TrekMovie pals and meet up with other friends and have the greatest time. We still don’t know which actors can come this year and what they’re allowed to talk about, and I don’t think they know either.

The fabulous Kayla Iacovino was all set to hype the event at Virtual Trek Con with the also fabulous Larry Nemecek, but she wasn’t feeling well and I subbed for her. Larry and I talked about the strike, what to expect at the Landing Party event the night before the convention, what kinds of panels and events to look for, etc. Also, my cat Gilbert showed up for his 15 minutes (seconds) of fame.