Drew Barrymore Drops Out of Internet hosting MTV Awards Show Over Writers’ Strike

Drew Barrymore will now not host the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday, asserting that she would step down in assist of the writers’ strike in Hollywood that has seen late-night comedy reveals go darkish and 1000’s of tv and film writers take to picket traces.

Ms. Barrymore’s resolution, which was introduced Thursday, was the most recent blow to the awards present, which has additionally canceled its pink carpet and may even see different expertise withdraw, according to Variety.

“I’ve listened to the writers, and in an effort to actually respect them, I’ll pivot from internet hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards dwell in solidarity with the strike,” Ms. Barrymore stated in a press release to the publication. “Everything we have fun and honor about films and tv is born out of their creation.”

Ms. Barrymore said on Instagram she would return to host the present subsequent yr and was nonetheless planning to look at the present on Sunday. Representatives for Ms. Barrymore and for MTV couldn’t instantly be reached Friday morning.

Bruce Gillmer, a president at Paramount Global and an govt producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, instructed Variety that the present would go on and not using a host.

It’s unclear which superstar presenters and company are nonetheless planning to attend, together with Jennifer Coolidge, who’s being honored.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards has dealt with sudden shifts earlier than, suspending and in the end canceling its present in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A particular, hosted by the actress Vanessa Hudgens, aired later that yr.

Thousands of screenwriters went on strike on Tuesday, after 15 years of relative labor peace in Hollywood.

Some of probably the most quick results had been seen on discuss reveals and sketch reveals. New episodes from late-night reveals hosted by Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have been suspended. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” have aired reruns whereas the hosts of these reveals and NBC have agreed to increase workers pay for a brief interval, according to Deadline.

“Saturday Night Live” canceled a brand new episode scheduled for this weekend, and NBC stated it might “air repeats till additional discover.”

Writers have stated that their compensation has remained the identical at the same time as tv manufacturing has grown over the previous decade. The unions representing the writers, the East and West branches of the Writers Guild of America, stated “the businesses’ habits has created a gig financial system inside a union work power, and their immovable stance on this negotiation has betrayed a dedication to additional devaluing the career of writing.”

W.G.A. leaders stated that the survival of writing as a career was at stake through the negotiations.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of Hollywood corporations, stated in a press release earlier than the strikes started this week that its supply included “beneficiant will increase in compensation for writers.”