“Seal The Deal”: SAG-AFTRA’s Fran Drescher Calls Out Studio CEOs To “Resurface” And Help End Strike

It’s not quite Where’s Waldo?, but Fran Drescher wants to know when the studio CEOs are coming back to the table to finalize a new SAG-AFTRA three-year contract to end the guild’s nearly four-month-long strike.

“TGIF! Let’s hope the amptp ceo’s resurface with a seal the deal counter!” said the SAG-AFTRA President this morning online.

The guild and the studios have been back in renewed negotiations since October 24. However, SAG-AFTRA says it hasn’t heard back from the AMPTP on its comprehensive counter proposal since October 28, nor have the studios responded to the guild’s latest AI proposal during the past two days.

As Deadline reported exclusively Thursday there were no formal talks between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP as everything seemed to be on “standby,” to quote the actors union — a fact that Drescher highlighted earlier Friday in her Instagram post:

“CEOs have been engaged and will continue to be engaged,” a studio source told Deadline today in response to Drescher’s post.

The SAG-AFTRA boss’ use of social media has increasingly become a blunt object against the studios’ tactics.

Drescher took to Instagram on November 1, rebuking criticism of her SAG-AFTRA leadership skills in an scathing Instagram video, saying “I’m getting ready now to go to work, and I just want you to know that I feel a sense of strength , not angry, and I feel a sense of optimism, not negative.”

The two-time Emmy-nominated The Nanny actress emphasized in that video, “I can lead with empathy, I can be me.”

Much of the talks this past week have been between the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, its National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini and studio legal reps. The studio CEO Gang of Four — NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — haven’t been in attendance as both sides go over finer points in the contract. Studio CEOs, we’re told, are on standby for either Zoom or in-person so their attendance be requested as talks continue today on the 113th day of the strike.

Deadline has been told that SAG-AFTRA and the studios are in a good place when it comes to streaming revenue share terms.