By Maia Venuti
Staff Writer
Since Sept. 10, actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore has been embroiled in controversy after her decision to resume filming of her morning talk show, “The Drew Barrymore Show” during the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Meaning, she planned to violate the terms of the strike by working with non-union writers, taking jobs away from writers who already were struggling due to the strike.
This sparked outrage from folks who supported the strike, and Barrymore was labeled a scab, with this move heavily tarnishing her once upstanding reputation. There are so many things deeply wrong with what Barrymore did, and while she did apologize a few days later on Sept. 15, she later deleted the video.
In the past few days there have been massive developments regarding the WGA strike, with Hollywood executives finally creating new terms and a new deal with the writers which could finally bring an end to the months-long strike. This all leads me to beg the question: Why could Drew not wait a week or two?
What we are looking at here is a case study in selfish impatience. Drew Barrymore’s own personal desire to get back in the studio and start filming trumped the feelings of the WGA writers who worked so hard on her show. She prioritized her needs and forcibly put fans of her show in a moral dilemma of having to cross a picket line to support her.
If she waited one week, none of this would have happened to her. She would have still maintained her good name and her reputation as America’s sweetheart if she just held off for a bit longer.
Another confusing element of why she decided to start her show back up during the strike was that she was not doing it to help her writers. The writers Barrymore was going to employ for these new episodes would have either been WGA writers not complying with the strike or non-union writers, which is deeply problematic.
If Barrymore actually wanted to help her writers, she could have done what many nighttime talk show hosts began doing, and started a podcast or done something that complies with the strike while also generating revenue for the writers who work for her.
Barrymore unnecessarily tarnished her good name and earned arguably the worst insult a person can be called during a strike, a scab. She rightfully earned that title when she openly crossed a picket line and forced all those in her orbit to cross with her or be banished for supporting the strike when her show did film.
Now that the strike is coming to an end, her actions were completely pointless, and it makes genuinely no sense why she could not have waited. Her show was announced to return in October like many other talk shows, but there is going to be a level of trust that is gone between both her audience and her writers.
The writers are going to be distrusting of Barrymore because of her scab behavior. Going against strike guidelines devalues the work that these writers do, and sends the message that they are replaceable and she can get anyone she wants to do their work, which is not true. Her audience is going to be distrusting because she lost so much of her authenticity as a person. Barrymore has always been the kind of person to acknowledge her privilege and the family she comes from, but this scandal created a new view of Barrymore, one where she might be more selfish than she lets on.
In all, Drew Barrymore’s actions were extremely poorly thought out in the grand scheme of it all. She could have waited two weeks and this would have all been over. Instead, she created an insane amount of backlash and anger towards her and her show for this unacceptable behavior.
The first meeting back at “The Drew Barrymore Show” for the WGA writers will certainly be an interesting one. Hopefully Barrymore learned her lesson from this horrible display of impatience, and will learn to be more supportive of all the people helping to make her show good.
