Neither Drew Barrymore nor Bill Maher are likely to be political bedfellows with anyone who regularly reads RedState. But I think it's important to give credit where credit's due, and this is one of those moments. (In case anyone doesn't know, Barrymore has a show that's heading into its fourth season.)
Readers might have heard about the lefties sharpening their knives over Maher, who just said he'll be going back to making new episodes for his "Real Time" talk show on HBO. The program suspended production when the writers' strike started back in the spring. As Karen Townsend, my colleague over at sister site Hot Air, wrote:
Maher made the announcement on Wednesday night to his more than 10 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said he sympathizes with the issues the striking writers face, but other staffers on his team are struggling, too. Everyone has bills to pay and life goes on. It’s time to get back to work. Maher said he has been helping the staff but it is not enough, they are still struggling.
But Maher isn't alone in bucking the Hollywood Left here. On Sept. 10 (last Sunday), Barrymore also announced that she would return to production on her popular, syndicated daytime talk show, "The Drew Barrymore Show." The backlash via social media began immediately, including from some name performers like ... Bradley Whitford:
Actors Bradley Whitford, Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano were among those who posted responses to Barrymore’s video. “I hope you will reconsider,” said Messing.
On Friday, Barrymore took to her Instagram account, sharing a video of her apologizing and explaining her reasons for getting back on the air. The post/video, which she has since taken down, was captured and shared on X (formerly Twitter):
After six days of backlash, Drew Barrymore has uploaded this video responding to the news that she is bringing her talk show back during the writer’s strike.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 15, 2023
She says the reason she's bringing her show back is she managed to do it during the pandemic, so she feels the strike… pic.twitter.com/NVbIeSmdqI
The actress began by saying that she "[knows] there’s just nothing I can do that will make this OK for those it is not OK with. I fully accept that." Calling the situation "complex," she added, while fighting back tears, that her reasons have "never been in a place to upset or hurt anyone."
She continued:
I don’t exactly know what to say because sometimes when things are so tough it’s hard to make decisions from that place. So, all I can say is that I wanted to accept responsibility and no, I don’t have a PR machine behind this.
After apologizing, Barrymore said it was "bigger than her," and more about helping her production crew keep their jobs:
The actress went on to address why she made the decision to resume production of her talk show during the ongoing SAG/WGA strikes.
"I wanted to do this because, as I said, this is bigger than me and there are other people’s jobs on the line," she said.
One X user pointed out that by returning to the show, she is not breaking the strike provisions:
There are 3 writers out of a staff of scores of people on Drew Barrymore. They write a very small portion of the show. Meanwhile, The View, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson are all back or are coming back without their WGA writers. Running the show without the writers is not…
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) September 15, 2023
The full tweet read:
There are 3 writers out of a staff of scores of people on Drew Barrymore. They write a very small portion of the show. Meanwhile, The View, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson are all back or are coming back without their WGA writers. Running the show without the writers is not strikebreaking so long as the writers are not replaced.
While a commenter on the above post pointed out that Kelly Clarkson's show has not announced a return to production, notice one point in the snippet from a Variety article they shared only bolsters what Maher and Barrymore are doing:
Kelly’s show is NOT coming back. (Posting this here too so people aren’t mislead) https://t.co/hy6enlOEns pic.twitter.com/q5dA5FcWzd
— Andy (@andy8b) September 15, 2023
It reads: (emphasis mine)
Variety previously reported that Clarkson paid the show’s staff out of her own pocket for the days they had already been scheduled to work on Season 4 in the spring.[...]
The WGA condemned Barrymore’s decision to return without writers, while SAG-AFTRA defended her. Today [Sept. 11], on her first day of production, protestors were outside Barrymore’s show.
The fact that WGA is protesting outside these shows' studios is ridiculous. It proves this isn't about crossing the picket line, it is about toeing the line. And what's really pissing off the leftist drones is that both Maher and Barrymore have dared to do what the elite sees as utterly unthinkable. Good for them.
