Gavin Newsom Could Help End Hollywood Strikes — But Not Yet

deadline.com:

Could an October surprise be coming to Hollywood’s picket lines and C-suites? Gov. Gavin Newsom is prepared to step in to try to broker a deal between the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP if there is no significant movement by the fall, we hear.  “He’s the obvious choice to bring the parties together and bring down the temperature,” a political and industry insider says of teh nimble and notoriously patient politician. “Getting a deal will be a test of his Jenga skills, but that’s where Newsom likes to surprise people.”  Unlike past Tinseltown labor actions, no interceder has emerged so far that the unions and the studios trust and respect to guide them to a deal.

Increasingly looking to non-Hollywood revenues, agency chiefs still are tainted in many union members’ minds from the long and bitter packaging battle with the WGA.

Heavyweight attorneys are seen as having too many potential conflicts of interests to be instrumental. Whereas once, CEOs such as Bob Iger, David Zaslav and Ted Sarandos might have been able to conjure the spirit of a Lew Wasserman to command an agreement, the highly compensated studio bosses are seen by those on the picket lines as the villains in all of this or pawns of Wall Street.  RELATED: The End Of Packaging Fees: The WGA’s Historic Campaign To Reshape Talent Agency Business Takes Full Effect – Q&A Names that have been floated as potential mediators include Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and even Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is a former entertainment attorney.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Emhoff and the Hollywood strikes when contacted by Deadline. However, for all the other names that are mentioned, it is Newsom’s that seems to come up again and again from