Richard Rushfield: Last News

As this seemingly endless Hollywood-hobbling strike hits week 20, Billy Ray seeks input from two veterans of the business – a vet TV exec, Peter Aronson, and a columnist, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield — on how we got to this point and what needs to happen to get people working again. Among the points covered: how the AMPTP’S decision to chase the Netflix streaming model has had calamitous results, the high price of the signatory’s PR false messaging, and what has to happen in next week’s resumption of talks to get Hollywood back to work. Things are getting desperate — Bill Maher & Drew Barrymore are getting flamed on social media for resuming their shows, sans writers. Their reasoning; after five months without a paycheck waiting for the guilds and studios to make a deal, employees on those shows who are not members of the guilds are starving.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentJanice Min’s first hire in her new role as editor in chief of the Ankler newsletter will not be joining the Hollywood news startup and is headed to Rolling Stone, Variety has learned.Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Min — the editor who led the Hollywood Reporter into revived visibility but big financial losses as a glossy magazine — is moving to The Ankler, a Substack newsletter launched in 2017 by entertainment journalist Richard Rushfield. She will be a co-owner and also serve as CEO of the newly formed Ankler Media.Min told the New York Times and said in a tweet that Tatiana Siegel, executive film editor of the Hollywood Reporter, would be joining Ankler.