WGA Showrunners’ Strike Fund Donations Near $500K; Boots Riley, Lilly Wachowski & ‘TWD’s Angela Kang Among Contributors

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: As the WGA and studios and streamers prepare to restart negotiations later this week, hundreds of united showrunners are on the verge of making a big donation to help out those hit hard by the on-going strikes Launching off an initial $200,000 over a week ago from a group of veteran showrunners, around 250 showrunners have contributed over $260,000 as of this afternoon.

Hiking the total up to near $500,000, the money from mainly Anonymous donors will go to the Entertainment Community Fund (Check out the showrunner donation link here).

Of the 250 who have contributed online the past week, The Walking Dead’s Angela Kang, I’m A Virgo’s Boots Riley, Rutherford Falls co-creator Sierra Teller Ornelas, Hunters’ Natalie Chaidez, Arrow’s Marc Guggenheim, and Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski are among the donors who made their names public.

Cutting to the heart of the sentiment out on the picket lines, Wachowski added: “Let’s beat these f-ing mf-ers!” “Any group of showrunners will be filled with as many opinions as there are showrunners, but two things unify us all: our insistence on a fair deal for writers and our immense gratitude for the hardship currently borne by the artists who work tirelessly in collaboration with us,” one of the initiators of the September 10-launched effort told Deadline today. “As talks resume this week, showing our collective support for our tremendously talented crews, not just emotionally, but financially, was incredibly important to us.” Putting skin and cash in the game from the week the WGA went out on the picket lines in early May, the ECF has handed out over $6 million in financial aid to approximately 3,000 film and TV workers over the months.