SAG-AFTRA and why it keeps coming up in the Lively vs Wayfarer lawsuit.

In May 2023, days before filming commenced for It Ends With Us Movie, the Writer's Guild of America (WGA)went on strike over a labour dispute with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It ended up being the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history. The SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14th 2023. Why do the strikes have a bearing on this lawsuit?

We know from Blake's court filings that aside from the fact she alleges that Wayfarer Studio failed to uphold "guild rules" for standard industry safety protocols with respect to intimate scenes and nudity. On June 5th they had to halt filming for a day due to the WGA strike that was well underway, the protesters had blocked all the entrances to the park where filming was to take place, and Blake refused to cross the picket line, much to Wayfarer's dismay.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304.50.1_1.pdf PG 36

Wayfarer claimed that filming had halted for one day but due to obtaining an "Oral" waiver from the WGA the following day, they were cleared to resume filming. They reached out to Blake in an attempt to ask her to stay until a later date but she had already made the decision to go to London to meet up with Ryan.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304.50.1_1.pdf PG 41

However, we soon learned that although Wayfarer did file for an exemption to continue filming, it was subsequently denied due to the co financing of the movie. Wayfarer were asked to produce this waiver during discovery but they said they couldn't because it was an "oral" agreement, it is unlikely there are any documents.

https://deadline.com/2023/06/it-ends-with-us-blake-lively-film-ended-by-wga-pickets-guild-rejects-wayfarer-indie-film-argument-1235418876/?media_id=3766796421061062602_72249930662&media_author_id=72249930662&utm_source=ig_text_feed_profile

https://preview.redd.it/5ltblnqrxq4g1.jpg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2ae3e6ec0e1d0216e1a6836e71d0119f9381403

A recent unsealed exhibit shows us exactly how tense things were between Justin, Jamey and Blake. Following Jamey contacting Blake's reps to try and get her back to set, the response was shes not returning and that "they can sue her." According to Jamey Heath's deposition, the exhibit is a rough timeline of the events that occurred on set that Jamey Heath asked an employee to put together "just to have a record." I would just like to add that this Timeline was prepared in June 2024, which seems awfully like they were preparing for litigation 👀

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304/gov.uscourts.nysd.634304.874.17.pdf Exhibit 17

Blake was so passionate about standing in solidarity with the strikes that in early August 2023, her and Ryan each donated $1,000,000 to the SAG_AFTRA Foundations Emergency Financial Assistance Program. The fund helps actors who are struggling financially due to the halt in production. The WGA strike ended on Sept 27th, 2023 and Sag-Aftra ended Nov 9th, 2023.

https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/sag-aftra-strike-celebrity-donations