Latest in Billy Ray

In the 26th episode of Deadline Strike Talk — which for below the liners signifies half a year without a paycheck that hasn’t come from Uber fares or waiting tables — host Billy Ray hits on a zeitgeist theme that gets voiced a lot by people who just feel that the business isn’t as remotely as exciting or…

Week 25 of Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast comes amid a tough time on the negotiations front between SAG-AFTRA and the studios. No formal talks have taken place or have even been scheduled since October 11, when bargaining was suspended amid the latest impasse. The stalemate led to a group of A-list…

In the 24th weekly installment of the Deadline Strike Talk Podcast, host Billy Ray doesn’t seem too shaken by the surprise breakoff of talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA. Even though CAA chief Bryan Lourd stated publicly there is a wide gap between the streamers and actors over residuals, Ray…

EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED with PGA statement: More than 2,300 film and TV producers on Tuesday are delivering a message to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: leave us out. The group delivered a petition to AMPTP President Carol Lombardini this morning demanding the dropping of the “P” from…

As the Hollywood strikes stretched to Week 23, optimism is high that a deal between signatories and SAG-AFTRA is close and the town can go back to work. That enthusiasm could be felt with all the deal stories that Deadline broke this week, a clear signal of hope. Not so fast, says Deadline Strike…

In the 22nd week of his Deadline podcast Strike Talk, Billy Ray sits with WGA Negotiating Committee co-chairs David Goodman and Chris Keyser to learn what happened inside the room during the negotiations and what gains were made in the deal struck Sunday with the AMPTP. Ray has been part of past WGA…

Billy Ray, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director and producer who has used his downtime during the Hollywood labor strife between shifts on the picket lines to turn Strike Talk into a tour de force that has demystified the issues and explained the inflection point that made this standoff…

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…

Welcome to the 19th installment of Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. It is a task Oscar-nominated filmmaker Billy Ray took on at the beginning of the Writers Guild strike against AMPTP, and who knew he would be engaged in it longer than it would have taken him to shoot a picture. Today, Ray presses on…

We’ve reached Labor Day and the close of this endless summer labor dispute that has stretched 18 weeks with no end in sight — many who had pegged Labor Day as the likely resolution now point to Thanksgiving. Deadline Strike Talk host Billy Ray engages Jennifer Fox, producer of such films as Michael Clayton…

As the strike in Hollywood reaches Week 17, Deadline Strike Talk podcast host Billy Ray continues his push to find ways for AMPTP to come to terms with WGA and SAG-AFTRA. This after a week when hopes things were finally moving got dashed when WGA leadership slammed the latest AMPTP offer, and the…

In his 16th weekly installment of the Deadline Strike Talk Podcast, Billy Ray continues to explore ways that the shifting sands of the entertainment business can settle in a manner that pleases shareholders of the corporations paying for content, and the talent responsible for creating it with the…