On day 67 of The Writers Guild of America strike, the cast and creatives behind three popular shows joined the picket lines across Los Angeles.
Bright and early at 9:30 a.m. over at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, there was an Ugly Betty reunion with stars Ana Ortiz and Chris Gorham joining writers Brian Tannen, Gabrielle Stanton, Sheila Lawrence, Chris Black, Henry Myers, Cameron Litvack and Tracy Poust on the special picket.
Ugly Betty, based on the hit Spanish-language novela Betty La Fea, aired for four seasons from 2006 to 2010. America Ferrera portrayed the titular Betty Suarez, an unconventional beauty whose unique sense of style doesn’t preclude her from landing a gig at a top fashion magazine. The project was developed by Silvio Horta for ABC and also starred Mark Indelicato, Eric Mabius, Tony Plana, Becki Newton and Michael Urie.
“I worry about the future of writing as a profession if things don’t change,” said Sheila Lawrence, who also boasts writing credits on Gilmore Girls, Desperate Housewives, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Love, Victor.
She continued, “It’s been amazing to be out here and to feel so much support from everyone all these days in. Cars are still honking every day. So I’m hopeful this will come to a good conclusion.”
Being back together with her former colleagues encouraged talks about the long-rumored return to the world of Ugly Betty with a new series or a film. Lawrence told Deadline, “We’d love to have more Ugly Betty. No promises, I think there are rights issues but we all would love it.”
Ortiz, who played Betty’s sister Hilda, and Gorham, who brought to life Betty’s ex Henry, have been spotted multiple times on various picket lines since the WGA called a strike in April. And as they begin to think about a possible SAG-AFTRA strike ahead of the July 12 deadline, they took a quick break to celebrate the possibility of revisiting the series.
“Hey fans, speak out! Let everybody know that you want a reboot of Ugly Betty because there have been talks. Let’s go,” encouraged Ortiz.
In the Valley, there was a reunion of the George Lopez show at Warner Bros. with star Constance Marie leading the picket line alongside Ernie Cardenas, Masiela Lusha and Lopez’s ex-wife Ann Lopez, the inspiration behind Marie’s character Angie.
George Lopez followed the life of family man George Edward Lopez who, though he shares a name with the comedian, is a fictionalized version of the actor. Luis Armand Garcia, Belita Moreno, Emiliano Diez and Aimee Garcia also starred. The series was created by George Lopez, Bruce Helford and Robert Borden for ABC.
“A lot of the same things we might strike for are the same issues that the writers are dealing with right now like streaming platforms,” said Marie who is a member of SAG-AFTRA. “Our contracts and the writers’ contracts are based on antiquated distribution. Now with streaming, it’s changed the formula which makes it hard to sustain a career with the small residuals that we’re getting paid, the long holds that we have and the threat of A.I. possibly infringing on us.”
Added Rodríguez, “It’s the same thing that happened in 2007 and the [AMPTP] said, “Oh, that’s a long way away; 20-30 years away. But guess what? It’s here.”
Led by series creator Hart Hanson, Bones held a reunion picket at the Fox lot in Century City with stars Emily Deschanel, Chad Lowe, Pej Vahdat and Ryan Cartright walking the line.
Bones ran on Fox for 12 seasons from 2005-2017. The procedural followed a forensic anthropologist (Deschanel) and forensic archeologist (David Boreanaz) as they collaborated with the FBI to solve murders.