LOS ANGELES – Fran Drescher was known mainly for having starred in the series “The Nanny” (“The Nanny”), but her strike declaration as president of the US Actors Guild has turned her image upside down and has erected it into a combative union leader.
“Greedy Wall Street companies that distribute money left and right among their executives and forget about essential workers. (…) It’s disgusting, they should be ashamed,” said the president of the Hollywood Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) ) with its peculiar nasal tone.
His belligerent speech came after a month of unsuccessful negotiations to renew the collective agreement of the interpreters with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), an entity that includes conglomerates such as Warner Bros. Discovery, television networks of the weight of Fox or streaming platforms like Netflix.
The eyes of the Hollywood “establishment” have hung ever since on an actress with an activist past who left the picturesque neighborhood of Queens to find a place in the City of the Stars, and now tries to shake the foundations of a business she has known his bowels
The interpreter of Fran Fine in “The Nanny” (1993-1999) climbed to the top of SAG-AFTRA barely two years ago, when she presented her candidacy under a party known as “United by the Force”, in Spanish, surpassing in last instance to the alternative led by actor Matthew Modine (“Full Metal Jacket”).
It was precisely that, union, from which the actors’ union suffered, historically very divided between the superstars of the industry and those professionals who act for a livelihood, and so far it is coping as best it can.
The short answer is pretty much every show in production, but there are specific types of shows that are already seeing the effects of the Writers Guild of America strike.
And this despite the fact that his victory was forged in an atmosphere of great tension with Modine himself, who alleged spurious strategies on the part of Drescher to win the victory and even stated that it would be “judged in the future by the whole world or by the God to whom I pray.”
But before sitting in that union chair that has been occupied by everyone from Ronald Reagan to Charlton Heston, the actress had gone through two turbulent decades of her life in which she lost her international fame at the end of the broadcast of “The Nanny”, very popular in the foreigner, was divorced twice and was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
When he was discharged in 2005, he tried to get his career on track with shows like “Living with Fran,” “The Fran Drescher Show,” and the comedy “Happily Divorced,” in which he showcased his charismatic sense of humor and a attractiveness reserved for women like her, who was Miss New York in the teen version of the contest.
The body of the 65-year-old actor was identified after being found by hikers.
None of these works returned the public recognition that surrounded her figure with “The Nanny”, a title that she also executive produced with her ex-husband, screenwriter Peter Marc Jacobson. So Drescher opted not to get out of the loop entirely, but to spend more time on the activist side of him.
She raised her voice about sexual assaults against women after revealing that she was abused by thieves inside her Los Angeles home in 1985; she provided public support to women suffering from uterine tumors by creating the Cancer Schmancer Movement foundation; and she wrote two autobiographical books in which she detailed a whole career of hers that began in 1977.
There is also a political section. He has never hidden his ties to the Democratic Party: he participated in the preparation of the law for the Education and Prevention of Gynecological Cancer with Barack Obama (2009-2017) and was even seen with former president Bill Cliton (1993-2001) in Life Ball, an event to support HIV-infected people held annually in Vienna (Austria).
Work began last month as crews prepared to apply a new coat of paint to the nine capital letters that spell “Hollywood.”
Meanwhile, he never abandoned that irredeemable vein that arose from time to time and for which he constantly charged against capitalism on his social networks. To the point that New York Magazine dubbed her “Your new favorite anti-capitalist icon” in 2017.
Five years later, the nanny of “The Nanny” is immersed in a fierce battle that will decide the professional future of 160,000 syndicated Hollywood performers and their relationship with technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI).
However, in addition to having the sword of Damocles of the Hollywood “establishment” hanging over his head, Drescher will find himself dealing in the coming months with the egos, often inordinate, and the enormous influences of many of the actors he represents.
A manslaughter charge against the actor was recently dismissed.
The wave of messages against him because on Monday, just 48 hours before SAG-AFTRA’s contract with AMPTP was due to expire, he appeared with Kim Kardashian at a Dolce & Gabbana haute couture show in Puglia (Italy) could be just a notice.
