Ted Sarandos at the previous Academy Museum Gala
Stephanie Keenan/Getty Images for the Academy Museum
In 1933, the nascent Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences clashed between studio executives and film industry workers during a labor dispute, and the resulting backlash nearly led to the collapse of the organization, prompting it to change its bylaws in 1937 to prevent it from playing any role in future confrontations related to labor disputes. However, ninety years later, the Academy again found itself between the same groups of voters.
The Academy Museum Gala, an annual fundraiser similar to the Met Gala that raises the millions of dollars needed to keep the fledgling Academy Museum alive, typically attracts some of Hollywood’s most senior executives and stars, who often sit together at $250,000 tables ($25,000 per person). place) is paid by the studios. We’re heading to this year’s Museum Gala on October 14, where the honorees are expected to be in attendance Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey And Michael B. Jordan, all SAG-AFTRA members—a dynamic that seemed untenable to many given the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike against AMPTP. (Similar concerns have already led to the postponement of the Academy’s annual Governor’s Awards ceremony from November 18 to January 9, 2024, in hopes that the city will return to business as usual by then.)
New York Times reported Tuesday, in a story that was largely buried by news of the WGA’s strike decision against the AMPTP, that the director and president of the Academy Museum Jacqueline Stewart told them that “given the special circumstances this year, no executives from the affected companies will be present at this year’s Gala.”
This raised several questions. The chairman of the Academy Museum’s board of trustees is the CEO of Netflix. Ted Sarandos, one of Hollywood’s most prominent executives, but even he won’t be attending the institution’s main event? Moreover, not all executives decided to withdraw from the event at the same time, so who coordinated this decision? Also, have executives pulled out of funding the event, and if not, who will be sitting at the tables the studios paid for? Some actors were invited to the event as guests of brands that bought tables, but what about the rest?
TPP he found out it was Sarandos in September. 18 notes to fellow studio executives who suggested they stay away during the strike. He argued that this would be the best way to ensure “that the fundraising of this critical non-profit organization is not impeded in any way” and urged them to join him and “donate” their seats back to the Academy Museum. as opposed to demanding a refund.
An Academy Museum employee who forwarded Sarandos’ message to other executives added as a follow-up: “We kindly ask you to help us work with your teams to focus your attention only on creative talent. We thank you in advance for your sensitivity and consideration when compiling your guest lists.”
Sources confirm TPP that a consultant hired by the Academy Museum is working with the studios to make sure that the people the studios would have invited to sit at their table now receive invitations from the Academy Museum—and that the resulting guest lists actually include actors.
In other words, actors attending this year’s Museum Gala who are not guests of the brands that purchased the tables, as well as other creative artists and other non-executives may technically be guests of the Academy Museum, but could sit in seats paid for by the studios they are striking against. (The Academy declined to comment.)
Of course, all these considerations will become irrelevant if the actors’ strike is resolved before October 14th.