Actors' Union Pressured to Drop Fossil Fuels From Pension Plan
Top Hollywood actors are teaming up with activist groups to pressure the leading entertainment union, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), to drop fossil-fuel investments from one of its pension plans.
SAG-AFTRA has about 160,000 members and offers different pension plans, dating to before the merger of SAG and AFTRA. The new campaign is targeting trustees of the SAG-Producers Pension Plan, which has assets of about $5 billion. It has at least $100 million invested in fossil fuels, according to an analysis by Sphere, which promotes climate-friendly retirement investments.
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Both are in the running again this year, the former for playing a different character, Glen Stubbins. Rudd is one of the show's six submissions in supporting actor, its most ever. The others are Michael Cyril Creighton, Zach Galifianakis, Richard Kind, Eugene Levy, and Kumail Nanjiani. Rudd is ranked the highest in 13th place, followed by Galifianakis, who played a fictionalized version of himself cast to play Oliver (Short) in the film-within-the-show, in 18th place. While all the actors were uniformly great, there wasn't a true standout and they run the risk of vote-splitting. The category gained a seventh slot this year, but Shrinking is back with multiple contenders and The Studio has Sal Saperstein himself (Ike Barinholtz). Only Murders has four submissions here, for Streep, Eva Longoria, Jane Lynch, and Molly Shannon. Streep only appeared in three of the season's 10 episodes, but she is forced to compete in supporting because of her nomination here last year, due to a new rule that prevents past lead or supporting nominees from going guest for the same role on the same show. She's in eighth place in the odds, one spot out of the predicted lineup, and it feels like she's that high because she's Meryl Streep. Her big episode, "Valley of the Dolls," is a killer one for her, and if voters are checking off Melissa McCarthy for that episode (more on that later), they'd likely check off Streep as well. But just like with the male category, this show also has to contend with hopefuls from Shrinking and The Studio. Lynch, who's in 23rd place, was nominated in guest in 2022 and would probably have a better shot there, but she was in too many episodes. She does, however, have one of the most moving moments of the season when her dearly departed stuntwoman Sazz Pataki and Charles (Martin) say their final goodbye. "We knew it was special and the scene was written very beautifully," Lynch told Gold Derby. "It was so quiet. … I thought that they shot it beautifully. He's sitting there alone, and then all of a sudden he changed the camera angle and I'm sitting there with him and we're in the same posture as we always were. We copied. I copied the way Steve moved. There was a bittersweet aspect to the scene, like she knew it was over and that she was going to be moving on now, wherever that was. And he knew that she probably wouldn't be coming back to visit.' Disney/Patrick Harbron Though Only Murders got 21 nominations last year, it was not nominated in directing or writing, and it's going to need both in order to be win-competitive. But it's in danger of missing directing again. In fact, it hasn't been nominated in directing since Season 1, when it got double bids. There will be six slots again, just like the past two years, but it's really just five since one slot is reserved for a multicam series. Only Murders submitted three episodes — "Blow-Up," "My Best Friend's Wedding," and "Once Upon a Time in the West" — which is not ideal when you're looking to return to the lineup for the first time in three years in a tight category. Last year, the show entered two episodes in directing. If one does make the cut this year, it could be "Blow-Up," the sixth episode directed by Jessica Yu that's filmed in found footage style. Team Arconia was much more prudent when it came to writing, which will have six slots again, entering just one episode, the season premiere, "Once Upon a Time in the West." Penned by John Hoffman and Joshua Allen Griffith, the episode also received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for episodic comedy. Only Murders was snubbed in writing for the first time last year, but a single submission is the best possible position it could put itself in to return. Only Murders has scored a nomination in this category every year so far (and a win for Nathan Lane in 2022), and it'll be up to Ron Howard to keep the streak going. The Oscar winner plays a fictionalized version of himself and is the show's only submission here. The problem is Howard also plays a fictionalized version of himself on The Studio, for which he's expected to get a nomination, sitting in fourth place in the odds. In contrast, he's in 42nd place for Only Murders. Performers are allowed to get multiple nominations in the same category, but they're usually for, you know, playing completely different characters. SEE Selena Gomez, Martin Short, Steve Martin, and the Only Murders in the Building cast share their personal highlights from Season 4 The series is fielding two hopefuls here: a nominee last year who's been with the show since the beginning and a two-time champ who's won this category before. Da'Vine Joy Randolph pocketed her first nomination for Only Murders last year, fresh off her Oscar win for The Holdovers, and is guest-eligible again, having reprised her role as Det. Williams in four episodes. She's in 13th place in the odds and probably would be higher if it weren't for the aforementioned McCarthy, who was absolutely riotous as Charles' doll-collecting sister Doreen who gets into a wrestling match with Loretta (Streep) over Oliver. The category will have six slots again, and McCarthy, who won this award for Saturday Night Live in 2017, is in sixth place. Only Murders has never lost production design, so lock it in for at least a nomination once again. The series ought to land in its usual below-the-line categories like casting (especially for such a star-studded season), score, cinematography, costumes, non-prosthetic makeup, hairstyling, score, and sound mixing. While it does not have a music and lyrics submission this year — a category it won last year, thus completing Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's EGOT — it has submitted in stunt coordination and twice in stunt performance for "Escape From Planet Klongo" and "Valley of the Dolls." Best of GoldDerby Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2 Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews Click here to read the full article.
