%20(1).png)
.png)
As the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike enters its fourth week, some of Hollywood's highest-paid stars have banded together to help their fellow actors who are suffering financial difficulties.
The strike, which has halted film and television production in the United States, is the first involving both writers and performers since 1960.
A dozen celebrities, including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, have each given $1 million or more to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's actors' assistance fund.
Others who have made important contributions include Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, and Oprah Winfrey. In only three weeks, the nonprofit organisation has raised more than $15 million to assist "thousands of journeymen actors" in financial need.
The head of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Courtney B. Vance, emphasised the importance of the issue, noting that the entertainment industry is in crisis. As performers struggle to make ends meet without their wages, the organisation is presently reviewing an unprecedented amount of petitions for emergency assistance.
The foundation's charity programme strives to give critical assistance to performers in need. The cash will assist them in covering living expenses, paying utilities, providing for their families, obtaining life-saving medications, and dealing with medical problems. Despite popular belief that actors are well-paid professionals, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher claimed that 86 percent of the union's 160,000 members make less than $26,500 per year.
The strike's impact has been far-reaching, resulting in the cancellation of glamorous premieres and the postponement of events such as the Emmys. Furthermore, celebrities have been barred from promoting their TV series at this difficult period.
The demands of the unions are centred on greater remuneration in the streaming era and addressing worries about the possible danger presented by artificial intelligence to their jobs and livelihoods. Studios, on the other hand, believe that owing to economic pressures, they must decrease expenditures.
