Fran Drescher defends Italy trip, Kim Kardashian photo

During a fiery press conference announcing the Screen Actors Guild’s first strike in more than four decades, union president Fran Drescher defended her controversial trip to Italy during the final days of contract negotiations. “It was an absolute chore,” said Drescher, a brand ambassador for Dolce & Gabbana who attended the fashion house’s Alta Moda event in Puglia, Italy, last weekend. Drescher ran into a question about a photo — “That wasn’t a selfie,” she quickly explained — with Kim Kardashian at a party for the event, which Kardashian later posted to her Instagram Story. This immediately led to criticism of Drescher’s leadership. “I only met Kim seconds before that publicity photo was taken; it had nothing to do with being at a party or having fun,” Drescher said. I’d wear hair and make-up three hours a day, walk in heels on cobblestones, do things like that, and it’s work rather than fun.” As Drescher talked about going into negotiating sessions in her hotel room after the events, the negotiating committee behind her nodded. “We do,” Drescher said, “that’s what we do.”

SAG-AFTRA earlier released a statement explaining Drescher’s journey, saying, “She has been in negotiations every day either in person or via video conference.” But the trip has led to some criticism from members such as ArrowKirk Acevedo, who chirp, “The optics look very bad.” Striking Writers Guild members also slammed Drescher over the photo, after Kardashian crossed a WGA picket line to film a new season of American Horror Story, in which she plays the title role. and Maya Dunbar, who is running against Drescher for president on the platform of ending specific vaccine mandates, Deadline said The photograph was “a clear example of how out of touch the President has been with the majority of the rank and file.” The photo and the trip to Italy followed a letter to the union leadership signed by more than a thousand representatives expressing their readiness to strike. The letter was interpreted as a response to a negotiation update from Drescher, but Drescher then signed the letter. “I don’t think she’s the best person to lead us right now,” one SAG member said Tell Rolling Stone In a report follows the message and the picture.

However, the union, upon announcing the strike, presented a united front behind Drescher. Duncan Crabtree Ireland, the union’s national executive director and chief negotiator, blamed the studios for criticizing Drescher. Crabtree-Ireland said: “For these employers to so cynically attempt to turn our members against Fran because she is doing work she was contracted to do… It is outrageous, it is wrong, it is contemptible, and they should be ashamed of it”. During the press conference. Drescher went on to emphatically accept the negotiating committee’s support: “I think all the people behind me stand behind me.”