Actors’ Strike Leaves Celebrity Podcasts in Grey Zone

Actors who host podcasts had been divided on how or whether or not to proceed their packages this week, because the 8-day-old Hollywood actors’ strike reverberated by way of an adjoining business that didn’t exist throughout the union’s final work stoppage 43 years in the past.

The official targets of the strike are movie and tv productions related to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a bunch that features all the main Hollywood studios and streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Apple. But messaging from the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, barring promotion of previous or future work for the studios has left some members uncertain of whether or not their podcasts are in violation of union coverage.

The actors internet hosting podcasts that recap the TV reveals “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “One Tree Hill” and “Bones,” for instance, canceled or did particular episodes this week.

But related podcasts — together with ones about “Will & Grace,” “Gilmore Girls,” “New Girl” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” — continued as scheduled. An episode of “Office Ladies,” a podcast about “The Office,” was revealed two days delayed because the hosts, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, debated the way to proceed, in keeping with an individual near the present.

In an episode of the “One Tree Hill” rewatch podcast “Drama Queens” that aired on Monday, the actors Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz expressed uncertainty about whether or not their present may proceed in its normal format and answered listener questions as an alternative.

“Because our show currently is still streaming — even though we filmed it 20 years ago — is doing a rewatch pod considered promotion?” Burton Morgan requested, noting that she and the others awaited “a clear answer” from the union. Bush mentioned later that “nobody really knows” what the rules enable.

The actresses Emily Deschanel and Carla Gallo, whose “Bones” rewatch podcast, “Boneheads,” was scheduled to debut this week, mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday that the present could be postponed.

“We’re waiting for additional guidance from the guild and will keep everyone updated with the new launch date as soon as we have it,” the assertion learn.

Pamela Greenwalt, a spokeswoman for SAG-AFTRA, mentioned in a cellphone name on Friday that though the actors’ union considers rewatch podcasts promotional, actors underneath contract to supply such reveals is not going to be thought of in breach for persevering with them.

Complicating issues additional is the truth that many Hollywood studios and streamers even have podcast arms. Amazon, for instance, owns or distributes a number of actor-led podcasts by way of its subsidiaries Audible and Wondery, together with “Smartless,” hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes; “Life Is Short With Justin Long,” hosted by Justin Long; and “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer,” hosted by Keke Palmer. All of these reveals launched new episodes this week.

While neither Audible nor Wondery is straight affiliated with the movie and TV alliance, their connection to Amazon might put the actors they work with in an uncomfortable place. Representatives for Bateman, Arnett, Hayes, Long and Palmer didn’t reply to requests for remark. Greenwalt, of SAG-AFTRA, mentioned podcasts produced by members of the movie and TV alliance aren’t essentially in violation and that actors with questions ought to seek the advice of with the union.

If the strike retains actors from movie and tv units for months, as some on either side concern, podcasts may develop into a major supply of labor. The overwhelming majority of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members are working-class performers, lots of whom say the economics of streaming movie and tv have made it tougher than ever to make a dwelling.

Some sorts of podcasts, similar to people who don’t have any affiliation with — and that don’t characteristic discussions of labor produced by — the A.M.P.T.P., aren’t in dispute. The actress and author Natasha Leggero, who hosts the connection podcast “The Endless Honeymoon” together with her husband, the comic Moshe Kasher, mentioned their present was shifting forward. “People still need advice and have dirty secrets to air even when actors and writers are on strike,” Leggero mentioned.

Actors are free to look as company on celeb interview podcasts so long as they don’t “promote struck work” whereas doing so, in keeping with union pointers. But, in observe, asking a performer to not speak about their work might show awkward for everybody concerned.

On a latest episode of the comedy podcast “Lovett or Leave It,” the host, Jon Lovett, greeted his visitor, the actor Jared Goldstein, by saying, “I like the thing that you’re in.” Goldstein, who seems in the latest season of “Black Mirror,” replied, “Oh, thank you for liking the thing that I’m in, which for legal reasons cannot be discussed at this time.”