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Actress Streep donated one million US dollars alone

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ROBYN BECK/ AFP

For almost 100 days, the scriptwriters in Hollywood have stopped work, since mid-July also the actors – among the loud voices of the strike include the former "The Nanny" actress Fran Drescher as president of the SAG-AFTRA union, as well as Bryan Cranston. Most recently, the "Breaking Bad" star commented on actors' salaries in an interview:

Cranston was referring to a recent article in the New York Times, in which the newspaper calculated that rents in the Californian metropolis had risen by 2000 percent since 35, but wages had risen by only 6 percent. So you don't have to be a mathematician to realize that this is untenable," says Cranston. Fran Drescher recently stated that 86 percent of the 160,000 members of the actors' union earn less than $26,5000 a year.

There is a massive gap in salaries in Hollywood – and not all of the superstars with million-dollar salaries, as Variety recently noted, are at the forefront of the strike. In fact, some megastars also seemed to be looking for more discreet ways of support.

"In this strike, I am in the fortunate position of supporting those who will fight long to stand up to Goliath."

Meryl Streep

According to the New York Times, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which financially supports actors, said that Meryl Streep and George Clooney had helped set up a fundraising campaign. Through this, more than 15 million dollars in donations have been collected in the past three weeks.

The two actors would have donated a million dollars each and then approached other top earners in Hollywood; they would have organized the requests via a Google document. "I remember my days as a waitress, cleaner, typist, even my time in line at the employment office," Streep said in a statement. "In this strike, I am in the fortunate position of supporting those who will fight long to stand up to Goliath."

Eight other stars – Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Jackman, Dwayne Johnson, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah Winfrey – have each donated more than a million dollars, plus two celebrity couples: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.

The strike in Hollywood of about 11,500 writers has caused late-night shows to cancel new episodes, most productions have been interrupted for the fall television season, and work on major motion pictures has come to a standstill.

Since mid-July, actors in the US film and television industry have also been on strike. They demand higher fees as well as assurances about the future use of artificial intelligence. The first double strike in Hollywood in six decades had massively disrupted film production.

According to media reports, the Emmy Awards ceremony scheduled for September 18 could also be postponed. Most recently, the studios invited the screenwriters to talks, but how long the labor dispute will last is completely open.

eth/Reuters