Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, activists, and politicians. Where people sound like people. Hosted by Sam Fragoso. New episodes every Sunday.
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The State of Hollywood with Matt Belloni (‘The Town’)
For nearly two decades, Matt Belloni (The Town) has been observing and writing about Hollywood. He joins us today to unpack the latest on the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
After a review of TIFF 2023 (6:50), Belloni dives into Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher’s decisions to return to their talk shows without WGA writers (10:45), the vital issues the guild is fighting for (19:20), and how their negotiations have progressed over the past twenty weeks (23:10). Then, we discuss the history of the Netflix business model (25:05), the state of streaming today (29:50), and Belloni’s fourteen years at The Hollywood Reporter (35:04).
On the back-half, we talk about his path from entertainment law to journalism (41:29), his unique approach to reporting at Puck (44:10), and his predictions for the end of the strikes (50:05). Before we leave, we sit with recent messaging from SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher (57:15), the potential fragmentation within the AMPTP (1:03:00), and to close, Matt's hope for the future of Hollywood (1:08:12).
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