.jpg)
Selena Gomez is in a bit of hot water after making an Instagram post about her Hulu series, Only Murders in the Building, with many followers accusing her of breaking the actors' strike rules.
As noted by Variety, Selena Gomez posted a short video from the set of the show and tagged the official account, captioning it “Missing and wanting @onlymurdershulu.” (Season 3 of the comedy whodunnit just hit its midpoint on Tuesday evening.) The post garnered over a million likes before it was taken down less than 24 hours later. But did Gomez actually break a rule and potentially cross the picket line?
The answer is… pretty much. According to the SAG-AFTRA strike rules, members are not allowed to do any social media promotion for their projects, so Gomez's post tagging the official account was very likely against the rules, even though she didn't actually talk about the show in said video. (Actors are also not allowed to do press for their projects, which is why we haven't seen any interviews with Gomez lately.)
Some followers called Gomez's post “tone deaf” and accused her of scabbing, the act of crossing a picket line to work during a strike. SAG-AFTRA declined to comment to Variety about the post in question. Despite the Instagram video and tag seemingly being a mistake, Gomez removed it from her page after it was up for about 15 hours.
Related: Answers to Every Burning Question You Have About the 2023 Actors & Writers Strikes
The SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14; the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) had already been on strike since May. This is only the second time in history both parties have been striking at the same time. Members of both unions are striking on behalf of better pay and residuals in the age of streaming and more clarity around the role of AI in Hollywood. This means that the production of many planned TV shows and movies are currently shut down, and that actors will not be appearing on red carpets for premieres. For example, Zendaya's forthcoming movie Challengers was set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but has been moved to 2024 due to the strike.
As noted by Deadline, SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are currently at a standstill with bargaining. The actors guild's negotiating committee shared that it “remains ready at a moment’s notice to go back to the bargaining table to secure a righteous deal.” As of August 30, the outlet reported that there is “no end in sight” to the strikes.
