Drew Barrymore pulls out of MTV Movie & TV awards days out

Drew Barrymore has dramatically pulled out of hosting the MTV Awards, only days out from the event, as Hollywood comes to a standstill.

Drew Barrymore will no longer host the MTV Movie & TV Awards. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Drew Barrymore has pulled out of hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which is due to be broadcast on Monday.

Barrymore cited the writers strike as the reason behind her decision. She said in a statement, “I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike.

“Everything we celebrate and honour about movies and television is born out of their creation. And until a solution is reached, I am choosing to wait but I’ll be watching from home and hope you will join me.”

Barrymore has committed to host the event next year, and said MTV has been one of “the best partners I have ever worked with”.

The executive producer of the awards, Bruce Gillmer, said Barrymore had his full respect and support.

The awards will still go ahead, but Barrymore will not be replaced and the show will remain hostless. The red carpet and pre-show press interviews have also been cancelled. Barrymore has already pre-taped segments for the show and those are expected to still be part of the telecast.

Barrymore said her decision was based on the writer’s strike. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

Variety reported the producers are in a waiting to game to see which presenters, nominees and guests will still appear. The list of presenters who were originally slated to appear included Jamie Lee Curtis, Gal Gadot, Tiffany Haddish Anthony Ramos, Riley Keough, Kaia Gerber and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Gillmer said, “We still have the award sequences, although those are the elements that are very unpredictable – because clearly we don’t which talent will feel comfortable. A lot of them won’t.”

He stressed they had “backups to our backups”.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards is one of the first most high-profile events to be affected by the Writers Guild of America but if the strike runs for an extended time, it won’t be the last.

Industry events such as awards shows are written by unionised writers, who are now prohibited from providing their writing services. During the 2007-8 WGA strike, which lasted three and a half months, the Golden Globes Awards had to be held as a press conference announcing the winners.

This week, the WGA started strike action at 12.01am Tuesday (LA time) when the negotiations deadline for a new collective agreement passed between the WGA and the major studios.

Broadly, the WGA is demanding for its members, better rates of pay, minimum guarantees of work and a new model of residual payments in the streaming era.

Hollywood writers are on strike after studios refused to a new agreement. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

While well-known screenwriters and showrunners such as Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy are very well paid with multi-million-dollar deals, the average Hollywood writer is less well compensated.

John Herrera, a writer on one of the first big shows of the streaming era The Handmaid’s Tale, told Vanity Fair that he had to take a second job as a rideshare driver to make ends meet. He said, “There were a couple of instances of driving people to LAX and dropping them off while a billboard for Handmaid’s was staring down at me”.

The strike means production on a raft of shows have already shut down, including American late night broadcast programs such as Saturday Night Live, while the writers rooms for Abbott Elementary, Yellowjackets, Night Court and Cobra Kai were suspended.

Productions including Rob Lowe comedy Unstable and drama series The Venery of Samantha Bird, which stars Australian actor Katherine Langford, shut down. Season three of Hacks will pause production for the duration of the strike.

Hacks has shut down production of its third season until the strike is over. Picture: HBO Max

Other productions which were temporarily shut down included Billions, after cast and crew decided they wouldn’t cross the picket line of protesters, and American Horror Story after the transport union, “the Teamsters”, refused the same.

High-profile writers including The Sopranos’ David Chase, The Good Place’s Mike Schur, Lost’s Damon Lindelof, Dopesick’s Danny Strong, Munich’s Tony Kushner and The Simpsons’ Al Jean have all been spotted protesting outside studios.

Other famous faces who have been on the picket lines include filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood, Jay Leno, actors Parks and Recreation’s Ben Schwartz, Rob Lowe, Cynthia Nixon, Bill & Ted’s Alex Winter, Veep’s Timothy Simons, Dermot Mulroney, The Mindy Project’s Ike Barinholtz, Marvelous Mrs Maisel’s Alex Borstein, Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein and Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang.

Originally published as Drew Barrymore pulls out of MTV Movie & TV awards days out