SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher was front and center at Thursday’s press conference announcing that Hollywood’s core acting union would go on strike, blasting the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) behavior during weeks of failed negotiations
The Nanny and Hotel Transylvania actress also found herself on the defensive, however, days after drawing intense criticism for a making a weekend trip to Italy for a Dolce & Gabbana promotional event — and snapping a “tone deaf” selfie with Kim Kardashian, posted to the influencer’s Instagram account — as the deadline neared for a SAG-AFTRA work stoppage. “Hollywood fumes at union head Fran Drescher for Italy photo with Kim Kardashian as strike looms,” read a headline in the New York Post, quoting tweets from a handful of angry actors.
Drescher addressed the kerfuffle when asked about it during Thursday’s press conference.
“I’m a brand ambassador for a fashion company and so is Kim,” she explained. “I had only met Kim seconds before that publicity picture was taken. It had nothing to do with being at a party or having fun, it was absolute work. I was in hair and makeup three hours a day, walking in heels on cobblestones, doing things like that, which is work, not fun. I’m sure Kim would have rather been at her home in Malibu with her children too. But we work. That’s what we do.
“And at 10:30 at night, I would leave the event, I would go to my hotel, and I would call into the Zoom. And when I couldn’t get through to them because I was on a plane, I was texting with [SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland] constantly throughout the plane ride. I worked around the clock in three different time zones.”