Drew Barrymore gets booted from award show hosting gig amidst strike backlash

The U.S. National Book Awards are no longer interested in having Drew Barrymore serve as their host, BBC News reports. The decision to uninvite Barrymore from Friday’s event, announced this week by the National Book Foundation, is one of the first concrete manifestations of the backlash Barrymore has received over the last few days, after announcing on Sunday that she’s going to resume filming on her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, without her striking writers.

In a statement, the NBF wrote that, “The National Book Awards is an evening dedicated to celebrating the power of literature, and the incomparable contributions of writers to our culture. In light of the announcement that The Drew Barrymore Show will resume production, the National Book Foundation has rescinded Ms Barrymore’s invitation to host the 74th National Book Awards Ceremony [in New York].”

Barrymore made her announcement back on September 10, stating that “I own this choice,” and declaring that the show will be in compliance with strike rules. As she noted in her Instagram post, Barrymore stepped away from hosting the MTV Film And Television Awards earlier this year “to stand in solidarity with the writers,” but feels that, “this is bigger than just me,” and that she’s taking the step to resume filming “with an astute humility.”

Barrymore’s decision has faced a hefty amount of backlash already, up to and including a report from Rolling Stone that stars like Matthew McConaughey, Samantha Bee, and Leslie Jones have all pulled out of appearances on the show in solidarity with the ongoing strikes. Earlier this week, filming on the daytime talk show was picketed by the WGA—including appearances from the show’s own writers, with co-head writer Chelsea White giving a statement that “When any production that is covered under WGA comes back during a strike it undermines our whole group effort to come to a fair contract with the AMPTP.”