Greg Berlanti, Ryan Murphy donate $500k apiece to former workers affected by the strikes

Two of the planet’s biggest TV producers, TV superhero mastermind/Riverdale purveyor Greg Berlanti, and the endlessly prolific Ryan Murphy, have both put a bit of their considerable moneys where there mouths are today. Specifically, Berlanti and Murphy both announced on Friday that they’ve donated $500,000 apiece to funds set up to provide financial assistance to their former employees during the ongoing Hollywood double strike. Which, we should be clear, is not a small number of people: Between Berlanti and Murphy, we’re talking about dozens of shows, each potentially employing hundreds of actors, writers, crew members, and more over the years.

In Murphy’s announcement (per THR), the producer wrote that, “Every story we’ve woven, each character brought to life, and every set constructed carry with them an inimitable thread of collaboration,” stating that the Ryan Murphy Productions Assistance Fund exists because “the imperative to support each other is even more pronounced” at the moment.

Meanwhile, Berlanti went even further: In addition to providing support to his own employees and former workers to the tune of $500,000, he also donated an additional $300,000 to the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Entertainment Community Fund. Berlanti—who had his overall deal with his old pals at Warner Bros. suspended this week, as the Writers Guild strike enters its fourth month—also penned a long note explaining his reasoning behind the fund, writing that, “I realize not knowing when your job might return creates a significant financial and emotional hardship for many.” (As he notes, per Variety, he’s actually paraphrasing his own words from the midst of the COVID-19 lockdowns, adding that, “I know many of our coworkers have barely caught their financial breath since that time.”)

(It’s worth noting that the simultaneous timing of these funds might not be entirely coincidental; although they’ve never formally collaborated on anything, in a shared credits sense, Murphy and Berlanti have been friends for decades; in fact, Murphy once paid Berlanti’s rent for three months while he was working on the script for his first Hollywood breakthrough, The Broken Hearts Club.)

News of the funds being established arrives alongside continued indications that the strikes won’t be lifting any time soon; SAG-AFTRA negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland noted at the Toronto International Film Festival today that the studios might be budging a bit on the basic concept of granting residuals for streaming shows, but also made clear it was only a “good first step.”