Elizabeth Taylor can still command an audience. She has asked striking film and television writers to stop the strike for one day, and they have obliged.
On December 1, World AIDS Day, the Writers Guild has agreed not to picket in front of the Paramount lot, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter.
Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones are scheduled to give a benefit performance of A.R. Gurney’s play “Love Letters,” to benefit Taylor’s AIDS Foundation.
The screen legend said she was not willing to cross the ongoing picket lines if the writers were still striking on December 1. She reportedly asked the WGA for a “one night dispensation.”
“The Writers Guild of America has shown great humanity, empathy and courage by allowing our little evening to move forward,” Taylor said in a statement Monday.
Taylor showed her support for the striking writers saying, “Without the gifts of writers, the world would be rather empty. I beseech those in power to treat members of the Writers Guild of America with fairness and decency.”
The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation hopes to raise $1 million with the one-night performance.
In other striking news, Broadway bound theatergoers will be able to see “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas!” after a judge order the holiday favorite to reopen despite the IATSE Local One stagehands strike, according to reports.
Back in Hollywood on Tuesday, over 4,000 striking WGA writers rallied in the streets of Hollywood for a Labor Solidarity march, that included the Teamsters Union, ending in front of Graumann’s Chinese Theater. Singer Alicia Keys performed two songs at the march for the striking writers.
Optimism for a resolution is growing, as the writers and studios are scheduled to meet next week at the bargaining table.
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