Writers on strike beware: Hollywood has changed forever

You cannot see the Hollywood sign from the picket line outside Netflix’s compound on Sunset Boulevard. It is obscured by an office tower with a busty advertisement for a Bridgerton spin-off splashed on the wall. Yet Hollywood, with its arcane paraphernalia, is all around you.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which called the strike, traces its roots back to cinema’s early days. The language that the strikers use is steeped in history. They talk of “rooms” where writers gather to work on a script and of “notes”, the often brutal feedback they receive from studio executives. In Los Angeles, Hollywood still confers cachet. You can tell from the horns blasting out in support of the strikers from passing cars.