The Fran Drescher, Kim Kardashian controversy, explained

The Nanny star Fran Drescher has found herself under fire from various actors, writers, and other members of Hollywood’s film industry in regard to her outing in Italy for a Dolce & Gabbana promotional event. Drescher, being the president of SAG-AFTRA, found herself involved in union talks with major studios after her weekend getaway.

SAG-AFTRA emphasized that during her visit to Italy, Drescher was still engaged in negotiations. On Monday, an image of Drescher posing with Kim Kardashian surfaced on Kardashian’s Instagram account. Several members of SAG-AFTRA’s community left heated responses to Drescher’s involvement in light of the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers “facing a deadline of midnight PT on July 12 to hammer out a new three-year contract,” and “barring a deal, the union is expected to begin its first industry-wide strike since 1980,” Variety reports.

In addition to her presidential duties, Drescher also serves as chair of SAG-AFTRA’s contract negotiating committee. As part of her responsibilities, she’s worked closely with Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator.

On Monday, SAG-AFTRA released a statement in support of Drescher’s decision to attend Dolce & Gabbana’s event as a “long-standing ambassador” of the high-profile Italian fashion line.

“President Drescher is working as a brand ambassador for Dolce and Gabbana on location in Italy. This was a commitment fully known to the negotiating committee. She has been in negotiations every day either in person or via videoconference. President Drescher is managing a physically demanding schedule across three time zones, overseeing negotiations and working on location daily as well as managing her parents’ needs in [Florida]. She is returning to the States and will be on the ground in L.A. tomorrow [July 11], and will continue to chair our negotiations.”

It certainly hasn’t helped matters that Hollywood’s creatives have been on edge since May’s writer’s strike, which was the first one since 2007. The image of Drescher and Kardashian riled several insiders because Kardashian, a well-known reality TV star, has recently landed a role on FX’s American Horror Story, “and that particular show has been in the crosshairs of the WGA and its SAG-AFTRA supporters because it is one of the few to remain in production in recent weeks, after striking WGA members in New York and Los Angeles strategically forced studios to shutter productions with completed scripts to film. Striking writers did so by targeting soundstages and location shoots with picket lines to discourage Teamster and IATSE crew members from crossing them in order to get to work,” Variety further explains.

Drescher’s journey to Italy also prompted the management side of Hollywood’s bargaining table to call out her inability to ‘read the room’ as one might say. “How tone deaf can one be,” said a senior executive at an AMPTP member studio.

Kardashian has seemed rather nonchalant about the whole thing, continuing to promote American Horror Story without much consideration for all the other TV shows that have crumbled under the pressure of the impromptu writer’s strike.