Drew Barrymore 'completely unaware' of fans kicked out of show for wearing WGA pins, rep says
A pair of audience members claim they were kicked out of today's taping of The Drew Barrymore Show for wearing pins in support of the Writers Guild of America.
Dominic Turiczek and Cassidy Carter say they showed up for the taping after winning two free tickets and accepted WGA pins from picketers outside of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. After entering the building, they were asked to leave by staff members.
"It is our policy to welcome everyone to our show tapings," a spokesperson for The Drew Barrymore Show wrote in a statement shared with EW. "Due to heightened security concerns today, we regret that two audience members were not permitted to attend or were not allowed access."
The statement continued, "Drew was completely unaware of the incident and we are in the process of reaching out to the affected audience members to offer them new tickets."
A representative for Barrymore did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
CBS Drew Barrymore on 'The Drew Barrymore Show'
In a series of social media posts, Turiczek expanded on the incident, explaining that the duo were "unaware" of the WGA picketers prior to attending. "We won the tickets last minute and didn't do enough research, clearly," he wrote.
After accepting pins, Turiczek says they were "verbally assaulted" by crew members and kicked out. They later accepted T-shirts and joined the picket line.
Went to @DrewBarrymoreTV after winning tickets, unaware of the #WGA strike. We took pins & went in, got kicked out, & verbally assaulted by @DrewBarrymore’s crew. It’s clear they don’t support #WGAStrong, writers or fans! #DrewTheRightThing So we took shirts and joined. Fuck that pic.twitter.com/UuyCxAS491
— Dominic Turiczek (@dom_turiczek) September 11, 2023
While Barrymore is not violating strike rules as the host of the show, her talk show typically employs three WGA writers and is going forth without their work. Yesterday, Barrymore defended her decision to continue filming throughout the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes in a lengthy Instagram post stating, "I own this choice. We are in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind."
A CBS spokesperson added that the show "will not be performing any writing work covered by the WGA strike."
Although both Barrymore and representatives for CBS maintain that the show will remain in compliance with the strikes and refrain from promoting studio work, the WGA has laid out plans to picket tapings in the coming weeks.
"The [Drew Barrymore Show] is a WGA covered, struck show that is planning to return without its writers," reads a post on the official Twitter account for the WGA East. "The Guild has, and will continue to, picket struck shows that are in production during the strike. Any writing on The Drew Barrymore Show is in violation of WGA strike rules."
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