The Hollywood strikes reveal Los Angeles’s deepest anxieties

ON THE 100TH day of the Hollywood writers’ strike, August 9th, the picket line outside Warner Brothers’ studios was more like a party than a protest. A marching band strutted alongside Los Angeles’s screenwriters and actors as they belted out the lyrics to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”. One striker shrieked periodically near the studio entrance. “This is the executive gate, so we try to make as much noise as possible,” says Jon Long, a member of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union. Rather than marching, he offered his comrades free massages. Soon afterwards, a black SUV ferried a Warner Brothers VIP through the sea of jeering strikers.