The best look on the red carpet this week? Actors striking for better pay and conditions. The clock has stopped on this summer’s buzziest press tours – for now. Oppenheimer and the latest Mission Impossible cinema release look set for good takings, but Barbie has swept the press coverage with a wave of pink.

The Oppenheimer cast, in a more sober palette on their whistlestop promotional tour, are not as fun to look at as a pink London Eye or Margot Robbie wearing adaptations of tiny Barbie costumes from 1993, and even stars as big as Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr have struggled to compete, although bless them for trying to liven things up, beaming where usually they would be smouldering on the red carpet. They were pictured on the rooftop of a New York bar last week, laughing while eating pizza, like a blessedly happy stock photo.

But the Oppenheimer publicist must be tickled pink with an impeccably timed, scene-stealing final flourish to the press tour. Champagne to go? As the Screen Actors Guild (Sag) strike was voted in, the starry cast walked out of their UK premiere in London’s Leicester Square. As well as their takeback of the celeb arena from Team Barbie, what a lovely bit of red carpet theatre. Talk about something fun for the news cycle. And in couture. Pride month might be over, but finally, a treat for the fashionably late bisexuals only now tuning in.

Not so cute – the prospect of a Mattelverse. Do we really need another highly merchandised M-verse dominating listings? But fortunately, reports that there are 45 toy-related films in development sound much more sensational than the reality. I don’t know what kind of plastic is coming down the pipeline, but the vague term “development” can mean a variety of things. Lots of properties that have been optioned go nowhere after the first flurry of excitement, finding their resting place in ancient files if they’re lucky, more likely trailing off in someone’s notebook in a meeting.

As well as better working conditions and access to heathcare, a more equitable division of profit is a key goal of Sag-Aftra strike action. Sag and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists boast more than 160,000 members, few of whom earn the big bucks associated with mega movie stars. They’re joining the television, film and radio writers already on strike, with productions in progress grinding to a halt. Many working actors, including familiar faces from much-loved streaming hits, have revealed in recent weeks their take-home pay is a lot less than the public might assume. Kimiko Glenn, known for playing prominent character Soso on Netflix prison blockbuster, Orange is the New Black, is one of the latest professional actors to share their pay stub publicly before taking to the picket line.

One recurring complaint is that huge bonuses made by executives of streaming sites are far in excess of the residuals made by those acting in the TV and film franchises that have given these platforms their value, with entertainment pay structures and contracts still catching up with the switch to streaming. This mirrors creative earnings in other industries such as music. Notoriously, the rate that rights-holders earn from Spotify is less than a penny per stream, coming in somewhere between a third and a half of a cent. Austria’s 2023 Eurovision entry by newcomer duo Teya and Salena satirised this, with lyrics to their song “Who the Hell is Edgar?” containing a reference to the paltry sum: “Zero dot zero zero three/ Give me two years and your dinner will be free/ Gas station Champagne is on me.” At the rate residuals are going, they might be better aiming for sparkling wine.

Actors are good at giving impassioned speeches; it’s their job. But I think Guardians of the Galaxy and Gilmore Girls star Sean Gunn meant it when he addressed Disney chief executive Bob Iger from the picket line, responding to the executive’s comments the protests were “disturbing”. “I think when Bob Iger talks about ‘what a shame it is’, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making. Now Bob Iger makes 400 times what his lowest worker is and I think that’s a f***ing shame, Bob. Maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘why is that?’ And not only ‘why is that’ – is it OK? Is it morally OK? Is it ethically OK that you make that much more than your lowest worker? And if so, why? Why is that OK? If your response is that that’s just the way business is done now, that’s just the way corporations work now – well, that sucks.” He has a point. The star power celebs like Gunn bring to the cause will draw the eyes of an audience outside of politics and economics followers.

With the vast majority of working actors, musicians and writers reliant on a side hustle to pay the bills, talented newcomers looking at the industry with stars in their eyes have an uphill battle to eke out a long-term, sustainable career from dribs and drabs of income. With big bonuses on one end of the pay scale, and a trickle of coins at the other, many find the profit-sharing scale unfair. But as more and more stars speak out – especially fascinating to observe in union-busting America, where they are particularly queasy about anything deemed too socialist – profit-hoarding chief executives are feeling the heat. The complaints raised in these strikes are likely to resonate beyond the entertainment industry, and beyond the States, by shining their spotlight on pay ratios between a company’s lowest and highest-paid employees, and the huge discrepancies that can be found. Working hard and hardly getting anywhere is the state of play for many Brits.

Hollywood actors' strike is putting spotlight on society-wide pay gap between rich bosses and their overworked, underpaid staff – Laura Waddell

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