The Fairy Princess is thrilled right now to be able to say the following:

  1. Happy Opening Night to PASS OVER on Broadway. Buy tickets here.
  2. SNAKE EYES – the feature film starring mixed race star, HENRY GOLDING is in theaters and avail to rent ON DEMAND and various other platforms
  3. Sandra Oh has a show that has just dropped on Netflix called THE CHAIR and it is a subversive and snarky peek into the world of academia – although it is NOT a documentary. So – for those of us who do teach at Universities, it is not meant to do anything but entertain and provide a star vehicle, and honestly – YES to that. The load of representing need not be consistently load bearing to be entertaining.
  4. SHANG CHI had a premiere in Hollywood and will be available for the first month to only be screened in movie theaters. If you feel ‘safe enough’ to do so, please see it in theaters, and for those of us with children under 12 who cannot be vaccinated – it will be streamed after the first month, so no – you will not miss it. It stars former Kim’s Convenience star, Simu Liu – and from what pals say – it is a welcome addition to the Marvel Universe.
  5. TFP would also like to pre-emptively welcome back the companies of WAITRESS, SIX, WICKED, HAMILTON, PHANTOM, LION KING et all – to rehearsal, as they all have scheduled openings in September.
  6. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of the Asian American Film 72 Hour Lab’s Shootout – where they crew and cast and writers come together and shoot an entire short, edit it, and so forth in 72 hours. TFP has been to the Award Ceremony and while she is sure things are slightly different this year – it is amazing the amount of art that was accomplished.
  7. WARRIOR which moved to HBO Max, has been greenlit for a third season!
  8. Adele Lim has a new movie starring a bunch of AAPI women on a road trip
  9. Courtney Kang’s new show, Dougie Kamealoha, M.D. drops on Sept 8. on Disney+

All those things are amazing, all those things are such a nice relief from what has been terrible news from across the globe – earthquakes, troop withdrawls, new COVID cases from those, primarily who would not get a vaccine – thus insuring that their genetic material continues on only if they already have progeny OR somehow they survive OR they do society at large the great benefit of eliminating their gene pool of stupidity.

Darwinism is harsh, y’all.

TFP is honestly still reeling from the death of her amazing friend, TV, Broadway, and FILM Actor, ALVIN ING from COVID complications – aka he fought it for two weeks and then passed from heart failure the day before he was going to be moved from the COVID ward. They texted back and forth the night before, and she was so thrilled he seemed like ‘himself’, and then…

What makes her angry for her friend is that he was fully vaccinated and more to the point – he was LIVING AS LARGE as any person could given pandemic circumstances. No one knows how he caught it – he should not have. Vaccinations are now readily available, and what is clear is that if more people had been vaccinated – he would still be with us. While in hospital, he was reviewing sheet music and going over song choices for his 90th Birthday concert with full orchestra.

This is a video TFP shot herself, when he was speaking at the luncheon to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Flower Drum Song.

It seems amazing to TFP that Alvin could pass away, she still struggles with it – and while his ‘official’ obituary lists many of his accomplishments – two Broadway runs of PACIFIC OVERTURES, Broadway run of FLOWER DRUM SONG with the revised book by David Henry Hwang, National Tour of CITY OF ANGELS – what it did not list is how RARE it was that Alvin, a ‘local boy’ from Hawaii, came to New York to get his MFA from Columbia University in Music, had the happenstance to fall into a series of ‘Fortunate’ events – despite Asians not being able to be cast as Asians at the time – and how he built his life and career around changing that narrative.

There would be no TFP without Alvin Ing and others of his generation. If they had not been determined to change the world – there would have been no opportunity for any of ‘us’ who came after.

REST IN MUSIC, MY FRIEND.

You are our Hundred Millionth Miracle. TFP will see you again.

Now, on to the SAG AFTRA Elections...and TFP really did not want to write about it.

We should be able to have non partisan elections in our Unions without it turning into a knock down drag out fight.

However that is not what is happening, and much like…honestly Alexander Hamilton in Act 2, TFP has been asked to share her thoughts on what is at stake in the latest upcoming election. She is NOT TELLING YOU HOW TO VOTE, she is telling you which group she is supporting as a longtime Guild member.

It is about Healthcare, but it is also about what do we want moving forward. Actors have seen their industry – and yes, all, it is a damn INDUSTRY, a job creating machine – decimated and then slowly building back over the past 18 months.

Our Insurance plan, which TFP broke down a while back – does very little to support the working class actor. It bounced people off the plan to cut costs by raising the deductible, raising the amount one has to earn in order to have the coverage in the first place – and it looks like there is no going back. Health care costs are rising, no one seems to be reining in insurance companies, and essentially, if you happen to be a working actor – do not depend on SAG AFTRA for your heathcare unless you are working regularly on a television show. Remember – they threw off Oscar Winner, Hillary Swank!

Health care is going to be an eternal obstacle and the best way to handle it, TFP believes, is to back those running who have extensive contract negotiation experience. Those who have been on, been off insurance, those who have had true health crisis on insurance and off – a variety of experiences support a wealth of knowledge.

However this is not the only issue facing the Union. We have to look at streaming revenues – most recently brought into the spotlight by ScarJo’s lawsuit against Disney. While hers seems to be a misinterpretation of what the actual contract stated – you can read it a number of different ways – the ‘danger’ of reduce fees based on a non theatrical release is valid. You, as the Actor, stand to make less money. This model needs to be re-examined. We need to go back and look at internet fees and commercial fees – we are in an ever ongoing battle with studios and producers over what is fair and equitable.

Which will never change. Better to have a solid group of people who have worked a wide, wide range of contracts.

Safety is an issue – and always will be.

Protection of minors is an issue – and always will be.

Sexual Harassment is an issue – and very sadly – always will be.

Intimacy Coordinators, recently added to the negotiations – is a welcome and much needed change – and always will be.

We have representation issues – yes, STILL – and we have a resentful bunch of folks who miss ‘the way things used to be’ who ‘blame’ minorities – wrongly – for their lack of work. This is an issue. It is a deeply embedded issue steeped in supremacy and privilege and there is no quick fix for this problem.

Leaders of the Union should look like the change we want to see. They should be inclusive and diverse.

Even when the ‘representation issue itself’ is solidified to a certain degree because it is supposed to highlight a particular group – there are still issues, as we have seen with RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, MOANA, IN THE HEIGHTS, CRAZY RICH ASIANS, and there are, even within those projects, issues of colorism. We, the PGM, have to have wins that are in the larger public eye, but we also have to acknowledge missteps that have occurred and yet while HAVING the discussions, NOT DERAIL the entire project because of the toxicity of some of the discussions that could make the larger audience for that piece, wary of even going to see it.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Keanu Reeves cannot be in everything. Oh that they could.

Who will lead these very important ongoing discussions? Hopefully those who have experienced discrimination and marginalization – not those who have to have it explained to them and require explanation as to why it is an issue.

Yes, it’s exhausting. Our union deals with exhausting issues because show business is exhausting. It is also, to many actors, kind of boring – and so, they vote for their friends.

That may have been fine in the past, but that is not fine going forward – TFP has friends she admires in both groups – however, she shares who she is backing as an individual and the reasons why, for those who have questions still.

Your way to make your voice heard as a Union member, is to VOTE.

After thought and analysis, TFP is endorsing the platform put forth by UNITE FOR STRENGTH.

They are more diverse, incorporating members not only of different ethnic backgrounds, but also the LGBTQIA community, age, body type, in lived experiences. The union is changing – TFP wants people who reflect that change, who ALSO have lots of experience in different contracts.

After having read the candidacy statements, she truly believes that UFS has the broader mindset with people whose long term careers within the SAG AFTRA structure. Which gives them the capacity to make decisions based on experience in both production – so many of them have self produced efforts – and performance.

She is… wary of people running for office who, when they did not get their way, sued the very union they are members of – not because she does not think challenges to leadership should be made – but because in the midst of dwindling revenues – they had SAG AFTRA having to engage in very expensive arbitration – and who paid for that?

SAG AFTRA MEMBERS.

Yes, mailed postcards are a waste, you know what else is a waste? Locking the Union in arbitration! Having a known confrontational history with Guild staff and other Members is also something leadership should not have in it’s wheelhouse of party tricks, yet here we are.

Frankly, at the current moment, TFP sees no benefit in supporting a group headed up by a straight white man who has been well known as an actor since his late teens & a straight white woman who is of Hollywood ‘royalty’ – both of whom have attacked the Union again and again.

She cannot see the benefit in supporting that candidacy. She does not think they reflect her, nor her beliefs in what will be of most benefit moving forward.

TFP is endorsing Fran Drescher and Anthony Rapp – and all the members of the Unite For Strength platform because it is time our union looked like us. We need moxie in this Union. It is time we broaden our thoughts as to what ‘qualifies’ a person to run for office – and people with experience running their own production companies, self producing and creating work while having to use grit and awareness to carve out a career in this business, which, in other times they would have been firmly locked out of – seem a better bet to TFP as we move forward.

TFP out.