Awards Shows

How will the writers’ strike impact the 2023 Tony Awards?

Due to the writers’ strike leading to the cancellation of the MTV TV & Movie Awards, is it possible that the Tony Awards might also be affected?

BRENDAN MCDERMID

Nerissa Rupnarine

Update: Jun 7th, 2023 08:17 EDT

The ongoing writers’ strike has halted production on various shows, including “Stranger Things” season five and “Cobra Kai” season six.

It also resulted in the cancellation of the MTV TV & Movie Awards, with a pre-recorded show airing in its place, which has left many to wonder what will become of the upcoming Tony Awards.

There was a possibility of canceling the awards ceremony. However, on May 15, the guild provided a waiver, which permitted Broadway’s grand event to take place. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the WGA has reportedly advised its Tony-nominated members not to attend the Tony Awards ceremony. Instead, the guild has suggested that these members can pre-record their acceptance speeches or have a non-WGA member accept the award on their behalf, as per an email sent to them.

While no announcements have been made, the award show is expected to commence as scheduled on June 11, airing live on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+ at 8 pm ET. However, host Ariana DeBose and presenters might be left to exercise their improv skills without writers.

If the Tonys proceed as planned, picket lines may appear outside the venue – United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights.

What are the Tony Awards?

The Tony Award, or The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, is an annual event to celebrate Broadway productions and performances.

Twenty-six awards are presented throughout the night in performance, show, technical categories, and four special awards.

The Tonys are a prestigious award ceremony for theater and is the equivalent to the Oscars for film, the Emmy Awards for television, and the Grammy Awards for music. Anyone who has won all four is honored with the EGOT.

Past EGOT winners include Viola Davis, Jennifer Hudson, Alan Menken, John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Whoopi Goldberg.

What happened with the MTV TV & Movie Awards

The MTV TV & Movie Awards was supposed to air live on Sunday, May 7, but was canceled when host Drew Barrymore dropped out in solidarity with the striking writers.

“I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike,” Barrymore said in a statement.

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Despite the cancellation, the WGA still picket the show.

During a non-live broadcast, all recipients had prepared pre-recorded acceptance speeches. However, this is not an ideal solution and something that the 2023 Tony Award organization aims to avoid.

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Who is Jon Hamm married to? What to know about actress wife Anna Osceola - AS USA

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Who is Jon Hamm married to? What to know about actress wife Anna Osceola

The Mad Men actpr met co-star and bride-to-be in 2015 and began dating during the pandemic. They tied the knot in Anderson Canyon, Big Sur in June 2023.

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Update: Apr 12th, 2025 14:06 EDT

One of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors Jon Hamm married Mad Men co-star Anna Osceola in Anderson Canyon, Big Sur back in June 2023. They walked up the aisle to Nancy Sinatra’s 1967 James Bond theme song, You Only Live Twice.

Jon Hamm marries fiancée Anna Osceola where they filmed ‘Mad Men’ finale https://t.co/nbcbDE81Ub pic.twitter.com/AZ4wgLX04m
— Page Six (@PageSix) June 25, 2023

The couple got engaged in 2021 and had been dating since 2020. Hamm had previously been in a long-term relationship with Jennifer Westfeldt - their 18-year liaison was one of the longest and steadiest among Hollywood’s glitterati before it came full circle in 2015. “With great sadness, we have decided to separate, after 18 years of love and shared history,” they explained in a joint statement to People magazine in September 2015. “We will continue to be supportive of each other in every way possible moving forward.”

Hamm and Westfeldt were more or less the same age, and according to several sources, she was almost like a mother figure to him, so it came as a surprise to some observers when he was rumoured to have started dating a woman 17 years his junior. The actor is believed to have first met Anna Osceola while they were both filming Person to Person in Season 7 of Mad Men. Anna had a cameo role as a receptionist, Clementine, in the final episode.

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Whirlwind romance

Romance blossomed during the Coronavirus pandemic when they began dating. They were photographed walking Hamm’s dog Splash in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles in late 2020. The couple were engaged in February 2023 and appeared together on the red carpet the following month at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

For the first couple of years, Jon and Anna tried to keep their relationship private and away from the limelight so what do we know about the new bride? Anna was born on April 8, 1988 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Anna Osceola, from a large family

Her father, Fuad Phillip Alan Osceola, is fully qualified massage therapist with over 30 years of experience in his field while little is known about her mother Lisa. Curiously, the surname Osceola is of native American origin and relates to the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Anna has two elder sisters - Ariel and Alexandra and a brother Sam - who are now Jon’s new in-laws.

Like all of her siblings, Anna went into higher education after high school, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts on Broadway, New York City.

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Early career and acting roles

She made her screen debut playing Charlie in spoof Not Another High School Show in 2007 although the pilot never aired and the follow-up series was subsequently scrapped. Minor walk-on parts followed in a number of films, series and TV movies and gradually some recurring roles. She played US soldier Abby Sherman in Rizzoli and Isles, Robin Wylie in the ABC family series Greek and Casey Logan, a fashion model who witnesses a member of the Russian mafia kill someone in USA Network drama, In Plain Sight.

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She made separate appearances in Law & Order, first as Jamie Spears in the season 18 episode Rape Interrupted, then was brought back in 2017, cast as Noelle Terlesky, who listens to Erik Menendez’s grim confession that he and his brother had murdered their parents.

Anna starred as Larry alongside her new husband in the 2022 Miramax production, Confess, Fletch. It was reported that Hamm donated two thirds of his fee to help the producers stay within their budget.