Citing the current Hollywood writers’ strike, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos will not attend next week’s PEN America Gala in Manhattan, when he would have accepted the Business Visionary Award. PEN America will not present the award this year, saying the honor is based on the recipient accepting the award in person.
The gala, which will take place May 18 at the American Museum of Natural History, is one of the literary highlights of the year and will include the presentation of several awards, including one for “Saturday Night Live” literary service creator Lorne Michaels.
“Given the threat of disrupting this wonderful evening, I thought it best to withdraw so as not to distract from the important work PEN America does for writers and journalists, as well as celebrate my friend and personal hero Lorne Michaels,” Sarandos said in a statement released Wednesday on Netflix. great success.”
A PEN spokesperson said that this year no one will be awarded the Business Visionary Award, which was won in 2022 by Audible founder Don Katz. A Netflix spokesperson said there would be no comment other than Sarandos’ statement.
According to PEN, Michaels, whose show has been off the air since the strike began May 2, is still planning to attend. SNL head writer Colin Jost, a member of the Writers Guild, will serve as chairman.
In a statement on Wednesday, PEN America praised Sarandos’ “individual work in translating literature into screen art and his staunch advocacy of free speech and satire,” and added that “as a writers’ organization, we follow recent events closely and understand his decision.
Our party program, with honorees including Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels and emcee Colin Jost, will focus on the escalating campaign to ban books in this country, tighten restrictions on satire and comedy, and support threatened writers around the world. We look forward to the event. influential and inspiring that will fuel our passionate work on behalf of freedom of expression.”