As the writers strike continues to dominate Hollywood discourse, Ted Sarandos has exited a planned appearance at a PEN America event next week that was set to honor him.
The literary organization announced Wednesday that the Netflix co-CEO will no longer attend their annual gala to accept the PEN America Business Visionary Award. The event will still take place May 18 in New York as planned with Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost as host, and the honored guests are set to include Lorne Michaels.
“We admire Ted Sarandos’ singular work translating literature to artful presentation on screen, and his stalwart defense of free expression and satire,” PEN America said in a statement. “As a writers organization, we have been following recent events closely and understand his decision.”
The message continued, “Our Gala program, with honorees including Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels and emcee Colin Jost, will center on the escalating campaign of book bans in this country, tightening constraints on satire and comedy, and support of threatened writers worldwide. We look forward to a moving and inspiring event that will fuel our fervent work on behalf of free speech.”
More to come.
