Montgomery County actor brings Philly pretzels to picket lines for striking actors, writers
The actor says they're hoping for a resolution, or as his signs read, "a fair jawn," and he hopes to get back to work soon.
When the Writers Guild of America went on strike in May, Montgomery County's Adam Shapiro from Abington Township showed up at the picket lines with Philly soft pretzels.
During the pandemic, the actor added "pretzel entrepreneur" to his resume, creating Shappy Pretzel Co. along with his wife, actress Katie Lowes.
Now that SAG-AFTRA has joined the strike, the demand for pretzels is growing.
Shapiro is also getting some help from his celebrity friends.
Actors, talk show hosts, and the like are sponsoring picket line pretzel drops.
The twisted dough, the coarse salt, and the mustard packets are all now fixtures in the strike zone.
"It's just a real 'lemonade out of lemons' kind of situation," Shapiro says. "It's really hard. It's disheartening to be out on the picket line every day, all day, for hundreds of days. Then, you wake up to these emails from somebody like Jimmy Kimmel saying, 'Let's do a strike drop on Thursday.' We're all in this together. We're going to figure it out."
6abc's Alicia Vitarelli first met Shapiro and his wife Lowes on the red carpet at the Oscars.
Their soft pretzels were under every star's seat on Hollywood's biggest night.
"Isn't that the Hollywood story right there?" he laughed. "From the Oscars to the streets!"
Shapiro says actors from Philadelphia asked to sponsor a pretzel day and thus, he says, one day on the picket lines felt like "an Eagles tailgate."
"I dressed as Rocky," he recalled. "Gritty was there. We had cheesesteaks, we had water ice, and we had Philly pretzels. It was unbelievable."
Shapiro says they're hoping for a resolution, or as his signs read, "a fair jawn," and he hopes to get back to work soon.
In the meantime, he knows that nothing brings people more joy than a Philly pretzel.
