Hunter Covington was looking for a way to liven things up on the picket lines. During the 2007-08 strike, the newly-single writer and WGA member, who was working on the show My Name is Earl at the time, came up with an idea for a singles-themed picket event. His friend, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, was game and she brought her friend, another WGA member, Stacy Traub who was running her own show, Notes from the Underbelly.
Covington and Traub clicked immediately. The two of them and Sanchez-Witzel went for cheesesteaks after that first meeting and a relationship quickly blossomed.
“We’re both comedy writers and he made me laugh, so I enjoyed that and we just instantly got along,” Traub of Covington. “As comedy writers we always have stuff to talk about and we just shared stories. That was it.”
A few years later, in 2012, Covington made all the preparations to ask Traub to be his wife. He bought the ring, secured her parents’ approval (to do things the “right way,” he said) and lured Traub on an errand to get a couch from an after President’s Day sale in Culver City. He put on his red WGA strike shirt from 2007, which he disguised under a wool trench coat and brought Traub back to the Galaxy gate at Fox, the site of their first meeting.
“We had a nice moment. I opened my jacket and I’ve got the shirt on and I proposed,” recalled Covington. “She’s crying because she’s terrified of the life ahead of her now and she can’t say no. We had a nice little drink at the hotel and then had dinner at Firefly in Studio City which is the place where we went on our first date. So we kind of did a history of us all in one night.”
“At the end of the night, she said, ‘So we’re not getting a couch?’” added Covington.
Husband and wife returned to the Galaxy Gate on Friday, May 5 which happens to be their 10th year wedding anniversary. As was the case back in 2007, they picked up signs and walked the picket line. They also invited friends to come by to celebrate their anniversary, enjoy some food and renew their wedding vows.
“All kinds of difficult things happen in life,” said Sanchez-Witzel, a 2023 WGA Negotiating Committee member who joined the picket line celebration Friday. “Out of something very difficult – the strike – they found a partnership in each other so I think that’s really lovely. You can find love on the picket lines.”
Day 4: See Photos from Today’s Picket Lines
This is What Solidarity Looks Like
On Thursday, WGA members leafletted Paramount's upfronts at the Edison Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. They were joined by West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne who tweeted out her solidarity: "Writers deserve better wages and terms. There would be zero content without writers. #unionstrong.