Only Murders in the Building: Selena Gomez Deletes Instagram Post After Backlash

Only Murders in the Building is currently in the midst of its third season on Hulu, and like most new releases, the show’s cast is unable to promote the project due to the SAG strike. SAG-AFTRA officially went on strike alongside the WGA in July, and most productions have halted while some upcoming releases have been pushed back. Part of the SAG strike rules stipulate that actors are not able to promote their projects, which includes posting about them on social media. This week, Only Murders in the Building star Selena Gomez caught fire for posting about the series.

“Missing and wanting @onlymurdershulu,” Gomez captioned a photo of herself, presumably on the show’s set. This caused a lot of outrage in the comments, with people calling the post “tone-deaf.” The post was up for about 15 hours and received more than one million likes before Gomez deleted it due to backlash. 

This week, Gomez also debuted her long-awaited new song, “Single Soon.” When it comes to the music side of her career, Gomez is allowed to promote new projects. You can view Gomez’s video for the song in her post below:

Why Is SAG-AFTRA Striking?

In a statement tied to the strike announcement, SAG-AFTRA representatives revealed that the strike is commencing after four weeks of negotiations with the AMPTP, and an existing negotiation extension from June 30th to July 12th. Back in May, SAG-AFTRA’s national board unanimously agreed to send an authorization vote to members, with and 97.91 percent of members ultimately voting in favor of authorization.

“Yesterday our union celebrated the 90th anniversary of the incorporation of Screen Actors Guild,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, said during a press conference. “During our nearly century-long existence we’ve fought for and achieved countless gains for working actors. Today, we embark on a new important chapter in our unions history. Earlier this morning, the SAG-AFTRA national board convened following four weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers in a meeting, because AMPTP remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers. SAG AFTRA as national board unanimously voted to issue a strike order against the studios and streamers.”

Do you have thoughts on Gomez’s now-deleted Instagram post? Tell us in the comments, and stay tuned for more updates about the WGA and SAG strikes.