LOS ANGELES (AP) — Public support for striking Hollywood actors and writers is broad, but not necessarily deep enough for most people to change their viewing habits, a new poll finds.

A majority (55%) of U.S. adults sympathize with the writers and actors in the months-long dispute than with the studios they’re striking against (3%), the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows.

Half of Americans (50%) approve of writers and actors striking, while 40% are neutral on the topic, and 9% disapprove.

The more people said they had heard about the strike, the more likely they were to favor it. About six in 10 Americans have heard “a lot” or “some” about the labor strikes of writers and actors against Hollywood studios. People who have heard “a lot” or “some” about the strike are more likely than those who have heard less to approve (63% vs. 29%).

“I’m a big supporter of labor,” said one respondent, James Denton of Louisville, Kentucky, who said he strongly approves of the strikes and has followed them closely. “I’m a union member myself, my father was the president of a union, I believe in unions, they’re well worth the money.”

About a quarter (24%) of U.S. adults do not sympathize with either the writers and actors or the studios, and 18% are split between the sides.

Overall sympathy toward the writers and actors runs much more strongly among Democrats (70%), than Independents (47%) and Republicans (39%). Republicans (35%) are more likely than Democrats (15%) to say they sympathize with neither side.

When the questions move beyond approval toward potential actions favoring the strike, the support gets considerably softer.

One-third would consider boycotting TV shows, while even more (41%) would not. Slightly fewer (27%) said they would consider canceling streaming services, while 44% said they would not. Three in 10 Americans also said they would consider boycotting movie theaters, while 34% would not. The unions have yet to ask for any of these moves from consumers, though have said they might if the standoffs last long enough.

Denton, 77, said he would not consider such moves, but added that it wouldn’t matter much.

“I don’t watch anything anyway,” he said. “I don’t go to movies anymore.”

The poll was conducted September 7-11, as the Hollywood protests over pay and work protections stretched into their fifth month for writers and third month for actors. The Writers Guild of America has restarted negotiations with the alliance of studios and streaming services they’re striking against. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists are waiting in the wings.

While actors are usually the ones getting public adulation, many more think writers deserve a pay bump than they do actors.

A majority of Americans (56%) say it would be a good thing for screenwriters to be paid more, but only 38% say the same about actors’ compensation. Americans under 45 are more likely than older adults to call higher wages for actors a good thing (44% vs. 32%), but they are similarly likely to see higher pay for screenwriters favorably.

Along with compensation and job security, an issue at the center of both strikes is the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, in the creation of entertainment, and who will control it.

The poll showed that young people may actually be even more wary of the emerging technology than older adults. Americans under 45 years old are more likely than those 45 and older to say it would be good for studios to be prevented from replacing human writers with artificial intelligence (55% vs. 42%).

Overall, about half of U.S. adults (48%) say it would be a good thing if studios were prevented from replacing writers with AI. Alternatively, only 10% say it would be good for studios to use AI to help write movies and TV shows. Half (52%) say it would be a bad thing for studios to use AI in this way.

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The poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Sept. 7-11, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — What would Bob Ross think?

The artist who brought painting to the people, with works completed for PBS viewers in less than a half-hour with little more than a large bristle brush, putty knife and plenty of encouragement, certainly wouldn’t have envisioned one of his works going up for sale for nearly $10 million.

But that’s the price a Minneapolis gallery is asking for “A Walk in the Woods,” the first of more than 400 paintings that Ross produced on-air for his TV series “The Joy of Painting.”

“It is season one, episode one of what you would call the rookie card for Bob Ross,” Ryan Nelson, who owns the gallery, Modern Artifact, said of the work created in the show’s debut, which aired Jan. 11, 1983.

Growing up in a small town, Nelson said he was introduced to art through Ross’ show and loves his paintings. He doesn’t expect a quick sale given the high asking price, which he sees as an opportunity to display the painting for a larger audience.

On that first show where he painted “A Walk in the Woods,” Ross — sporting his beloved perm, full beard and unbuttoned shirt — stressed that painting didn’t need to be pretentious.

“We have avoided painting for so long because I think all of our lives we’ve been told that you have to go to school half your life, maybe even have to be blessed by Michelangelo at birth, to ever be able to paint a picture,” Ross said. “And here, we want to show you that that’s not true. That you can paint a picture.”

Ross, who died in 1995, hosted the show from 1983 until 1994. In each episode, he would speak directly to viewers whom he encouraged to paint with him as he created idealized scenes of streams backed by mountains, waterfalls and rustic cabins and mills — all done very quickly.

None of Ross’ paintings, including “A Walk in the Woods,” would be confused for masterpieces. But that wasn’t the point.

“What this piece represents is the people’s artist,” Nelson said. “This isn’t an institution that’s telling you that Bob Ross is great. It’s not some high-brow gallery telling you that Bob Ross is great. This is the masses, the population in the world that are saying that Bob Ross is great.”

The first season of “The Joy of Painting” was filmed in Falls Creek, Virginia, and the painting from Ross’ first show was sold months later to raise funds for the local PBS station. A volunteer at the station bought the painting for an undisclosed price and hung it in her home for 39 years until getting in touch with Nelson, who has bought and sold more than 100 of Ross’ works.

Nelson bought the painting last year and then gave it a “not for sale” price of $9.85 million, said publicist Megan Hoffman.

Hoffman said the asking price is far more than any other Ross painting has sold for, but “A Walk in the Woods” is unique and Nelson isn’t looking for a quick sale. She notes that Ross’ popularity has soared in recent years, with 5.63 million subscribers to a YouTube channel featuring his shows.

“Ryan would prefer to take it out, tour it around to museums and things like that so people can enjoy it and appreciate it,” Hoffman said. “He will take offers but he’s not in a hurry to sell it.”