Early yesterday the Hollywood Foreign Press issued a statement in which Jorge Camara, President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said, “I am happy to announce that on Saturday morning, December 29, 2007, our attorneys began discussions with the Writers Guild of America to enter into an interim agreement similar to that entered into by the WGA and Worldwide Pants, which permits writers guild members to go back to work writing for ‘The Late Show with David Letterman.’ We feel that the ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ agreement is very reasonable, and hope and expect the WGA will agree to the same terms and ultimately permit the ‘Golden Globe Awards’ to be broadcast as scheduled, without picket lines, on Sunday, January 13.”
No sooner than I had a chance to report on the information did the WGA issue their own statement, which gets quite straight to the point:
Dick Clark Productions is a struck company. As previously announced, the Writers Guild will be picketing the Golden Globe Awards.
Among other things, the WGA statement goes on to say that “Screen Actors Guild (SAG) president Alan Rosenberg followed by issuing this statement saying that SAG members should not cross picket lines.” The statement was worded as follows:
Screen Actors Guild members will be happy to appear on projects using WGA writers, and we will continue to support the WGA in every way possible in its efforts to achieve a fair contract. Unless and until there is an agreement between the WGA and HFPA, we will advise our members of their rights with respect to not crossing WGA picket lines and/or not appearing on programs using non-union writers. Screen Actors Guild is holding a meeting with Golden Globe actor nominees later this week regarding these issues.
Last Friday I hammered out an article in which Anne Thompson at Variety said “word from within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is that one possible scenario is for the Globes to proceed without the live NBC telecast.” Later that same day there were rumors that the show may be broadcast on the web instead of television.
Whatever happens, the decision needs to be made quickly as the show is set to air on NBC on January 13th and even as recently as this past weekend I saw a promotional commercial for the show on NBC during football. However, who wants to watch an awards show in which none of the recipients, or any stars for that matter, aren’t in attendance. That is, after all, the reason Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were even nominated in the first place.
The effect this will have on the Oscars is unknown as the WGA also currently plans on not helping the Academy with their broadcast and also plans to picket that event as well. SAG fans can remain happy, however, as the WGA will help their sister org out with writing for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 27, 2008.
