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The Golden Globes May Not Be Televised…

By fred | December 29, 2007

As you probably know, the Golden Globes won’t have writers, as WGA denied their waiver. And it has also already been made clear that should the show go on, they would indeed picket which would result in pretty much all celebrities not to show up, as they are supporting the writers and refuse to cross any picket lines.

Oddly enough, Anne Thompson reports over on her blog that word from within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is that the ceremony could actually take place, but not be televised. She then goes on to explain that this would be a solution, because in such a case all major celebrities would be able to show up :

Given the remoteness of the possibility that the Writers Guild strike will be resolved before the Golden Globes award show on January 13, word from within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is that one possible scenario is for the Globes to proceed without the live NBC telecast. That way the show could go on, with celebrities attending and moving on to the all-important after-parties at the Beverly Hilton (which I gather the studios are booking). This scenario does raise certain contractual questions; so far NBC is going forward with plans to telecast the show live.

Now I find that hard to understand, or believe, because whether or not the show is telecast is not the question here, not really. Sure, it would be a “victory” for the WGA to have the show not to be telecast, as NBC would then lose all the revenue it would have generated through advertising, and the Globes usually get strong ratings, but (a) even without a telecast, the show would still be done against WGA approval and I don’t see why writers would not picket, and (b) are we really supposed to believe that either all celebrities will show up dressed up and be willing to spend hours for a ceremony that no one will ever see, or that there would actually be no cameras, should such an event take place ?

I mean, come on! Maybe not NBC’s, not official ones, but there would be some, and so - of course - picket lines would be there too, obviously.

Really, this whole thing makes no sense to me. So much that I could even wonder if this isn’t some “AMPTP propaganda”, to have people think that the WGA is only trying to ruin the Awards ceremonies because they’re only trying to destroy what viewers are interested in, without caring about anything, because they’re doing this for some “glory” of their own and not actually concern about the future of their profession…

In fact, when I read later on that Thompson thinks that “in retrospect, it would have been smarter for the [Hollywood Foreign Press Association] to approach the WGA themselves much earlier and request a waiver (as Film Independent did for the Indie Spirits Awards), rather than going through Dick Clark Productions and NBC. Thus the angry WGA struck back at a major network by withholding the waiver“, I think I have my answer.

Because I’m pretty sure the reason the ISA got their waiver isn’t that they were nice enough to ask sooner, and not go through the Evil studios, but because they are a symbol of smaller, independent productions who, unlike the big studios, usually do have a better relationship with writers as they respect them.

Pretty much why they have people like David Letterman and Worldwide Pants caring for their writers and willing to negotiate a deal, and NCB and others have morons moguls who don’t even want to sit & talk, because they think they’re better than everyone else, that writers aren’t needed, and that viewers will eat whatever crap they throw at them, regardless of any such thing as “quality”…

Posted in News