Writers' Strike Stops Golden Globes Ceremony
News Feature by Joyce Dundas
The latest victim of the Writers' Guild strike in the US is the star-studded precursor to the Oscars, the Golden Globe Awards due to take place this Sunday January 13. The Globes, voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will now be announced at a press conference hosted by NBC news, an arrangement that will not break the rules imposed by the strike.
The actors' union, the Screen Actors' Guild, have already been vocal in the support of their artistic colleagues with all of the A-lists Globe nominees signing a letter of support for the strike. The majority have declared they would not cross a picket line if the red-carpet event were to go ahead and without presenters or acceptors there is no financial incentive to do any more than simply send out a press release. This decision means the event organisers and NBC are set to lose large sums in sponsorship and advertising due to the cancellation of the event, which is usually broadcast live for the best part of three hours.
Thoughts are now turning to the Oscar ceremony with the 80th Academy Awards nominations due to be announced on January 22, 2008 in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. At the moment it's business as usual for the Academy, but there will be some nervous meetings behind closed doors after the Globes cancellation. The Oscar ceremony is due to take place on Sunday February 24, 2008 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.
The writers have been on strike now for two and a half months in an attempt to secure a deal with the big studios on the complicated issue of being paid proper royalties and fees as digital delivery starts to open up a whole new area of residual payments for their work. For their part the studios say there is no way to gauge how much money will be made from electronic delivery therefore they cannot negotiate until they can see some kind of income from it.
The WGA last went on strike 1988 over a similar issue as the studios began to syndicate shows internationally selling the same programmes over and over again without paying any residuals to writers. The union made a deal back then which it now says woefully underestimates the amount of money writers should have been paid from this new form of distribution. The strike almost certainly became a main contributor to the rise of reality TV; if you don't need a script then you don't need a writer.
This new strike has closed down several high-profile productions including the latest series of TV ratings winners such as 24. The action also closed the production of the nightly chat shows, such as Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Late Late Show hosted by Craig Ferguson, almost immediately and ratings fell as the networks screened reruns of earlier shows to fill the schedule.
Letterman and Ferguson have since returned to the screens as both are produced independently by Letterman's company Worldwide Pants, which made an acceptable deal with the WGA to allow the writers to return.
Both sides admit the strike is hitting the lower paid members on production units particularly hard as production assistants and writers' assistants become surplus to requirements while the studios remain dark.
There are still very few positive signs on either side of the negotiations that a deal might be in sight. The strike in 1988 lasted 21 weeks.
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