Award show may see the can this year

The Award show may not go on, it has been recently reported that the strike will interfere with the procession. So the best bet is to pull out, which in reading between the lines, this is what I have taken from it.

Here is the report:


Hollywood Foreign Press pressed network to cancel broadcast

NEW YORK - The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC engaged in negotiations Sunday to try to save the boycott-stricken Golden Globes, but the network apparently is going to pull the telecast as a result of the Hollywood writers strike.

A source close to NBC told msnbc.com that the network has already made its decision to pull the Golden Globes telecast. An announcement confirming the telecast cancellation is expected Monday evening.

“NBC feels that it’s better to have an awards show with no one watching than have a show where no one shows up,” the source told msnbc.com. “They decided this over the weekend, despite saying that they’re still negotiating. Now, what hasn’t been decided is what they’re going to do with all that airtime, and that’s why they haven’t made an announcement yet.”

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC Universal and Microsoft.)

The HFPA, whose 100-odd members organize the ceremony, is pushing NBC to pull the plug on the broadcast because that will prompt the Writers Guild of America to lift its pickets and enable stars to attend the January 13 event. On Friday, the Screen Actors Guild said its members would not cross picket lines to attend.

NBC and its chief Jeff Zucker had through the weekend maintained that it will broadcast the event. But one person with knowledge of the situation described NBC as trying to find ”a middle ground,” potentially including a scaled-back event or a postponement. As of late Sunday, NBC was said to be close to yielding to the HFPA’s request for the Globes to be taken off the air.

Were a postponement agreed upon, the Globes would likely have to occur before Oscar nominations are announced on January 22, which buy only a week or two, a very small amount of time for an interim agreement or larger strike resolution to take place. The Beverly Hilton may also not be available for the following Sunday, January 20.

It’s unclear how much contractual wiggle room NBC would have if it sought a postponement that the HFPA didn’t want.

As of Sunday night, Dick Clark Productions, which produces and co-owns the Globes, was readying for preproduction in the way it would for any awards broadcast that’s one week away. It’s unclear what its involvement would be if the Globes were to go on without a telecast.

The weekend conferrals between the HFPA and NBC come after a Friday in which the guilds essentially shut the door on star attendance for an NBC-aired show.

With NBC continuing to say it will broadcast the event, SAG said that conversations with members had resulted in the collective decision not to cross the picket line.

“After considerable outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees and their representatives over the past several weeks, there appears to be unanimous agreement that these actors will not cross WGA picket lines to appear on the Golden Globe Awards as acceptors or presenters,” SAG president Alan Rosenberg said.

Also on Friday, a number of prominent talent-publicity firms, including BWR, 42 West and Stanley Rosenfield, announced that their clients would be no-shows.

“After much discussion by our clients, we have concluded unanimously that the actors we represent will not cross the picket line out of respect for the WGA membership. Our clients are extremely grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press and would love the opportunity to be recognized for their work but will only do so in the event that NBC and Dick Clark Productions reach an interim agreement with the WGA for the Golden Globes,” the group said.

Meanwhile, Dick Clark Productions, which has said that it has offered terms to the WGA similar to those that Worldwide Pants negotiated, also jumped into the fray. It released a statement saying that it “has reached out to the WGA on numerous occasions, from the very beginning of the WGA strike, and offered to enter into an interim agreement similar to the agreement reached by Worldwide Pants” and was “disappointed that the WGA has refused to bargain with us in good faith.” It also noted that it was not a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television and Producers, the studios’ bargaining ram.