Awards Concerned for No-Shows
Awards season is here and award telecast producers are raising concerns about who will cross the Writers Guild of America’s picket line to attend, Daily Variety reports.
The Golden Globes, whose nominees are announced tomorrow, applied for a WGA waiver but have a small chance of receiving it, the newspaper says.
A lack of stars at the award shows is of concern to networks broadcasting the shows, and the nets are hopeful that shows without a waiver will still have stars arriving without guilt from the guild, Daily Variety reports.
Strike Could Affect Upfront Landscape Forever
The writers strike is butting up against the time when networks woo advertisers during the May upfront presentations, which could have long-lasting effects on how the process is run in the future, the New York Times reports.
NBC is threatening to scale back its upfront presentation dramatically, saying that if the networks scale back this year, they will be able to continue to dial down the extravagance in future years, the newspaper says.
The effort would become smaller, which might make more work for the networks but with the benefit of cost savings, as the upfront spectacles tend to become pretty pricey, the paper reports.
SAG Snags Writer Waiver
The Screen Actors Guild obtained a waiver from the Writers Guild of America for its SAG Awards telecast on Jan. 27, the Hollywood Reporter says.
The waiver allows SAG to hire a guild writer for its telecast script and prevents WGA from picketing at the event, the newspaper says.
Several other awards shows, including the Golden Globes, are awaiting word of their waivers, but the WGA is being tight-lipped about who will receive them, the Reporter says.
Producers Counting Cost of Strike
The AMPTP installed a cost counter on its Web site, which is tabulating the cost of the writers strike by the second, the Hollywood Reporter says.
Tuesday had the tally around the $102.2 million mark, the newspaper says.
Writers Pressure Guild Brass to Return to Talks
Writers Guild of America members are upset over the breakdown of last week’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, and they’re turning up the heat on guild leaders to quickly get back to the table, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A large concern brewing is the Directors Guild of America, which many writers believe could open up its own contract renewal negotiations with the AMPTP by next week. The talks could undermine the WGA’s contract talks, the L.A. Times says.
New talks haven’t been scheduled, the newspaper says.
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