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Both officially and unofficially, the WGA and its board don't want anything to do with this year's Golden Globes Awards still being televised on NBC despite the inevitable writers strike pickets. This afternoon I was told by a WGA board member that "there's no way" the guild will OK an interim agreement for the dick clark company that produces the show. One reason is that the Golden Globes is little more than a marketing tool for the networks and studios and their TV and movie fare. Certainly, the awards themselves are a sham and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association behind them bogus. So why should self-respecting showbiz talents stick their necks out to cross picket lines for that? But, even I have to admire the humiliating degree to which the HFPA groveled here.
UPDATE: The WGA just put out this statement:
“Dick Clark Productions is a struck company. As previously announced, the Writers Guild will be picketing the Golden Globe Awards. The WGA has great respect and admiration for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but we are engaged in a crucial struggle that will protect our income and intellectual property rights for generations to come. We will continue to do everything in our power to bring industry negotiations to a fair conclusion. In the meantime, we are grateful for the ongoing support of the talent community.”
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I’d clearly consider our Statement a total Slamsickle.
And Alan quickly reinforced it.
Not 15 minutes after the WGA’s Golden Globes announcement, SAG president Alan Rosenberg weighed in with his own take.
“Screen Actors Guild is continuing its outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees. 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.
“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.”
It’s Official… Globes will not only suck even more without writers, they’ll have only ill advised Scab Stars to sell it. This is a dead horse now.
As emphatic as WGA is about Dick Clark Productions’ Golden Globes, I haven’t seen a word mentioned about the strike and “New Years Rockin’ Eve”. It was obvious that most of it was scripted, even Dick stopped reading at one point and said “…I’m not going to read that..” and ad-libbed with Seacrest a little. Actually, during that ad-lib he looked the most animated of the night. Anyway, I wonder how they got around the strike issues for “Rockin’ Eve”?
Nikke — let’s call a spade a spade. The WGA will not make a deal with the Globes b/c they are supported by the studios/networks. It’s all political at this point. If WGA truly just cared about making attractive deals for their writers, then they should be willing to make the same Letterman deal with Dick Clark. The fact that the SAG and Indepedent Spirit Awards will continue only further reinforces this issue. WGA is not better than the networks. Neither side is playing fair at this point.
Uh, isn’t Letterman parading A-List actors in and out little more than a marketing tool for the networks and studios to promote their tv and movie fare?
These guys look more and more high schoolers by the day. Yelling about the man keeping them down, doing special favors for the cool kids they don’t do for others. Thank god the DGA’s going to get someone in there soon that can make a deal.
I am a WGA supporter.
I think the divide and conquer strategy is smart, as with the deal with Letterman.
Why doesn’t the WGA want a deal with dick clark productions for the Golden Globes?
I would think that a fabulous interim deal would be very advantageous to the WGA (they can ask for more, for an interim, can’t they?)
Making a deal with Dick Clark Productions doesn’t really provide any significant advantages. The Golden Globes promote studio product and we get nothing out of it. The deal with letterman was only advantageous because all the other hosts were going back anyway and the studios and networks were going to be able to promote their product regardless.
I’m not a chess player. Still this seems short sighted to me.
So Dick Clark Productions is currently a struck company. Isn’t the point of the divide and conquer strategy to urge the independent struck companies to break away from the AMPTP and negotiate? So negotiate.
Yes, the Globes is a big advertisement for the television and movies. Television and movies that have already been filmed. Television and movies that people want to see. Television series that are not being produced right now, because producers refuse to negotiate. While there is no quarantee that winners will ask that the producers negotiate, there is every chance they will. This is not necessary a lose situation.
What is a lose situation is choosing not to negotiate with Dick Clark Productions. It tells independent producers that it is a crap shoot whether you will actually negotiate with them if they choose to stick their necks out. And as much of a hail mary act as that that release from them and the HFPA was, it was also them sticking their necks out of the foxhole.
This is wrong… The guild opened itself up here by selecting who can have a contract. If the stupid Golden Globes want to make a deal, the same deal the WGA gave Worldwide Pants, then they have to grant it. It’s only fair. Put our WGA writers back to work wherever there’s a valid WGA contract. Let’s not select our favorites, doing a pick and choose. Shame on the guild. Get your head out of your ass and grant the contract. It’s either grant them to anyone or to no one… Why is Worldwide Pants more important than any other company? D.
Wow! An independent production company wants to make a deal with the WGA that will get A-list actors who support the strike in front of live cameras to say whatever they want to during their acceptance speech and the WGA said “NO.”
That doesn’t seem very thought out.
Allowing DCP/HFPA to produce the Golden Globes on NBC with A-List celebs -in no different- than allowing WWP/Letterman to produce a talk show on CBS with A-List celebs. And when the WGA decides to play politics with who gets to have a deal, very few independents will stick their neck out to do so. Bad move.
We’ll see how political the leadership is if they give the Oscars – a far more political award show – a pass.
Golden Globes are dog shit.
Question though. As far as I can tell, WWP produces only two shows right now, and the deal was made for both of them–ie, right now everything the company does. Would the outcome possibly have been different had Dick Clark Productions negotiated as a company on behalf of all of its shows, rather than trying to allow a special event? Or am I misunderstanding the type of deal that WWP made? Though I see many comparisons made here between Dick Clark Productions and WWP, a deal with a company seems to me like a very different case than a deal with a show.
WGA leaders – Did you get the gift baskets from the film industry in Utah, New Mexico, and Canada thanking you for driving produtions their way?
Drop the Jurisidction and sympathy strike clauses and present your counter offer before you destroy the industry on SoCal all together. The AMPTP walked out because you showed them to the door with the 6 demands.
BTL 399
Out of work
Not on strike
Home for short sale in Simi
Yes, Nikki, the Globes are a great marketing tool for Big Media, but calling them a sham is too fucking easy. We all know there is a sham component to every entertainment award — Emmys, Oscars, Grammys — beyond talent there are always politics and greed at play. But at the end of the day, it’s a celebration of the work. All the work — writing, directing, acting, sound, costumes, makeup — the collaboration of the arts. Yes it’s self indulgent and a masturbatory, but it’s fucking fun and we need it.
Being a writer on The Shield for seven season, we saw countless “best writing” awards go to other shows not nearly as good as ours (in our humble opinion). We cursed the Emmys and the WGA awards, called them bogus. But of course, we wanted to win. Of course we continued to submit scripts. We wanted acknowledgement from our community. That feeling of recognition is not a sham. It’s very real. Just ask the people who are nominated for Golden Globes this year.
Not giving Dick Clark Prods a waver is right. No writing by guild members sends a clear message.
But picketing the Globes is wrong. Here’s why:
1) It’s fucking selfish. To taint the the night for others who aren’t part of our struggle is wrong. People have worked hard on both sides of the line to get nominated. They’re not showing up to scab, they’re not crossing a picket line to work for Big Media, they’re showing up to support the artistic endeavors of their peers. For many it’s a once in a life time shot. Why shit on that ?
2) It’s egomaniacal. It’s making a night that’s about the entertainment community at large all about the writers. Let’s focus our energy.
3) It’s just a pussy fucking move. C’mon Pat, show some class. Make be proud to be on your side.
This is one of the benefits of this strike – getting rid of some of these pointless awards shows.
The HFPA is composed of 100 “journalists” that are the journalistic equivalent of U.S. doctors that graduated from a medical school in Grenada because they couldn’t get into one in the U.S.
Nobody will miss the HFPA. NOBODY – except themselves.
Good riddance, HFPA, if only for one year.
David G., that’s just flat out stupid and wrong. The WGA is under no obligation to grant agreements to anyone who asks. We should only grant agreements when i’ts in our strategic interests to do so.
What advantage do we get out of making an agreement with Dick Clark? None. Look, if there were 7 awards shows scheduled for the same night, and 6 of them announced they were going on as scheduled with scab writers, THEN it might make sense to make a deal with Clark, picket the other awards shows and try to get SAG members to choose the Globes instead. That would make sense, that’s the situation we were in with Letterman, but that’s NOT the case here.
Making a deal with Clark now would do nothing but provide a financial advantage to NBC and to all the companies whose products are being promoted by the awards show, with no benefit whatsoever to us. This is a one time event, not a film or series! There’s absolutely no reason for us to agree to this deal. One night’s pay for 15 people does not offset the millions of dollars that all the struck companies would reap from such a foolish, unnecessary move.
Oh for god’s sake, Bill. We presented and offer to which the AMPTP has yet to present a counter, you’ve got it backwards. And yeah, they walked out because *we* showed them to the door. If you’re really a btl, you should probably find another job, because with your inexplicable support of the AMPTP they’ll be happy to repay you by expecting you to pay them for your own work before you’re done. It’s called labor negotiation, Bill. You don’t take anything off the table without getting something in return. We already tried that, and the AMPTP broke their word, gave us nothing, and laughed at us for being stupid chumps and giving up negotiating chips for nothing.
The reality is, unfortunately, we’ve sold out reality and animation before, we’ll do it again, same with sympathy strikes. If the AMPTP offers a reasonable deal on the internet, we’ll give up the other demands and settle. Everyone knows that, including the AMPTP. But the reality is, they have absolutely no plans to move one inch on New Media.
“Though I see many comparisons made here between Dick Clark Productions and WWP, a deal with a company seems to me like a very different case than a deal with a show.”
Exactly. I dn’t see any benefit in making a deal for a special event on a single night, especially a single show that makes a lot of money for the network, and as Nikki says, is simply a marketing tool for the studios. What in the world do we get out of that? That helps us not at all.