OSCARS
February 12, 2008
The striking members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to end the three-month walkout that has crippled the entertainment industry.
The vote by 3,775 of the guild's 10,500 active members comes two days after the union said it had reached a tentative deal with the major Hollywood studios and broadcast networks for a new three-year contract. The vote ends the guild's strike in advance of the expected formal ratification of the contract in the next few weeks. The union said 92.5% of the votes were in favor of ending the strike.
Writers are expected to be back at work Wednesday.
The 14-week strike had far reaching effects in Hollywood: It virtually destroyed the scripted television season, crippled a number of feature film projects and threw into disarray the industry's annual awards season.
But with the end of the strike, Hollywood's biggest award ceremony, the Oscars, will be spared. The telecast will go on as planned, with its complement of writers on Feb. 24.
JANUARY 22, 2008
"No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" led with eight Academy Awards nominations each, among them best picture and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem -- but it remained in doubt whether any stars would cross striking writers' picket lines to attend the ceremony.
"No Country for Old Men," a crime saga about a drug deal gone bad, and "There Will Be Blood," a historical epic set in California's oil boom years, will compete for best picture against the melancholy romance "Atonement," the pregnancy comedy "Juno" and the legal drama "Michael Clayton."
Awards shows have become casualties of the strike by writers, whose union leaders say they will not allow members to work on the Oscars. Nominees already are saying they would stay away in support of writers if the strike lingers until Oscar night Feb. 24.
On strike since Nov. 5, the Writers Guild of America refused to let its members work on the Golden Globes, which prompted stars to avoid the show in solidarity. Globe organizers were forced to scrap their glitzy telecast and instead announce winners in a swift, humdrum news conference, without anyone on hand to accept the prizes.
Even if the strike lingers, Oscar organizers insist their show will go on, with or without writers.
"We're dealing with contingencies but we're thrusting ahead. The point is, we're going to have a show, and we're going to give these incredible artists what they're due. We're going to present the Oscars on Feb. 24, and that is the important thing."
JANUARY 9, 2008
The Golden Globes are one thing, but what advertising executives are really worried about is the Oscars.
The decision to truncate the Golden Globes from a full-blown awards show to a news conference is sending chills down Madison Avenue as it looks ahead to next month's Academy Awards broadcast, the second-biggest advertising night of the year after the Super Bowl.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the Oscars are still on schedule. But news that the Globes ceremony is being scratched left media buyers scrambling yesterday to come up with contingency plans in case the Oscars, too, are canceled or scaled back.
"You just can't shift the Oscar ads to any Thursday night show because some ads are created especially for that event. Oscar ads are often more expensive and elaborate."
In today's TiVo world, where ads have less of a chance of being watched, the Oscars and Super Bowl are the two events whose commercials generate the most buzz beyond the broadcast. Those ads often are the subject of watercooler chatter for days following the broadcast, and the commercials get heaps of pre- and post-show publicity driven by countless news stories about the ads.
The Oscars -- which are set to air Feb. 24 -- brought in about $80 million in ads last year versus $27 million for the Globes. The Oscars last year attracted 40 million viewers, double the number of people who tuned in to the Globes.
NBC is already feeling the fallout from cancellation of the Globes ceremony. Media buyers say the network is offering advertisers cash back and some buyers suggest the amount being returned could top $10 million.
The Academy is proceeding "on the assumption that the strike will get settled or we can work out a deal" with the Writers Guild, says executive director Bruce Davis. Mr. Davis wouldn't specify what deal the Academy might seek but says there are multiple options. The Academy owns the Oscars and could pursue an interim agreement with the guild similar to the one struck by David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Inc. But with advertisers and studios waking up to the possibility that the Oscars could be scuttled, the guild is unlikely to give up leverage.
"We're willing to talk," says Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West, but added, "It will be difficult for us to work something out that allows the Oscars to continue in the traditional way, unless we have an overall deal." Mr. Verrone says the union hasn't officially decided whether it would picket the Oscars in the absence of a deal but says it "seems like a likely option."