Original Desmond

Will you be upset ?

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment...011000,00.html


Strikes may shut down Oscars

December 31, 2007 12:00am
Article from: The Australian

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THEY have survived the Great Crash, the Great Depression, World War II and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. But fears are growing that the Academy Awards, universally known as the Oscars, may have to be cancelled for the first time in 80 years.

The tens of millions of fans around the world, who treat the awards like a celebrity horse race, would not be the only ones to suffer if the February 24 event were called off.

Movie stars, studio executives, socialites and gatecrashers are all aghast at the idea of being denied the lavish parties that accompany Hollywood's biggest night.

Perhaps most aghast are the party organisers themselves - most of whom have solicited sponsorship deals to help to pay for events that can cost up to $US700,000 ($800,000) to stage.

Ballot papers have been posted to the Academy's 5829 voters, who will decide which films and actors are nominated. The first round of voting will end on January 12.

But the awards season is at risk of becoming the highest-profile casualty so far of a stand-off between studios and writers that began two months ago.

The writers, represented by the Writers Guild of America, are demanding to be paid for television shows or films broadcast over the internet. The studios argue that online technology is untested, and that to agree to fees now could prevent them from experimenting with new methods of distribution.

The strike is starting to sting on both sides. Nightly news-talk shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - who is scheduled to host the 80th Academy Awards - have been off the air for so long, staff fear ratings may have been damaged permanently, with viewers migrating to YouTube or video games.

But at the weekend there were signs of movement when TV host David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, reached an agreement with the leadership of the WGA. The deal will allow Letterman's Late Show to return to the air in the US on Wednesday night, armed with his staff of comedy writers.

Other night-time talk shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, are scheduled to return this week too - but without writers.

In a statement, Mr Letterman said: "This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction."

So far films have been less affected by the strike because scripts were stockpiled in advance. Nevertheless, some big projects will suffer next year.

But the biggest question mark of all now hangs over Oscars night. The best indication of its ability to go ahead as planned will come this week - when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decides if it will stage its January 13 Golden Globes ceremony, which has been held every year since 1944.

Before Christmas, the WGA refused to give its members permission to write material for the show, even though it granted a waiver for the smaller-scale Independent Spirit Awards.

The union also refused to allow the Globes organisers to use video clips that included work produced by its members. This could make the event impossible to stage.

Regardless of what happens at the Golden Globes, however, all eyes will be on the Oscars a month later. Since its debut in 1929, the ceremony has run every year for 80 years, surviving industrial disputes - and even the attempted assassination of Reagan in 1981, which delayed the ceremony by a day.

chris_sc77

Those WGA members are some sick, sick fucks.

Supermallet

You know what? I say cancel them.

Doughboy

Are they gonna cancel only the ceremony and announce the winners in a press release? How would that work?

The Bus

They would have a non-televised ceremony.

Joe Molotov

I read about this a few weeks ago, along with this list of alternatives:

5 Ways to Make the Oscars Insanely Entertaining Without The Use of Film Clips

1. Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There) forced on stage to impersonate all of her fellow supporting actress nominees. Can she “do” Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) as well as she apes Dylan & Hepburn? Would capturing the precocious bad seed Saorsie Ronan (Atonement) finally prove too much for her estimable technique? If she pulls it off can they hand her 6 Oscars on the spot. One for each mimicry job + Bob Dylan.

2. All best actor candidates thrown naked into a Russian bathhouse set to fend off real life assassins with their bare hands. Only Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises) is exempt from this challenge, already having demonstrated his bad assery…and his ass.

3. They could nominate five truly great songs instead of schmaltzy power ballads and then give the actual performers ample time to si-- I'm sorry. That's too radical. What was I thinking? sheer anarchy.

4. A walk off for costume design. Keira Knightley (Atonement) in the green dress, Helena Bonham-Carter (Sweeney Todd) in decaying gothic fineries, Someone else in something else… yes, that!

5. Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) shaves Phillip Seymour Hoffman live! I’m sorry but someone needs to. He doesn’t even try to clean up for these things.

5 More Ways To Enliven a Writer-less, Clip-less Oscar Ceremony as Suggested By Readers

6. The Opinionated Australian says... "Perhaps, they can take advantage of the extra time they'll have, and stage both Oscars and Razzies on the same night? I can hardly ever tell them apart anyway." snarky... I love it.

7. Daily Tanenbaum says... "Have all the nominees in each category live in a house together and see what happens when actors stop being polite and start acting real." Funny. Do they get to vote each other off... ? cuz that's all the rage.

8. Katey says... "Coin toss with Anton Chigurh-- if you lose, Javier Bardem gets your Oscar."

9. Middento says ... "instead of the honoring the dearly departed over the past year, the Oscars hold a seance instead? The most corporeally rendered gets the loudest applause, naturally." I'm guessing that that goes to Joan Crawford who comes into nearly perfect focus (soft focus!), just itching to get back on that stage.

10. N8 says... "Hold the Oscar ceremony in an outdoor venue and invite the public. It'd be wild" Um, yes. It sure would. Why do I imagine that Sally Kirkland ends up entertaining the masses when the A-list are too afraid to show?

starman9000

But now we won't get to hear about how everyone hates this "hollywood circlejerk"

FRwL

I hope they run Hollywood into the ground. Anything to get a regime change over there. Hopefully after this is all over we'll be back to a 70s style era where studios will take gambles and new filmmakers with their ideas instead of the same cookie-cutter junk that's been happening.

nateman

Oh, so you don't like crappy remakes of horror movies?

I don't think the studios will ever revert back to their way of thinking, back in the 70s. Actually, it wasn't that easy for new filmmakers in the 70s to get their stuff on the big screen, either. Most of what is considered a "classic" today, barely made it into production/finished production/got it released when it first debuted.

zombiezilla

The WGA deserve what they're asking for, no arguments from me at all.

Fuck the Oscars, anyway.

bhk

No, they'll find some way to miraculously avert the crisis and air the Phoney-Baloney Olympics.

chris_sc77

What I would love to see if we don't get the Oscars is a 3 hour presentation of the meetings between the WGA and the AMPTP so we can really see who is being the difficult dumb-shits.

DVD Josh

Again, I ask what right the WGA has to refuse permission to air clips owned by studios.

RyoHazuki

This is the first mentioning I've heard of this. I seriously doubt they have the pull to cancel the Oscars.

zombiezilla

Because of the copyright RIGHTFULLY maintained by the writer of said material, and the rights to be paid when any said material (even brief clips) are displayed/aired/broadcast, etc....Unless the studio wants to pay the writers the AGREED UPON rate (which is irrelevant at this point because no agreement currently exists), they cannot legally air them.

Fuck the Oscars & anyone who thinks that the writers don't deserve what they are asking for.

hardercore

I'll see your 2x "Fuck the Oscars, give the writers what they want" and raise you one "Fuck the fucking Oscars, and give writers what they fucking deserve.

Original Desmond

id actually love to see the after parties with writers and studio execs in the same room drunk. That would be entertaining seeing two puny guys try slap each other

True_Story1011

How about for once they just announce the people up for the award - Then just tell people who won. They come up and accept the award and give a upto 2 minute speech.

cut to commericals...

Game over.

whoopdido

I'm curious what the writers are asking for.

What do they make now--like average salary or whatever and what do they think they deserve...what do they want?

FiveO

I say cancel them too. I could really care less.

I've lost a ton of respect for the academy in the last 10 years with some of their horrible picks.

freshticles

Get rid of them and start paying writers so I can watch more Lost. This shit is getting ridiculous.

Draven

Good - Hollywood needs to learn that writers are deserving of rightful compensation, and if they don't get to have their little "aren't we awesome!" ceremony because they don't want to share profits with the writers of the material, so much the better.

DVDho78DTS

I enjoy watching the Oscars but wouldn't lose any sleep if it were canceled.

I haven't followed the strike closely at all but the writers "demanding to be paid for television shows or films broadcast over the internet" the major hang-up? It seems the solution for this is fairly simple; studios pay the writers!

Shannon Nutt

Have you seen the last dozen or so Oscar telecasts? They'd be MUCH more entertaining without the writers.

hardercore

The strike isn't about salaries whatsoever, it's about getting residual fees (effectively royalties) for the use of their episodes on the internet, which studios make money from in both cases -- on iTunes and similar services, the episodes are charged for per episode, and with the free-streaming online viewers are made to sit through a commercial beforehand or during, which networks charge advertising fees for. Not sure about whether the writers are currently getting no cut of that or want a larger cut than they are getting for their work in creating all this content.