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Thursday, January 03, 2008

3 REASONS WE SHOULDN'T PICKET THE GOLDEN GLOBES.

This from Yahoo News:

STRIKING WRITERS THREATEN TO DISRUPT GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Striking members of the Writers Guild of America plan to picket the Golden Globes awards ceremony scheduled for January 13, the guild announced Wednesday.

The west coast division of the WGA issued a statement announcing that the organizer of the awards ceremony, Dick Clark Productions, was one of the companies from which writers went on strike and therefore members would picket the awards ceremony.

"Dick Clark Productions is a struck company. As previously announced, the Writers Guild will be picketing the Golden Globe Awards," it said in a statement.

This from Deadline Hollywood Daily: WGA Still Saying NOPE To Golden Globes

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?

This from the WGA:

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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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 seasons, 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 to the academy. We wanted acknowledgment 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.

Yes, not giving Dick Clark Prods a waver makes sense, there should be no writing by guild members for a struck company. This sends a clear, consistent message. But picketing the Golden Globe Awards 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.

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