Waivers requested by various groups were denied yesterday by the WGA. In a meeting held in Santa Monica, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences asked for a waiver to use clips from movies and past Academy Award shows for the 80th annual Academy Awards, but the WGA rejected. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association also had their request for a waiver for its NBC broadcast rejected.
Agencies are unsure as to what the actors, directors, and writers should do about attending since WGA picket lines will be erected outside the events.
Screen Actor’s Guild president, Alan Rosenberg, spoke on behalf of the actor’s support, “We stand behind. We’re with you.”
With that said, I wouldn’t be surprised if SAG strikes very soon as well. The networks are already going to start giving it’s advertisers their money back.
On that note, it’s safe to say that this sucks major huevos. I don’t think a strike has ever effected the industry like this before.
And although I know that the negotiations at hand probably have lots of money involved, I don’t understand why the AMPTP can’t reach an agreement. It’s in their best interest, I mean, think about how much money they are losing in advertising… crayzeh!
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SAG and the DGA contracts run out in the summer. Neither one has a ’sympathy strike’ clause (as far as I remember)so neither can strike until then. The DGA looks like they are already about to settle, but they always negotiate quick. (probably the best run union in the biz)
The networks are losing ad dollars but the costs savings from not having to put up scripted shows far outstrips it. They are quite pleased actually as it will make their Q4 numbers look awesome and bump up stock prices.
The thing they are waiting for is the force majeure clauses in the studio deals many writer/producers have to kick in so they can cancel all the contracts that are dead weight on the books. Once those are all cleared, the strike will end. 2% on new media isn’t that big a deal, saving the $3 billion+ in deadweight deals and production costs will more than make up for it.
If anything, WGA has helped the AMPTP screw over their own members in some ways. Its an ugly situation.
It sucks, but I support the strikers too, like it makes any difference!!!! They deserve that money, and the big wigs don’t want to take it out of their fat pockets! Go WGA!
There was a writers’ strike in the middle 80s that lasted for months and months and ended up being the death of a lot of really good television shows and who knows how many movies that never got made.
I can’t remember if it affected the Oscars or not, though.