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Golden Globes in talks for WGA strike waiver

With the Golden Globes less than two weeks away, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. issued a letter Wednesday saying that it has entered negotiations to secure a strike waiver.

But the announcement was news to the WGA.

HFPA president Jorge Camara said in the letter that reps for the group "began discussions with the Writers Guild of America to enter into an interim agreement" that would allow the Globes to go forward with writers and without a picket line.

The agreement being sought is similar to the deal the writers’ guilds cut with David Letterman’s production banner, Worldwide Pants, the HFPA said.

"We feel that the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ agreement is very reasonable and hope and expect the WGA will agree to the same terms and ultimately permit the Golden Globe Awards to be broadcast as scheduled, without picket lines, on Sunday, Jan. 13," Camara said.

But in an interview, WGA East president Michael Winship played down the extent of the talks. "There have been some informal conversations but really nothing more than that," he said.

Speaking from the New York picket line outside "The Late Show With Conan O’Brien," Winship said the planned picketing of the Globes would proceed and that he believed many nominees would choose to honor the picket line and stay home.

It’s in the interest of the HFPA – and NBC, which is broadcasting the Globes – to emphasize any movement in the hope of inducing stars to make plans to attend the show.

Still, the HFPA comments signal what might be a small amount of progress after several weeks of unsuccessful efforts.

After overtures from Dick Clark Prods. didn’t lead to talks or much traction – resulting in the WGA saying it would not grant a waiver and would even picket the show - sources said HFPA attorney George Braunstein stepped in to kickstart the talks.

Unlike the previous approach, the HFPA’s new strategy is keying on the fact that, like "Late Show With David Letterman," the Globes are owned by independent entities and not NBC, which telecasts the production. The Globes telecast is jointly owned by the HFPA and Dick Clark Prods.

But several observers said the deal would be a difficult one to pull off because of the WGA’s divide-and-conquer strategy. While the guild in part allowed the return of "Letterman" to the airwaves to put pressure on rival nets, the Globes is a one-time event whose telecast would likely not have the same effect on other nets.

Reps for Dick Clark and Braunstein declined comment.

If a waiver was granted, it would follow along the lines of the Worldwide Pants deal in several respects and cover all Dick Clark Prods. telecasts. It would include not just the Globes but the American Music Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and, several days late or one year early, "Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve." Like the Globes, most of those telecasts rely very little on writers, and a waiver would have the more important effect of allowing talent to attend without crossing picket lines.

As of now, few stars have committed to attending the Globes, and it’s believed a deal would need to happen by the weekend. Said one Hollywood insider: "We’re beyond the point of booking tables; we’ve moved on to the question of what gowns people would wear." PR officials coordinating talent publicity for the Globes have said the red carpet will continue even if the show is picketed.

<font size=1>Source: Hollywood Reporter</font>