Film & TV writers accepting awards from the picket lines?

This is really amazing...actually I think the red-carpet press will EAT THIS UP WITH A SPOON if the Globe and Oscar writer nominees choose to stay in the picket lines, and winners give speeches from the line.

I wonder where Joel & Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), and Paul Thomas Anderson (THERE WILL BE BLOOD), stand on this.   Diablo Cody (JUNO) has been actively picketing.  Will the writer-directors ignore the picket in order to soothe the Directors' Guild talks with the AMPTP next month?


From United Hollywood (WGA strike blog):

This press release was just issued by the WGA, moments after the announcement was made in the general meeting (which at the time of this posting is still continuing).

Members will conduct black-tie pickets at the various awards shows; any nominee who wins an award but chooses not to cross the picket line will have the choice to accept that award on the line, with their acceptance broadcast live on the Internet.

SAG President Alan Rosenberg is present at the meeting, and applauded the announcement.

WRITERS GUILD DECIDES ON GOLDEN GLOBES AND ACADEMY AWARDS SHOW WAIVERS

LOS ANGELES – The Writers Guild has notified the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and dick clark productions that their requests for an agreement to allow writers to prepare material for the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards show have been denied.

The Guild has also denied a request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a waiver in connection with the use of clips from motion pictures and past Academy Awards shows for use during the annual Academy Awards presentation.

In letters to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, WGAW President Patric M. Verrone described the Guild’s respect and admiration for both organizations, explaining that:

“Writers are engaged in a crucial struggle to achieve a collective bargaining agreement that will protect their compensation and intellectual property rights now and in the future. We must do everything we can to bring our negotiations to a swift and fair conclusion for the benefit of writers and all those who are being harmed by the companies’ failure to engage in serious negotiations.”

The signatories producing the Golden Globes and the Oscars are West Coast signatories. The WGAW’s Board of Directors concluded, reluctantly, that granting exceptions for the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards would not advance that goal.

This has apparently been an industry-wide discussion amongst potential nominees in all categories for weeks now: to cross the picket lines, or not to cross?  If these recent interviews with Globe nominees are any indication, I'd say it's gonna be a pretty quiet awards season this year.  We'll see.

Hit 'em where it hurts, writers.

Meanwhile...a tangentially-yet-crucially-related aside: THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA is giving the YouTube founders a special award this year.  ROFLMAO