WGA Still Promises To Picket Oscar
Bevy Of Award Winners Support Guild At New York Press Conference
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 1/23/2008 2:50:00 AM
New York – Just hours after the Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday, the striking Writers Guild of America once again vowed to boycott and picket the Feb. 24 Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Saying that the WGA still has the support of the Screen Actors Guild, WGA East president Michael Winship said that the scribes remain stalwart in their plan to boycott the usually star-studded ceremony.
“Until we have a deal, until the Writers Guild has a deal with the conglomerates -- the studios and networks -- our intention is to boycott the Oscars, to picket the Oscars, and to ask our fellow union members at the Screen Actors Guild [to boycott the Oscars],” Winship said. “That’s our plan.”
He made his remarks at a press conference attended by about 30 award winners -- some holding their actual Oscars, Emmys, Pulitzer, Obie and Tony statues -- who voiced their support for the WGA, which has been on strike since Nov. 5 against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The long list of participants included actresses Blythe Danner and Celeste Holm, and writers Marshall Brickman and Tom Fontana.
The point of Tuesday’s event, Winship said, was “to bring together our award winners, who are saying to you, saying to the American public, we’re proud of our awards, we’re grateful for having received them, we’re proud of the work that led to our receiving them, but what we really want is a fair deal. And we would trade in all this hardware, all this brass, all these plaques, all these certificates for a fair deal from the media conglomerates, the studios and networks.”
At the press conference Tony Gilroy, who was nominated earlier in the day for an Oscar for best director and best original screenplay for Michael Clayton, was one of the speakers at the WGA event in The Players in Gramercy Park.
Gilroy said that the impact of the writers’ strike in California is “huge,” and that people need to get back to work.
He alluded to the pressure on the WGA to settle because the Directors Guild of America last week struck a deal with the AMPTP after less than a week of formal negotiations. The WGA and studios have been deadlocked over residuals for use on content on new-media platforms, such as the Internet.
“At this moment, the awards are trivial in a way,” Gilroy said. “The scar tissue of what’s happening right now is going to disappear. The friendships that have been tested through all this are going to mend, or not. But the deal that’s being formulated right now is going to lay the framework for something very, very fundamental that’s going to carry through for a long time. And they have to get it right.
He went on, “And the idea that anybody wants to rush it all of a sudden, or strong arm the leadership of the guild, or blog this death before anybody’s got a chance to really look at it, I think is really wrong. I hope they work it out. I think there’s a lot of pressure to get the awards on. Maybe that will really help…”
The Golden Globes ceremony was cancelled after the WGA said it would picket the event, and actors said they would not cross that line to attend.
During a question and answer session, Winship confirmed that the WGA is back talking to the AMPTP. Formal talks between both sides collapsed Dec. 7.
“There are informal talks going on, but I can’t comment on what’s happening at this time,” Winship said.
During the press conference, Danner and Fontana also made comments about the ongoing strike.
“I don’t have to act,” said Danner, who has won two Emmys for Huff and a Tony for Butterflies Are Free. “I feel incredibly passionate about this. We have to have a feel deal. SAG, the actors, will be up for a new deal soon, and this is very important for us. I don’t think anyone will settle until the writers are settled…We have to get this settled and we have to hold strong and we want a fair deal.”
Multiple award winner Fontana warned about the WGA rushing to do a deal because of the directors’ new contract.
“The DGA deal may be a good deal for the DGA,” he said. |That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good deal for us. We are writers and we have different needs and different pieces of our lives, so it’s really important for us to – as Tony said – to take a long look at this, not to rush to judgment, either positively or negatively. I would like to believe that the deal is going to happen soon. I know that I want to get back to work and I know everybody else in this room does, too.”
Brickman, who won an Oscar for Annie Hall, joked and supplied his own theory about why he thinks the strike will end soon: pressure from media moguls’ wives.
“My secret feeling about when this will be over is that it will be over by the Oscars, and here’s why: because the wives of all the guys who own the companies that own the studios have already bought their gowns,” Brickman said.
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