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No Globes glitz
13/01/2008 20:33 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Hollywood on Sunday
awaited the strike-plagued Golden Globe Awards at a drab news
conference to announce winners, rather than the usual star-filled
gala.
The film and television awards, given out by the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association, are a key stop on the road to Oscars,
the world's top film honours, and as a result are widely watched in
the industry and by millions of television viewers.
But the screenwriters strike derailed this year's event when
the Writers Guild of America, which is embroiled in a labour
dispute with major film and TV studios, threatened to picket the
ceremony. As a result, A-list stars to refuse to attend.
Lacking star power, television network NBC and the HFPA
scrapped the gala shown on TV in a roughly three-hour telecast,
and in its place decided to air a one-hour news conference.
Typically on Golden Globe Sunday, stars such as Keira
Knightley, nominated for best actress in a drama for her role in
romance Atonement, would have picked designer gowns and
glittering jewellery to parade up the red carpet. 'Oscar audition'
Nominated actors such as George Clooney for legal thriller
Michael Clayton and Daniel Day-Lewis in dark human drama There
Will Be Blood might be practicing Golden Globe acceptance
speeches that could kick off an Oscar campaign.
But this year, none of that is happening.
"The Globes are often an Oscar audition," said Tom O'Neil of
awards website TheEnvelope.com. "But their impact will be reduced
this year because we won't see stars giving speeches."
Nomination ballots already have been turned in to Oscar
organisers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but
acceptance speeches can help sway votes for eventual Oscar
nominees if they are endearing, O'Neil said. Strike-plagued awards
About 10 500 Writers Guild members went on strike against the
studios in November, throwing the TV season into disarray and
causing several awards shows to change their formats.
Earlier this month, the People's Choice Awards revamped from a
live, star-studded telecast to a magazine-style format with
pre-taped awards and interviews. Its TV audience fell by nearly
half to 6 million viewers from 11.3 million last year.
- Reuters
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South Africa
