Is Hollywood ready for black-tie picketing? How about A-list writers such as J.J. Abrams and Judd Apatow in Armani tuxedos standing near the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, where the limos enter the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the Golden Globe Awards?
That’s the plan that Writers Guild President Patric M. Verrone mentioned at the membership meeting Monday night, according to people who were there, the Los Angeles Times reports.
By Tuesday morning, as the town processed the news that the guild had denied waivers to the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, a consensus was rapidly forming that the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. would probably be handing out awards themselves at the Jan. 13 event should the strike not be settled by then. Without a waiver, the awards show would not be able to employ WGA writers and would be open to a boycott and picketing.
“We’re all waiting to see if somehow they’re going to reach a compromise or a solution,” said Catherine Olim of the publicity powerhouse PMK/HBH, who represents such Globe nominees as Glenn Close. “I don’t mean the writers and the [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] — I mean the writers and the Golden Globes.”
A prominent talent agent predicted that no actors would show up. “There’s no way any of them will be going,” the agent said. “Anybody who does go will look like they’re out for the publicity and not caring about what the writers — and the actors who are allied with them — are trying to achieve.”
