It is official. There would be no glitz or glamour on the red carpet on January 13th at the Beverly Hilton. Not in the usual sense at least. Golden Globes are off, thanks to a strike by the industry writers.
And this was on expected lines because several Hollywood actors had made their intentions of boycotting the event quite clear. The scrapping of the award ceremony does not mean there would be no winners or losers. There would be a scaled-down event and winners shall be announced at a press conference to be held at 6 PM (PST) on Sunday (sigh!).
Here’s what Jorge Camara, president of the Golden Globe organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said:
We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars.
Disappointed, yeah, that’s a mild way of putting it.
The award ceremony was hanging in the balance ever since WGA (Writers’ Guild of America) had threatened to erect picket lines around the venue. Screen Actors’ Guild, the union of Hollywood actors had announced that its members would not cross these picket lines. Hollywood industry writers have been on a strike over the royalties that the industry moguls earn from DVDs and online sales.
Scrapping of the award ceremony is a real pity because the Golden Globes is the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars and Grammys. Keep your fingers crossed because the dispute could spill-over to disrupt the Oscars too. Now that would be a tragedy indeed.
