Here are the Golden Globe TV winners
Tonight, in a lavish press conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the winners of the 2008 Golden Globes. Here are the winners in the major TV categories:
Best TV series, comedy: Extras, HBO
Best TV series, Drama: Mad Men, AMC
Best actor, TV series, comedy: David Duchovny, Californication
Best actress, TV series, comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Best actress, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Queen Latifah, Life Support
Best actor, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Jim Broadbent, Longford
Best actor, TV series drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Best actress, TV series drama: Glenn Close, Damages
Best supporting actress, TV series/movie/miniseries: Samantha Morton, Longford
Best supporting actor, TV series/movie/miniseries: Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Best mini-series, TV: Longford
Good-bye to the Golden Globes gala
Well, we all knew it was going to happen — we were just waiting for the proverbial foot covering to plummet: the Golden Globes award ceremony has been canceled. No red carpet interviews, no pithy conversations between television and movie stars, no close-ups of actors or actresses laughing at jokes that really aren’t that funny but seem totally hilarious after a few appletinis.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, along with NBC decided to scrap the ceremony after a boycott threat from representatives of the Screen Actors Guild. Rather than have an empty auditorium, all parties agreed to adopt another approach to the ceremony — a extremely less glamorous one hour news conference where the award recipients will be named (to be aired at the same time the original show was to be broadcast).
People close to the awards show say the HFPA will forgo the typical network payment for the news conference (somewhere around $5 million). NBC will have exclusive electronic rights for the press conference and will be able to sell advertising for it. Seems like a win for NBC, in my opinion.
Golden Globes looking unlikely
According to Yahoo, the Golden Globe Awards looked a little less like as the Screen Actors Guild has stated that nearly all of its members refuse to cross the WGA Strike picket line. This makes it all the more important for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to obtain an independent deal with the WGA before the awards show is broadcast.
As previously reported on TV Squad, the HFPA was hoping to get an interim agreement with the WGA, similar to the one David Letterman and his production company Worldwide Pants obtained to continue The Late Show and The Late, Late Show with writers.
HFPA president Jorge Camara said a solution to the problem could come as early as Monday. The question is whether the solution will be an agreement with the WGA or a change in the format of the program to one that doesn’t require writers, or quite possibly a cancellation of this year’s broadcast.
With the Oscars coming up soon in February, the industry will certainly be watching this situation as it develops. If the Golden Globes are canceled, then it is entirely possible that the Oscars will follow suit.
Golden Globes wants WGA to play nice
According to Reuters, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is in talks with the WGA to allow the Golden Globe Awards to be broadcast as planned. They are trying to get an “interim agreement” such as the one negotiated by David Letterman’s company Worldwide Pants.
Letterman’s agreement does pave the way for individual organizations to directly negotiate with the WGA. Since the Golden Globes are Hollywood’s second biggest self-aggrandizing party (the Oscars being the first), it’s easy to see how such an agreement would benefit both sides.
When I first read the article, I thought the HFPA was more concerned with picketing and/or celebrities unwilling to cross picket lines than actually getting writers for the awards, but it seems that they are actually trying to snag writers for the gig. Probably a good idea, since most of the actors in Hollywood aren’t that much into improvisation.
If this goes through, it opens the possibility of the Oscars doing the same thing (although given the lame jokes at the most of the Oscars I’ve ever watched, I wonder if a lack of writers would improve it). Perhaps even the production companies of scripted shows rather than the studios could directly negotiate with the WGA and the scripted shows could return. I can dream, can’t I?