Nominees were excited Thursday by the recognition from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. but vexed by the possibility of pickets at the Golden Globes.
"It would be very hard for me to cross a WGA picket line," said David Cronenberg, a longtime WGA member and director of "Eastern Promises," nominated for drama film. "Everybody will have the same problem."
Glenn Close, nominated for her leading role in the FX series "Damages," said, "I would never cross a picket line."
The point could be moot: The strike could be settled by the Jan. 13 telecast on NBC, the Writers Guild might grant the show a waiver -- or scribes may decide it would be in their best interest not to picket as well as to allow writers and supporters to bring attention to the issue on worldwide TV.
Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl") joked that he's going to find guidance from a fellow nominee: "I want talk to Tom Hanks about it because I imagine he always does the right thing."
"Hairspray" director Adam Shankman said he thought the writers would be doing themselves a disservice by not attending.
"I think it would be a smack in the face if there was striking at the ceremony because it would be undermining the achievements of their own guild, and that would be reprehensible. I think it's a horribly counterintuitive idea to strike something that celebrates their own membership," he said.
WGA STRIKE REDEFINES TV BUSINESS
As the writers strike hits the six-week mark on Monday, the ramifications for the TV biz are growing by the hour.
Starting next week, the force majeure ax may begin to fall on various talent deals at the major studios. Industry insiders say some of the nonwriting producer deals and nonwriting "pod" deals that have proliferated during the past decade could be vulnerable, particularly for those with a mixed track record of delivering successes to their studio partners.
(Many contracts use the six-week mark for allowing termination of a deal under provisions of force majeure, or a disruptive event that prevents both sides adhering to the terms of the contract, but the length of time can vary significantly depending on the deal.)
Decisions on who gets cut will be made on a case-by-case basis, and they are unlikely to come in one big wave. Each of the six majors has different needs and strike contingency plans. Some may decide to trigger the option that allows studios to extend deals by the number of months the strike lasted. "There will be terminations," a studio chief said. "We just don't know when."
In the short term, networks and studios are scrambling to get through the rest of this season with replacements for scripted skeins that will be out of commission for the foreseeable future. The immediate question with which netheads are wrestling is what to do with this season's new crop of shows. Some promising newcomers have already secured full-season renewals. Those orders can be rescinded, given that episodes can't be delivered in accordance with the contract, though few believe it will come to that.
