Looks like I got out of doing movie reviews at the right time

Three years ago, when reviewing movies became a chore instead of a joy, and my partner in cinematic hoo-hah said I really should start a blog, I balked a bit at giving up something that I'd been doing for six years and for which I had gained somewhat of a decent reputation. But after being only moderately engrossed by No Country for Old Men, walking out of it scratching my head and thinking "WTF???", and now this, I know I made the right decision:

Well, no one wants to say it but you will be reading this shortly: The Golden Globes and the Academy Awards will be cancelled.

On Monday December 17th, the WGA turned down requests for waivers by the Oscars and the Golden Globes to put those telecasts on air without the Guild’s writers. With the rejection of the waivers for the Academy Awards (ABC), set for Sunday February 24th, and the much faster approaching Golden Globes (NBC), set for January 13th, the WGA has essentially cancelled both awards shows by its actions.

The SAG Awards did receive a waiver and are scheduled for Jan. 27th.

But the other two awards shows will be cancelled and no one or should I say everyone in the industry is avoiding the mention of this 600 pound LaMotta because a) they are holding out the now near impossible hope for a settlement and b) no one wants to interrupt the cash flow from the media promotions of the potential nominees.

That is unless they want to go the route of the People’s Choice Awards which announced it will air its show Jan 8th (CBS) in a 2 hour “magazine” format of prerecorded videos and no audience yet featuring Queen Latifah as the prerecorded “host.”

The Oscars and the Golden Globes will not play that game.

Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said, “It’s very difficult for me to envision that we would follow the model.”

But the folks who put on the Oscars and the Globes still feel they will somehow put those shows up despite their failure to receive the requested Guild waiver. It will never happen. Here’s why. No publicist is gonna send their client to run the gauntlet of Writer’s Guild’s strikers who will be on hand to make things extremely impossible for any stars who have the nerve to cross the picket lines into the event. No stars. No Oscars. No Globes.

I feel badly about the position in which Comedy Central has placed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Apparently not even being the most influential pseudo-news guys in America gives you the clout to fight a corporate boss forcing you to be a scab.

But given the state of movies in this country over the last few years, perhaps this writer's strike is precisely the hairball the industry needs to cough up. It may mean the destruction of the industry, because who's going to write the scripts that the directors (who look like they're going to negotiate after all) direct and in which the actors perform?