WGA Waiver for the Academy?

Plot Device said:

I'm a little confused.

http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/wga_announcement.html

What I THINK this is saying is that every year the Academy requests the right to use film clips during the awards ceremony, and always wants to be able to not have to pay residuals/royalties etc on those clips. But that this year such a waiver has been denied.

Am I reading that correctly? If I'm not, what does it REALLY say, and what ultimately will it mean for the ceremony this year?



Also, on a slightly related topic....


...Do WGA writers usually supply the "script" for the awards ceremony every year? Or do non-Guild writers do all that? Is the Academy on the list of "struck companies"? Or would the prodco handling the awards ceremony be on the list?

Click to expand...

The WGA has denied the waiver on clips -- which means that they would have to pay -- which would, I suspect, be prohibitively expensive. I don't know how much it costs in and of itself, but I think that something like that might very well trigger a contractual "favor nations" clause which would require them to pay everyone, even if the other guilds had waived the payments.

And the answer is -- yes, the shows are written by guild writers, and won't be written this time around.

There may be some exception for a host who writes and performs his own material -- but no skits, no short movies (which are also written by guild writers) nothing for any of the other presenters.

Nothing.

More than that, it will likely be picketed, and since SAG is supporting our strike, it's going to be a major crunch time, because it will mean that WGA pickets will cover every single entrance to wherever it's being held -- and that means that, in order to attend, all of those SAG member actors who say how much they support the strike, will have to cross our lines in order to attend the Academy Awards.

By the way, back when SAG was on strike, virtually nobody -- that is, no actors, showed up. It was like a ghost show.

Imagine what it's going to be like if nobody writes it, and no actors show up.

Last time around, in '88, we gave them a waiver -- that is, we didn't picket them and we let guild writers write the show, and all we got for our troubles was people coming up and making fun of the writers strike.

Without a single presenter having a line on a teleprompter to read this time around, I have feeling that there won't be many people making fun of anybody this time around.

NMS

Well, as far as I know, the Oscars could try to independently bargainthe way the Letterman show successfully did.

I think maybe the public could use a little education on exactly how much the writers actually contribute to their entertainment.

i do hope the oscars is a bust.
the writers deserve to have the piece of the pie that they provided the recipe for. most people understand this and that's why they support the wga. having a bad oscar show will not alter their opinions. and even if it did who cares?! if the negotiations had anything to do with public opinion then the contracts would have been settled by now and the writers would get their due.

what will be more interesting is to see which actors will show up b/c most actors support the wga... and since their guild's contract will go into negotiations this year then they don't want to see the writers get trampled.

the emmys are next. and also there's the independent film awards (which run simultaneous with the oscars) which will probably be more attended and watched this time around. woohoo!!!

as far as the letterman show - the reason he was able to make a deal was because he actually owns the show himself, unlike the other late night shows. letterman pays the writers, not the network so he was able to negotiate independently.

While we are on the topic, anybody have any thoughts on this:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978127.html?categoryid=1&cs=1

IMHO, a bust of an Oscar show would demonstrate the need for writers and help the cause.