NBC - NBC PUTTING A NEW SPIN ON THE GLOBES

NBC PUTTING A NEW SPIN ON THE GLOBES

The gala ceremony that usually attends the Golden Globes awards announcements will be converted into a news conference this year, NBC announced Monday. With members of the Screen Actors Guild being urged by union leaders not to cross Writers Guild of America picket lines at the awards telecast, the network, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and Dick Clark Productions decided to pull the red carpet out from under the telecast, so to speak. The WGA, suspecting that Sunday's news conference was a ploy to entice nominees to be on hand, said that it will go ahead with its plans to picket the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the announcements of the winners will take place. NBC itself seemed to indicate that the news conference will be something other than the usual sort when it barred competing networks from covering it. Daily Variety, citing figures from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said today (Tuesday) that the Golden Globes cancellation could cost the local economy upwards of $80 million. Beyond the direct losses are the intangible ones, the trade publication observed, including the loss of national publicity for the movies and TV shows that receive the awards.

08/01/2008