Golden Globes

The Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men won the top prize at the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild awards show, while The Sopranos cleaned up in the television categories. With this year's Golden Globes reduced to a press conference and the fate of next month's Oscars uncertain, the ordinarily downplayed Screen Actors Guild Awards made big headlines thanks to the WGA’s promise that it would not picket the show, a sign of solidarity with actors who have been supportive of the writers’ ongoing push to be compensated for new media content. AP has the complete list of awards after the jump.  read more »

Kathy Griffin, the redheaded comedian, is sad that the Golden Globes didn’t really happen. But luckily for Ms. Griffin, a person largely famous for her ability to mock other, more famous people, NBC asked her to basically pretend that they happened.

In this clip from last night’s Dateline, Ms. Griffin says that she still loves Awards Season, “because everyone’s freshly Botoxed and shiny and pulled and everyone has long, pretty dresses that they had to puke all week to get into.” It’s true: watching her sling schtick can cause a bad case of the somebody-please-hug-her tingles.  read more »

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Atonement were the big winners at the 65th Annual Golden Globes awards. Period drama Atonement, the on-screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, won best drama. Sweeney Todd took home the best comedy or musical award and its star, Johnny Depp, received the best actor in a musical or comedy Globe.

But there were no dithering acceptance speeches or cheesy one-liners presented by hosts. Because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was unable to make a deal with the Writers Guild of America, which would have allowed the Globes to be televised without a picket line, the usual awards show glitz (stars paraded down the red carpet and industry parties galore before and after the champagne dinner) was replaced by a news conference. Award winners were read by television entertainment journalists from the shows The Insider, CNN's Showbiz Tonight, E!, Extra, Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight. HFPA president Jorge Camara presented the final award of the night.

Full list of winners after the jump.

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Now that the Golden Globes has flopped and the Academy Awards are in jeopardy, the Screen Actors Guild and Film Independent Spirit awards shows have a chance to shine this year. Both shows—the proverbial bridesmaids—have been granted waivers from the Writers Guild of America, so the stars are expected to show up in their designer finest. What else are they going to do with those red carpet gems they've been hording all year?  read more »

At 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7, Barry Adelman, the executive producer of the Golden Globes ceremony for eight years, gathered his staff in the Santa Monica offices of Dick Clark Productions to announce that he had not been able to come to terms with the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since Nov. 5, and NBC, which had been scheduled to broadcast the awards show on Sunday, Jan. 13.

“His eyes were completely welled up with tears,” said a source who attended the meeting.  read more »

After the Hollywood Foreign Press Association officially announced the cancellation of the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards telecast yesterday, studios and television channels began cancelling their own parties that usually take place after the champagne dinner at the Beverly Hilton. HBO, Universal and InStyle/Warner Bros. were nixing their plans last night, according to Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily.  read more »

Observer Media Mensch of the Year Nikki Finke is reporting that, thanks to the writers strike, NBC will not broadcast a traditional Golden Globe awards ceremony this year.

Instead, she writes, "a stripped down announcements telecast will be aired by NBC News. It will consist of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handing out Golden Globes to the winners, who will then pick up the awards and pass through a press room for photos and interviews."

The Oscars, by the way, are in 48 days.

NBC executives have emerged from their Sunday night sweat-lodge, in which an answer was sought as to how they might telecast the Golden Globe awards without brining an angry storm of controversy upon their tribe.  read more »

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association had hoped last-minute negotiations with the Writers Guild of America would allow the Golden Globes show to go on. But the guild announced yesterday afternoon that striking writers still intend to picket along the red carpet.  read more »

Panicked at the prospect of having to confront strikers as they walk up the red carpet, celebrities have sent what Hollywood publicity executives describe as a near-unanimous signal: If striking writers show up at the Golden Globes, the stars will not.

The New York Times reports:  read more »

Continuing to play hardball, the Writers Guild of America turned down waiver requests for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Writers won't be drafting a script and the organizations won't be able to use use clips of movies and past Academy Awards shows.

Broadcasting & Cable reports:

In a letter, WGA West president Patric Verrone said, “We must do everything we can to bring our negotiations to a swift and fair conclusion for the benefit of writers and all those who are being harmed by the companies’ failure to engage in serious negotiations.”

Atonement, a movie so good it's almost sinful, according to the Observer's Andrew Sarris, leads the drama contenders in the Golden Globe race with seven nominations. No Country For Old Men, Michael Clayton and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd also bubbled to the top with four nominations apiece.

Full list of nominees, which were announced this morning, after the jump.  read more »

Panic has set in for Golden Globes producers. They have asked the Writers Guild of America for a waiver to allow writers to pen the Jan. 13 show's script, but few expect it will be granted, according to Variety. Maybe it will actually be an entertaining show without the lame puns and half-baked chuckles, but who will actually cross the picket line and fill up The Beverly Hilton's seats?  read more »

In response to industry pressure as well as the film biz's growing internationalism, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is changing its rules. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that foreign films will be in the running for the two best picture categories. But the rules won't go into place until 2009. So Lust, Caution, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Kite Runner won't win the biggies.

As of the 2009 Globes, movies for which the "country of origin is the United States" will qualify for best picture, drama, and best picture, comedy or musical, even if the majority of a film's dialogue isn't in English. Those pics won't, in turn, be eligible for foreign-language film.

There will be no hard-and-fast criteria for what constitutes "country of origin," the HFPA said; each movie will be judged on its own merit.