Academy Awards organizers expressed confidence on Tuesday that
this year's Oscars show would go ahead as planned, as Hollywood
digested the bombshell cancellation of the Golden Globes.
Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, told AFP that Oscars organizers were
hopeful of reaching a deal with writers that would allow the
highlight of awards season.
"At this stage we are still making our plan as normal," Davis
said.
The dispute between writers and producers claimed its highest
profile casualty on Monday when it was confirmed that Sunday's
Golden Globes ceremony had been scrapped and replaced with a press
conference.
The decision came after Hollywood's actors union, the Screen
Actors Guild (SAG), announced last week that stars would not cross
picket lines surrounding the show set erected by the Writers Guild
of America (WGA).
The WGA has already said its members will not be allowed to
write the script for the Oscars show, but has not yet explicitly
confirmed if it will picket.
Davis said that while the Oscars could probably survive the
absence of writers, picket lines would pose a headache, raising the
grim prospect of a Globes-style actors boycott.
"I think we could absorb not having writers if they don't put up
a picket line," Davis told AFP. "But a picket line is a whole new
problem," he added.
Davis said organizers would be able to wait until a few days
before the event is scheduled to make their final decision,
comparing it to 2003, when the Oscars took place a few days after
the US-led war in Iraq began.
"If you look at the war year in 2003, we were trying to decide
'do we go ahead with the show or is it going to be awful,'" Davis
said.
"And we finally decided at that point that we would make a
decision four days before the Sunday of the show."
(China Daily/Agencies January 9, 2008)