After a lot of flip-flopping and rumors, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC have reached a deal that will bring us the Golden Globes again this year. However, the awards ceremony will be pretty scaled back and a bit different from years past. The formal show which typically takes place at the Beverly Hilton will be eliminated, but NBC will still create a block of programming around the winners.
The programming scheduled for Sunday evening will include a hotel press conference, red carpet and party coverage. This settles issues that the show organizers were concerned about, namely a picket line. Stars will be able to attend, and there will still be enough live coverage for the show to garner some interest from viewers.
However, how many stars actually show up without the formal ceremony remains to be seen. Will they still go to the parties or press conference? One studio publicist said, “Unless I know my guy is winning, I’m not sending stars in to sit on a folding chair just to hear someone else’s name read out at a press conference.”
Other problems still remain. As of Monday afternoon, the WGA has not taken a position on whether they will picket or condone attendance for the scaled back version of the Golden Globes.
HFPA president Jorge Camara said, “We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007’s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television. We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled.”
