This is my Oscar story which will appear on tomorrow's front page of the LA Daily News:

By Greg Hernandez

Seconds after the Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning, the questions inside the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre immediately went from “Who’s nominated?” to “What kind of Oscar ceremony will there be?”

The protracted writers strike, now heading toward the three month mark, has cast a black cloud of uncertainty over Hollywood’s biggest awards ceremony which Academy officials insist, will go on no matter what on Feb. 24.

“Obviously, it will be a different show if the writers are on strike than it will be if they’re not on strike and we're prepared for both,” said Oscar telecast director Gil Cates. “I can’t comment on what our show is going to be like, we’re in the planning stages now and we’re going to keep on planning.”

Several nominees said that despite their desire to get giddy and glitzy on Oscar night, they are not willing to defy the Writer’s Guild of America in order to stroll down that long red carpet that leads to the Kodak Theatre a month from now.

“I won’t cross the picket line and frankly no one I know will cross the picket line,” said Michael Moore, nominated for his documentary “Sicko.” “I think that means there’s higher incentive for the studios and producers to come back to the table and be reasonable. Let’s bring this to an end, that’s what everyone wants.”

The writers went on strike Nov. 5 after talks broke down between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of the major studios.
The stalemate is largely over how to compensate writers for use of their work on the Internet and through other forms of new technology. After a brief meeting on Dec. 7, talks were halted and have yet to resume.
Tony Gilroy, who received two Oscar nominations for writing and directing “Michael Clayton” said the issues are too important to writers to not fight for the best deal.

“I’m hoping they can work it out. There’s so many people who need to go back to work. Nobody is going to cross the picket line so with that as a given, maybe they will work it out. You want to go, but you can’t cross the picket line and whether you get to make a speech and wear a tux is subsidiary to people who are going through a lot of dark \[stuff\].”

Nancy Oliver, nominated for best original screenplay for “Lars and the Real Girl” agreed: “The issues of the strike and getting a fair deal are what is most important. My special feeling of gettng pretty and dressed-up is second to people who are losing their houses and the damage it is doing to the city’s economy. It’s a total honor to be nominated and having the ceremony would be gravy.”

Despite support for the writers, there is a growing impatience at the lack of negotiations.

“My hope is that it’s resolved as quickly as possible,” said producer Jennifer Fox, a best picture nominee for “Michael Clayton. “If this puts an arbitrary deadline on resolving \[the strike\], if it creates additional pressure, then I think that’s great. I think it’s really important that people get back to doing what they love, a lot of people are suffering from the strike and I hope it doesn’t last much longer.”
Last week, the Director’s Guild of America quickly agreed to a new tentative three-year contract which many hope will help expedite negotiations.

“I hope that the DGA deal has a positive impact on the writers but, you know, it’s the writer’s guild and they have to decide for themselves and be really comfortable with the contract that they want to sign,” said Cates, who negotiated for the DGA.

“I hope that they can do it because it would be great to get the town back to work.”
There were a few hopeful signs on Tuesday: the leadership of the WGA was expected to meet informally with a few top studio executive where they were to discuss the framework of a resumption of bargaining, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The WGA also said Tuesday that it did not plan to picket the Grammy Awards on Feb. 10 although it has not yet decided whether to grant the music industry show a waiver that would allow writers to work on the ceremony.

So far, the strike resulted in the Golden Globe Awards being reduced from a star-studded three-hour telecast to a no-frills press conference where the winners were announced. No nominees were present.
The week before, the People’s Choice Awards were presented as a two-hour telecast with clips and taped acceptance speeches.

The televised Screen Actors Guild Awards are set to take place, without pickets, on Sunday as scheduled.
Cates said the Academy Awards are one of those things that throughout history, has almost always carried on: “The first year I did the show, the Berlin Wall came down,” he said. “We did the show one year when we went to war in Iraq and we cancelled the red carpet. We’re always flexible and fluid so that we can take advantage of what’s happening in the world.”

Academy President Sid Ganis, who announced the nominees with actress Kathy Bates, said he’s looking forward to “a great show” but the reality of the situation could be read between the lines when he said of the nominees: “We hope to see them all on Feb. 24.”