Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Holiday Gift Guide
Gift ideas & reviews for this holiday season
Start Browsing
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
Entertainment
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Film
Music
People
Television
Arts
Industry
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Environment
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
You Witness
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
You Witness News
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Actors' strike threat casts shadow over Oscars
Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:35pm EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Steve Gorman and Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Even as Oscar organizers on Friday unveiled Hugh Jackman as the host of their gala film awards, the prospect of a U.S. actors strike was casting a long shadow over whether Hollywood's big show would go on as usual.
The Academy Awards' February 22 date puts it directly in the path of a potential walkout by Screen Actors Guild members who vote next month on whether to give union leaders permission to call a strike in stalemated contract talks with major studios.
Movie making by the big studios has wound down since late June in anticipation of labor strife, compounding a general slowdown from the U.S. recession.
The tension has only been heightened by fatigue from a tumultuous 14-week Hollywood writers strike that ended in February and cost the Los Angeles area economy around $3 billion as production stopped on most prime-time TV shows.
"A strike, if one occurred, would be nothing short of horrible," said Ron Howard, the former actor and Oscar-winning director of "A Beautiful Mind" whose latest film, "Frost/Nixon," is considered a strong Oscar contender.
"The timing couldn't be worse," he said on Thursday.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who on Thursday earned a Golden Globe nomination for his work in "Revolutionary Road," said strike concerns are hitting "everyone."
"It's really important that we come up with a solution," he said. "These are unheard-of times, and no one can predict what is going to happen" with the U.S. economy.
SAG'S DARK CLOUD
The Oscars, given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are annually Hollywood's glitziest night.
Putting the show in jeopardy, however, was this week's announcement by SAG that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to its 120,000 members on January 2 and tallied on January 23, a full month before the Oscars.
That sequence of events raises the prospect of A-list stars boycotting the honors to avoid crossing their own union's picket lines -- or even carrying picket signs themselves.
The same dynamic came into play last January when a work stoppage by 10,500 Writers Guild of America members threw the awards season into disarray and caused the star-filled Golden Globe Awards to be replaced by a news conference.
Only 5.8 million TV viewers tuned-in, far below the Globes' typical 20 million audience. Broadcaster NBC lost an estimated $10 million to $15 million in advertising revenue.
The writers strike was settled a month later, sparing the Academy Awards and its network, ABC, a similar fate. But this time around, the Oscars are on the firing line and Australian actor Jackman, star of the "X-Men" movies as well as Broadway stage shows, may himself have to pull out. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
My Web
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Eastwood, "Dark Knight" among Globes snubs
Also on Reuters
Hugh Jackman to host a new-look Oscars
Slideshow
Slideshow: Unrelenting rain floods Italy's streets
Bernard Madoff's confounding success finally dissected
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Recommended
Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks "bankrupt"
Bush may tap bailout fund to aid automakers
Ice storms knock power out across NY, New England
Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud
1950s pin-up queen Bettie Page dies
Obama can sign U.N. climate pact before U.S. law: Kerry
Detroit workers stunned, angered as bailout stalls
Visa CEO loses his credit cards
Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors
Legal experts see wide fallout from Madoff case
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Fresh riots grip Athens
Anger over Mumbai arrests
Peru student clashes
Enough Troops?
Rome on flood alert
Auto bailout held up
Obama nativity a bestseller
Daytime clashes in Athens
Obama: Illinois Gov. should resign
Mugabe blames West for cholera
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
Fan Fare
Ask Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler stars in the upcoming holiday comedy “Bedtime Stories". Do your kids have a question for him? Post them here and we'll ask him for you. Blog
Reuters Deals
The global destination for corporate leaders, deal-makers and innovators
Knowledge to Act
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Interactive TV |
Labs |
Reuters in Second Life |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.