WGA STRIKE UPDATE: WGA East Scales Back Reception

Writers Guild of America East to Hold 'Informal' Awards Reception

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/18/2008 3:49:00 PM

The Writers Guild of America East decided to honor its 2008 WGA Award winners with what it called an "informal reception" Feb. 9 from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Hudson Theater in New York.

In light of the ongoing strike against producers, the WGA West announced last week that it was scrapping its reception but would announce the winners Feb. 9, the date of the original awards presentation that has traditionally featured bicoastal bashes by both WGA East and West. There have been no TV contracts, but there were red carpets and bands and tickets were sold for the four-hour sit-down dinner.

There will be no hosts or tickets or bands or red carpets this time around, said a union spokeswoman, who called it a scaled-back affair for people who have worked very hard.

Another reason for holding the event rather than scrapping it, as WGA West did, the spokeswoman said, is that WGA East awards include ones for documentaries and news, writers for which are under separate contracts from the master bargaining agreement currently in dispute.

The glitzy Golden Globe Awards show was already a casualty of the strike, with the Oscars in danger of going the same route. The NAACP Image Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards got special dispensations, and the Grammy Awards asked for the same.

For full coverage of the strike, click here.