Word: strikeingly
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Pity the poor BAFTAs. For a moment there, it looked like the annual awards of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts were going to be the only celebration of film that mattered this season. The U.S. writers' strike had already reduced the Golden Globes to a glorified checklist, and as long as negotiations were a standoff, the Oscars were no sure thing, either. Yes, the Screen Actors Guild awards had gone ahead as planned, but that doesn't resonate much beyond U.S. borders: a SAG award gets you back pats from showbiz pals, but it won't sell...
...wasn't to be. Instead of the rollicking glamfest that everyone hoped for, this year's BAFTAs played out more like a dress rehearsal for the real thing. Maybe it was the 11th-hour turnaround on the strike negotiations, which cleared the way for a full-on Oscars ceremony Feb. 24 and gave Hollywood's big hitters an excuse to save the price of a plane ticket. Or maybe it was just the inevitable comedown after all the hype. But last night's ceremony at the Royal Opera House was less star-studded than star-sprinkled and lacked the energy...
...fault: all it can do is send out the invitations and keep its fingers crossed. There's no excuse, though, for the limp material that host Jonathan Ross, the BBC's high-priced answer to Jay Leno, was tossing out all night. His running gag - that the writers' strike had left him with nothing but a bunch of lame puns - is a shtick Leno used months ago. And it doesn't make sense anyway, since Britain's writers aren't on strike. The evening's evidence does suggest, though, that in sympathy with their U.S. counterparts they just gave...
...prevailing feeling was that the painful labor impasse had earned the writers historic gains, despite failing to fulfill an early goal of winning jurisdiction over reality and animation writers. "The strike was worthwhile," says WGA member Keith Glover. "It needed to be done for the future." Unlike earlier writers' strikes, this one appears to have strengthened the guild, writers said. "The '80s strikes left the guild in acrimony and disarray," says Scarpa. "This time we're better off and more unified...
...press conference Sunday, Verrone described the strike as "arguably the most successful" of the American labor movement in a decade, but said of the tentative deal, "It is not all that we hoped for and it is not all we deserve, but as I told our members, this strike was about the future and this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future...