Will Oscars Go Way Of Golden Globes?
What if they gave out Golden Globe awards and nobody came -- at least, no big stars?
That's exactly what happened Sunday night, when the winners were announced by TV entertainment journalists during what amounted to a news conference. No glamour, no glitz, as the stars stayed away due to the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America.
And that's got everybody's tongues wagging in Hollywood about next month's Academy Awards ceremony: Was the non-star studded Globes presentation a sign of Oscar times to come?
Early Show contributor and People magazine Executive Editor Jess Cagle told co-anchor Julie Chen Monday, "Usually, 'the Globes' is this parade of glamour and stars, and everybody seems to be having a good time because, frankly, all the stars sit at these tables, you know, at the Beverly Hilton and get drunk and then make funny speeches and make fools of themselves. That's what you always look for. Plus, there's always the red carpet before. None of that happened. Nobody was there. ... It just wasn't the same."
The Globes are often seen as indicators of Oscars favorites and, says Cagle, winning a Globe "certainly puts the movie or the actor on the Oscar voters' radar, but without all the press, let's say, Johnny Depp gets (for winning the Globe for Best Actor in a musical or comedy for his role in "Sweeney Todd") by walking the red carpet, etc., it diminishes him a little bit in people's minds."
Photos: See Who Won A Golden Globe
Cagle says "no one really knows" the fate of the Oscars broadcast. "It's all up in the air. No one ever thought the strike would kill "the Golden Globes." So, really the Oscars are up for grabs.
To see a complete list of Globes winners and nominees, click here.
"There are many different scenarios. Maybe the strike will be over by Feb. 24 and the Oscars will go on as planned. I think that is not very likely. Another likely scenario is that the Oscars get postponed until the end of March, and everybody just hopes that the strike is settled by then."
Ironically, Cagle observed, films such as "Sweeney Todd" and "Atonement," which captured Globes, were both big winners and big losers, since winning was worth celebrating, but both could have used the help at the box office that a typical Globes presentation would have given them.
Photos: Red Carpet Rewind
"They got a little bit of press, obviously, because they won, but nothing like if the show had gone on," Cagle said.
He also cited an estimate that the Los Angeles economy lost as much as $100 million when the usual Globes ceremony didn't happen, with all the businesses that benefit from such an event and related parties feeling the pinch -- businesses such as hotels, restaurants, caterers, limos, attire, cosmetics, etc.
"That's been the problem with the strike," Cagle noted. "The producers and the writers, I'm not saying they're not suffering, but it's really the people in the service industry who are really suffering."
Read all about stars improvising Globes parties. Click here!