End in sight? Striking screenwriters to discuss possible deal

Striking U.S. screenwriters will meet with their union in Los Angeles and New York City this weekend to hear details about negotiations with Hollywood studios.

The Writers Guild of America has summoned its membership for informational meetings this coming Saturday to brief them about the two weeks of informal talks it's had with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Details about the negotiations have not been revealed, with both sides agreeing to a media blackout before the latest slate of talks began.

If the membership approves what is being proposed, the union and the studios could be on the way to ending the bitter three-month strike that has chilled the typically festive film awards season and halted the production of many TV shows as well as some films.  

The fact that the Directors Guild of America was able to quickly reach a deal with the AMPTP last month and the looming Academy Awards ceremony — set for Feb. 24 — are seen as two factors pushing both sides together and encouraging them to settle the dispute.

One of the main issues has been compensation for content distributed via new media streams.

Oscar organizers have vowed that — strike or not — the show will go on, saying they have planned two shows for either contingency.

Vanity Fair Oscar bash cancelled

However, Oscar night 2008 will be assuredly be less glamorous after Vanity Fair magazine, which throws one of the most exclusive and high-profile Academy Awards-related parties every year, said Tuesday it is cancelling this year's event.

"After much consideration and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," said a statement posted on VanityFair.com.

The strike began Nov. 5 and has put a damper on awards season, most prominently reducing the Golden Globes to a celebrity-free news conference after the Screen Actors Guild vowed its membership would not cross the picket lines threatened by its writer colleagues.

The actors, who are set to renegotiate their own contract with the studios later this year, have remained sympathetic to the striking screenwriters from the start of the current labour dispute — one of the reasons the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were permitted to roll out the red carpet without a hitch.