1.14.2008

Oscar doesn't live here anymore...at least not these days

This page has, to be honest, not that affected by the Writers' Strike. I tend not to watch a lot of the marquee offerings on network television, opting instead for the news, movies, and sports channels. I'm pretty much oblivious to the unreal life struggles of characters in Lost or Grey's Anatomy, so I wasn't really clued into how big a deal this was until I realized the producers of Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, or Reaper hadn't slipped a note under my door for some time. (I live near an industrial park that's a favourite location for movie & TV shoots in Vancouver, which make a lot of noise and take up parking spaces).

However, just because I'm not as worked up about this labour dispute as say, the Vancouver civic workers strike (just ask my relatives and neighbours I'm no longer on speaking terms with), it doesn't mean that there aren't people I'm seriously disappointed with - Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, I'm looking at you. Both of these 'progressive' comedians are members of the Screen Actors Guild, and the Daily Show built much of its hipster audience when Comedy Central was offering it up for free on RealPlayer back in the day. What, does Stewart now have no problem with his writers not getting paid for online work?

It didn't escape my notice that yesterday's Golden Globe Awards were reduced to a press conference, and that the ongoing strike, and there is a very real chance that the Academy Awards may not be presented in the style that America's entertainment industry and its multitude of devoted consumers are accustomed to. Does this mean that the couch potatoes of America will devote their dwindling attention spans to a more important competition, like who will serve as their next President? Or will they smile and nod while their corporate overlords double up on Super Bowl ads?

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