Writers Guild Of America

The tentative settlement reached this week between the Directors Guild and producers bolstered hopes that talks would resume in the writers strike, but it wasn't enough to relieve the queasy reality settling on Hollywood that the Academy Awards may go the way of the celebrity-free ratings downer that was Sunday's Golden Globes. However, Gilbert Cates, producer of the award telecast, remains adamant that on Feb.

Spurred by the day-old employment contract signed by the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood's writers and the major studios agreed Friday to resume talks, hoping to reach an agreement that would end the nearly 11-week-old strike, according to several people close to the matter. Writers Guild of America leaders plan to meet as early as Tuesday with News Corp. President Peter Chernin and possibly other top executives, reviving talks that studios broke off early last month, the people said.

Warner Bros. issued layoff notices Wednesday to about three dozen employees at its Burbank studio, citing the effect of the 2-month-old strike by Hollywood writers. The studio said last week that it had sent out written notice to more than 1,000 workers in its facilities division, advising them that they could potentially lose their jobs. A studio spokeswoman said Wednesday that those warnings had been misinterpreted by some media outlets, which reported that 1,000 people would be laid off.

After watching the Golden Globes gala implode last weekend in the face of the Writers Guild of America strike, the organizers of the 50th Annual Grammy Awards began a campaign Tuesday to preserve their Feb. 10 show.

Conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged, four major studios canceled dozens of writer contracts Monday. The move signals that development of next season's crop of new shows also could be in jeopardy because of the 2-month-old writers strike. Typically, January marks the start of pilot season when networks order new comedies and dramas. But with writers not working, networks do not have a pool of scripts from which to choose.

Television's reigning champion, "American Idol," returns this week and the talent contest is expected to be more popular -- and profitable -- than ever. The Fox show begins its seventh season Tuesday against the walking wounded. As the strike by the Writers Guild of America grinds into its 11th week, rival networks are scrambling to stay alive.

Few online entertainment ventures today make money. Yet that has not deterred striking Hollywood writers, eager to bypass the studio system, from forming start-ups to distribute their work on the Web. At least three start-ups, each with a different business approach, are unveiling their corporate monikers and the names of their founders as they intensify the search for venture capital and top management. With names such as Hollywood Disrupted and Virtual Artists Inc.

The late shows may be back on the air, but except for reality programs prime-time TV is mostly in reruns for the foreseeable future. So what's an advertiser to do? One answer: Think sports. Sporting events have been seeing increased interest from companies looking to promote themselves during shows that will be watched live, rather than recorded and viewed later, sans commercials.

Hollywood's awards season locomotive was derailed Monday when NBC pulled the plug on its highly rated Golden Globes, choosing not to broadcast on Sunday what promised to be a virtually celebrity-free ceremony. The scrapped program would be the first awards show to fall victim to the Writers Guild of America strike, and February's Academy Awards also could be in jeopardy.

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's on-air declaration that he wrote his own jokes for his program triggered a thorny dispute Thursday about what the late-night hosts can and can't do during the continuing writers strike. Leno's statement that he penned his monologue put the popular comedian at odds with his own union despite his vocal support for its cause.