Bear with me on this one. Since the TV and movie writers' strike began the media coverage went quickly from "The sky is falling!" to "Look, a shiny nickel!" Some of the late night talk shows are back and pretty much everything else is in repeats. But, since people have lived most of their lives without any given show, they've shown they can live without it. This has not exactly helped the writers' cause.
Given that the threat of, "We're not going to write [fill in the name of any given show]" hasn't really worked on the producers, the writers played a bigger card by not granting a waiver to write this weekends the Golden Globes. Since the actors won't cross the writers' picket line, NBC canceled the show. I mean, what's an awards show without celebs?
Guess what? NBC probably lost some money and the Hollywood Foreign Press, sponsors of the awards, didn't get their big ego strokes. But, there wasn't very much outrage over the lack of celebs on TV tonight.
Does the whole thing bring NBC back to the negotiating table? Probably not. Just means that they'll pay less for the Golden Globes next year.
Does this mean that the writers' will grant a waiver to ABC for the Academy Awards so that they will have a star-filled show? Hell no.
But, if award 'season' comes and goes and celebs are not on TV every other weekend and the public doesn't miss them, then what? The pressure to end the strike won't come from either negotiating side. Rather, it will come from third parties who are just as affected. And it won't be painters and caterers. If enough of famous folks somehow perceive that they are becoming less famous, then we'll see some pressure to negotiate.
Celebrity and fame in this country travels in a self-fulfilling cycle. We want to know more and more about famous people and their publicity machines put so much out that we can only want more. But, if we wake up one morning and don't care about who was wearing what designer's clothes, then that will be a sea change. That could lead to less paparazzi coverage and we'd get used to knowing less about famous people. Then, they'd become less famous. Not less talented, just less famous. Would that be bad for the famous or us?
The last time the writers went on strike, the unintended consequence was more reality TV. This time it might be new, independent providers of entertainment delivered over the internet. Or, it could be the devaluation of celebrity and fame.
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