Grammy Awards Seek Strike-Free Event

SANTA MONICA, January 16: After a lackluster Golden Globes press conference that lured just 5.8 million viewers on NBC on Sunday—a 71-percent plummet on last year—The Recording Academy is seeking an independent agreement with the Writers Guild of America so that it can proceed with a strike-free Grammy Awards on February 10.

Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of The Recording Academy, said in a statement that the organization and the producers of the show, Cossette Productions, have reached out to the guild and are hoping for a “quick and positive response.”

Portnow noted that the Academy has the support of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). “The two unions that have long been the only ones with jurisdiction and representation of the musical talent on the show stand alongside us in our efforts to present the 50th Annual Grammy Awards at a level that millions of music fans around the world expect and deserve.”

Cossette is seeking a similar agreement to that signed by David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants. “Executing such an agreement would both allow the talented writers for the show to be compensated fairly for their valuable services and allow us to demonstrate support for the creative community of writers in a tangible and meaningful way,” Portnow said. “On January 8, 2008, I met with WGA President Patric Verrone to outline these and other facts. During that meeting, I explained that the music industry had for more than a decade been fighting to obtain fair and just compensation for the original digital content of its members and thus, of course, supported the WGA in its efforts to obtain like results for its own members. I outlined in great detail the scope, reach, and vital importance of Grammy Week and the 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast not only to The Recording Academy, but to the worldwide music industry and creative community as a whole. I explained how those in the music and creative industry depend upon the annual proceeds from the Grammy Awards telecast to fund a whole variety of worthwhile programs such as our MusiCares Foundation, which literally saves lives and offers millions of dollars of aid to music people in need, our Grammy Foundation’s programs to advance the importance and role of music and the arts in our schools and in society, and our efforts in Washington, D.C. to advocate for the rights and needs of our music community. In short, no awards show touches more lives of those in need than the Grammys.”

Portnow concluded: “We will take whatever action is necessary to ensure that a program so vital to our industry, artists, charitable beneficiaries, and the great city of Los Angeles is held as planned. Accordingly, all preparations by The Academy for our milestone 50th Annual Grammy Awards remain in full-swing.”

—By Mansha Daswani