Grammy Awards Won’t be Picketed, Says WGA

SANTA MONICA, January 23: The 50th Annual Grammy
Awards is set to proceed on February 10, airing live on CBS, with the Writers
Guild of America saying it won’t picket the event.

While the WGA has not yet granted a waiver to allow any
writers to work for the annual awards ceremony, its decision to not picket will
enable celebrities to attend. Without a waiver, the event is expected to rely
on musical performances in place of the usual banter by presenters.

Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Recording
Academy, has been lobbying for the Grammys to proceed unharmed, with Cossette,
which produces the televised show, initially seeking an interim agreement with
the guild. In his efforts, Portnow stressed the recording industry’s charitable
initiatives. He said in a statement last week: “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.”

—By Mansha Daswani