WGA Waiver Given for Independent Spirit

In what could be a potential sign of award shows to come, or in what could just be some support for the notion of independent spirit, Rainn Wilson has the Writers’ Guild’s blessing to host the Independent Spirit Awards. However, Variety says it’s just going to be held in a tent on Santa Monica beach the day before the Oscars on the Independent Film Channel, so it’s not really much of a cave on the WGA’s part. The IFC is good for writers.

However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement that clarified that they haven’t tried to get a waiver yet, and they were only refused the right to use some clips of past events so far. So they still have some hope to work things out.

Still, the WGA’s position will either be strengthened or weakened by the return of late-night talk show hosts. Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are due back on January 2, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be returning January 7, all without writers and likely without any good guests. If those shows stink and stink hard, the WGA will likely be emboldened. Chances are, though, that people might tune in just to watch the shows flounder about, and ratings are all that matter. David Letterman is still trying to secure his own agreement with the WGA to try and get his writing staff back with him.

I am, however, a fan of this bit from the Comedy Central hosts who may be forced back on the job:

“We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence,” Stewart and Colbert said in a joint statement.