As you may have seen in the news, the Writers’ Guild of America strike has led to the Golden Globes awards ceremony being cancelled. This is mainly because the actors who would have been attending have said they’re to willing to cross the picket lines which were predicted. Quite clever in a way, the WGA didn’t actually have to physically picket, just say that they would. It seems unclear at the moment whether the threat of picketing will have the same sort of impact on the Oscars, due next month.

Further down the report linked above, you’ll see mention of what one might argue are the first cracks in the studio’s rock-like refusal to return to the table, as (and I sort-of expressed hope it might be the case in this post ) individual production companies have directly struck deals with the WGA. This gives them a commercial advantage, as they can work with WGA members (and that means they can actually have, you know, scripts for their products), unlike the members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

And the names of the companies who have struck these deals add an amusing little touch to the news, as the film production company which has struck a deal is United Artists (first formed in 1919 to allow creative types more control over their work and pay), and the TV company behind David Letterman’s nightly chat show, which – and note how the BBC site is too coy to mention it – rejoices in the frankly splendid name of ‘Worldwide Pants’.