A shadow has been cast over the upcoming Golden Globe Awards show after the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) made an announcement Friday that its members would not attend the show either as presenters or award nominees, in support of striking writers.

The SAG members are in "unanimous agreement" that they would not appear at the show because actors do not want to cross the Writers Guild of America (WGA) picket lines, SAG President Alan Rosenberg said.

"After considerable outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees and their representatives over the past several weeks, there appears to be unanimous agreement that these actors will not cross WGA picket lines to appear on the Golden Globe Awards as recipients or presenters," Rosenberg said. "We applaud our members for this remarkable show of solidarity for striking Writers Guild of America writers."

Officials from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which sponsors the Golden Globes, were not immediately available for comment.

Attorneys for the association began negotiating with the WGA last week in the hope of striking an interim deal that would permit union-member writers to work on the awards show -- one of the first major events of Hollywood's awards season.

The WGA insisted that its members intend to picket outside the awards ceremony scheduled for Jan. 13 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

The HFPA had earlier petitioned the WGA for a waiver that wouldhave allowed writers to work on the show, but the WGA rejected therequest.

The guild also turned down a request from the Academy of MotionPicture Arts and Sciences for a waiver in connection with the use of clips from motion pictures and past Oscar shows for the Academy Awards telecast.

The strike began Nov. 5 over a dispute focusing on residual payments to writers for work distributed via the Internet, video iPods, cell phones and other new media.

Negotiations to end the strike broke down on Dec. 7 over the WGA's demand to extend union jurisdiction over so-called unscripted series and animated programs, and to permit work stoppages when other unions go on strike.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2008)