With strike over, glamour back for Oscars

The end of the Hollywood writers strike means the Oscar show will be the usual star-studded, fashion-filled extravaganza, organizers promised.

"The strike, the bad news, is past us," Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Thursday.

The 80th annual awards show will be held February 24 at the Kodak Theatre and will feature a host of A-list stars. Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman will be among the presenters. Others include Denzel Washington, Martin Scorsese, Cate Blanchett, Cameron Diaz, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks.

Had the three-month writers strike not ended Tuesday, the Academy still would have put on a "B" show -- one without the glitter of the nominated actors, virtually all of whom said they would not cross a picket line.

"The 'B Show' was going to have the musical numbers, and there was going to be a lot of energy to that," telecast producer Gil Cates told AP Television. "But it was going to rely mostly on film clips, mostly on historical clips, because it is the 80th year of the Oscars."

The "A" show will feature performances of the year's five nominated songs. "Enchanted" star Amy Adams will sing "Happy Working Song," one of the film's three nominated tunes.

Kristin Chenoweth and Marlon Saunders will perform "That's How You Know" and Jon McLaughlin will sing "So Close," also from "Enchanted."

Oscars Boss Says Show Will Go On

Academy Awards president Sid Ganis has said there is "no doubt" the Oscars ceremony will take place despite the threat posed by the writers' strike.
He said that "things are looking very, very good now" for the 24 February gala amid reports of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the dispute.

Industry newspaper Variety reports the strike could end as early as next week as talks to hammer out a deal continue.

But it added that there was still work to be done on the agreement.

'Brightest light'

The Hollywood Reporter says that US television networks are preparing for the end of the dispute in a bid to put their strike-hit schedules back on track.

It will take most comedy and drama series four to six weeks to return to TV screens once industrial action is over.

Some dramas, including NBC's Heroes, could resume production during the summer and make a return at the beginning of the autumn.

There is a possibility that some networks will record as many shows as possible in case of a resumption of strike acitivity, the Hollywood Reporter added.

Mr Ganis, who was speaking at a luncheon to honour this year's Oscar nominees, said that the circumstances of the strike were "beyond our control", but the awards would go ahead.

"The Oscar exists to shine the brightest possible light on you and your work, and it would be such a terrible shame, through no fault of yours and no fault of ours, if the current conditions prevented us from shining that brightest possible light," he was quoted as saying in the Hollywood Reporter.

If an agreement meets with the approval of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), a vote to call of the strike - now in its fourth month - is likely to proceed.

The two sides made progress regarding internet and DVD payments for writers' work at the weekend, the Associated Press said.