The "65th Annual Golden Globe Awards" complete with red carpet, celebrity fashion and champaign dinner in The Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom has been officially replaced with an HFPA press conference. The conference will announce the winners of 25 categories from the International Ballroom on NBC, January 13, 2008 at 6pm PST. The Golden Globes recognize the best work in both film and television for actors, directors, screenwriters, and musicians.

The reason for this change is the strike by the Writers Guild of America, and the fact that the Screen Actors Guild, which represents many big-name actors, is in support of the WGA. Hollywood actors have been refusing to cross picket lines until an agreement has been reached between the WGA and production companies. Some progress has been made with late-night talk shows and the first production company -- United Artists -- which is co-owned by Tom Cruise. Now that the Golden Globes have been drastically reduced, fear that the Academy Awards will be effected is the next issue for event organizers.

The writers strike has been going on for over 2 months with no sign of change. The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers have stopped negotiations, leaving the writers to remain on strike. Until the larger production companies -- GE, Disney, Viacom, News Corp., and Time Warner -- agree to make changes, the writers will not accept the offers they have been given -- due to the fact that they are so little. The issue is over internet use of written material -- downloads, internet sales, etc. The writers are seeking compensation for this medium, similar to their compensation from DVD sales.

The public is seeing the effects of the strike by the cancellation of the traditional Golden Globe ceremony, favorite network shows only running repeats, and new series being limited to reality and game shows. Now that many popular shows have run out of new episodes to air, and are not filming, the chance that this season will see any true finales is unlikely.