• Ad Age, Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:45 AM

Could be that another awards show -- the Grammys -- could get kicked to the curb by the writers' strike. Right on the heels of the Golden Globes debacle, top recording artists who also have Screen Actors Guild cards, including Justin Timberlake, 50 Cents and Queen Latifah, are being lobbied by the Writer's Guild to skip the annual gala so as to show solidarity.

Notes Gregg Mitchell, a spokesman for the Guild, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences "has not asked the WGA for a waiver or interim agreement for the Grammys. While no Guild decision has yet been made regarding the Grammys, if a waiver is requested for the Grammys, it is unlikely to be granted." The 50th annual Grammy Awards are slated for a live CBS broadcast Feb. 10. Talks between the Guild and the Alliance for Motion Picture Television Producers have broken down, but interim agreements have been reached with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which produces CBS' "Late Show," and with some independent film companies like Weinstein Co. and United Artists.

Marc Norman, an Oscar-winning screenwriter and member of the Guild's negotiations committee, says that while he has no specific knowledge of which recording artists were being lobbied, targeting the Grammys telecast makes sense: "I don't see why not, if it's [a case of] SAG members going on a show that only adds to the bottom line of a TV network," he says. "They're a production company, just like [Golden Globes producer] Dick Clark.

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