Striking Writers Encourage Musicians to Boycott the Grammys

The Writers Guild of America, the powerful union behind the 12 week-old writer’s strike that has taken countless TV shows out of production, is said to be lobbying major music stars to boycott the upcoming Grammy Awards ceremony. According to AdAge.com, the WGA has reached out to a number of musicians that are also members of the Screen Actor’s Guild such as 50 Cent, Queen Latifah and Justin Timberlake. The artists have been asked not to attend the Grammy telecast or present any awards as a show of solidarity with the writer’s union. The Golden Globes awards ceremony was recently reduced to an hour long news conference after the WGA lobbied major motion picture and TV stars to skip the event. While the union has reached interim agreements with a couple of production companies, allowing their shows to remain on the air, a similar agreement with the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that holds the Grammys, is said to be unlikely. The issue at the heart of the writer’s strike is a greater share of revenue from content sold by TV networks on the internet, something the WGA feels musicians can relate to. The Grammy ceremony is scheduled for February 10 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.