Trophy Season: Bagged by the Writer's Strike?

Nominations for the Golden Globe Awards will be announced this morning, kicking off the annual orgy of little-statue dispensing known as the Hollywood Trophy Season. However, this year the biggest nail-biter won't be which flicks will be nominated for best picture but whether NBC will be able to broadcast the trophy show at all, and who will show up.

The Golden Globes, scheduled to air on the network Jan. 13, has yet to receive a waiver from the Writers Guild of America, which is on strike against the big producing conglomerates -- such as NBC/Universal.

With a waiver, Globes producer Dick Clark Productions can hire those two or three writers it takes to knock out the repartee between trophy presenters for which trophy shows are so beloved.

We're still marveling at all those great ogre puns "Shrek" cast mates Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz tossed off while appearing as presenters at the 2002 Globes, which Myers followed with the line: "Who wrote this awful awards show banter?" and Diaz replied: "Jeffrey Katzenberg."

You think that material writes itself, people? Or that Diaz came up with that off the top of her head? (Wait till you see her on CBS's broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors the day after Christmas -- a trophy show, by the way, that also received a WGA waiver.)

But, more practically, a WGA waiver means Hollywood luminaries such as Jack Black and the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" can safely show up at a trophy show without being pilloried for crossing an actual, or figurative, picket line.

Minus the waiver, it's unlikely the "Grey's" gang would turn up at the Globes, after making so much noise on the picket lines. Who can forget the sight of Sandra Oh marching with her strike sign, and turning to the camera to explain the strike is not just about the writers, it's about "people who do our laundry"?

Interestingly, the WGA has already granted a waiver to the Screen Actors Guild trophy show, which will be telecast on TBS and TNT on Jan. 27 -- after the Globes, you'll note.

But then, SAG has come out strong for WGA during the six-weeks-and-counting strike. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes -- not so much.

"WGA's support for the Screen Actors Guild and the SAG Awards -- an event that pays tribute to the extraordinary work of actors and highlights the importance of the labor movement in the industry -- is welcome recognition of the strong bond of solidarity between our two creative guilds," SAG national director Doug Allen chirped merrily to the trades.

All parties involved with the Golden Globes dodged questions about the waiver yesterday.

WGA spokesman Greg Mitchell told The TV Column "it's too early to tell" whether the guild will grant a waiver to the Globes. He acknowledged the show could go on without one, but added it would be "a challenge to make a high-quality, entertaining show without the writers who are members of the guild" and with likely lack of involvement from members of other "guilds who are in solidarity with us while we're on strike."