Striking Hollywood writers have scored a victory by forcing Golden Globe Award sponsors to cancel their traditional star-studded telecast.
Facing a likely boycott by Globe nominees and presenters reluctant to cross picket lines, organisers of the January 13th event said they will scrap the usual gala ceremony in favour of an hour-long "press conference" to be carried live by NBC News.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) previously refused to grant a special waiver permitting the Globes show to go on with union writers.
Cancellation of the annual three-hour-plus Golden Globes show, sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, marks the latest casualty of the nine-week-old strike by about 10,500 WGA members against the major film and TV studios.
The strike already has brought production to a halt on all scripted prime-time TV series and derailed several high-profile movie projects in the worst labour clash to hit Hollywood in two decades.
Negotiations to end the walkout collapsed last month with the two sides deadlocked over how writers should be paid for work distributed over the Internet.
No new talks are scheduled, and the strike has thrown the fate of the Oscars into doubt.