Jeff Zucker Rumored To Be Seeking Damages From WGA For Pooping On His Golden Globes Parade: UPDATE
With the joyous news that the writers strike has unequivocally ended, an historic accord marked by Nick Counter and Patric Verrone appearing together on the balcony of the Warner Bros. water tower on Valentine's Day eve, as thousands below chant, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" until the reluctant peacemakers finally acquiesce to a deafening roar of approval, it would seem everything is right again in the magical realm of Hollywoodland. Which makes this rumor all the more disconcerting: Could the NBC Universal ruler, whose upward-failing rise to power was prophesied in lesser-known New Testament appendix The Book of Jeff, really be mulling a lawsuit with the HFPA against the WGA for robbing them of a Golden Globes ceremony? Deadline Hollywood Daily says it could be so:
UPDATE: Is Dick Clark pulling the levers? After the jump.
I'm told by sources that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC are on the verge of taking legal action against the WGA for actions leading to the cancellation of this year's Golden Globes.
Really, could Jeff Zucker possibly be more of a putz? I say the WGA should countersue the NBC Universal midget for impersonating a mogul (and the HFPA for impersonating a legitimate news organization).
Even in the spirit of the Everybody's Suing Everybody Day season, we pray the rumor isn't true. Still, one glance at the President and CEO's track record (we're reminded of the time a number of SNL writers scheduled to read a "Top Ten Demands of the Striking Writers" list on Letterman were fatally felled by a tumbling safe that Late Show producers to this day insist was not a scheduled bit) is enough to convince us of this: That an internal conference call with perfect NBC storm Ben Silverman probably lamented the death of their awards season crown jewel, eventually floating the possibility of "sapping the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids at Hollywood High for whatever's left over after their little uprising bleeds them bone dry," followed by dark, bellowing laughs heard from Burbank clear through to Universal City.
UPDATE: Nikki Finke updates her story by clarifying that it was "Dick Clark Productions and possibly even by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association" who mulled legal action, and then approached NBC to join them. NBC has now officially denied that they will be filing suit.