GLOBES TRIAL ENDS

Testimony ended on Tuesday in the contentious court battle between the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions, the longtime producer of the HFPA’s Golden Globes Awards on NBC. In its lawsuit against DCP, the HFPA contends that the production company did not have its approval to negotiate a new contract with NBC and that the rights to air the awards show would have garnered substantially greater revenue if bidding had been thrown open to other broadcast networks. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz set closing arguments for Friday, February 10 but urged the two sides to reach a settlement. If they do not, he said, he would issue a verdict in favor of one side — he gave no hint about which side that would be. “Somebody’s going to win and somebody’s going to lose,” Matz said. “It’s not going to be a compromise.” He added that it was personalities, not the issues involved in the case, that have prevented a settlement to date. He pointed out that if he issued a decision, the losing side would almost certainly appeal, thereby keeping the Golden Globes telecast under a legal cloud perhaps for years.