WGA Awards (Live): Modern Family, Homeland, Colbert Report, Cinema Verite, Too Big To Fail

BREAKING… Refresh for latest… Los Angeles and NY The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are announcing the winnersfor outstanding achievement inwriting for the screen during 2011. Winners will be honored at the 2012 WritersGuild Awards tonight during simultaneous ceremonies at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles and at B.B. King Blues Club in NY City. The writers of Modern Family wonforComedy Series, andSteve Levitanexclaimed, “We are concerned that people are sick of us [winning]. Perhaps youcan focus your backlash elsewhere. As such, we asked our writers to each say whythey don”t feel like winners tonight.” At which point a number of Modern Family scribes described their deepest regrets: “I worry about the future happiness of my children, particularly the fat one.” “I write a show about relationships, half my money goes to myfirst wife, the other goes to the second.” “I have 2 years left in this business, especially afterthey find out my real age.” Levitan capped off, “I created the show STAT and have to live with that.” At the LA event, a who’s who of the film and TV industry arruved.”Welcome to Nerd Prom,” host Zooey Deschanel greeted the guests. “Male writers, you are so hot with your minds and plaid shirts.Hit on me.”Presenters included Tom Selleck, Lisa Kudrow,Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry. In front seats areLuck creator David Milch, Oscar-nominated writer John Logan also up for a WGA nom for adapted screenplay of Hugo, Mission: Impossible 4 director Brad Bird, and Young Adult star Patton Oswalt fresh from his hosting duties last night at the ACE Eddie Awards. And Deadline Hollywood got a shout-out. “Get ready for a bunch of F-bombs: it’s the Children’s Episodic Award” saidDeschanel introducing the pair of presenters of the award, “Mad Men” Creator Matt Weiner andthe show’s child star Kiernan Shipka. Shipka toldWeiner that she wants to “sink her teeth into meatier roles,” and then killedthe crowd with Faye Dunaway’s “No wire hangersEVER” monologue from MommieDearest.After she ended the speech to laughter and applause, Weiner remarked to her,”Where were you when I was on Becker?” Amy Poehler from Parks and Recreation and the show’s creator Michael Schur,presented comedy variety series. The two, who met on SNL, recalledtheir ‘woeful’ writing experiencesthere — how they spent hours doing Lorne Michaels imitations and crying how their parents never respected their life decesions. The Honorary Service – Morgan Cox Award went toPatric M. Verrone. “I don’t need to tell you who he is,” said Michael Reiss of The Simpsons writing staff. “Pat is a 2-time WGA president. Thanks tohim, he got me in the union, a health pension, and a copy of Written By which Iread from the mailbox to the trash can. He is a gifted artist and goes tochurch every Sunday. Which is more than you creeps.”Best known as the leader during the WGA strike, Reiss notedhowVerrone “looks like Hitler”. Verrone picked up on the jokeduringhis acceptance speech.”I want to thank the anonymous commentators on Deadline Hollywood who comparedme to Hitler,” Verrone said. “To them I want to say –well, I don’t want to say.” The Help screenwriter-director Tate Tayloraccepted the Special Achievement -Paul Selvin Award and politely spokeout against those naysayers who criticized him and The Help book author Kathryn Stocket – two white people — for writing a story about the African American experience of 1963. “It is a person’s right to tell a story,” said Taylor. “The Help was directed at those women in our lives. My desire to write The Help,came from my love of Carol Lee, the [African American]woman who helped raise mewith my broke mother. I wrote The Help for them. When someone writes from love, truth, and honor, they have a right to tell astory. We lose if we give into society’s criticisms.” Following a thirtysomething clip, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick accepted the Special Achievement – PaddyChayefsky Award and warmly recalled the joys of writing together,having first worked on the ABCshow Family. Herskovitz reflected,”When you are a 27, you can’t imagine a career. And at 57 you can’t remember it.” Zwick said, “There’s a lot to be said about writing with someone else. It has allowed us to do together what we are afraid to do alone.” MOTION PICTURE WINNERS Coming… TELEVISION WINNERS COMEDY SERIES Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan OShannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker (ABC) EPISODIC COMEDY Caught in the Act (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman (ABC) NEW SERIES Homeland – Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm (Showtime) LONG FORM ORIGINAL Cinema Verite – Written by David Seltzer (HBO) LONG FORM ADAPTED Too Big To Fail – Written by Peter Gould, Based on the book written by Andrew Ross Sorkin (HBO) COMEDY / VARIETY (INCLUDING TALK) SERIES The Colbert Report, Writers: Michael Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Dan Guterman, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Barry Julien, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, Scott Sherman, Max Werner (Comedy Central) COMEDY / VARIETY MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES SPECIALS After the Academy Awards, Head Writers: Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney; Writers: Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, John N. Huss, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jonathan Kimmel, Jacob Lentz, Danny Ricker, Richard G. Rosner (ABC) ANIMATION Homer the Father (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen (Fox) DAYTIME DRAMA General Hospital, Written by Meg Bennett, Nathan Fissell, David Goldschmid, Robert Guza, Jr., Karen Harris, Elizabeth Korte, Mary Sue Price, Michele Val Jean, Susan Wald, Tracey Thomson (ABC) CHILDREN’S EPISODIC & SPECIALS Hero of the Shadows (Supah Ninjas), Written by Leo Chu, Eric S. Garcia (Nickelodeon) NEW MEDIA NOMINEES ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING ORIGINAL NEW MEDIA Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6 (Aim High), Written by Heath Corson & Richie Keen (cambio.com/aim-high) ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DERIVATIVE NEW MEDIA A New Day, Family Matters, Neighborly Advice, Step Mom, Everything Dies (The Walking Dead), Teleplay by John Esposito, Story by John Esposito and Greg Nicotero (amc.com) VIDEOGAME NOMINEES VIDEOGAME WRITING Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Written by Amy Hennig (Sony Computer Entertainment) (*There were no nominees this year in the following WGA categories: Childrens Long Form or Special and Television Graphic Art.) Feature films eligible for a WGA Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during 2011 and were written under the WGAs Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Australian Writers Guild, Writers Guild of Canada, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild or the New Zealand Writers Guild. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for WGA awards consideration. Documentaries eligible featured an onscreen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or NY for one week during 2011. Credited documentary writers were required to join the WGAWs Nonfiction Writers Caucus or the WGAEs Nonfiction Writers Caucus to be considered, but scripts need not have been written under WGA jurisdiction for consideration.