Envelope columnist Tom O’Neil‘s explanation about why Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody didn’t show up at last night’s Critics Choice Awards sounded absurd to me. She wasn’t sure it was cool to attend as far as the Writers’ Guild was concerned, and when she finally found out “it was really okay, she got caught up at a business meeting and didn’t have time to break free, get home, climb in a gown and get to the ceremony,” O’Neil wrote.

Atonement director Joe Wright, Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody

And when she finally got home, what…her dog ate her car keys?
I voiced my cynicism this afternoon to a person close to the situation, and was told that the real reason was that WGA reps had asked WGA members attending the Critics Choice Awards “to talk about the strike and try to be spokespersons on behalf of the WGA’s position…to speak up for the cause,” and that Diablo didn’t feel “entirely comfortable” with this. Cody is supportive of the WGA but she apparently wasn’t “necessarily certain” that a red carpet was the right place to voice strike goals.
Then I called Cody’s p.r. rep, PMK/HBH’s Craig Bankey, for clarification and he “no comment”-ed me. O’Neil believes that the stories about what was going on changed and lurched so much over the last four days that nobody ‘s been able to keep up.