With the increasingly pessimistic strike mood, the WGA still determined to picket the Oscar show if the strike is unresolved on 2.24 and SAG members just as unwilling to cross picket lines as they were for the Golden Globes, the odds of a traditional bells-and-whistles Oscar telecast going forward are looking less and less favorable. It’s going to come down to some kind of half-baked fizzle show on 2.24 or Sid Ganis and Gil Cates delaying the broadcast until mid-April in hopes of the strike being over by then. But how likely is that?

Yesterday Variety‘s Dave McNary observed that “as the strike enters its 89th day today, there’s been no date set for the start of formal bargaining. That, combined with strike fatigue and SAG’s recent militancy, has darkened the town’s already gloomy mood. Some worry that after the June 30 expiration of its contract, SAG will join the writers in striking and that both guilds will stay out at least into the fall.
“Sources have said that recent informal meetings between guild leaders and the moguls have remained largely unproductive on the biggest compensation issues, trying the patience of the strike-weary town.” Face it, deal with it — things don’t look good.