Last night it became official: The Golden Globe Awards has been cancelled, replaced by a simple press conference.

The award ceremony is the last of a long and growing line of victims of the Screenwriters’ Guild strike that’s been paralyzing Hollywood for several months. In the words of Hollywood Foreign Press Association president, Jorge Camara:

“We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007′s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television. We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled.”

The ceremony was cancelled when the members of the Screen Actors Guild pledged they would not cross Writers Guild of America picket lines, meaning there would be no red carpet and no famous butts in the seats.

The WGA strike is now threatening not only the current Spring season (which according to analysts will be filled with B-level reality shows and re-runs) but also pilot season, meaning there’s a good chance we won’t see any new shows come out until spring of 2009 at the earliest. Considering the current lineup, this is bad news for everyone. The only ones that seem to profit off this mess are late show hosts David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, whose barber bills have gone down to zero as they grow beards in support of the writers.

A brief explanation of what the strike is all about and why the writers have every right to ruin your Spring season after the jump…

The best way to understand the WGA strike is to read the November 2007 New York Times article Mourning TV, by Lost head-writer Damon Lindelof (may require free subscription). It’s a good (if long) read that outlines the conflict and shows that the writers are in the right.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here is a quick summary:

• Historically, the writers are paid not only for the original show but for any residual income thereof (international syndication, DVD sales etc…).
• The writers are currently not being paid for any web-related broadcasting because this type of broadcasting does not generate direct income, at least according to the networks themselves.
• With more and more shows moving to the web (Gossip Girl being the perfect example – more on that later) there is a substantial amount of revenue that is not being shared with the content creators.

If you want to know who’s supporting the WAG strike, just take a look at the Speechless Hollywood videos posted on YouTube: