Los Angeles: Academy Awards organizers insisted their show will go on, though some say the Oscar broadcast could evaporate after the writers strike shut down the Golden Globes ceremony.

Without special agreements with the Writers Guild of America, awards planners cannot hire union members to work on their shows, and such major telecasts would be the target of pickets.

With the Screen Actors Guild in lockstep with writers, nominees and other celebrities would have stayed away from Sunday's Globes. The same prospect now hangs over the Oscars.

"No matter what anybody says, if the WGA goes on strike and SAG is in support, then there s no Oscar show. It s as simple as that," said Harvey Weinstein yesterday, whose former company Miramax was a frequent Oscar winner and who now runs the Weinstein Co.

He said it is more likely the guild ultimately would agree to let its writers work on the Oscars.

But Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West, said the union would turn down any request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its members to work on the Oscars.

Gil Cates, producer of the Oscar broadcast, said the academy will put on its Oscar show February 24 as planned - with or without the writers.

"We are going to do it," Cates said. "I can t elaborate on how we're going to do it, because I don t want anybody to deal with the elaboration in a way that might impact its success."

Source : PTI