Bridesmaids Still Rolling Toward the Oscars, but Who Got Snubbed by the WGA?

Star who feuded with union shut out for Ides of March; Moneyball, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo have better luck in key pre-Oscar awards show

By Joal Ryan Jan 05, 2012 8:27 PMTags
Kristin Wiig, Bridesmaids, Rooney Mara, Dragon Tattoo, Brad Pitt, Moneyball, George Clooney in Ides of MarchSony, Columbia TriStar, Universal Pictures

Bridesmaids, Moneyball, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: check.

George Clooney: check

Today's field for the 2012 Writers Guild Awards featured few surprise nominees—and one interesting question: Did Clooney cost himself a nod?

The Ides of March, the Clooney political thriller which the multihyphenate cowrote, and which will compete for scripting honors at the Golden Globes, was shut out of the Adapted Screenplay race.

In a field packed with likely Oscar nominees, led by The Descendants, which starred Clooney, but was not written by him, and Moneyball, it's plausible Ides of March came up just short, and it's tempting to wonder if a Clooney vote could've made a difference.

If, that is, Clooney had a vote.

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A few years ago, the star feuded with the WGA over a credit on his football comedy, Leatherheads. The onetime WGA Awards nominee for Good Night, and Good Luck downgraded his union membership—and, in turn, lost voting rights.

With Ides of March on the sidelines, The Help, Hugo and Dragon Tattoo secured the remaining Adapted Screenplay spots.

The Original Screenplay Race stars Kristen Wiig's Bridesmaids, cowritten with Annie Mumolo, and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

The cancer dramedy 50/50, the wrestling dramedy Win Win and the Charlize Theron dramedyYoung Adult, penned by Juno's Diablo Cody, are the WGA's other Original Screenplay picks. 

Outside of Bridesmaids and Midnight in Paris, Oscars' Original Screenplay category probably will look substantially different.

As reported by The Wrap last month, Best Picture favorite The Artist, the timely Wall Street drama Margin Call and Meryl Streep's The Iron Lady are among the films that weren't eligible for the WGA Awards because, for one thing, they may not have been written by WGA members. 

Other ineligible films, in the tradition of 2011 Oscar-winner The King's Speech: Shame, My Week With Marilyn and Beginners.

War Horse, The Tree of Life and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, on the other hand, actually were snubbed. 

The WGA announced its nods for Modern Family, 30 Rock and other TV honorees last month.

The 2012 Writers Guild Awards are set to be handed out Feb. 19.