With Sunday’s Golden Globe ceremony quickly approaching, preparations for the annual show would normally be at their peak. The stars would be preparing for dresses and tuxedos and practicing their catchphrases on the red carpet, while Hollywood would be swarming with questions about who will take the awards home.
Instead, with the pandemic forcing the 78th Golden Globe to be held virtually, the brilliance and glamor of the famous loose, star-studded show will be dampened. And in the wake of a Times investigation that raised new questions about the 87 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., Which distributes the awards, some believe that the Globes’ own future may be in danger if the organization does not undertake reforms.
Although the HFPA has worked to polish its image in recent years, largely through increased charitable donations, the Times report revealed that the group is still struggling to shake its reputation that voters are easily influenced by expensive promotions. in exotic locations and cozy relationships with studios, networks and A-listers.
Even as the HFPA rejected the allegations made in an antitrust case by Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa, some of the group’s own members raised growing criticism about their alleged ethical lapses and self-control. The HFPA said the allegations are unproven and “simply repeat old troops” about the organization. (Flaa’s lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in November. An amended motion is pending.)
The Times investigation also highlighted the fact that the group currently has no black members, further fueling criticism of this year’s choices at Globes, which did not include any of the black-led award candidates, such as “Da 5 Bloods”, “Ma Black Bottom by Rainey”, “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “One Night in Miami”, in the nominations for the group’s best film award.
In a statement to the Times on Thursday, an HFPA representative said: “We are fully committed to ensuring that our members reflect the communities around the world who love film, TV and the artists who inspire and educate them. We understand that we need to bring in black members, as well as members from other underrepresented backgrounds, and we will work immediately to implement an action plan to achieve these goals as soon as possible. “
The absence of any black member in a group voting for one of the industry’s most visible awards has attracted widespread attention on social media and elsewhere.
Director Ava DuVernay, nominated for a Golden Globe for “Selma”, led the Twitter in response to a headline from the Hollywood Reporter that read “LA Times reveals that HFPA has zero black members”, writing, “Reveal? Like, are people acting like that not widely known yet? For years?”
One Night in Miami director Regina King, who this year became the first black woman since DuVernay to receive a Globes directional nod, responded with a gif of rapper Drake pointing and smiling.
An HFPA representative said the group welcomes all journalists from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds in Southern California who write for the international media to subscribe, noting that the majority of members are female and that more 35% are from non-European countries. In addition, HFPA has not ruled out changing its rules to expand the candidate pool.
In 2013, HFPA rejected a black candidate, the British Samantha Ofole-Prince, a decision that was the subject of some controversy within the group, according to the Wrap. In an interview shortly after, then-HFPA president Theo Kingma was asked about the lack of black members in the group, telling Wrap: “There is no one [Black] because they have no money to live here. I have been a member for 21 years and I can promise that I never heard anything about racism ”.
In an interview on Thursday, Kingma said he was working to address the absence of black members in the electoral body. “It is something that we must look at seriously; times have changed, but unfortunately our status does not change so quickly, ”he said, noting that two-thirds of the members are needed to approve the changes.
Regarding Ofole-Prince, Kingma said: “Unfortunately, she did not fulfill the [bylaws] requirements. … Her publications paid less than European ones, and she couldn’t make a living here, which was all the more reason to accept her. Access to HFPA would have really helped. “
It is unclear to what extent the renewed criticism will affect the broadcast. A source close to the program said Thursday’s cohosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would finish their monologue in the next few days, but offered no details.
The program, which airs on NBC, is expected to highlight HFPA’s charitable work, which included more than $ 5 million in donations last year. The non-profit organization to fight hunger, Feeding America, is a “philanthropic partner” in this year’s program, and several frontline and essential employees, as well as food bank employees, were invited by HFPA to attend the ceremony. .
A NBCUniversal representative, who paid HFPA $ 27.4 million in licensing fees last year, declined to comment on the story, as did Dick Clark Productions, who has partnered with HFPA in producing the program.
An NBCUniversal person familiar with the matter, but not authorized to comment publicly, said the network supports HFPA’s plan of action on diversity. The person also said that NBCUniversal expects any programming vendor to conduct itself with integrity and act within the law and that the company has no reason to believe that HFPA has acted illegally or unethically in any way.
Meanwhile, a number of Hollywood insiders have also made their own criticisms.
In response to a tweet about the investigation by film journalist Mark Harris, producer Lynda Obst, whose credits include films like “Interstellar” and programs like “Good Girls Revolt”, wrote on Sunday that the Globes were “a scam supported by marketing departments from studios and now streamers. ”
Obst followed me hours later, tweeting, with a smiley face upside down and laughing emojis: “I want to make it very clear that, as a producer, I love the Golden Globe and that HFPA is full of friends of mine from all over the world , whom I love and intend to continue drinking and eating as I did for decades for eternity! “
Television showrunner Glen Mazzara, whose credits include “The Shield” and “The Walking Dead,” wrote on Twitter after the investigation: “If Hollywood really wants changes as they say they want, everyone would just boycott this year’s program. Instead, I suspect it will be business as usual, with people using their acceptance speeches as podiums. We love to pontificate, right? “
Variety’s chief editor, Claudia Eller, wrote an article, writing that, in light of the Times’ stories, HFPA needs to make changes to address long-standing concerns about its ethics and practices. “I just hope that, as millions of us watch Sunday’s show, the organization responsible for distributing the honors is busy planning to make all the substantial changes necessary to really clean up their show – as it promised to do for many years to come,” he wrote. Eller.
In the days following the publication of their stories, the Times received a series of emails from people working within the industry who shared their own obscure views of HFPA. A longtime publicist – who has been with the group for decades and who like others, he refused to be identified for fear of reprisals – he called the members of the group “overly demanding and pampered children”, adding: “I still wonder why the studios placate this group whose prize is meaningless.” Another veteran publicist, a member of the film and television academies, wrote: “I hope this buries them and their meaningless prizes.”
Many of the criticisms of HFPA’s ethics and practices have been known for a long time, and the group’s taunts were launched directly from the stage of its own broadcast. As host of the 2016 awards, Ricky Gervais considered the Globes “useless”, reasoning that this amounts to little more than an excuse for HFPA members to take selfies with stars. In a tribute to the organization’s somewhat somber nature, Fey and Poehler became involved in a common joke during their hosting in 2013, in which they mistook HFPA for the sexually transmitted infection HPV. “HFPA can lead to cervical cancer,” said Poehler, unmoved.
Despite the renewed controversy surrounding the HFPA, which follows a long history of scandals the group has faced, the Globes continue to play a critical role in the awards season, and millions of dollars are devoted by the studios every year trying to leverage the awards as a marketing tool for aspiring Oscars. As a longtime advertiser put it: “Whether in movies or on TV, it is really difficult to have sophisticated adult food without prizes. You need everything you can. “
In fact, while some believe that continued negative attention will further damage the HFPA, unless reforms are carried out, there is a powerful financial incentive in Hollywood to protect the Globes, continuing to pass the show as fun and without major consequences, even that represents something serious business in which millions of dollars are invested annually.
Asked whether the findings of the Times investigation could turn into a snowball in a major public relations crisis for HFPA – and, by extension, NBC and all other Hollywood entities participating in the Globe – an experienced veteran of public relations said: “It could, but they are an anomaly when it comes to their scandals and bad behavior. They’re called, but then everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s HFPA, so it’s no surprise.’ ”
However, this source concluded: “Your stock is sinking.”
Times editors Stephen Battaglio, Stacy Perman and Glenn Whipp contributed to this report.