I cannot believe the Golden Globes are back. How did this happen? Last year, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s gift-expecting, early-access-demanding, pay-to-play approach to its awards and lack of any Black members. Everyone was outraged. Publicists threatened a massive boycott, Tom Cruise said he would return his statuary. NBC dumped the 2022 telecast.
Now, a year later, the Globes are back, announcing their nominations on live TV. And within minutes, nominated studios, producers and a few stars were dutifully expressing their gratitude.
I am not going to mention any of the nominations because they are pretty much what you would expect if, say, you had only watched the films and series that critics claimed had awards buzz.
Also because I would like to extend the blissful year in which we didn’t have to think about the Golden Globes.
When the investigation broke, I thought the Hollywood Foreign Press Association could fix itself. Then I experienced a year without the Golden Globes.
What a relief it was.
Finally an awards cycle in which the 87 members of the HFPA would not be allowed to pretend they had any more insight into what was the “best” anything than 87 people standing in line for Splash Mountain. (Possibly they had less.) Finally a year when we did not have to watch a show in which a host inevitably reminds the audience that the HFPA is a joke and everyone is only here for the free booze and then winners feel obligated to express their emotional and sincere gratitude.
Daunted but not undone by NBC’s suspension, the HFPA promised to change (which almost immediately backfired when the just-hired diversity strategist quit), announced its winners this year in a private event with blessedly little coverage and returned to the business of clawing its way back into Hollywood’s good graces through the kind of redemptive arc the industry loves to cheer.
That arc, according to president Helene Hoehne and new diversity officer Neil Phillips, is now complete. There are a bunch of new members! Who are diverse! There is stricter membership policy and a universal gifts ban! That will be enforced! Some members are still paid by the HFPA, but they do stuff like form committees and it is tough being a journalist these days!
Whatever. Having finally been called out, the emperor can put on some clothes if he wants, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he was walking around naked for years — and gaslighting everyone in the kingdom about it.
People in the entertainment industry, and the media covering it, have been complaining about the HFPA’s freeloading and shakedown tactics for years. Occasionally members were caught. In 1999, as The Times’ Stacy Perman and Josh Rottenberg reported, HFPA members were forced to return 82 Coach watches, valued at more than $400 apiece, which had been given to them by USA Films.
In 2011, the group was sued by its own publicist for accepting money and gifts in exchange for support of certain films; the HFPA countersued and the matter was settled out of court.
The Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that, prior to the absurd 2021 nomination for Netflix’s “Emily in Paris” in the best comedy category, the streamer had treated 30 HFPA members to a lavish trip to Paris. Yet rumors of similar perks prefaced virtually every nomination day. Last year, as Rottenberg and Perman reported, WarnerMedia summed up the attitude of many in a blistering letter to the HFPA: “For far too long,” WarnerMedia wrote, “demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry. We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.”
I believe in change but let’s face it: The Golden Globes was created by a tiny, random and sketchily credentialed group of people to give themselves an absurd amount of influence in Hollywood, along with a pretty hefty income stream.
Do we need even a cleaned-up, racially diverse version of that?
Every year, there is a chorus of complaint about the number of awards show. The guild awards, the various critics’ awards, the Spirit Awards, the People’s Choice Awards. How much praise, affirmation and hardware, many ask, do these Hollywood people need?
So why, having rid ourselves of one of the biggest and most superfluous ceremonies, are we bringing it back? Do not tell me it’s that we need a kick off to awards season with some sort of “Oscar indicator.” Critics’ awards would make far more sense as an opening volley (everyone loves to complain about critics) and as my colleague Glenn Whipp annually explains, with irritating accuracy, the guild awards — WGA, DGA and SAG — are the only Oscar barometers any one needs. Mostly because they are the same groups who actually vote in the Oscars!
Alas, the only real reason to bring back the Golden Globes is the reason they existed in the first place: money.
With dwindling viewership for pretty much everything, NBC doesn’t want to give up the chance to draw a largish live audience. Studios and producers don’t want to lose an opportunity, any opportunity, to promote their films and television series. Actors, writers, directors, et al, know than any nomination or win can boost their quote and/or help them get a future project off the ground.
The HFPA is counting on the monetary benefits erasing, or at least outweighing, the dubious and historically corrupt nature of the Globes. That’s how they forced Hollywood to turn a blind eye for all those years.
NBC has only renewed its airing of the Globes telecast for a year, so we’ll see. If the show has a decent audience, if the stars turn up in their finery and at least a few acceptance speeches are funny or moving, if Jerrod Carmichael keeps the evening light and the list of winners is not completely outrageous — well, people may decide that whatever change the HFPA claims to have made is enough.
If not, well, wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where we don’t have the Golden Globes to kick around anymore.
