Golden Globes Are Sold and Hollywood Foreign Press Is No More

Published: June 12, 2023

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a gaggle of leisure journalists from abroad that, regardless of frequent missteps, constructed the Golden Globe Awards right into a marquee occasion, died on Monday after a collection of scandals. It was 80.

The finish of the embattled H.F.P.A. was introduced after California officers agreed to a sophisticated reorganization plan that can enable the Golden Globe Awards to proceed.

Eldridge Industries, a holding firm owned by the billionaire investor Todd Boehly, and Dick Clark Productions, which is a part of Penske Media, agreed to purchase the international press affiliation’s Golden Globe property for an undisclosed value. The proceeds will go to a brand new nonprofit, the Golden Globe Foundation, which is able to proceed the H.F.P.A.’s philanthropic efforts; it gave greater than $50 million to entertainment-related charities over the past three a long time.

Members of the international press affiliation — primarily freelance leisure journalists — will develop into workers of a yet-to-be-named for-profit entity that can attempt to broaden the Golden Globes as a model, in line with an Eldridge spokesman. The former members (there are fewer than 100) will earn $75,000 yearly for 5 years, with duties that embrace watching movies and tv reveals and voting for the awards; and producing promotional supplies, together with writing articles for a Golden Globes web site. It was unclear if the members might proceed freelancing (largely movie star interviews) for publications abroad.

The Los Angeles Times found in 2021 that the H.F.P.A. had no Black members, setting off an outcry within the leisure business that resulted in NBC canceling the 2022 Globes telecast. The ceremony returned to NBC in January below a one-year settlement. Eldridge and Dick Clark Productions, which has produced the Globes telecast for many years, have since been in search of a brand new broadcast community or streaming service companion.

The 81st Golden Globe Awards ceremony has been scheduled for Jan. 7.

In an announcement, Mr. Boehly referred to as the dissolution of the H.F.P.A. a “significant milestone in the evolution of the Golden Globes.” He thanked the affiliation’s former president, Helen Hoehne, for serving to push by means of reforms, together with “a robust approach to governance” that had helped professionalize an awards entity lengthy identified for infighting and scandal.

“We have a great team in place to grow this iconic brand,” Jay Penske, the chief government of Penske Media, stated in an announcement.

The international press affiliation had lengthy been considered as unserious and slippery. In the late Sixties, the Federal Communications Commission had the Globes briefly booted from the airwaves, saying it “misled the public as to how the winners were determined.” In the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, Harvey Weinstein, the since-imprisoned Miramax co-founder, manipulated the group in methods large and small — costly items and particular entry to stars and his personal time, at a second when different studio chiefs might barely disguise their derision. He was usually rewarded with a surprising variety of nominations.

Hollywood stopped turning a blind eye to the group’s failings in 2021, after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in 2020 prompted a nationwide dialog about racism and inequity. More than 100 publicists closed ranks, refusing to make stars obtainable for Golden Globe appearances and contributing to NBC’s cancellation of the 2022 telecast.

Source web site: www.nytimes.com