Wide Shot: Does the Golden Globes group want to change? - Los Angeles Times
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Wide Shot: Does the Golden Globes group want to change?

A Golden Globe award in front of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sign.
(Photo illustration by Claire Reid / Los Angeles Times; Valerie Macon / Getty Images)
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It’s hard to change an organization when a substantial portion of its membership doesn’t really want to change or doesn’t see a fundamental need to do so.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the 85-member collective that votes on the Golden Globes, has said it wants to transform itself and has promised to do so after renewed focus on its alleged self-dealing and ethical lapses.

But it’s clear from the reporting of my colleague Stacy Perman that the sentiment is much less widely held within the organization than its leaders would want viewers, celebrities, and the once Globes-friendly studios and TV networks to believe.

Perman last week detailed a heated video meeting between HFPA members and a contingent of publicists that is withholding access to celebrity clients until the Golden Globes group gets its house in order.

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One HFPA member on the call pushed back on demands for greater diversity by saying in one breath, “We want to change,” but in others uttering phrases like, “We’ve got Muslims and Jews and Catholics, etc.” and “Let’s not be overly woke.” Not a great sign.

Critics of the organization tweeted about the meeting with sometimes amused bewilderment, highlighting specific examples of internal chaos.

The Black List founder Franklin Leonard tweeted about Perman’s piece with a thread of reactions, starting with this: “Three paragraphs into this article and we’ve already got a member of the HFPA emotionally quoting (and likely misusing) [writer Baratunde Thurston] about the healing power of love during a Zoom meeting with publicists. Lord, grant me strength as I continue.”

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Ava DuVernay compared the meeting to a prestige TV series. “Mare of Easttown? Lovecraft Country? Queen’s Gambit? If you thought those shows brought drama, this roller coaster of an article about the HFPA’s internal chaos, infighting and general cluelessness takes the cake,” she wrote. “Spiraling out of control to keep control.”

Adding “Succession” to DuVernay’s list may be too on the nose.

This all comes as the group is supposed to be voting on a new slate of bylaws that promises “transformational change.” The vote follows months of infighting and external pressure stemming from the Los Angeles Times’ investigation that brought to light allegations of financial and ethical lapses and pointed out that not one of the HFPA’s then-87 members was Black.

Internal tensions have increasingly spilled into the public sphere, as with the blaze-of-glory exit of two members last month who described the nonprofit’s attempts at reform as “window dressing.”

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A longtime member, Yenny Nun, has written to lawyers at Ropes & Gray and others, saying that certain bylaw changes withdrawing the rights of “elderly” members “will be considered Discrimination, Racism and Xenophobia” and open the group up to “a Class Action Suit.”

She’s tweeted much of the same and told The Times that “The Twitters speak for themselves,” a line that Thurston suggested should be put on “all the merch.” I too want “The Golden Globes: The Twitters speak for themselves” coffee mug.

an upside down Golden Globes statue
(Photo illustration by Nicole Vas / Los Angeles Times; Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The internal strife and resistance among some members explains why a prominent outsider is coming in with his own proposal.

Todd Boehly, who chairs the parent company of longtime Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions, is trying to get the HFPA back into Hollywood’s good graces with an elaborate reform plan that would, through a spin-off, create a for-profit Golden Globes company “in partnership” with Boehly’s holding company, Eldridge Industries.

This is baldly an attempt by Eldridge to protect other investments in its portfolio, such as Dick Clark Productions, which relies on the revenue the Globes generate. Such an arrangement would also give Eldridge a more direct business relationship with the awards body than it currently has and allow it to potentially expand the Globes’ business.

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Eldridge’s holdings also include film and TV studio MRC and trade publication the Hollywood Reporter, which, like all who cover awards season (including The Times), benefits from a healthy industry of red carpet events, star-studded photo shoots and for-your-consideration ads.

It’s not at all clear that the plan will be accepted by the HFPA’s membership, nor is it obvious how exactly it will work if it is implemented.

Will the Globes members, particularly the longtime participants who have enjoyed the perks and access of the organization for decades, be willing to cede any control and influence to an outside investor? Another question is whether the industry — meaning stars, studios and publicists — will embrace a separate Globes body rejiggered in the way Boehly has proposed.

Under the Eldridge plan, the new entity would be governed by a 15-member board. It would implement new criteria and requirements for membership into the HFPA. Additionally, the HFPA would add 50 journalist voters, with a focus on diversity.

If the proposed deal revives and expands the Globes, it could preserve and increase the value of the enterprise itself, along with Dick Clark Productions.

But it may not be a long-term solution. Eldridge is a private investment company and would eventually seek an exit to generate a return. Eldridge already tried to sell Dick Clark Productions to China’s Dalian Wanda Group for $1 billion a few years ago when inflated China-Hollywood deals were all the rage. That proposed sale collapsed in 2017. Dick Clark Productions is now part of the “live and alternative” division of MRC.

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It was never going to be easy to overhaul the HFPA. Its ethical quirks were less of an open secret than a running gag for the likes of Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey. HFPA has to decide whether it will change from within or with outside help. If it does neither, it risks collapse.

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Parting shot...

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Because it’s on Spotify, the podcast features full tracks spanning the bands’ careers, giving “Bandsplain” the feel of an “essentials” playlist and master class simultaneously. For a good intro, listen to The Times’ Suzy Exposito rock out to Deftones.

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