The 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards will take place tonight at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles (to be telecast in India on Monday, January 8, 6.30 am). The Globes are the first major televised award show in what is commonly referred to as awards season, which culminates in March with the Academy Awards.
This year’s ceremony will be the first to take place after the Globes’ parent organisation, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was disbanded in response to scandals and accusations of unethical and discriminatory practices. The Golden Globes is now owned by Dick Clark Productions which also produces the American Country Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, and the dance show So You Think You Can Dance, among other entertainment properties.
The Golden Globe Awards have been a mainstay during awards season for two primary reasons. First, it is (or has been) one of a handful of award shows to be broadcast on primetime television, most recently on NBC, until this year’s ceremony moved to CBS. Second, the show is really a party where celebrities are plied with alcohol. Who wouldn’t want to watch an awards show where celebrities get drunker by the minute and might end up having a spontaneous moment on global television?
Over time, the Golden Globes brand grew to the extent that people conferred it with some kind of legitimacy in spite of the fact that its membership had no overlap with any of the various guilds or the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association was the very definition of a shadowy cabal, a group of approximately 105 international journalists that no one had ever heard of. Nevertheless, its televised status ensured that the Globes would always be a milestone on the awards circuit.
The Globes have been plagued with numerous scandals over the decades, usually revolving around the issue of nominations for bribes. In the modern era, the HFPA’s first big scandal was when the box office and critically panned Angelina Jolie — Johnny Depp movie The Tourist, nevertheless managed to be nominated for Best Picture at the Globes. Not only that, the movie was a romantic thriller, and as such should have been considered in the Drama category, but was recognised in the Comedy or Musical category after the stars personally lobbied the members. But most of these scandals were brushed off with the understanding that everyone was in on the joke. Indeed, five-time Globe host Ricky Gervais took many swipes at the HFPA right on the Globes stage saying the quiet part out loud - that the awards were just an excuse for the membership to take selfies with celebrities.
In 2018, actor Brendan Fraser accused the HFPA President of sexual harassment at an event in 2003. After an internal investigation, the organisation declared that while the contact was inappropriate, it was meant as a joke and not as a sexual advance. As a result of this bizarre non-apology, Fraser refused to attend the 2023 ceremony in spite of being nominated for Best Actor in a Drama for his performance in The Whale.
In 2021, a bombshell investigation by the Los Angeles Times revealed that the HFPA had no Black members. The investigation also revealed irregularities in the HFPA’s financial records, jeopardising its status as a tax-exempt non-profit organization. This time, it was harder to sweep these allegations under the rug. Studios like Netflix, Amazon, and Warnermedia refused to campaign for the Globes unless sweeping reforms were instituted. Broadcast partner NBC refused to televise the awards, and Tom Cruise returned the three Golden Globes he had won for his various movies.
The other shoe had finally dropped for the HFPA. The lack of a telecast hit them where it hurt - their bottomline. They scrambled to institute new reforms and transparent membership procedures, but it was too little too late. The 2022 ceremony was held as a private, closed-door affair with just the HFPA in attendance. Eventually in June 2023, the HFPA announced that it was shutting down and selling the Golden Globe assets to Dick Clark Productions.
The Globes leadership recently announced that the 2024 ceremony will not include either of the lifetime achievement awards - the Cecil B. DeMille Award (for achievement in film) or the Carol Burnett Award (for achievement in television). Presumably, this is because everyone they approached for the ‘honor’ refused to step on their stage.
There does seem to be some concerted effort at change from the new leadership. The Globes have announced the end of the Golden Globe Ambassador initiative, a thinly veiled excuse for nepotism, where the daughter (or sometimes, son) of a famous star would hand out trophies and escort winners and presenters off the stage. And the voting body is now 300-strong, but it’s still unclear who these members are.
It might just be a case of ‘meet the new Golden Globes, same as the old Golden Globes’. Let’s find out tonight.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
