The Golden Globes: an award show long embraced by Hollywood dedicated to recognizing some of the best movies and television shows that debuted that year. So, why has NBC decided not air them this year?
The cancellation of this show was prompted by a large boycott of key members in the entertainment industry, but executives had been considering this for a while. This began with an expose published by the Los Angeles Times in February where they described the association’s wrongdoings, which highlighted the total exclusion of black members within it.
Due to these discoveries, many people started calling for lasting change and over 100 Hollywood publicity firms signed an open letter with suggested reforms. The organization “Times Up” even joined in and called for reforms of their own.
Some notable celebrities added to the number of voices speaking out against the Golden Globes and the HFPA, including both Scarlett Johannsson and Tom Cruise. Johannsson urged fellow peers to “step back from the HFPA” and Cruise returned his golden statuettes to protest.
The news of this controversy reached a greater population, such as PV senior Lily Barrett, once celebrities joined in. “I only heard about this controversy after Tom Cruise returned his awards,” she said. “This truly goes to show the influence celebrities have on the industry when they speak their mind.”
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is a non-profit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry activity. Consisting of 90 members from all over the world, they are the group responsible for conducting the annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony in Los Angeles every January.
Earlier this month and before the cancellation, the HFPA announced sweeping reforms that would address diversity concerns. Although this message was appreciated, many still felt it was too little too late. Many publicists have mentioned this rise against the HFPA to be inevitable as they have disliked and only tolerated the organization for some time.
Countless people within the industry had long-held grudges against the HFPA, so when given the opportunity to publicly call out the organization, a lightning brigade of publicists came together to take advantage of the chance.
Senior Maddie Smithers holds a similar perspective as she believes change within the organization is needed promptly. “Seeing this happen so frequently in the media is frustrating,” she divulged. “Something clearly needs to be done.”
The Golden Globes are not the first of award shows to deal with diversity issues. Both the Oscars and Grammys have been criticized in the past for similar reasons. Famously, artist Tyler the Creator called out the Grammys for not properly categorizing albums and putting albums created by black artists in the “urban” category with no rhyme or reason behind it.
Smithers remembers watching this unfold. “Tyler, the Creator is an artist that I follow closely, so when he called out the Grammys it made me look at nominations more closely than before. This ultimately made me realize how weird the urban category is and revealed the lack of diversity throughout the entire show.”
Although this controversy has largely been described as an issue with nominees, many feel as though the root of the problems lie within the institutions themselves.
For a large number of people, the Golden Globes cancellation was the long-awaited response to the amounting criticism of the HFPA. However, many do not think this is enough and expect serious internal change to truly solve the issues that lie deep below the surface.
