Well, the Golden Globes are back on Tuesday night next week.
They were yanked from NBC last year when it was discovered that the Hollywood Foreign Press, already considered a joke by 200 publicists, had no Black members.
The group resisted any change for a long time even as their gravy train was threatened with extinction. So they added 103 voters, not members, just 103 people who could vote ballots but have no rights, get no money from the big pot, not even a gift bag.
I’ve been touch with several of those new voters. Of the 103, about 12 are actually Black. The rest are from Europe or South America. You may call them people of color in today’s lingo, but not actually Black.
Of that group, they are in agreement: they’ve had little contact with the HFPA in Los Angeles, and are not coming to the show on Tuesday. They have no way of getting there and the HFPA offered them nothing. The HFPA could afford to fly them all in, folks. On their 2020 Form 990 for the IRS they claimed $72 million in assets. That’s Seventy Two Million Dollars.
Not all the new voters are journalists. One of them, in Ghana, writes about art for artNews, and a little bit about music. I can find no credits for articles about movies or TV. Nada. One is an Italian actor and presenter who says he works the red carpet at Cannes. One describes himself as “an analytical guy who loves cinema and rock music…I’m shy but confident, a dreamer but realistic.” Is this a dating site?
So don’t expect much in the way of change on Tuesday night. It will be interesting to see if any of the 103 new voters has any impact on the outcome, or if the Globes winners will follow past trends. Don’t forget, even with all the new voters the group was unable nominate Danielle Deadwyler of “Till” for Best Actress.
