Awards season is coming, and there are some issues and news.
First the Screen Actors Guild awards — known as the SAG Awards — are rebranding for absolutely no reason.
Now they’re going to be called The Actors Awards. Go figure. Jobeth Williams, head of SAG right now, says this is to match their statue. Makes no sense, but no one asked anyone.
Second, the Golden Globes. Even with the Hollywood Foreign Press gone, the Globes look for trouble. Both Puck and The Ankler newsletters are hot on their trail for adding a category called Best Podcast.
According to the reports, amplified today in Page Six, Penske Media is selecting nominees for this category based on popularity numbers from their own rankings. So it’s not independent. On top of that, the reports say that the nominees are encouraged to advertise in Penske publications to Golden Globes voters.
The Globes and Luminate are owned by Penske, as are Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline.
CBS is the Globes network now. They were years ago until CBS kicked them out for shenanigans with grift and swag. For decades after, the Globes were on NBC, until they ousted them for not having Black members and also financial mismanagement.
Now CBS is owned the Ellisons, so their standards might be lower. But the real CBS might have questioned this latest ripple. According to the reports, Penske has been heavily courting podcasters like Joe Rogan and Megyn Kelly so they will bring their conservative followers to the show. Imagine a room of Hollywood liberal heavyweights cheek by jowl with those types. LOL.
Page Six is also complaining that they’ve been cut out of press coverage of the Globes which now favor the Penske publications. I’ve already been told unofficially that I can’t cover them either. For years during the Hollywood Foreign Press Association run, only HFPA photographers could take pictures. The whole idea of the regime change was to open up the Globes and make them democratic. Now it seems it’s worse than ever.
Disappointing to say the least.
Anyway, the Critics Choice Awards are Sunday, January 4th on the CW Network.
