Rushfield: Invasion of the Globey Snatchers
Penske's giant squid strangles the HFPA in a swirl of for-profit fast-talking mumbo jumbo
Okay, so the absurdity of the Globes news seemed so self-evident, that I was tempted to let it go with just a good hard rolling of the eyes. But the more the announcement sank in, the harder it was to walk on by, and the more it sunk in that what's happened to the Golden Globes, and the sad road that got us here, is the perfect encapsulation of Hollywood priorities today.Â
So let's dive in.
I'm not one to get all persnickety about the sanctity of our ancient consecrated awards bodies. The notion that Zeus came down from Mount Olympus and bestowed all awards powers on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television, and that those bodies operate from the heights of impartial purity — awarding only those projects and people worthy of the appellation "best" — is belied by... the list of winners of those awards, which only rarely, coincidentally overlap with the actual "best" anything of any given year.
Any two people who can afford a banquet hall and a tin foil trophy have as much right to hand out awards as a bunch of people who were inducted because they were associate producers of Chocolat 23 years ago. And if they have half an ounce of taste, they'll probably make better choices than the Academy in any given year.
So it was with the Globes. What right did the non-profit Hollywood Foreign Press Association have to bestow awards? The right of any citizen (or green card holder) of our republic to pick their favorite whatever any given year. And as noted above, whatever their accreditation, you can't say they made worse picks than the Academy's…
…Which brings us, after that long wind-up, to yesterday. It was announced that the HFPA would terminate itself and the Golden Globes would become the fully owned for-profit possession…
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