First of all, this now marks the fourth straight issue that I’m writing about something in the awards sector after swearing that I’m not going to write about the awards sector again for a long long time. So in a big macro sense, I’m the problem here.
Or I’m a symptom of the problem: an industry that obsesses over its ceremonial bodies while its fundamentals crumble is not what you’d generally define as “Playing to Win.”
Globesghazi is one of those great Hollywood moments where everyone involved is terrible and everyone comes out diminished, smaller, and more glaringly craven. It’s one of those things where, when you take it seriously, you’re being really serious talking about The Golden Globes. You might start out with a real point that needs making about the slow pace of change in our industry, but before too long, you’re the color commentator at the midnight Jell-O wrestling match moaning about the sport losing its integrity.
Start taking it too seriously and you find yourself with a straight face saying things like this solemn vow, offered by Mark Ruffalo: “As a recent winner of a Golden Globe, I cannot feel proud or happy about being a recipient of this award.”
Beginning with the now historic LAT expose, there seems to be some confusion about what the HFPA is, a confusion happily seized on this week by people with other issues. The conversations about this begins from a general misperception that the HFPA is some sort of charity organization, like Medicines San Frontiers, and bound to some higher calling than mere profit and free buffets.
Just to clarify, before we dive into the timeline, this is a bunch of industry hangers-on who put on a formerly boozy—and until recently—highly-rated TV show each year handing out prizes to movie stars. I bow before no one in the genre of HFPA mockery, a fount from which this newsletter has drunk deeply in the past.
They are a public organization, operating in the public space, so as such they are obliged to conduct themselves with some very basic corporate ethics and standards of behavior, including at this point, a genuine commitment to diversity, as is any public entity.
On those diversity expectations, the HFPA fell not just short, but laughably short. And that they need to change.
As for the corruption of people of the awards trail gravy train, maybe, for all I know, the HFPA are the very worst offenders. But in terms of who is living a very very nice life on The Circuit, starting with the members of the media whose entire lifestyle is subsidized by FYC . . . I’d just say, folks oughta have a little bit of self-awareness on this front. More on that below.
But there is this tone in much of the conversation about this of just disbelief that a noble, pure, purveyor of film and TV prizes is behaving like some kind of . . . Hollywood television producer.
So here we are. On the brink of shutting down one of our Great Historic Awards Shows. On the one hand: Who needs ’em? The fewer, the merrier. On the other hand: This is really where we’ve come? There was no way to deal with the problems of the HPFA beyond shuttering up the entire place, breaking up the crowd, sending everyone home, and sealing off the very ground, Chernobyl-like, unto the 14th generation?
Who Killed the Golden Globes? It’s like a cheap murder mystery, in the small town where everyone had a motive.
So let’s take a little look at how we got here and what else did the many players who were eager to jump on this in the parade have at stake here?
• The Article. The Fall Out. Back in February, the LAT published an extensive piece: “Members accuse Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. of self-dealing, ethical lapses.” The article was a bit of a grab bag of charges and the headlined self-dealing, ethical lapses were largely, quickly brushed under the rug after the requisite harrumphs, it not being in anyone’s particular interest to poke too much into what happens on the junket trail and buffet circuit.
But what did leap out from the story was the revelation that the group had, at this late date in history, exactly zero Black members among their ranks of approximately 90 people. Zero is a very small number, and it is hardly believable that after so much turmoil in their midst, they hadn’t budged at all.
The outrage on that point was predictably and deservedly ferocious, and the show that aired a few weeks later was a painful exercise in groveling self-self-abasement.
This has been a sneak peek at today’s special edition of The Ankler, the industry’s secret newsletter. To read the rest of this special coverage of Globes-Gate fallout, subscribe today for just $10 a month and don’t miss out on who’s in the hot seat next!
The Ankler’s Got People Talking!!
If you are interested in advertising on the Ankler: write us at anklerads@gmail.com for rates and info.
Can’t afford The Ankler right now? If you’re an assistant, student, or getting your foot in the door of this industry, and want help navigating the craziness of this business but don’t have the money to spare right now, drop me a line at richard@theankler.com and we’ll work it out. No mogul or mogul-to-be left behind here at The Ankler.
Enjoy this issue? Why not click on the little heart below so it can surfaced to others in the Substack universe. Or better still – share it with the world!
