Last night, we watched what might be the weirdest Golden Globes ceremony of all time. Not only because of the Zoom-iness of everything (so many technical difficulties!) but also because the show featured the hosts, presenters, and winners openly commenting on the lack of diversity and inclusivity in the 87-person membership of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This was all compounded by the fact that three members stood on stage and openly apologized for the lack of diversity in its membership and pledged to do better. Oh yeah, and then there’s the report of corruption and money behind-the-scenes (via LA Times) that led to folks being a bit concerned about the fairness of the Globes.
It would appear, based on the telecast, that the HFPA is hoping to change. Well, there’s at least one member that thinks these controversies are blown out of proportion. Speaking to Sky News, Husam Asi, a BBC Cinematic presenter and member of the HFPA (which doesn’t publicly list its entire membership), spoke about the controversy and isn’t so convinced that the motives behind the outrage are pure.
The HFPA members said the claims were unfounded and “mostly stem from jealously” among journalists. He feels that journalists are upset that they don’t get the same treatment as the HFPA and invited to the same events, thus are falsely outraged.
One of the specific accusations that he fought back against is the accusation that the HFPA is swayed by studios that wine and dine the members and spend money to bring them to exotic locales and grant them access to stars and filmmakers. While he doesn’t deny that sort of treatment, Asi said, “I personally was never affected by those.”
While the recent report from the Los Angeles Times shed some much-needed light on the apparent issues going on behind-the-scenes at the HFPA and Golden Globes, it’s unclear if any of these controversies will cause major damage to the awards ceremony. For those that follow awards season, the Globes have always been looked at as a weird outlier, with its mysterious, small membership, that would go and nominate something strange like “Music” this year. So, for those that probably follow this sort of thing, the damage done isn’t going to shock people. And unless the ratings tank for NBC, it’s unlikely the Globes will get hurt in a major way.
But the good news is the stink from the hosts, presenters, and winners about the diversity issue will hopefully cause change. And perhaps the other controversies will force the HFPA to be more transparent in the future. We’ll just have to wait and see.
