What happened to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and who owns the Golden Globes now?

The Golden Globes have been a staple of the Hollywood awards season since their inception in the 1940s; as has the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a nonprofit group of journalists and photographers who report on American entertainment for foreign media outlets and hold the ceremony each year.

The Globes have long held a reputation for being more relaxed than the stuffy Oscars. Stars drink at their tables the entire night, TV and film people get to rub shoulders, and somehow Ricky Gervais seems to always be hosting. And as the Brit gets progressively drunker, his bits get progressively meaner, until Robert Downey Jr. just can’t take it anymore:

It’s always been a mess of an awards show, but it’s been our mess. Well, technically, it’s been the HFPA’s mess — until today. Per USA Today, Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries have announced that they are taking over the ceremony and will henceforth oversee planning, hosting, and producing duties once they reach a new agreement to broadcast the awards. Why the sudden takeover? Because the Globes have developed a new reputation in recent years: for having corrupt membership and being woefully short on diversity.

In early 2021, news broke there wasn’t a single Black person among the HFPA’s 87 voting journalists. The same year, the HFPA drew more ire for ignoring critically acclaimed projects by artists of color, despite showing support for artists of fake color by nominating Borat 2.

Scarlett Johansson complained, Tom Cruise returned his trophies in protest, and studios and publicists threatened to boycott the HFPA. NBC decided not to air the 2022 Globes as a result, but the ceremony continued anyway without an audience or any nominees. America learned of the winners via social media updates. It was embarrassing and weird.

Then, Brendan Fraser skipped the 2023 ceremony despite being nominated for The Whale, following his accusations that the group’s former president Philip Berk groped him at an HFPA luncheon in 2003. Berk was kicked out of the HFPA in 2021 after tweeting that Black Lives Matter is a “hate movement.” So you can see why the ceremony needs a bit of glow-up these days.

As for the HFPA, Deadline reports that the group will be dissolved, with Eldridge planning to create a private entity to manage the Golden Globes assets and a separate nonprofit to preserve the HFPA’s previous charitable and philanthropic programs.

So ends the era where drunken actors hobbled on stage and slurred, “I’d like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press.” We offer a toast to the problematic cabal, and hope its members cast off into the gray at some point find themselves willing to watch films made by and about people of color.

The next Golden Globes, brought to you by the folks behind New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and So You Think You Can Dance, is tentatively scheduled for January 7, 2024.