In 2023, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was declared dead. The organization, which oversaw the annual Golden Globes awards, was sold to a joint venture after a series of scandals led to the cancellation of its 2022 telecast.
But the association never really went away, because the deal has not been officially approved by California’s attorney general. In a startling change of events, members of the semi-disbanded association, around 77 foreign journalists, are trying to take matters into their own hands, wrest back oversight of the awards show and reinvigorate their charitable foundation.
The journalists, who still vote annually for the awards show but are not involved in the for-profit company that runs the splashy telecast, voted on Monday to formally reconstitute their association and open a full investigation into the sale. That vote was reported earlier by The Ankler, a site that covers the industry. The group also voted to investigate the two-year-old sale.
The Golden Globes are now run by Penske Media Eldridge, which is owned by Jay Penske and Todd Boehly. Mr. Penske owns the majority of the Hollywood trade papers and the SXSW film festival. Mr. Boehle, an investor in Penske Media, is also the chairman and a co-owner of Chelsea F.C., a British soccer team, and a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Sparks and other sports teams. On Thursday, the press association voted to remove Helen Hoehne, its president and director. She is also the president of the new, for-profit Golden Globes.
In a statement, members of the association said executives involved in the sale had engaged in “deeply troubling” conflicts of interest, misled members of the organization, blocked competing offers and silenced those members with nondisclosure agreements.
“The public is only hearing their version, not the full truth,” the statement said.
Penske Media Eldridge declined to comment. The office of the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, did not respond to requests to comment.
After the press association moved this week to reconstitute itself, two members of the group’s external board, Joanna Massey and Jeff Harris, resigned.
Ms. Massey criticized the association’s moves in her letter of resignation, which was obtained by The New York Times. “Questioning the deal, reviving the H.F.P.A. and reinstating memberships — is, in my view, fundamentally flawed and legally without merit,” she wrote.
She added: “It is clear that exploration is not the goal and reversing the deal is.”
Mr. Penske and Mr. Boehly took over the Golden Globes, an 80-year-old organization, after press reports uncovered that its small but powerful membership had engaged in financial self-dealing. The group was also criticized for a lack of diversity.
An industrywide outcry led NBC to cancel the 2022 Globes telecast. In 2023, NBC signed a one-year deal with Penske to air the telecast. In 2024, CBS agreed to a five-year broadcast deal.
Many members of the press association voted to become employees of the new company at the time the deal with Mr. Penske and Mr. Boehly was announced, and agreed to accept either an annual salary of $75,000 or a $250,000 buyout. The members say they were also promised lifetime voting rights.
As part of the rehabilitation of the show, the Globes expanded its voting pool to 300 people, most of whom participate without compensation. Many of the original members were grandfathered in as part of the original sale.
California gave the deal preliminary approval. But final approval is required because the deal turns a nonprofit organization into a for-profit concern. Members of the press association have filed complaints about the deal to the attorney general, arguing that the orchestrators of the deal operated improperly.
In February, the Golden Globes told the members who had chosen $75,000 salaries that it would no longer honor those salaries because “continuing to pay members could add to a perception of bias in voting.” Instead, the company offered a $102,500 severance and the opportunity to vote in the 2026 Golden Globes. Going forward, though, the members would need to reapply to vote, and prove that they are still working journalists.
Mediation between those members and Penske Media Eldridge over the severance is ongoing.
Nicole Sperling covers Hollywood and the streaming industry. She has been a reporter for more than two decades.
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