With controversy engulfing the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and major Hollywood players backing away from the embattled organization, NBC announced Monday that it will not air the Golden Globe Awards in 2022. [...]
The decision comes as influential studios continued to back away from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., with WarnerMedia joining Netflix and Amazon Studios in cutting ties with the organization until sweeping reforms are enacted. [...]
In a letter sent Sunday to HFPA President Ali Sar, top WarnerMedia executives said the company is putting all activities with the organization on hold, suggesting that its proposed reforms — designed to address a number of issues raised in a Feb. 21 Times investigation — are inadequate both in scope and pace. [...]
In its letter to the group, WarnerMedia urged the HFPA to move more quickly to address the lack of Black members in the group, suggesting that its proposed 18-month timetable to add 50% more members will not sufficiently alter the makeup in time for the next two years’ Globes ceremonies.
“The currently planned 18-month timeline runs through the 2023 Golden Globes, which means the same voting body will be impacting the next two nomination and voting cycles,” the letter read. “The HFPA cannot accurately reflect the best of our industry until your membership expands to reflect more of the social, cultural and ethnic diversity that exists in the stories we tell and the creators with whom we work.”
Echoing criticisms from Time’s Up and a coalition of publicists that has boycotted the group, as well as blistering statements issued in recent days by A-listers Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo, WarnerMedia blasted the journalists’ association for too often neglecting Black-led projects and for its members asking what the letter called “racially insensitive, sexist and homophobic questions” in its press conferences.
In a notable admission of the role the industry has played in empowering and enabling the HFPA over the years, the letter went on, “For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry. We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.” [...]
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