Over the years, it’s practically become Golden Globes tradition to skewer the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. from the stage of its own awards show.
Hosting in 2016, Ricky Gervais called the event “worthless” and its trophies “a bit of metal that some nice old confused journalists wanted to give you in person so they could meet you and have a selfie with you.” And in 2013, co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler repeatedly confused the HFPA with the sexually transmitted infection HPV: “The HFPA can lead to cervical cancer.”
That tradition continued, albeit in a new light, during Sunday’s virtual ceremony, again emceed by Fey and Poehler.
“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made of around 90 international non-Black journalists who attend movie junkets each year in search of a better life,” said Fey in the event’s opening monologue. “We say ‘around 90' because a couple of them might be ghosts, and it’s rumored that the German member is just a sausage that somebody drew a little face on.”
Throughout the monologue, Fey also referred to the group as “European weirdos” and said they positively responded to the Pixar movie “Soul” because they “have five cat members.”
“This is probably something we should have told you guys earlier: Everybody is understandably upset at the HFPA and their choices,” Poehler later explained. “Look, a lot of flashy garbage got nominated. But that happens — that’s like their thing. But a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”
“And look, we all know that award shows are stupid,” added Fey. “The point is, even with stupid things, inclusivity is important, and there are no Black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press. I realize, HFPA, maybe you guys didn’t get the memo because your workplace is the back booth of a French McDonald’s, but you gotta change that.”
The jabs came after a Times’ investigation of the HFPA raised fresh questions about the ethics, practices and membership of the nonprofit organization, including payments of nearly $2 million to members serving on various committees, nominations for “Emily in Paris” after 30 members attended a luxe set visit in France, and the fact that the 87-person group has no Black members.
Even before the ceremony began, major Hollywood figures and organizations called for the HFPA to address its diversity shortcomings, including Times’ Up, the Directors Guild of America, directors Ava DuVernay and J.J. Abrams, writer/producer Shonda Rhimes, this year’s Carol Burnett Award recipient Norman Lear, and actors Jurnee Smollett, Kerry Washington and Ellen Pompeo, among others. The fallout continued within the HFPA itself as well.
