During the whole week preceding the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the HFPA’s “lack of diversity” within its membership was fiercely exposed. This smearing campaign started after Feb. 21, 2021, L.A. Times article by Josh Rottenberg and Stacy Perman, achieved its goals in full. In their opening coast-to-coast “monologues”, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler both addressed this controversy: “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made up of around ninety international non-black journalists” said Fey, and “Everybody is understandably upset at the HFPA and their choices. 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,” endorsed Poehler.
HFPA all-White chooses Chadwick Boseman as the Best Actor for Drama
[source: imdb.com]
I have a feeling that the hornet’s nest was stirred by Spike Lee‘s supporters because his Da 5 Bloods wasn’t even considered for any major category this year. Delroy Lindo is one in “a number of Black actors” and Da 5 Bloods is one of the “Black-led” overlooked projects. Da 5 Bloods is like a Chuck Norris Vietnam movie with Black actors. I’m sure it could have been squeezed in the “musical or comedy” section instead of Sia‘s Music. But other two Black-led potentials Oscar best picture contenders, Judas and the Black Messiah and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, were not among its finalists for the group’s top film prize as well. There were only “White-led” projects both in drama and comedy or musical. It’s outrageous, don’t you think?
An HFPA representative said: “We do not control the individual votes of our members. We seek to build cultural understanding through film and TV and recognize how the power of creative storytelling can educate people around the world to issues of race, representation, and orientation.” [from L.A. Times]
Also, leaders of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association vowed to diversify its ranks but laid out no specifics as to how its organization would evolve. After all this mocking of our intelligence, surprisingly few winners used their acceptance speech time as an opportunity to discuss what their win meant in “this larger context.” [adapted from Chicago Tribune]
Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us): “It is great to be Black at the Golden Globes – back, back at the Golden Globes!” How nicely put! Take a look at the movie section:
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday — Winner (Black, Black-led project);
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — Winner (Black, movie produced by a guy named Tod Black, together with Denzel Washington, directed by a Black);
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah — Winner (Black person, Black-led project)
Sacha Baron Cohen established a new record for being the first person in Golden Globes history to win two awards for the same film character. “Thank you to the all-white Hollywood Foreign Press. I’ve gotta say this movie couldn’t have been possible without my co-star, a fresh, new talent who came from nowhere and turned out to be a comedy genius. I’m talking, of course, about Rudy Giuliani. I mean, who can get more laughs out of one unzipping? Incredible. Our movie was just the beginning for him, Rudy went on to star in a string of comedy films. Hits like ‘Four Seasons Landscaping,’ ‘Hair Dye Another Day’ and the courtroom drama ‘A Very Public Fart.’”
His crew filmed under the risk of getting arrested, the risk of getting COVID… They all, Baron Cohen included, did that because they wanted the movie released before the elections “to show the danger of lies, hates, conspiracies and the power of truth, empathy and democracy.”
As if it wasn’t clear enough why he won, Baron Cohen again poked Donald Trump: “Hold on, Donald Trump is contesting the result, he’s claiming that a lot of dead people voted, which is a very rude thing to say about the HFPA.” So funny, those said over his wife’s muted sniggers.
Nobody noticed in more than 20 years that HFPA has not had any Black members, probably because nobody asked, and probably because it didn’t really matter until NOW. Now there are persons paid to investigate this very thing, and if there aren’t, even better, this can be the beginning of a fruitful passion. The inflammatory L.A. Times’ article revealed details about the members of the “insular, improbably powerful group” that is HFPA and its long and often scandal-ridden history, which includes fresh allegations of self-dealing and ethical lapses.
As you noticed, my friend, I think that HFPA as it is right now overcompensated. I do not feel guilty for being white, and if you are white as well, don’t be ashamed! Black Lives Matter indeed, but this doesn’t annihilate who we are and what we do. Don’t let Hollywood dictate what you have to think. The Golden Globes ceremony made for the tax-exempted HFPA $27.4 million last year alone. This year they donated $2 million to Feed America. I remember Jim Carrey being paid $20 million upfront for The Cable Guy 25 years ago (OMG, he’s WHITE!) and he’s just an individual, not an 87 member organization… So, it’s not enough to be anti-Trump, it’s actually preposterous, but you’re not “woke” enough if you don’t choose your foreign members to appropriately respect the United States’ of America racial proportions.
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