Talk:Hollywood Foreign Press Association

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[edit] Article is lacking details, criticisms and controversies

This article is lacking details, criticisms and controversies that are easy to document by citing reputable sources. Here are a few examples, all several years old. I'll get around to incorporating them into the article at some point. 67.100.123.202 (talk) 16:30, 13 December 2007 (UTC).

[edit] "Golden Globes Group Seeks More Respect —and Money" (from 2002)

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A9699-2002Dec18)
  • As the Globes have risen in prominence since NBC began to air them nationally in 1996, there have been calls to reform the tiny group that votes on them.
  • There have been calls to reform the tiny group that votes on them.... Gifts are now limited to bottles of champagne, flowers and movie trinkets.
  • Perhaps two dozen are working foreign journalists; a larger number are longtime members who freelance infrequently for small overseas publications. Many are Americans, many live on their pensions -- three are now in their nineties, many others in their eighties -- and struggle to produce the four yearly clippings they need to qualify as active members. A large number of HFPA members make their living at other professions, including teaching, real estate, car sales and film promotion.
  • The money raked in by the Golden Globe telecast gives HFPA members privileges unheard of in other press organizations. Each active member can take two fully paid trips to film festivals of his or her choice, annually. They receive a subscription to Variety or The Hollywood Reporter for free. The association pays air fare for studio press junkets.
  • The HFPA gets unparalleled access to movie stars and directors, with studios holding press conferences for them with every movie release. Stars are required to pose for individual photos with every member who attends.
  • The HFPA makes substantial donations to film-oriented charities.
  • Journalists who work for prominent overseas publications are frequently rejected for membership, such as Claudine Mulard, a Le Monde correspondent whose application was rejected at least three times.
  • British journalists for large publications who are based in Los Angeles say they are uninterested in joining. Duncan Campbell, correspondent for The Guardian, said, "I think it's like one of Groucho Marx's clubs. If they were willing to have me in it, I wouldn't want to join. I've always considered that joining comes at a dreadful price — your credibility."

[edit] "Golden Shutterbug" (from 2003)

An interview with the then-86-year-old HFPA member Anita Weber, still an active member

(http://www.filmstew.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ContentID=6711)
  • “In order to keep your membership up to date, you have to attend a certain number of meetings, submit a certain number of clippings and be cleared by Yulia Dashevsky of the Motion Picture Association of America,” explains Weber. “You don’t just get to stay if you’re not productive.” “Everyone comes in as a writer but many eventually become photographers as well, because there’s more money in photos,” Weber continues. “Some of the newer applicants want in so badly they have it in for us when they are rejected. Sometimes they apply three or four times. We can’t just take anyone.”
  • “I’m probably the fourth oldest member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” says Weber during a recent interview at her spacious high-rise apartment near Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles. “Sylvia Norris (United Kingdom), who just died, was 90. Then there’s Sven Rye (Denmark), who was once the Danish vice consul in Los Angeles. He’s in a rest home facility now but is a dear, sweet, adorable man. Finally, Gloria Geale (United Kingdom) is a few months older than I.”
  • If [a film] is good, I will say so, if it’s bad, I just forget about it, because I’m not going to bite the hand that feeds me.
  • In a subtle way, publicists will always try to influence our votes,” says Weber. “We know the publicists who are guilty of this because they get so frenzied and anxious to help. Friends are friends, but we are not supposed to talk amongst ourselves about who we’re voting for.”

[edit] The truth behind the Golden Globes (from 2003)

Details, mostly but not all criticisms, from the documentary The Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret

(http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/12/goldenglobes.ap/)
  • Many HFPA members have "reputations more as star-struck fans and moochers than serious reporters"
  • L.A. Weekly film critic John Powers said the group's members are "essentially just bottom-feeders around the industry, who've somehow been inflated to this point where their judgment is supposed to be very, very important."
  • Each year, studios arrange elaborate meals where HFPA members can hobnob with directors and actors on films angling for Academy Awards and other movie honors. If stars and filmmakers fail to turn up for a schmooze session with the HFPA, it generally kills a movie's chances for Golden Globe nominations, which draw attention that can boost a film's Oscar prospects.
  • the Golden Globes fell into disrepute in the early 1980s for naming Pia Zadora newcomer of the year for her movie bomb Butterfly, the awards have gained some respect in recent years for honoring daring performances.
  • Hilary Swank's gender-bending role in "Boys Don't Cry" earned her an Academy Award, a prize she might not have received without an earlier Golden Globe win that caught the attention of generally more conservative Oscar voters. "Even though the Golden Globe people are by and large idiots," critic Powers says in the documentary, "they often make better choices than the Oscars."

[edit] Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret

Review of the documentary

(http://www.thehollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2048237)
  • Interviews with a cross section of the entertainment industry, including journalists, a producer, a disguised Golden Globes nominee and others, indicate it is widely known that these coveted and much-publicized awards are decided by the vote of fewer than 100 individuals, most of whom aren't full-time journalists.
  • The documentary does a decent enough job of making a case that the Golden Globes are overrated, but it falls way short in explaining why that doesn't really matter. Overrated or not, the award show churns up admirable ratings, brings out the stars and has a name that, to the general public, represents Hollywood success and glamour. Studios couldn't care less whether the awards are decided by isolated Benedictine monks in the Himalayas or angels on high, at least not since the Globes have evolved into a tremendous marketing tool. The latter point is made here but not as emphatically as it should be.