Inside the Revolt of the Golden Globes’ “Legacy Voters”

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What is the Hollywood Foreign Press Association without the Golden Globes? We may soon find out.

For 80 years, dozens of Los Angeles-based print and photo journalists for non-American publications comprised and ran the HFPA, a nonprofit best known for its annual awards ceremony. But in 2023, the HFPA — having faced widespread criticism for its ethics, financial practices and lack of diversity since a 2021 Los Angeles Times exposé, which resulted in the loss of the TV broadcasting deal that provided the organization with most of its revenue —sold the Globes to Dick Clark Productions (which shares a parent company, PMC, with The Hollywood Reporter) and Eldridge (a holding company owned by Todd Boehly).

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The deal, which was approved by a majority of the HFPA’s roughly 90 members, dictated that the HFPA would be dissolved and its members, many of whom had collected salaries from the HFPA (totaling $5.2 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2023, per an IRS filing), would become employees of a new for-profit Golden Globes organization (and would be paid either $250,000 up-front or $75,000 per year for five years). Helen Hoehne, who had been the president of the HFPA, would become president of the Golden Globes organization. And, as part of an effort to increase the diversity of the voting body, hundreds of other journalists from all around the world would be invited to become unpaid members.

Over the two years since that deal was finalized —during which the Golden Globes organization has implemented bylaws and policies that have helped to regain the industry’s confidence and landed its awards ceremony back on network TV — the number of former HFPA members within the organization, or“legacy voters,”has decreased to about 60, mostly as a result of expulsions and terminations for cause (e.g. former HFPA president Philip Berk) and deaths (e.g. longtime HFPA member Judy Solomon).

Meanwhile, those remaining legacy voters have become increasingly unhappy, particularly since Hoehne informed them earlier this year that the Golden Globes organization would be discontinuing the $75,000-per-year payments out of concern that they “could add to a perception of bias in voting.” Legacy voters were offered a severance of $102,500 — which, a spokesperson for the Globes organization later said, fulfilled its contractual obligation to them — and were invited to reapply for Globes membership moving forward.

In recent weeks, as was first reported by The Ankler, the remaining legacy voters began taking steps to reconstitute the HFPA, angered by DCP and Eldridge’s decision to terminate their compensation, as well as DCP and Eldridge’s failure to honor other assurances that they say they were provided related to travel allowances, seats at the award ceremony and lifetime voting privileges.

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The legacy members who had served on the HFPA’s board congregated in late May and passed a vote to hire a new attorney, Reynolds Cafferata; to halt the process of shutting down the HFPA in order to give them time to review the original deal; and to reinstate the legacy voters as HFPA members. They subsequently called on the office of California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, which oversees nonprofits and charities and has yet to provide final signoff on the 2023 deal, to refrain from doing so.

Then, last Monday, almost all of the legacy voters gathered for further discussion. After considerable venting about their predicament, they decided to take a vote on ousting Hoehne —who was one of their own, but who they now regard with suspicion — from the reconstituted HFPA’s board. As TheWrap first reported, that measure passed on Thursday. (Hoehne remains president of the Golden Globes organization.)

Not everyone associated with the legacy voters supports their current efforts. Jeff Harris and Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey, two of the three non-members who the HFPA appointed to its board in 2021 as part of an effort to reform itself in the wake of the Times exposé, and who negotiated the HFPA’s sale on behalf of its members, resigned from the board this week. Massey, in a letter obtained by THR, wrote to the board, “We approved and executed a binding legal agreement to sell the Golden Globes and dissolve the HFPA — an action I believe the membership supported in order to preserve the Golden Globes and continue their admirable charitable work. That decision reflected a difficult but undeniable reality: the Hollywood community made clear it would not support the Globes as long as the HFPA members remained involved. The transaction was conducted with full transparency and due process, as all of the paperwork, notes/recordings and emails demonstrate.”

Massey continued, “The current effort to reverse it — by questioning the deal, reviving the HFPA, and reinstating memberships — is, in my view, fundamentally flawed and legally without merit. I had hoped to remain on the board to support a good-faith examination of the facts. However, based on what I’ve been told about [Monday’s] meeting, it is clear that exploration is not the goal and reversing the deal is.” She added, “In my experience as an Independent Director on several public and private company boards, the actions now being taken by the board represent a clear breach of fiduciary duty.”

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The question now is whether or not ownership of the Golden Globes awards ceremony is actually in question.

The office of California’s Attorney General wrote to DCP and Eldridge attorneys in a May 17, 2023 missive obtained by THR: “The Attorney General has no authority to review and therefore takes no position on Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s proposed transaction except with respect to the assets subject to a charitable trust (5% of the net profits of the Golden Globe Awards).” In other words, the only aspect of the 2023 deal that even required or requires approval by the State is the transfer of the HFPA’s charitable trust, now known as the Golden Globe Foundation. And according to numerous sources, the only reason that signoff hasn’t yet been provided is because individual legacy voters have been flooding the AG’s office with complaints, which has delayed the process.

If the newly reconstituted HFPA were to convince the AG to not sign off on the deal, would that derail only the charitable trust component, or the entire pact? If the former, then again, the question is, what is the HFPA without the Golden Globes, which is what generated the funds for its charitable trust prior to the deal? If the latter, then would the Golden Globes —the next edition of which has already been set to air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 —once again be boycotted by the industry? And would legacy voters also have to return the compensation that they have received over the last two years from DCP and Eldridge?

We may never find out the answers to these questions, some are speculating, because if a financial settlement can be reached to make the HFPA’s legacy voters drop any and all grievances that they have with the Golden Globes organization, then the office of California’s Attorney General would not have any reason to intervene.

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DCP and Eldridge representatives declined comment. Cafferata and the office of California’s AG did not immediately respond to comment.

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