Hollywood's foreign press gave out their Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel live on NBC on January 21, or did they?
As a new boy in town, and a member of the foreign press, one can not help but think that Caesar's Palace Las Vegas might have been a more suitable venue for the awards because at the end of the day it is all an illusion of smoke and mirrors. The venerable Emperor of the Golden Globes may be in his 53rd year and never been stronger, but if you care to look carefully he isn't wearing any clothes and nobody in Tinseltown wishes to acknowledge the fact. Or, in other words, don't rock the boat or you might be left to swim.
For a kick off, what exactly is this very august body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the Golden Globes? Do a rapid poll around the AFM and you will find an almost universal assumption that it is an association made up of the foreign press corps resident in Los Angeles and, at worst, those members of the LA foreign press corps who cover the film and television industries.
Wrong. The body, and that is all it is, has a tight knit membership of less than 100 members, fewer than 90 of whom get to vote. You may also be pushed to have heard of many of the members or their publications and be surprised to hear that these people not only have time to stand judgement on the best that the film industry has to offer but also the television industry as well. Some of the members, amazingly, even have time to take other jobs besides journalism.
But who really cares if it is all smoke and mirrors?
Hollywood certainly doesn't, because this year, more than ever, it latched on to the Golden Globes with a vengence and used them to strategically place their front runners for this year's Oscar race and hopefully boost the box office along the way.
You can't really blame the membership of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for not calling foul. As journalists they know a good scam when they see one and if the studios want to pamper them, send them off on press junkets and give them presents, so be it. Hollywood has created the monster and only when it bites the hand that feeds it, which it nearly did this year with a rather strange selection of award winners, will the studios finally come clean and admit it was all an illusion of their own making. For now, nobody at the studios is going on the record to say a bad word about the Globes or the association, although off the record -- which some of the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association should appreciate the irony of -- studio executives were ready to admit that the entire thing is close to high farce and deserves an Academy Award for special effects.
The real foreign journalists covering Hollywood, like myself, continue to look on from the side line in bemusement with little or no chance of ever getting aboard the freebie gravy train as normally fewer than two new members are admitted each year, and only when approved by the existing membership. For now, the real Los Angeles press corp. must content itself with focusing on the 68th Academy Awards on March 25.
Christopher Pickard is not, and now never likely to be a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. He is however, a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association.
