The troubled Golden Globe Awards are in for a massive shake-up after being sold to an investment company with a billionaire owner.
In radical changes planned under the new ownership, the voting group behind the 80-year-old awards that faced controversy over ethical lapses and a lack of diversity, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be shut down.
The dramatic shift comes after Eldridge Industries, a holding company owned by billionaire investor Todd Boehly, and Dick Clark Productions, which is part of Penske Media, agreed to buy the Golden Globes’ assets for an undisclosed price.
“Today marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the Golden Globes,” Mr Boehly said in a statement on Tuesday (AEST).
The company will continue to manage the awards telecast and focus on expanding the Globes’ viewership around the world, a press release said. DCP is co-owned by Eldridge and Penske Media.
In recent years, the HFPA has struggled to repair its reputation after a Hollywood backlash over its ethics and lack of diversity, which led US television network NBC to drop the Golden Globes ceremony in 2022.
In 2021, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed the organisation had no black journalists in its ranks. Some members were accused of making sexist and racist remarks and soliciting favours from celebrities and movie studios.
Three-time winner Tom Cruise returned his trophies in protest, and studios and publicists threatened to boycott the group. Netflix, actor Scarlett Johansson and others led calls for the industry to refuse to work with the HFPA until it became more diverse.
In October 2021, the HFPA responded by expanding and diversifying its membership and instituted new ethics policies. It added 21 new members, including six who were black, six Latinos, five Asians and four of Middle Eastern/North African heritage.
The 2022 pandemic-era Globes went ahead without an audience or nominees in attendance.
Mr Boehly is an American businessman, philanthropist and investor, who holds minority interests in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Lakers. Last year, he bought English Premier League club Chelsea from sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
In late 2021, Mr Boehly also bought a stake in Bruce Springsteen’s music catalogue for $US550 million ($783 million).
He aims to reshape the HFPA, a nonprofit organisation of international entertainment reporters, into hired workers in a for-profit venture. All of the 310 current voters will be eligible to cast ballots for the next ceremony in January 2024, a spokesperson said.
“We are excited to close on this much anticipated member-approved transaction and transition from a member-led organisation to a commercial enterprise,” HFPA president Helen Hoehne said.
NBC aired the Globes again in 2023. No network has yet signed up to run the 2024 ceremony.
Financial terms of the deal, which was approved by California’s attorney-general, were not disclosed.
-with AAP
