HFPA Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While sites like ours struggle to decide how, in fact, we're going to cover the Golden Globes, Deadline Hollywood tells us that a number of key decisions were made late today. Firstly (and probably the most important), SAG has officially announced that none of the actors or actresses will cross the picket line and attend the awards ceremony on January 13. That was an expected decision, but still one that kind of shocks you. However, DH claims NBC is still moving forward with preparations to air the make-shift ceremony on their network. With who in attendance? Got me.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association issued the following statement: "The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been placed in an extremely difficult position with the ongoing Writers Guild strike. We are making every effort to work out a solution that will permit the Golden Globes to take place with the creative community present to participate. We hope to announce a resolution to this unfortunate predicament on Monday." Personally, I'm not sure what the hell they're going to resolve by Monday, but I would expect NBC to fold and not televise the ceremony. How could they with no one showing up? And how ridiculous would it look if some fat studio exec was standing on stage, handing out award after award to folks who aren't there to accept them? This is what NBC wants the entire country watching? I don't think so.

Here's SAG's statement: "After considerable outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees and their representatives over the past several weeks, there appears to be unanimous agreement that these actors will not cross WGA picket lines to appear on the Golden Globe Awards as acceptors or presenters. We applaud our members for this remarkable show of solidarity for striking Writers Guild of America writers."

And here's the WGA's statement: "We are grateful to our brothers and sisters in SAG for their continued solidarity and support. The entire awards show season is being put in jeopardy by the intransigence of a few big media corporations. We urge the conglomerates to return to the bargaining table they abandoned and negotiate a fair and reasonable deal with writers to put this town back to work."

And here's Nikki Blonsky's statement: "Motherfu**ker son of a b*tch! This was my chance! You fu**kers!"

And here's Cinematical's statement: "We made up Nikki Blonsky's statement, but you have to imagine the poor girl is pretty pissed. Plucked from obscurity to star in Hairspray, nominated for an award, and she can't even show up. We feel you Nikki ... we feel you. Hug?"

While it's a new year, the same old back-and-forth continues. Yesterday, there appeared to be a light at the end of the Golden Globes tunnel, as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (or HFPA) sent out a press release claiming to have resumed talks with the WGA in an attempt to get that same sort of interim deal the WGA made with The David Letterman Show and Worldwide Pants, which would allow writers to pen scripts for the Golden Globes ceremony. That deal isn't so much about getting people to write the "witty" banter between stars on stage as it is finding a way to still televise the event and get people to show up.

But HFPA's play-nice propaganda was a bit premature, as the WGA later put out a statement saying they still intend to picket the Globes ceremony as planned: "Dick Clark Productions is a struck company. As previously announced, the Writers Guild will be picketing the Golden Globe Awards. The WGA has great respect and admiration for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but we are engaged in a crucial struggle that will protect our income and intellectual property rights for generations to come. We will continue to do everything in our power to bring industry negotiations to a fair conclusion. In the meantime, we are grateful for the ongoing support of the talent community."

So where is this heading? Well, most likely the ceremony will not be televised (unless a miracle agreement is reached), and HFPA will cross their fingers and hope that the WGA will not picket if the event is not televised, allowing actors and actresses to attend the ceremony, as well as the more important (and expensive) after parties. And you should care ... why?

[via Deadline Hollywood]

Just how strange are the Golden Globes? Is Atonement a sure-fire, dead-lock Best Picture winner, or has it stumbled with the Academy before the race was even begun? Did Francis Ford Coppola "cut his own throat" with the release strategy for Youth Without Youth? And, speaking of cutting throats, will Sweeney Todd seduce the Academy, or have its hopes been washed away with the arterial spray? Joining James this week is David Poland, the critic, blogger and raconteur behind Movie City News as well as the wildly contentious, always insightful The Hot Blog. Listen in this week as James and David talk about the BFCA nominations from the inside, discuss the tarnished-yet-telegenic schizophrenia of the Golden Globes, and much more! And finally -- new this week on for The Rocchi Review -- you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Roger Friedman at Fox News has up Part One of a really interesting piece that questions the Golden Globes quid pro quo. The article details the lavish spending of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the group that runs the Globes. A few of the more revealing expenditures: over $500,000 for travel,  another $500,000 for salaries, $70,000 for "photography" (which Friedman attributes to the HFCA members habit of getting photos taken of themselves with the stars they interview) and $59,000 for "online research".

Friedman also reveals that HFPA members spent an average of $7,500 each on travel, despite the fact they're supposed to be based in Los Angeles and file stories from there.  HFPA president Philip Berk apparently claimed in an interview with Friedman that it's necessary to fly HFPA members to press junkets in New York, in spite of the fact that many junkets are held in Los Angeles. Berk was adament about the "quid pro quo" aspect - that the HFPA has to go to New York so the New York folks will in turn show up for the Golden Globes. Okay, I guess.

HFPA did donate $1 million to the Sundance Film Festival and some other orgs, but the rest? Well, they list assets of $12 million, so they aren't going broke anytime soon. How come they have so much cash? Well, for one thing, NBC Universal  ponies up $5-6 mill in licensing fees - which, as Friedman points out, means that NBC is largely footing the bill for the foreign publications the HFPA journalists write for to travel around to get access to stars, rather than just screening films in Los Angeles and writing reviews. Not to mention for HFPA members to visit the sets of TV shows and films they will later be voting for.

The entire article is an interesting analysis, and Fox will publish Part Two - Who is the HFPA? tomorrow. Stay tuned.