The owner of Dick Clark Productions has inserted himself into the ongoing turmoil over corruption and lack of inclusion at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, by proposing the group become a for-profit organization.
The proposal, from LA-based billionaire Todd Boehly, was published in Variety, a publication owned by Boehly’s business partner Jay Penske, but no details were provided.
The only detail was a statement from Boehly’s Eldridge Enterprises: “While we recognize that this is ultimately an HFPA membership decision, we look forward to investing time and resources to ensure that essential reforms – prioritizing inclusion, transparency, and governance – are implemented, creating meaningful change and long term, sustained success.”
Boehly sold The Hollywood Reporter to Penske Media a year ago, and retains a business partnership with PMC via his company MRC, which owns Dick Clark Productions. Dick Clark productions is the longtime producer of the HFPA’s Golden Globe Awards, and Boehly’s company receives half of the licensing fee for the Golden Globes telecast. That most recently amounted to $60 million a year from NBC.
The HFPA and its Golden Globes have been gutted by overlapping controversies involving diversity and inclusion. For instance, the fact that the group lacked Black members and repeatedly snubbed movies and TV shows with Black creators, like “Bridgerton” and “Girls Trip,” for both Globe nominations and press coverage.
The group has also recently expelled former president Philip Berk after he shared a story from a right-wing website comparing Black Lives Matter to a “hate movement,” and its diversity efforts have hit speed bumps as USC professor Shaun Harper, who was hired as a diversity consultant, resigned from the position after he was confronted with details about the HFPA’s problems during a meeting with Time’s Up.
NBC canceled the 2021 Golden Globes in May, citing the need for serious reforms at the HFPA. Shortly after, some previous Globes winners returned their awards, including Tom Cruise.