Next year’s awards season will be one ceremony short, as NBCUniversal has called off the 2022 Golden Globes amid ongoing controversy surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform,” NBCUniversal said in a statement on Monday, ET can confirm. “However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes.”
Ahead of February’s Golden Globe Awards, the Los Angeles Times revealed that the HFPA has no Black members amid its voting body of international journalists. During the telecast, three high-ranking members took the stage to directly address the issue, and the organization later promised 13 percent Black members within the year.
A number of stars, including hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Golden Globe winner Sacha Baron Cohen, called out the HFPA during the show itself. Afterward, the HFPA has continued to come under fire from publicists, studios and more stars, including Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo.
Johansson said in a statement that she has often faced “sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment” while promoting past projects. “It is the exact reason why I, for many years, refused to participate in their conferences,” she says. “Unless there is necessary fundamental reform within the organization, I believe it is time that we take a step back from the HFPA and focus on the importance and strength of unity within our unions and the industry as a whole.”
Ruffalo, who won a Globe this year, said he “cannot feel proud or happy about being a recipient of this award.” “It’s discouraging to see the HFPA, which has gained prominence and profited handsomely from their involvement with filmmakers and actors, resist the change that is being asked of them from many of the groups that have been most disenfranchised by their culture of secrecy and exclusion,” Ruffalo said. “Now is the time to step up and right the wrongs of the past.”
Meanwhile, ET can confirm Tom Cruise has returned back to the HFPA his three Golden Globe trophies won over the years as a sign of protest as the organization works to figure out new diversity and inclusion initiatives.
While next year will be Golden Globes-less, NBC is not fully abandoning the awards show just yet. “Assuming the organization executes on its plan,” the statement reads, “we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023.”
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