Golden Globes sale was a 'sham,' Hollywood Foreign Press alleges in $150-million suit against Penske, others

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA), the radical that primitively founded the Golden Globe Awards, filed an antitrust suit against media mogul Jay Penske, Penske Media Corporation, the Golden Globe Foundation and others, implicit the acquisition of the fashionable grant show.

The suit filed successful the United States District Court for the Central District of California, connected Monday, claims the 2023 acquisition of the Golden Globes was a “sham process tainted by fraud” and is seeking damages of astatine slightest $150 million.

Penske and the different named defendants, “orchestrated and participated successful a clandestine strategy to fraudulently get the Golden Globe Awards, dismantle the HFPA, and exert monopolistic power implicit Hollywood trades and the awards circuit thereby violating California’s antitrust and user extortion statutes,” according to the complaint.

A spokesperson for Penske Media and the Golden Globes denied the allegations successful a statement.

“Today’s suit continues the absurdity and irrationality that the manufacture has travel to expect from the defunct enactment formerly known arsenic the HFPA.”

The suit accuses Jay Penske, whose institution owns galore of the Hollywood commercialized publications including Variety, of having “colluded” with Todd Boehly, the billionaire president of backstage equity steadfast Eldridge Industries, the genitor institution of longtime Golden Globes shaper Dick Clark Productions, to acquisition the 80-year-old grant amusement done a “corrupt Asset Purchase Agreement (the ‘APA’).”

Penske and Boehly person important ownership stakes successful respective movie and tv accumulation companies specified arsenic A24 Films and MRC.

Boehly declined to remark for this story.

The suit argues that owning the Golden Globes would “solidify a vertical and horizontal monopoly connected the awards market.” At the aforesaid clip it would alteration them “to power and exclude” members of the home and overseas property and to “control the amusement quality disseminated to the wide public, portion maintaining a monopoly implicit streams of advertizing gross successful that market.”

In 2022, the HFPA voted to judge a connection by Boehly, past its interim main executive, that would alteration the nonprofit planetary journalists’ radical into a for-profit venture.

At the time, the enactment was engaged successful rehabilitating its representation and getting backmost into Hollywood’s bully graces.

NBC had dropped the broadcast of the 2022 Globes, a contingent of almighty publicists boycotted the enactment and studios including Netflix and WarnerMedia chopped ties with the HFPA, pursuing the 2021 Los Angeles Times probe that raised questions astir the group’s ethical and fiscal lapses and revealed that not 1 of the then-87 members was Black.

Under Boehly, the revamped organization, the Golden Globes Assn. (later renamed the Golden Globes LLC) would run nether the Eldridge umbrella, with the group’s members becoming paid employees.

The caller backstage entity would negociate its Golden Globes assets portion maintaining the charitable and philanthropic programs successful a abstracted nonprofit entity.

However, according to the suit, Penske and Boehly “surreptitiously instigated a boycott of the HFPA and the 2022 Golden Globes” utilizing Penske’s amusement commercialized publications specified arsenic The Hollywood Reporter to devalue the enactment and marque it susceptible to an acquisition.” They past utilized the boycott arsenic a “pretext for Boehly to infiltrate the HFPA and get the Golden Globes.”

Following the acquisition, the ailment alleges that the Golden Globe Foundation (GGF), the successor to the HFPA’s charitable limb which was expected to beryllium an autarkic non-profit, instead, became “an hold of the for-profit entity Penske and Boehly formed.”

The suit alleges that Penske, Boehly and the GGF, aided by Gregory Goeckner, the HFPA’s erstwhile wide counsel who became the caller foundation’s CEO person “unlawfully” utilized the charitable foundation’s assets, diverting them “to service Penske and Boehly’s non-charitable commercialized interests, successful wide usurpation of charitable plus extortion laws.”

Among the purposes cited successful the suit see an effort “to usage much than $275,000 successful charitable funds for the for-profit Globes LLC’s Golden Globes viewing party.”

Goeckner, is besides accused of conspiring with Penske and Boehly to “fraudulently induce” the transportation of $4 cardinal from the HFPA to the caller instauration successful an effort to unit the enactment to “cripple the HFPA earlier their and others’ malfeasance successful transportation with the APA could beryllium brought to light.”

Under the caller entity, HFPA members could lone go GGF members if they accepted employment with Boehly and Penske’s for-profit company, according to the complaint. A stipulation that HFPA members assertion that they were made alert of lone aft they voted to o.k. the acquisition.

Moreover, the filing claims that the caller entity reneged connected a fig of promises, including that members would support their beingness voting rights arsenic good arsenic their beingness tickets to the grant show.

“The effort by erstwhile HFPA members to leverage the Golden Globe Foundation, an autarkic nonprofit, simply to unafraid Golden Globes tickets is an unfortunate distraction that inappropriately diverts resources from morganatic charitable causes. We stay troubled that the HFPA, an enactment truthful wide criticized for ethical failures, non-inclusivity, racism, and misconduct involving talent, continues to find attorneys consenting to propulsion specified illegitimate claims,” said the Penske spokesperson.

The suit contends that the acquisition became a mechanics for Penske and Boehly to successfully “maintain monopolies” successful 3 circumstantial areas: Hollywood commercialized publications, secondary awards and For Your Consideration (FYC) advertizing — the specialized promotion of amusement and entertainers to members of awards voting bodies.

Using this monopoly, Penske is accused of turning the Golden Globes into a “pay-to-play racket.”

For lawsuit the suit alleges that successful 2024 Penske Media sold “Variety Golden Globes” meal bid offering entree to Golden Globes voters astatine $70,000 a piece, arsenic cited successful media reports.

The institution is further accused of charging “potential movie studios a $5,000-per-project ‘administration fee’ to person a task placed connected the Golden Globes Screening Platform.” Those studios that submitted astatine slightest 14 titles, were “offered amended show attraction connected the portal.”

Penske Media besides allegedly required FYC advertizing purchases from the company’s commercialized work for awards consideration, according to the suit, which claims that Penske Media, done its commercialized publications, owns 80% of FYC advertizing worthy upwards of $1 cardinal annually.

Last May, the HFPA committee voted to intermission the wind-down and dissolution process “to fulfill the organization’s work to analyse the malfeasance and conflicts of interest” successful transportation with the sale, according to the lawsuit, which besides states the California Attorney General has truthful acold “declined to o.k. dissolution of the HFPA.”

“The Golden Globes transaction closed much than 3 years agone and received each required approvals—any assertion that it did not close, oregon remains taxable to reversal, is erstwhile again unequivocally false. This latest enactment of duplicity is simply a caller low, adjacent for the HFPA,” said the Penske spokesperson.