It's Golden Globes night

 

Typical Hollywood/entertainment industry awards night.  Streets are closed off to traffic.  Crowds of fans standing along the Red Carpet access points anxious to get a glimpse of a star.  The hair is coiffed and moussed to perfection.  Love handles and pot bellies firmly restricted by Spanx.  Earrings and other bling fastened securely in place.  Toes cramped in uncomfortable shoes.  And that's just the men.

Much will be written about the fashions worn by the women and men who walked the Red Carpet on this night.  Much will be written about who were the winners and losers.  Who was slighted by not being nominated, who was insulted by their failure to win their category. Almost without exception every winner tonight will thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) in their remarks, along with loved ones, professional colleagues and the occasional psychic or therapist.

But the one entity that won't be the subject of much attention is the HFPA itself.  They will not release or publish their membership list.  According to the website Vulture.com, back in January of last year, the following names were the active membership (and therefore, those who vote on who will receive the Golden Globe Awards).

Paoula Abou-Jaoude (Brazil)
Mario Amaya (Colombia, Puerto Rico)
Vera Anderson (Mexico)
Ray Arco (Canada)
Husam “Sam” Asi (United Kingdom)
Rocio Ayuso (Spain)
Ana Maria Bahiana (Brazil)
Gilda Baum-Lappe (Mexico)
Philip Berk (Australia, Malaysia)
Elmar Biebl (Germany)
Silvia Bizio (Italy)
Jorge Camara (Dominican Republic)
Luca Celada (Italy)
Jean-Paul Chaillet (France)
Tina Johnk Christensen (Denmark)
Rui Henriques Coimbra (Portugal)
Jenny Cooney-Carrillo (Australia, New Zealand)
Jean E. Cummings (Japan)
Yola Czaderska-Hayek (Poland)
Patricia Danaher (Ireland)
Ersi Danou (Greece)
Noël de Souza (India)
Gabrielle Donnelly (United Kingdom)
George Doss (Egypt)
Mahfouz Doss (Egypt)
Dagmar Dunlevy (Canada)
Armando Gallo (Italy)
Margaret Gardiner (South Africa)
Barbara Gasser (Austria)
Andre Guimond (Canada)
John Hiscock (United Kingdom)
Helen Hoehne (Germany)
Anke Hofmann (Germany)
Nellee A. Holmes (Russia)
Munawar Hosain (Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom)
Yoram Kahana (Germany)
Erkki Kanto (Finland)
Theo Kingma (Australia, the Netherlands, Cuba)
Mirai Konishi (Japan)
Ahmed Lateef (Hong Kong)
Elisa Leonelli (Italy)
Gabriel Gustavo Lerman (Spain)
Emanuel Levy (United Kingdom)
Lisa Lu (China)
Lilly Lui (Hong Kong)
Ramzi Malouki (Algeria, Belgium, France, Morocco, Tunisia)
Michele Manelis (Australia)
Karen Martin (Germany)
Paz Mata (Spain)
Juliette Michaud (France)
Kristien Gijbels Morato (Belgium)
Aud Berggren Morisse (Norway)
Yukiko Nakajima (Japan)
Yoko Narita (Japan)
Aniko Navai (Hungary)
Janet Nepales (the Philippines)
Ruben Nepales (Dubai, the Philippines)
Alexander Nevsky (Russia)
Yenny Nun-Katz (Chile, Peru)
Scott Orlin (Germany)
Mira Panajotovic (Serbia)
HJ Park (South Korea) (only member of HFPA who is also a member of the L. A. Film Critics Association)
Alena Prime (Tahiti)
Serge Rakhlin (Latvia, Russia, Ukraine)
Patrick Roth (Germany)
Mohammed Rouda (Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom)
Frank Rousseau (Belgium, France, French Antilles)
Ali Sar (Russia)
Frances Schoenberger (Germany)
Elisabeth Sereda (Austria)
Dierk Sindermann (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
Judy Solomon (Israel)
Lorenzo Soria (Italy)
Hans J. Spürkel (Austria, Switzerland)
Magnus Sundholm (Sweden)
Aida Takla-O’Reilly (Dubai)
Meher Tatna (Malaysia, Singapore)
Jack Tewksbury (Argentina)
Hervé Tropéa (France)
Lynn M. Tso (Taiwan)
Katherine Tulich (Croatia)
Kirpi Uimonen Ballesteros (Finland)
Alessandra Venezia (Italy)
Marlène von Arx (Switzerland)
Noemia Young (Canada)

83 names and the only one I recognized is the one who is using the name of a Sergei Eisenstein film released in 1938 rather than his real name of  Sasha Kuritsyn.  Everyone who is anyone in the movie or television industry is at the Beverly Hills Hilton tonight to pay homage to the recipients of an award that less than 100 people decided.  That's one serious power base.  So how do you become a member of the HFPA?  The following is lifted from the application on the HFPA's website.


Please submit the following information:

1. Letter of appointment as a Hollywood correspondent from a foreign publication of recognized standing, published outside the continental United States. This letter should describe and support the “standing” of your publication: circulation, age group, etc.
2.  Four complete and original issues from such foreign publication(s), each with one or more articles/interviews which must include your byline. If your publication(s) are not in Roman characters, please add a detailed, signed translation of the publication(s) title, date, title of the article and your name as they appear in the publication(s). Please highlightthe information. (These publications must be dated after June 30, 2014.)
3.  Evidence of payment from your foreign publication(s).
4.  Letter of recommendation from each sponsor detailing how long you have been covering the entertainment industry while residing in the greater Southern California area and possible additional information regarding your journalistic activities.

So you need references, two sponsors and there is an initiation fee of $500.  A sum the applicant will easily recoup five to ten times over in swag received during their first year of membership.  You must also publish four articles on film per year, in media originating outside the U.S., while maintaining a permanent residence in the U.S.  HFPA rules limit them to adding only five new members in any one year, although membership appears to have been fairly static.  Many of the current members have been part of the HFPA for decades, including one woman who is nearing her 60th year of membership.

83, 97, 101, however many members this organization has at any given moment, the amount of influence they have in Hollywood is enormous.  A Reuters.com statistical analysis of the financial impact of the Golden Globe awards and the Academy Awards on box office receipts shows the Golden Globes have a much more dramatic impact on those receipts.  This analysis shows that a film that wins a Golden Globe can expect a boost in box office receipts of $14.2 million, while an Oscar will push those receipts higher by "only" $3 million.

There's nothing untoward to be found in the HFPA financials.  I looked at their last three years of tax returns and find that fiscal responsibility in the organization is improving.  That doesn't mitigate my concern about so few wielding so much influence in a multi-billion dollar industry.  

People have whispered allegations that Golden Globes have been bought and sold by entertainment industry power players.  There is no hard evidence of this.  But when you consider the number of votes needed to win a Globe, versus an Oscar or an Emmy, IF someone were to try to buy an award, the Globes would be the easiest to target.