The end of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and debut of a for-profit Golden Globes Awards, announced by billionaire Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries on Monday, sparked confusion and skepticism across Hollywood that seemed unlikely to turn the page on the awards’ tainted past.
“Good to see that the Globes will continue its two most hallowed traditions: Questionable procedures and baffling chaos,” tweeted movie journalist Mark Harris. “They have done what I thought was impossible and… made it worse.”
Harris was referring not just to the awards becoming less transparent as a for-profit business, but to a complicated two-tiered voting system in which about 100 voters will be paid to watch programs and movies, and another 200 will not.