Thanks to the writers strike, NBC canceled this weekend's Golden Globe Awards ceremony. And as far as I'm concerned, it's about time.
As everyone in Hollywood knows, the glitzy annual ceremony watched by millions of people is a con on the viewing public. The decision to cancel it offers a golden opportunity to clean up the Golden Globes once and for all.
The Globes have long been the entertainment industry's dirty little secret. At the heart of the con is the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the tiny, cliquish group of foreign entertainment journalists -- and I use each of those terms liberally -- whose votes determine the winners.
The members of the association are not, generally speaking, film experts (like the people who judge the National Society of Film Critics awards) nor are they members of the creative community (like those who give out the Oscars). They're not even representatives of prominent foreign publications, like Le Monde or the Guardian or Haaretz.
Only a handful are full-time journalists; the rest are freelancers for mostly obscure publications, and some are simply hanging on for the parties and movie stars. To maintain their status in the organization, they need only write four articles a year.
Joining is nearly impossible; qualified foreign journalists from major media outlets need not apply and, anyway, they usually don't. The group takes five new members a year at most, and any member can veto a candidate. With attrition from deceased members and those who failed to meet the work minimum, this year no more than 82 people will choose the winning movies and TV shows. Compare that to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has about 6,000 members.
Now, you may ask, where's my sense of humor? After all, TV viewers seem to enjoy the show, which is more freewheeling than the Oscars. And besides, Hollywood has plenty of nebulous groups that hand out awards at this time of year. More than one of them (did anyone say National Board of Review?) would suffer under scrutiny.
But the Globes are the only ones on a broadcast network, and there's the rub. Promoted as a major event -- and watched last year by 20 million Americans -- there is every reason for the average viewer to presume that the awards are important, prestigious and meaningful.
