“D-day,” as some in the entertainment industry were calling it, was looming.
It was just two weeks before May 6, the date when the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. the group that puts on the Golden Globes had promised to unveil a slate of reforms aimed at “transformational change.” The pledge had come after a Times investigation highlighted allegations of financial and ethical lapses by the group and pointed out that not one of its 86 members is Black, spurring outrage in Hollywood.
On that April Tuesday, a handful of consultants for the embattled association met with a group of activists and publicists who’d been vocal in their criticism. The publicists represented a contingent of more than 100 powerful firms who’d declared that their clients would boycott the HFPA refusing to participate in screenings, interviews or award shows until the organization reformed. The activists included representatives from Color of Change and Time’s Up, including director Ava DuVe
After a Times investigation, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. vowed to make sweeping changes, but the group behind the Golden Globes has struggled along the way.
Time s ticking for promised reforms at Golden Globes group gripped by turmoil What went wrong? msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Golden Globes ex-president is FIRED from HFPA board after sending members article that compared BLM movement to Charles Manson
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association said in an email Tuesday that Phil Berk was no longer a member after more than four decades with the organization
The decision comes just hours after NBC - which telecasts and pays for the Globes - condemned Berk s actions and called for his immediate expulsion
Berk sent an email to members sharing an article from FrontPage Mag Sunday
The article accused BLM of carrying on Manson s mission to start a race war
HFPA issued a statement saying it condemns all forms of racism, discrimination and hate speech before announcing his ousting from the board Tuesday
An email sent Sunday by a former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president criticizing Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and likening BLM to a hate group touched off a firestorm among many of the organizationâs members.
In the email, Phil Berk, who served eight terms as HFPA president, shared a post that called BLM a âracist hate movementâ and described Cullors as âthe self-proclaimed âtrained Marxist.ââ It was sent out to the associationâs members, its staff and the groupâs general counsel and chief operating officer, Gregory Goeckner.
The email lands at a sensitive time for the HFPA, which has come under pressure for not having any Black members as well as allegations of ethical and financial lapses raised in a Times investigation into the group. Last month, the HFPA pledged to make âtransformational changeâ and retained a strategic diversity advisor, Shaun Harper, a professor of racial, gender and LGBTQ issu