The Golden Globes are back in federal court in Los Angeles, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association claiming it was squeezed out of its own show in a nine-figure Hollywood power play.
The HFPA is seeking more than $150 million from Penske Media and other defendants, accusing them of orchestrating a coordinated scheme to strip the group of control over the awards and consolidate power in Hollywood’s awards and advertising markets. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court against Penske Media Corporation, Jay Penske, the Golden Globe Foundation and Gregory Goeckner, a former HFPA general counsel who later led the foundation, according to MyNewsLA. The complaint alleges federal and state antitrust violations, unfair competition, fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice.
The HFPA’s allegations are sweeping. The group says Penske and billionaire investor Todd Boehly used a boycott and bad press to weaken the organization, then moved through its leadership ranks while pursuing the Golden Globes through Boehly’s Eldridge Industries. The Associated Press reports that the complaint also claims the HFPA board was kept in the dark about Penske’s role in the 2023 deal and that former members were promised lifetime tickets, voting rights and other perks that later came with conditions they say were unworkable.
A 2023 Sale Now Under A Legal Microscope
At the center of the fight is the 2023 deal that ended the HFPA’s roughly 80-year run as the group behind the Golden Globes. That year, Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge acquired the awards’ assets, rights and properties, while the HFPA was dissolved and its charitable work was moved into the newly created Golden Globe Foundation, according to CBS News Los Angeles.
The transaction’s financial adviser, Houlihan Lokey, said the deal closed on June 12, 2023, with Dick Clark Productions continuing to control and produce the telecast. The firm also said the proceeds were intended to support the Golden Globe Foundation’s charitable mission, a structure the HFPA is now directly challenging in court.
In its complaint, the HFPA argues that the Globes became just one cog in a far larger media and awards machine. The group alleges Penske controls or influences major Hollywood trade publications, including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Rolling Stone, Billboard and IndieWire, along with awards shows and awards data and prediction businesses that can shape the very campaigns those outlets sell advertising to.
The lawsuit goes further, claiming the new setup turned awards consideration into a pay-to-play system by pressuring studios to buy pricey “For Your Consideration” advertising from Penske-owned publications. Those claims have not been proven, but they pose a blunt question for Hollywood: what happens when the company selling the awards ads also owns the awards platform and many of the outlets covering the race?
HFPA Wants The Deal Reversed
The HFPA is asking for more than $150 million in damages, which could be tripled under antitrust law, along with rescission of the contested agreements, injunctive relief and disgorgement of what it calls ill-gotten gains. The group also wants to unwind the arrangements that dissolved the HFPA and shifted control of the Golden Globes.
The current operators of the Golden Globes are firing back. A spokesperson called the lawsuit “a new low” for the former HFPA, while the owners said the 2023 transaction closed more than three years ago, received all required approvals and that any claim it did not close is “unequivocally false,” according to AP News.
The filing lands after years of legal and reputational troubles for the HFPA, including battles over membership, governance and its treatment of former members. In May, the group was seeking what was described as a final play to shut down an ex-member's Hollywood suit brought by expelled member Magnus Sundholm in Los Angeles.
For now, the Golden Globes stay with their current owners, and the HFPA’s accusations will have to survive the usual gauntlet of federal litigation. The case puts Los Angeles and its entertainment economy squarely in the middle of a fight over whether the Globes were simply sold off after scandal or strategically captured as part of a broader Hollywood power play.
