The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued Penske Media Group on Tuesday, alleging that the company engaged in a scheme to fraudulently acquire the Golden Globe Awards and gain control over the awards market.
The 113-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges monopolization, unlawful restraint of trade, unfair trade practices and fraudulent misrepresentation among other claims. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Jay Penske, CEO of Penske Media, as well as the Golden Globe Foundation and its CEO, Gregory Goeckner.
The litigation is rooted in the controversy that swirled around the HFPA in 2021, when the Los Angeles Times published an investigation into the organization, pointing out its lack of diversity and instances of self-dealing. The firestorm over the story led to publicists announcing a boycott of the ceremony, causing NBC to drop the telecast the following year.
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In 2023, the Globes were acquired by Dick Clark Productions, owned by PMC, and Todd Boehly’s Eldridge. At the time, a new non-profit, the Golden Globes Foundation, was formed, as the HFPA was dissolved. The lawsuit identifies the plaintiff HFPA as a 501(c)(6) non-profit, with reports last year that a group of foreign journalists sought to reconstitute the association.
The lawsuit claims that Boehly used the boycott as a “pretext” to “infiltrate the HFPA and acquire the Golden Globes,” as he became the interim CEO of the press association. The lawsuit claims that Boehly, and then-HFPA president Helen Hoehne and then-general counsel Goeckner, championed the transaction that would transfer control to DCP and Eldridge. Hoehne, who is now president of the Golden Globes, was not named as a defendant.
The lawsuit claims that the HFPA members were “compelled to approve the transaction in a sham process tainted by fraud, conflicts of interest, and myriad breaches of fiduciary duty.” It claims that Goeckner incuded the HFPA’s treasurer to transfer $4 million from the association’s reserve to the Golden Globes Foundation.
The suit claims that Hoehne, Goeckner and Boehly concealed Penske’s involvement, and that he assumed complete control three months after the agreement was signed.
The litigation also claims that PMC has obtained monopolies in three markets, including Hollywood trade publications, secondary awards and for-your-consideration advertising. The lawsuit claims that Penske and Boehly have tried to exclude the HFPA and its members from these markets and “deprive the HFPA and its members of business opportunities and their ability to protect and promote the interests of foreign journalists, and reduce competitive output in favor of the journalists who work for Penske’s trust.”
The lawsuit claims that, in the furor over the HFPA in 2021, PMC media outlets like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter “participated in a media campaign that disparaged and criticized the HFPA and accused the organization of, among other things, lacking diversity.” Deadline, which is also owned by PMC, is named as a non-party in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that the defendants “continue to conspire in an attempt to force the HFPA to dissolve before their malfeasance can be fully investigated and exposed. Indeed, just days before the filing of this Complaint, Penske and Boehly, through their corporate enterprises, formally offered to GGF members extended Golden Globes voting rights and ballroom seats at the Golden Globes, but expressly stated that those benefits were contingent on — among other things — the HFPA dissolving and the GGF affirmatively assisting Penske and Boehly to make that happen.”
A spokesperson for the Golden Globes said, “Today’s lawsuit continues the absurdity and irrationality that the industry has come to expect from the defunct organization formerly known as the HFPA. The Golden Globes transaction closed more than three years ago and received all required approvals — any assertion that it did not close, or remains subject to reversal, is once again unequivocally false.
The spokesperson added, “This latest act of duplicity is a new low, even for the HFPA. The attempt by former HFPA members to leverage the Golden Globe Foundation, an independent nonprofit, simply to secure Golden Globes tickets is an unfortunate distraction that inappropriately diverts resources from legitimate charitable causes. We remain troubled that the HFPA, an organization so widely criticized for ethical failures, non-inclusivity, racism, and misconduct involving talent, continues to find attorneys willing to push such illegitimate claims.”
The HFPA in 2010 sued Dick Clark Productions, its longtime producer, over the rights to the telecast. That led to a lengthy trial in which a federal judge sided with DCP over its rights to the show, and an eventual settlement in 2014.
