Tom Cruise Returns His Three Golden Globe Trophies To Join Protest Against HFPA

EXCLUSIVE: Add Tom Cruise to the chorus of outrage against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Deadline hears that the actor today has delivered back to the HFPA the three Golden Globe trophies he has won over the years.

The trophies just sent to HFPA headquarters are the Best Actor prize he won for Jerry Maguire, the Best Actor prize he won for Born on the Fourth of July and the Best Supporting Actor prize he won for Magnolia. This is a new tack, but I wouldn’t be surprised if others follow his lead and that the reception area of the HFPA could be crammed with golden trophies.

Sources said this just happened, as the Golden Globes house of cards continues to crumble and NBC canceled next year’s broadcast. Cruise becomes the latest star to speak out, including Netflix, Amazon and NBC among others over the slow crawl the organization is making to reform its lack of diversity.

HFPA Reforms Slammed As “Window-Dressing Platitudes” By Time’s Up; PR Gurus Push For Haste

Golden Globes 2022 Canceled On NBC As HFPA Struggles To Reform To Hollywood’s Stipulations

There will be no Golden Globes on NBC in 2022, as the besieged Hollywood Foreign Press Association continues to falter in reforming itself to the satisfaction of Hollywood studios and stakeholders.

“We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform,” the Comcast-owned network said this morning. “However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023.”





Sure to dramatically shuffle the awards-season deck as Tinseltown and America gingerly come out of the coronavirus pandemic, the decision to shutter the 2022 Globes was made earlier Monday as WarnerMedia joined Netflix and Amazon this weekend in cutting off ties with the HFPA due to their collective lack of confidence in the nonprofit group to enact serious systemic reform.

Related Story

Tom Cruise Returns His Three Golden Globe Trophies To Join Protest Against HFPA

In the fog of upheaval right now, it is unclear whether NBC will be paying the HFPA the $60 million annual fee for the 2022 right to air Globes, which is produced by dick clark productions. NBCUniversal inked a new eight-year deal with the HFPA and dcp in 2018 to continue its long-term broadcasting of the ceremony until 2026 with the inflated price tag.

Color Of Change Chief Says Golden Globes Symbolize Hollywood’s Broken Promises On Diversity – Guest Column

Having seen its reforms and relevance crash and burn for the time being, the only statement so far from the HFPA today was a tweet on international box office just before the news of the 2022 shuttering broke
This is the World Box Office for the week of May 3-9, 2021. https://t.co/nL4ywqMNuN#BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/hjvW23EHPC

— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) May 10, 2021


A magnet for controversy for decades, the Globes have been on increasingly shaky footing this year since it was revealed just before February’s semi-virtual shindig that the HFPA has zero Black members.

Hit by a savvy campaign by Time’s Up on the eve of the 78th Globes in February, a trio of HFPA brass tried to mitigate events by taking to the stage and promising to increase representation and adopt polices of great inclusion. To say that that attempt went over badly is an understatement of blockbuster proportions.

Since then, things have gone from bad to horrible as the HFPA leadership has applied one Band-id after another as Hollywood’s top studios and talent have expressed displeasure with the group overall.

Ellen Pompeo Pens Open Letter To HFPA, “White Hollywood” Amid Golden Globes Controversy: “Pull Up, Show Up And Get This Issue Resolved”





On May 6, around 75 of the insular HFPA’s 86 members voted for an inclusion and overhaul proposal the group’s board put forth at the beginning of that week in hopes of reframing the narrative. Chatter over the weekend, especially when Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos announced that the streamer wouldn’t engage with the HFPA until real reform was in place, was making it loud and clear that it was too little, too late.

The admittedly first-step reforms are a 50% increase in membership in the next 18 months, hiring of a CEO and other top governance positions (though no replacement for long-term General Counsel/Chief Operating Officer George Goeckner is in the cards) and conduct and ethics measures. After the 78th Globes and before the latest vote, the HFPA saw racially offensive remarks from a former president and newly minted Diversity and Inclusion advisor Dr. Shaun Harper and fixer supreme/Scandal inspiration Judy Smith both walk out in frustration last month.

With the events of the past week and the announcement by NBC today, the duo’s exit looks positively prophetic.