Former Golden Globes owners sue Penske Media alleging fraud in acquisition of awards show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, which founded and for decades owned the Golden Globe Awards, have sued Penske Media Corporation and others, alleging they engaged in fraud to acquire the valuable awards show in an attempt to create an entertainment industry monopoly.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in California on Tuesday alleges that Penske Media and owner Jay Penske colluded with holding company Eldridge Industries and its CEO Todd Boehly to fuel a backlash and boycott against the Globes to devalue it and acquire it, and to deceive the HFPA about a sale they were pressured into accepting.

“This case arises from a clandestine scheme to fraudulently acquire the prestigious and valuable 80-year-old Golden Globe Awards,” the lawsuit says, “and exert monopolistic control over the Hollywood trades, awards, and advertising markets, all in violation of state and federal unfair competition and antitrust laws.”

It alleges Boehly and Eldridge hid the involvement of Penske in the 2023 deal from the HFPA board, which never would have approved it if they had known of it. Penske Media’s assets include Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Dick Clark Productions, which owns or produces several awards shows including the American Music Awards and is now part owner of the Globes.

The lawsuit says the HFPA members were promised lifetime Golden Globes tickets and voting privileges, along with other perks, which Penske reneged on by attaching unworkable conditions. And it says the buyers infiltrated the HFPA leadership to push through the deal.

A representative of the Golden Globes’ current owners said in a statement that the 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, long treasured as a glitzy, champagne-soaked opening of Hollywood’s awards season, has had a turbulent 2020s full of lawsuits and public controversies. In 2021, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed the group had only one Black member.

That brought a public outcry and boycott that led to NBC refusing to air the awards in 2022. The lawsuit claims that Boehly and Penske “surreptitiously instigated” the boycott and used Penske’s publications to fuel it.

After the 2023 acquisition and reorganization of the Globes, the show got a new broadcast home on CBS.

Boehly, who is also part owner of sports franchises including Chelsea FC and the Los Angeles Dodgers, was not named as a defendant, nor was his Eldridge Industries. The reasons weren’t immediately clear, and the plaintiffs declined to comment. There was also no immediate reply to an email seeking comment from Boehly and his company.

The lawsuit also alleges that Penske and Boehly manipulated and misused California’s nonprofit laws. It says the Golden Globe Foundation, established as the successor to the HFPA’s philanthropic arm, was used to drive down the price of the acquisition, and that it functions a de facto extension of the for-profit entity established by Penske and Boehly, Globes LLC.

“This latest act of duplicity is a new low, even for the HFPA,” the Golden Globes statement said in response. “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.”

The statement adds, “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 lawsuit seeks at least $150 million in damages and asks the court to cancel the agreement to dissolve the HFPA.