Though once again televised, Golden Globes are still disastrous

The 80th annual Golden Globe Awards recently took place on January 10, and the controversy surrounding the ceremony has continued to grow. This year’s award show was held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, with many notable figures within the entertainment industry in attendance.

This year’s televised ceremony comes merely a year after numerous boycotts and cancellations resulted in the 79th annual Golden Globes of 2022 not airing on TV.

A multitude of actors, industry professionals and media companies called out the organization behind the awards show, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), for a lack of diversity within its membership.

This caused the Golden Globes’ regular broadcaster, NBC, to decline to air the event. Instead, the ceremony took place privately with few in attendance and the winners being announced via press release.

In previous years, the awards ceremony has been outwardly mocked by many within the industry, even on its own stage. While hosting the event five times including in 2016 and in 2020, Ricky Gervais called the infamous awards show worthless, stating that the award is just a bit of metal given to actors so that members of the HFPA can meet them and take a selfie with them.

Additionally, actor Brendan Fraser told GQ magazine in 2018 that the former HFPA president, Philip Berk, had sexually assaulted him in 2003. This led to Fraser boycotting the awards show this year by not attending, even though he was nominated for best actor in a drama for his leading role in "The Whale."

While the awards show has been battling rumors surrounding a multitude of financial and ethical conflicts for years, the HFPA opened up in September about its board of voters and its increased efforts to reform the archaic institution.

In a press release sent out the same day as the Golden Globes nominations, the HFPA announced that their voter board is now comprised of 200 members, with 22.3 percent of voting members being Latino, 13.6 percent being Black, 11.7 percent being Asian and 10.7 percent being Middle Eastern. Additionally, the organization claims to be working closely with the NAACP as well as inputting new policies to rid of ethical conflicts.

While the HFPA promises that positive changes are being made internally, it has already ruined the reputation of both the organization and the Golden Globes as a whole. This is in part why NBC agreed to bring the Golden Globes back to television this year under a one-year agreement.

Though the prestige of the Golden Globes has been permanently tainted by the controversies, many actors and prominent figures in Hollywood still consider receiving a Golden Globe as a major career goal.

Additionally, many notable industry figures appeared at the awards show, some of which won awards for their roles. Stars like Jenna Ortega, Selena Gomez, Donald Glover, Austin Butler, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Quinta Brunson and more walked on the Golden Globes red carpet before the event began.

Notable winners of the night include Austin Butler for his leading role in Baz Luhrmann’s "Elvis," Michelle Yeoh for her starring role in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Angela Bassett for her supporting role in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Jennifer Coolidge for her supporting role in "The White Lotus" and Quinta Brunson for her leading role in "Abbott Elementary."

While many of the wins and nominations were greatly deserved and widely agreed upon, Evan Peters faced heaps of backlash for winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie for his role as Jeffrey Dahmer in Netflix’s "Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story."

Shirley Hughes, the mother of Dahmer victim Tony Hughes, called out the HFPA for awarding Peters for his role in the show.

"There's a lot of sick people around the world," Hughes told TMZ. "And people winning acting roles from playing killers keeps the obsession going, and this makes sick people thrive on the fame."

Additionally, she reprimanded Peters for not acknowledging or paying tribute to the victims or their families in his acceptance speech. Hughes also revealed that Dahmer’s victims and their families have never received any money from the numerous shows and documentaries that have been made about the infamous serial killer.

"It's a shame that people can take our tragedy and make money," she said. "The victims never saw a cent. We go through these emotions every day."

It is widely known that Hollywood is a messy and sometimes disturbing place, and the entertainment industry takes a serious toll on those who are a part of it because it is highly glamorized and disguised.

It's extremely important that we continue to call out the malevolent behaviors occurring within the industry — especially in one that obstructs our society from continued progress, empathy and inclusivity.