If Not Golden, Globes Still Have Luster

When a group of international journalists first met on a studio sound stage in 1943 and formed what would become the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., they had one big problem: Compared to American reporters, they had no clout and little access to the world they were trying to cover.

What a difference 54 years makes.

Thanks to the growing importance of international box-office receipts, today the group’s 94 members are routinely invited on lavish press junkets where A-list movie stars and directors are made available on request. And thanks to movie studios’ reliance on awards ceremonies to hype films, the group’s Golden Globes gala is becoming a bigger event each year.

On Thursday at 5 a.m., when the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announces its annual Golden Globe nominations at a star-studded ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the spotlights will be shining more brightly than ever before. For the first time, E! Entertainment Television will broadcast the Globe nominations live, just as it does the Oscar and Emmy nominations.

And on Jan. 18, when the Golden Globe winners are announced in a three-hour live telecast on NBC, ratings are expected to go through the roof. The network has aired the Globes since 1996, and each year more Americans tune in to watch. (Among last year’s entertainment specials, for example, the Globes’ ratings were second only to the Oscars.)

“Obviously, we have grown in prestige and importance--our ratings were remarkable last year,” said Philip Berk, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s president and a freelance journalist for publications from South Africa to Spain.

Part of the frenzy surrounding the Golden Globe Awards stems from their reputation as bellwethers for the Academy Awards, which are presented two months later. The two awards categories are not identical--the Globes split films into dramatic and musical/comedy categories, thus doubling the number of nominees and winners in the best picture, actor and actress categories. The Globes also honor television shows.

Still, conventional wisdom says receipt of a Globe statuette assures at least an Oscar nomination.

That premise took a few high-profile hits last year. Globe best picture/musical or comedy winner “Evita” and its star, Madonna, were two Globe winners overlooked by the academy. Also ignored were the writers of “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” who won Globes for best screenplay.

Nevertheless, history has shown that Globe winners are wise to have a speech written on Oscar night.

In the last 18 years, 13 films that won best motion picture honors at the Golden Globes went on to take the same prize at the Oscars. (That number jumps to 15 if you include two pictures that won best foreign film at the Globes before getting Oscars for best picture: “Chariots of Fire” and “Gandhi”).

The numbers are about the same for the other two most-coveted prizes--the best actor and best actress awards.

Over the years, the growing influence of the foreign press association has drawn increased scrutiny of its members and practices. Berk acknowledges that 40% of his members are not full-time journalists--a fact that has led some to question the group’s legitimacy altogether.

“Some of their members work in appliance stores or selling uniforms on Robertson Boulevard. They’re comparing themselves to academy members. It’s shameful,” said Mirjana van Blaricom, a former member who last year started an organization--the International Press Academy--that she hopes will someday knock the more established group off its perch.

The foreign press association has also been accused of excluding qualified members. Berk confirms that under the group’s bylaws, a sitting member can prevent someone from a competing publication from joining. The result, say some critics: a membership that is stagnant at best and at worst, out of touch.

But Berk defends his group.

“We have a very rigid credentials committee that scrutinizes every member,” he says, adding that everyone is required to submit four published articles each year. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all they write.”

And while Berk acknowledges that his members are graying--”We’ve lost quite a few members by virtue of old age and death this year,” he says--he points out that the group is also getting new blood. Four new members were admitted in 1997 from publications in Australia, Denmark, South Korea and the United Kingdom, he says.

Reluctant to dignify his opponents’ charges, Berk simply added: “We do have some credibility whereas other groups do not.”

Berk supports this claim with evidence that his group has recently gotten tougher with the very movie studios to whom it owes its current position. Last year, the group began enforcing a long-forgotten rule that requires a film to play at least a week in Los Angeles before year’s end to be eligible for a Golden Globe. And it has gotten stricter in its requirement that publicity interviews and screenings for the foreign press must be scheduled within a week of a film’s L.A. opening.

Even for films that opened earlier in the year, “the studios preferred to promote their films and stars in December, shortly before the deadline for nomination. We found that unacceptable,” Berk said. “We absolutely are quite rigid in terms of rules that have been laid down to protect our image.”

Recently, Berk said he received a letter from a respected director. Three months had passed since this director’s film opened in Los Angeles, but it had not been screened for the foreign press.

“He said it was an oversight and begged for special dispensation. Our membership voted against it,” Berk said. “We do have standards and we stick by them 100%.”