Just when you thought the Golden Globes had learned their lesson, another mess pops up.
This time, it involves Clint Eastwood. Last week, an “interview” conveniently appeared just in time for the legend’s 95th birthday. It made headlines across the globe—Eastwood, supposedly, slamming Hollywood’s obsession with sequels and reboots: “Do something new or stay at home.”
Except, he never said that. Not recently, anyway.
Turns out, the piece was stitched together using years-old quotes by a longtime member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The article was published in Austria’s Kurier and got picked up internationally, including by Variety. The kicker? Variety is owned by Penske Media—yes, the same Penske Media that now owns the Golden Globes after rescuing them from irrelevance.
Eastwood’s camp quickly called it out. They went to Deadline (also Penske-owned) and set the record straight: Clint hasn’t spoken to Kurier, or anyone, for an interview recently. “The interview is entirely phony,” he said.
As for the author, Elisabeth Sereda, she claims the quotes were pulled from pressers she attended with Eastwood—some going back years. A bit of journalistic time travel, apparently.
The irony here? All of this—Kurier interview, Variety publishing, Deadline damage control—unfolded within the same corporate family. That’s the kind of media incest the Globes have become infamous for.
Sereda, by the way, was one of the HFPA members Penske kept around after taking over. But the contract keeping her there? Recently voided. Just another chapter in the never-ending circus that is the Golden Globes.