The Golden Globes, once again, are engulfed in chaos.
On Thursday, all but one member of what remains of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association voted to remove Helene Hoehne, their public-facing president. It's a shocking move that signals a revolt from within — and yet, totally on-brand for an organization that’s spent years veering from scandal to scandal.
This latest mess stems from the supposed 2023 “sale” of the Globes to Todd Boehly and Jay Penske — two media moguls whose fingers are in just about every pie in Hollywood media. They claimed to have dissolved the HFPA, offering its members paid roles to stick around in a new for-profit version of the show. One year later, those payments reportedly stopped. That’s when everything began to unravel.
According to The Ankler, the transaction may never have been formally approved by the California Attorney General. That technicality has now become the weapon used by HFPA members to dismantle the whole arrangement.
It gets stickier: Boehly and Penske also control Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Globes, and they signed a multi-year deal with CBS based on the premise that the HFPA — and all its baggage — had been eliminated. Now? That deal could be in jeopardy. The supposed “clean” version of the Globes may no longer exist.
This latest implosion suggests the old HFPA never really went away — just hid behind a new coat of paint. With the core group of members now reclaiming power, and the show’s production structure up in the air, the whole operation looks dangerously close to collapse.
There’s no telling what CBS will do. The 2025 broadcast is still technically on the calendar, but with the Globes' legal and leadership status murky at best, it’s not hard to imagine the network reconsidering. What’s clear is this: the Golden Globes name still carries weight — not because of credibility, but because of legacy branding. And that’s what everyone’s fighting over now. Not the mission, not the ethics, but the trademark.
A messy summer is brewing. Get ready for lawsuits, finger-pointing, and a Hollywood power struggle worthy of a miniseries. The 2026 ceremony is in total limbo.
It’s now been 13 years since "The Grandmaster,” and it doesn’t sound like Wong Kar-wai will be making another film in the near future. His future seems to be on the small screen.