Golden Globes host left HFPA members “uncomfortable” with opening monologue

Comedian Jerrod Carmichael’s opening Golden Globes monologue made members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association “uncomfortable” and took the “fun” out of the Golden Globes by focusing on the show’s complicated history with minorities and the recent controversy that caused the show to not air last year.

He half-joked about his own role hosting the show as a comedian who had been selected because of his race to become “the black face of a embattled white organization.”

“It was all so awkward and awkward,” a source said. the hollywood reporter.

“The show is supposed to be funny, and it didn’t feel funny,” said another, due to the tone and subject matter of Carmichael’s monologue.

He added that he had been asked multiple times to meet with HFPA President Helen Hoehne after taking the job, for which he also joked that he was paid a whopping $500,000.

Carmichael said he felt the meeting with Hoehne would be a “set up.”

the hollywood reporter indicated that Hoehne was left puzzled and “shaken” by her name being so prominently reviewed at the top of the show, and had to be comforted at the ballroom bar.

A source with ties to the HFPA told DailyMail.com that she denied reports that she was “upset” or “comforted at the bar”.

“Those who were actually with Hoehne during the monologue, sitting at her table, deny any preposterous claim that she was moved by what was said onstage,” the source said.

Another source told the Hollywood Reporter that the entire incident was fabricated and that it is “disappointing and mystifying that people are taking this approach to try to hurt Helen.”

“It doesn’t accurately reflect the resilient, positive and effective leader that she is.”

Last Tuesday night, Carmichael opened the 80th annual Golden Globe Awards by telling the audience that he had only been invited to host “because I’m black.”

This show, the Golden Globes, didn’t air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which I won’t say was a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single black member until George Floyd died. [in 2020]. So, do with that information what you want,’ she said.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Helen Hoehne last Tuesday night at the 80th annual Golden Globe Awards and the first to air since 2021.

This show, the Golden Globes, didn’t air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association…didn’t have a single black member until George Floyd died. [in 2020]. So, do with that information what you want,’ Carmichael said during his monologue.

The Globes’ fall from grace came slowly and then with a bang, when last year, mired in allegations of sexual misconduct among its leadership and accusations of an endemic culture of gong giveaways, the show was yanked off the air.

In 2018, actor Brendan Fraser came forward to claim that 88-year-old former HFPA president Philip Berk assaulted him at an HFPA luncheon in 2003 by grabbing his buttocks. Berk called the story “a total fabrication.”

In 2019, the nonprofit organization was criticized for failing to nominate any female directors for the awards despite the critical and box office success of Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.

In 2020, a Norwegian journalist sued the HFPA over a “culture of corruption” in which members accepted “thousands of dollars in emoluments” from the very studios they awarded gongs to. A federal judge dismissed the case ruling that plaintiff Kjersti Flaa suffered no harm.

Last year, the LA Times revealed that none of the HFPA’s 87 members were black, leading to the recruitment of 21 new members. Six of the new recruits are black, 10 are women, six are Latino, five are Asian and four are from the Middle East or North Africa, according to the Globes.

Berk was also back in the spotlight in April, ousted from the organization for allegedly calling Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement” in an email.

However, the Globes new take on political correctness may not ultimately be working in favor of the awards show.

What was previously considered the funniest night in the industry during awards season drew a paltry 5.3 million viewers, a 23 percent decrease from its 2021 viewership figure.