FIRST ROUND LEGAL VICTORY FOR THE HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION IN THEIR LITIGATION WITH FORMER PUBLICIST MICHAEL RUSSELL
HOLLYWOOD, CA, May 16, 2011 – Judge Kevin Brazile of the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled Wednesday, May 11, 2011, in favor of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) in the action brought against it and President Philip Berk by their former outside publicist, Michael Russell (MRG-CINEPOINT/CASE #BC453017).
When the HFPA did not renew Russell’s contract, he sued the Golden Globes organization for defamation and interference with their ability to retain and recruit clients. These claims, the most critical of Mr. Berk personally, were stricken pursuant to the so-called anti-SLAPP law which protects the right to free speech.
According to the HFPA’s counsel, Joseph Campo of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith, “As most of the remaining claims concern employment issues, we are confident that we will remove them by demurrer or motion for summary judgment. This baseless complaint will not reach the jury.”
About the Hollywood Foreign Press Association:
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was founded in the 1940s by Los Angeles based overseas journalists who sought to bridge the international community with Hollywood. Today, members of the HFPA represent 55 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world’s most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe Awards®, which have enabled the organization to donate more than $12 million thus far to entertainment related charities and scholarship programs. For more information, please visit www.goldenglobes.org, and follow us on Twitter (@goldenglobes) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/goldenglobes) for exclusive celebrity videos and up to the minute Golden Globes news!
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Press Contacts:
Ken Sunshine/Michael Samonte
Sunshine, Sachs & Associates
goldenglobes@sunshinesachs.com
323.822.9300
Read More »HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ELECTION OF THREE NEW MEMBERS
Kirpi Uimonen Ballesteros, Barbara Gasser and Mirai Konishi Join the HFPA
HOLLYWOOD, CA, May 9, 2011 – Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) President, Philip Berk, announced today that three journalists have been elected as new members of the organization: Kirpi Uimonen Ballesteros, Barbara Gasser and Mirai Konishi.
Ballesteros, who writes for the Ilta-Sanomat, Kouluainen, and Suosikki (Finland), Gasser, who writes for M-Starmedia Verlag and Maxima (Austria), and Konishi, who writes for CUT and eiga.com (Japan), were voted in at the membership meeting on May 6, 2011. The three new members join the association’s current roster of 82 active members.
About the Hollywood Foreign Press Association:
Founded in the 1940s during World War II, the HFPA was originally comprised of a handful of LA based overseas journalists who sought to bridge the international community with Hollywood, and to provide distraction from the hardships of war through film. Sixty-eight years later, members of the HFPA represent 55 countries with a combined readership of 250 million in some of the world’s most respected publications. Each year, the organization holds the third most watched awards show on television, the Golden Globe Awards, which have enabled the organization to donate more than $12 million to entertainment related charities and scholarship programs. For more information, please visit www.goldenglobes.org, and follow us on Twitter (@goldenglobes) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/goldenglobes) for exclusive celebrity videos and up to the minute Golden Globes news!
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Press Contacts:
Keleigh Thomas/Michael Samonte
Sunshine, Sachs & Associates
goldenglobes@sunshinesachs.com
323.822.9300
Read More »HFPA ANNOUNCES TIMETABLE FOR THE 69th ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARDS
HOLLYWOOD, CA, April 28, 2011 – Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) President, Philip Berk, announced today the timetable for “The 69th Annual Golden Globe® Awards.”
The deadline for Motion Picture and Television submissions is Friday, November 4. Nominations will be announced Thursday, December 15. Rules and submission forms may be obtained online at www.goldenglobes.org/entryforms/index.html.
Read More »Golden Globes Keeps a Genre Alive
By Philip Berk
If we go back half century, long before the emergence of the blockbuster, when moviegoing was an essential part of American life, we discover an amazing fact: the one genre that consistently attracted the biggest audiences was musicals.
In the forties, the musicals of Bing Crosby, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and Betty Grable were consistently among the top money earners.
In the fifties and sixties musicals still dominated but essentially they were Broadway adaptations (South Pacific, Funny Girl, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, and The Music Man) not surprisingly the work of composers who cut their teeth working in Hollywood.
And during those years no less than three best picture Oscars and Golden Globes went to musicals: West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and of course The Sound of Music.
But then in the seventies they almost completely disappeared. Fortunately the Hollywood Foreign Press had created a separate category for musicals/comedies in 1952. The first movie to win that Golden Globe was a Hollywood original, American in Paris. (Unfortunately the following year that honor went to With a Song in My heart, not Singing in the Rain generally considered the best musical of all time. But even the Academy overlooked that one.) But the rest of the decade went to Hollywood versions of Broadway hits. Thus began the steady decline of the Hollywood musical, which reached its nadir in mid 70s when musicals more or less disappeared.
Why? You could blame it on rock ‘n roll, MTV, or the changing public taste. But thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. the genre was kept alive. During that period best picture Golden Globes were awarded to Coalminer’s Daughter, Yentl, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Evita.
But in the twenty years following Hello Dolly! which at the time of its release (1969) was mourned as the last of the expensive studio musicals, there were but a handful of screen musicals, among them, Man of La Mancha (a resounding flop) Paint Your Wagon, Finian’s Rainbow, Mame, and The Wiz, all sorry failures. And one blockbuster Grease, which even though it was based on a Broadway musical, derived its success not from the genre but from its star, the overnight phenomenon, John Travolta.
But then with he new millennium there was an unexpected resurgence of the musical starting with Moulin Rouge, and quickly followed by Chicago, Dreamgirls and Sweeney Todd, all Golden Globe best picture winners. Hopefully the musical will continue to thrive…
One final irony, almost every musical currently playing on Broadway is adapted from old movies including Catch Me if You Can, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Billy Elliot, La Cage au Folles, Mary Poppins, The Addams Family, and Phantom of the Opera.
What comes round goes round.
Read More »HFPA MAKES DONATION TO JAPAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced a donation of a quarter of a million dollars to the International Rescue Committee to help aid relief in Japan following the devastating 8.9 earthquake and tsunami.
On behalf of all HFPA members, president Philip Berk said: “What happened to Japan is unimaginable. We hope that our contribution will help those affected during this difficult time.”
If you like to learn more about the International Rescue Committee, just visit the http://www.rescue.org link.
Read More »YOUNG ARTIST FOUNDATION RECOGNIZES THE YOUNG AND TALENTED
On Sunday March 13, 2011 the 32nd annual Young Artist Awards were held in Studio City, California. This year’s winners in the Feature Film categories include Joey King (“Ramona and Beezus”) for Best Leading Young Actress 10 and under, and for Young Ensemble Cast:Laine MacNeil, Robert Capron and Karan Brar (“Diary of a Wimpy Kid”).
Launched in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press Association member Maureen Dragone, the Young Artist Foundation recognizes young talent often overlooked in other awards shows and offers scholarships for young artists in need.
The HFPA proudly donates to this and other non-profit organizations that support the arts.
For a complete list of 2011 winners go to http://www.youngartistwards.org
Read More »JAPAN EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI RELIEF
Yesterday, a reader pointed out why this blog did not link to any organizations which help the people of Japan following the devastating 8.9 earthquake and tsunami.
Good point. Therefore, here is the official list of all non-for-profit organizations which currently help those in need.
Before making any donation, however, please check out their websites.
Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)
Donations: 800-424-ADRA (2372)
Donations address: ADRA International, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring MD 20904
Website: http://www.adra.org
All Hands Volunteers
Donations: 919-830-3573
Donations address: PO Box 546, Carlisle MA 01741
Website: http://www.hands.org/donate/japan-tsunami
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Donations: 212-687-6200
Donations address: 132 E. 43rd St PO Box 530, New York NY 10017
Website: http://jdc.org
American Red Cross
Donations: 1-800-RED-CROSS
Donations address: PO Box 37243, Washington DC 20013
Website: http://www.redcross.org
AmeriCares
Donations: 203-658-9500
Donations address: 88 Hamilton Ave, Stamford CT 06902
Website: http://americares.org
Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT)
Donations: 301-738-7122
Donations address: AMURT, 2502 Lindley Ter, Rockville MD 20850
Website: http://amurt.us
Baptist World Alliance/Baptist World Aid
Donations: 703-790-8980
Donations address: 405 N. Washington St, Falls Church VA 22046
Website: http://www.bwanet.org
Brother’s Brother Foundation
Donations: 412-321-3160
Donations address: 1200 Galveston Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15233
Website: http://brothersbrother.org
Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation
Donations: 1-888-989-8244
Donations address: Tzu Chi USA HQ, 1100 S Valley Center Ave, San Dimas CA 91773
Website: http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/other/donateCharity
Catholic Relief Services
Donations: 1-877-HELP-CRS
Donations address: PO Box 17090, Baltimore MD 21203-7090
Website: http://crs.org
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Donations: 800-55-CRWRC
Donations address: CRWRC, 2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE, Grand Rapids MI 49560-0600
Website: http://www.crwrc.org
Church World Service
Donations: 1-800-297-1516
Donations address: PO Box 968, Elkhart IN 46515
Website: http://www.churchworldservice.org
Direct Relief International
Donations: 805-964-4767
Donations address: 27 S. La Patera Ln, Santa Barbara CA 93117
Website: http://www.DirectRelief.org
Giving Children Hope
Donations: 714-523-4454
Donations address: 8332 Commonwealth Ave, Buena Park CA 90621
Website: http://gchope.org
Habitat for Humanity International
Donations: 1-800-Habitat
Donations address: 270 Peachtree St NW Suite 1300, Atlanta GA 30303-1263
Website: http://habitat.org
International Medical Corps
Donations: 800-481-4462
Donations address: 1919 Santa Monica Blvd Suite 400, Santa Monica CA 90404
Website: http://internationalmedicalcorps.org
International Rescue Committee
Donations: 1-877-REFUGEE (733-8433)
Donations address: 122 E. 42nd St, New York NY 10168
Website: http://www.rescue.org
Mercy Corps
Donations: 800-852-2100
Donations address: Dept. NR, PO Box 2669, Portland OR 97208
Website: http://www.mercycorps.org/donate/japan
Operation Blessing
Donations: 800-730-2537
Donations address: 977 Centerville Tpke, Virginia Beach VA 23463
Website: http://www.operationblessing.org
Relief International
Donations: 310-478-1200
Donations address: 5455 Wilshire Blvd Suite 1280, Los Angeles CA 90036
Website: http://www.ri.org
Save the Children
Donations: 1-800-728-3843
Donations address: 54 Wilton Rd, Westport CT 06880
Website: http://savethechildren.org
World Vision, U.S.
Donations: 1-800-777-5777
Donations address: Federal Way, WA 98063
Website: http://www.worldvision.org
Robert Altman Honored
“COME BACK TO THE FIVE & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN” RESTORED WITH HFPA FUNDING
Cher always considered it her best work in film, still a trove full of her fondest memories as an actress. On March 3rd, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive will present the restored version of Robert Altman‘s 1982 classic “Come to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, his big screen adaptation of Ed Graczyk’s play. The film, beautifully polished and re-mastered thanks to the generous funding of Martin Scorsese‘s The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is part of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation. Kathryn Altman will attend the premiere along with Karen Black, who acted in the all-girls cast along with Cher, Sandy Dennis and Kathy Bates, among others.
The restoration of Altman’s ode to middle-aged women is just the first step in a longer and larger project to preserve Mr. Altman’s entire body of work and his artistic legacy. “Come Back to the Five & Dime” tells the reunion of a group of friends at the same five-and-dime store they use to hang out in a small Texas town 20 years back, at a time when the young, sexy and already legendary actor – Dean – was shooting “The Giant”, and they founded “The James Dean Fan Club”. The women are now melancholic and jaded about life, passions, aspirations, and Altman skillfully captures their insecurities, their rants for how things turned out, their anger for all the lost opportunities.
Cher, who came back as well after many years to the big screen with the musical “Burlesque”, played the same character on stage, before being cast by Altman in the movie adaptation of “Jimmy Dean”. “I loved doing the play and I loved doing the film,” Cher said at the time of release of the movie in her Hollywood Foreign Press conference, in 1982. “I realized that singing on stage is not that different than acting on stage, and very different from television because there is not a lot of depth in television and you don’t have to go very far into yourself. To do the play and to do the film was a lot more gratifying for me because I wanted to see if I could go any further than I had always gone.” More recently she said, in talking about “Come Back to the Five & Dime”: “Altman guided us through the plot and the vagaries of the various characters like a magician wearing a hat full of tricks. His quiet sensibility inspired me, making me wanting to work more in the movies, thus becoming a better actress – a more patient one for sure.”
Read More »HFPA Continues Supporting Film Preservation
“Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time, we need to keep them alive.”
—Martin Scorsese
With the premiere of the restored version of Robert Altman’s 1982 film “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” on March 3rd at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum in Westwood, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) continues its mission to help restore some of the greatest cinema classics of our time. The late director’s film has been meticulously restored with funding by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press and is part of the 2011 UCLA Festival of Preservation.
When you consider that half the American films made before 1950 and 90% of films made before 1929 have been lost forever, film preservation has never had a more urgent need.
The Film Foundation which director Martin Scorsese founded in 1990 has been at the forefront of film preservation. The nonprofit organization provides substantial annual support for restoration and preservation at the nation’s leading film archives. Instrumental in raising awareness of the urgent need to preserve films it has helped with generous donors such as the Hollywood Foreign Press to save more than 545 films. This “hands-on” preservation ensures that these great films which are not only works of art but historical records and essential representations of our culture will survive for future generations.
Since first contributing to The Film Foundation fifteen years ago, the Hollywood Foreign Press has become a major supporter donating 3 million dollars. The grant for 2010 alone amounted to $350,000. The donations by the HFPA have contributed to the preservation of more than 75 motion pictures by such noted directors as Stanley Kubrick, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir and John Cassavetes.
“It means a great deal to us,” says Jennifer Ahn, the Managing Director of The Film Foundation. “The HFPA is so instrumental in preservation of film history. They put an enormous amount of effort and funds to this mission and it is a huge part of what The Film Foundation does. We highly value and praise the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this invaluable public service”.
Donations from the HFPA in 2004 helped restore one of 1939’s Best Picture nominees, Lewis Milestone’s “Of Mice and Men”, as well as Jean Renoir’s 1951 classic, “The River.” In 2005 the HFPA grant contributed to the restoration of Orson Welles brooding 1948 version of “Macbeth”, Nicholas Ray’s “Born to be Bad” from 1950, Otto Preminger’s searing indictment of drug addiction in his 1955 film, “The Man with the Golden Arm” and Melvin van Peebles controversial blaxploitation 70’s film ,”Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song”.
In 2006 the 1948 Technicolor masterpiece “The Red Shoes” by directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger was magnificently restored. Scorsese at the time expressed his gratitude to the input from the Hollywood Foreign Press. “There’s no question that its one of the most beautiful films ever made and those of us who love film owe the HFPA a deep debt of gratitude,” he said.
In 2007 HFPA contributions helped restore Lawrence Olivier’s 1955’s film version of “Richard III”, while in 2009 the focus turned to some of Robert Altman’s outstanding and genre bending work including his little known1969 film, “That Cold Day in the Park” and “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”.
The association between the HFPA and The Film Foundation continues with more recent preservation efforts dedicated to such landmark films as 1933’s “King Kong”, Elia Kazan’s “America America” and Michael Curtiz’s high-voltage 1950 drama “The Breaking Point”.
The grants to The Film Foundation were a significant part of the more than 12 million dollars which the Hollywood Foreign Press Association donated in the last fifteen years to entertainment related charities as well as founding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals. In the year 2010 the total donation was $ 1,541, 000, the largest ever in the organizations history.
Read More »Glee and Social Networking at The Golden Globes
By Husam “Sam” Asi
There was plenty of Glee in Hollywood where the TV show about a song-filled high school walked away with all the TV comedy awards at the Golden Globes – the first major awards ceremony of the year.
Glee team celeberate their Golden Globe
The British comedian and creator of The Office, Ricky Gervais, hosted an evening of glitz and glamour for a second successive year, opening with a nod to the increasing number of 3D films, and suggesting that the only film of the past year without 3D characters was The Tourist. This raised the question of how the film got three nominations – was it because the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association just wanted to spend the evening with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp? It certainly couldn’t be the fabled bribes, he suggested, because who would see tickets to a Cher concert as a bribe? “It’s not 1975,” he quipped.
After Gervais had started digging his comedic claws into more of Hollywood’s favorites, the evening launched with Christian Bale taking the Best Supporting Actor trophy for playing the drug-addicted brother of boxing champion Micky Ward in The Fighter. The film also picked up the prize for best supporting actress; Melissa Leo played the mother of the pair.
The top acting prizes went to Colin Firth for playing King George VI in the drama The King’s Speech, Natalie Portman for the ballet drama Black Swan, Paul Giamatti for the comedy Barney’s Version and Annette Bening for the lesbian comedy The Kids Are All Right, which also took the prize for best comedy. Best Drama went to The Social Network, which also took the prizes for best director, for David Fincher. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay for the same film also won him a Golden Globe. And the film picked up the best score, for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The HFPA’s annual awards ceremony also honors the best achievement in television, where, as in the film categories, the main prizes are handed separately to dramas and comedies. Katey Segal’s performance in Sons of Anarchy earned her the best actress award for drama. Steve Buscemi took the best acting award for Boardwalk Empire, which also won best TV drama. Glee took the prize for Best Comedy series, as well as best supporting actor in a comedy, for Chris Colfer, and Jane Lynch was the best supporting actress for the same show.
The best actress in a comedy series was Laura Linney, the star of The Big C. And Jim Parsons, from Big Bang Theory, was awarded the Golden Globe for best actor in a TV comedy.
Bridging the gap between television and films are categories for mini series and TV movies. Olivier Assayas’ biopic of the terrorist Carlos the Jackal, Carlos, won the main prize in this category, with Al Pacino taking the Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie for playing another real-life character, the euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian, in the TV movie You Don’t Know Jack. The best actress in this category went to Claire Danes for her portrayal of another real person, the Autistic Author-scientist Temple Grandin.
Other awards included Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Feature, the Danish film In A Better World took Best Foreign Language Film, Cher‘s song You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me was Best Song, for Burlesque.
The highest point of the ceremony, however, was when Robert De Niro got up on the stage to receive his Cecil B. DeMille award from Matt Damon, who said that he hadn’t heard of De Niro before he was recruited to work with him on The Good Shepherd.
The audience was treated to a three-minute montage of his best work. Subsequently, De Niro joked that this montage made him look as if he had made nothing but hits.
In their speeches, tonight’s winners expressed their gratitude to their collaborators and to The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for recognizing their work and their talent.
The Golden Globe Awards, which are considered by many in the industry as significant indicators for next month’s Oscars, are voted for by the 85 HFPA members, who also organise the ceremony and co-produce the show with Dick Clark Productions. More than 19 million tuned in to watch the show last year on NBC, and many expect the number to be even higher this year.
The Golden Globe Awards ceremony is the biggest and most glamorous event in the Hollywood calendar. Earlier, more than 200 stars from Hollywood and beyond marched along the red carpet, dressed in their finest gowns and dripping with diamond and other jewellery, as they were showered by camera flashes and their names were shouted by screaming fans.
Surrounded by so many of their peers, the stars seemed to be at ease, loitering around the ballroom or sipping drinks in the outdoor bar and chatting with colleagues and friends. In fact, the Golden Globes ceremony is one of those rare events where one bumps into stars more than into mortals. You become so used to it that I didn’t raise an eyebrow when I saw Robert De Niro in the mirror waiting behind me to wash his hands in the restroom.
Right after the ceremony, six parties, held by different studios, kick off in different venues inside the Beverly Hilton hotel, honoring their nominees and tonight’s winners.
The ceremony is over but the party has just begun. The Golden Globes event is undoubtedly the best party in town.
Read More »
