The Hollywood Foreign Press Association filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against Penske Media Corporation, accusing the company of using a fraudulent scheme to seize control of the Golden Globe Awards and dismantle the organization that had run the show for roughly 80 years.
The suit, filed in the Central District of California by the law firm Kasowitz LLP, names Penske Media chief Jay Penske, the Golden Globe Foundation and former HFPA general counsel Gregory Goeckner as defendants and seeks damages exceeding $150 million.
According to the complaint, Penske and billionaire associate Todd Boehly used trade publications under Penske’s control to fuel a boycott of the HFPA beginning around 2021, a campaign the suit claims was designed to devalue the organization and make it vulnerable to takeover.
The HFPA came under intense industry scrutiny that year after a Los Angeles Times investigation found the group had no Black members among its voting body, prompting NBC to drop its Golden Globes broadcast in 2022 and touching off a wider boycott from studios and publicists. The HFPA subsequently adopted reforms before agreeing to sell the awards show to Penske-owned Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge in 2023.
The lawsuit alleges HFPA members were misled about what they would receive in that sale, including promises of lifetime voting rights and lifetime tickets to the ceremony that the suit says Penske later reneged on, extending those guarantees only to members who met additional conditions. It further claims that deal terms were altered after closing to direct a $27.5 million gift, representing the 2023 ceremony’s full profits, to Eldridge without proper approval from HFPA board members.
The complaint also contends that Penske’s control extends well beyond the Golden Globes, pointing to his ownership stakes in other major awards shows, including the Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Awards, alongside trade outlets such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Rolling Stone and Billboard that sell advertising tied to awards campaigns.
A spokesperson for Penske Media and the Golden Globes denied the allegations, characterizing the suit as a continuation of “absurdity and irrationality” from what the company called the “defunct organization formerly known as the HFPA.” The company has not detailed further legal plans in response.
The dispute revives long-simmering tensions over how the Globes changed hands after its diversity scandal. Under Penske’s ownership, the ceremony was restructured with a larger, more traditional voting body of entertainment journalists replacing the HFPA’s smaller membership, a shift that drew mixed reactions from industry observers watching the awards show rebuild its standing.
