The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and their annual awards ceremony, the Golden Globes, are in some serious hot water. The organization has faced extreme criticism in recent months due to the demographics of their voting body (which includes zero Black people) as well as their general practices, and while reforms have been proposed, they haven't been well-regarded. Netflix and Amazon have all demanded further changes, Scarlett Johansson has publicly denounced them, and NBC has made the decision to cancel the broadcast of the 2022 Golden Globes. Further adding fuel to the fire, Tom Cruise has now made it known that he is returning the awards that he received from the HFPA.
According to Deadline, Cruise has had the three Golden Globe trophies he won over the course of his career brought to the headquarters of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in what appears to be an act to reject their praise and separate himself from the organization. Details of exactly how it went down are unclear, but it's obviously a bold move.
Nominated seven times since 1984, Tom Cruise won in either the Best Actor - Drama or Best Actor - Comedy categories in 1990 (Born On The Fourth Of July), 1997 (Jerry Maguire), and 2000 (Magnolia). The last time he was nominated was in 2009, at which time he was up for the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in Tropic Thunder (he lost to The Dark Knight's Heath Ledger).
It's a pretty big deal for someone with a profile as big as Tom Cruise's to reject his past association with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and it could mean bad things for the future – should major changes not be made very quickly. Obviously it's a super bad thing for the group that the Golden Globes won't be televised in 2022, but what's always been the draw for the event is seeing stars get a big sloppy in formal wear on the road to the Oscars. Even if the show comes back to the air in 2023, if it can't bring all the celebrities back as well its cache will disappear.
Will the Hollywood Foreign Press Association be able to right the ship and get their spotlight back for the Golden Globes? Or will attention shift to a different critics group? We'll have to wait and see how the story develops.
As for Tom Cruise, it's been a minute since we've last seen him on the big screen (namely in 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout), but he'll be back in theaters at the end of the year in Top Gun: Maverick, reprising the titular role. He has also completed work on the untitled Mission: Impossible 7, and is expected to go to work making Mission: Impossible 8 in the months ahead.
