The 2023 Golden Globe Awards Has Found Its Host
Will Smith can slap Chris Rock all day, but it still won’t make the Academy Awards as controversial as the Golden Globe Awards. Unlike in 2022, the annual (sometimes) awards ceremony run by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will air in January 2023; with the Emmy-winning comic, actor, and writer Jerrod Carmichael hosting. Considering the scandals the Globes have suffered over the past couple of years, the choice of Carmichael is doubtless something the HFPA will be taken as a sign of real change within the organization.
Variety reported on Thursday that Carmichael had been chosen to host the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards, and as they mention the acclaimed comic is no stranger to NBC. He co-created and starred in the sitcom The Carmichael Show on the network for 3 seasons, and received an Emmy nomination this year for his guest host gig on Saturday Night Live.
Hollywood started closing ranks against the Golden Globe Awards early last year after a scathing report that, out of the 87 members of the HFPA, none of them were Black; and in fact the HFPA hadn’t included a single Black member since 2002. Once the news broke, it didn’t take long for industry heavyweights to announce they were boycotting the awards ceremony. Some stars like Tom Cruise sent their already won Golden Globes back to the HFPA in protest.
Based on what she said to The Hollywood Reporter, it seems clear the choice of Jerrod Carmichael as host of the 2023 Golden Globe Awards is part of the HFPA president Helen Hoehne’s message that “[t]his is really not the old HFPA anymore.” Since the the group first started feeling the pressure last year, Hoehne says, the HFPA has “built a new infrastructure that transformed” the group “into something that is more diverse, transparent and responsive.” She says that with the new members and voters that have brought into the HFPA; the majority of voters are women and/or “self-identify as ethnically diverse.”
She also said there “a lot of voters who self-identify as LGBTQIA+.”
The host of the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards came out publicly this year in the HBO Max comedy special Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel, which was directed by Bo Burnham. Carmichael took home the 2022 Emmy award for writing in a comedy special for Rothaniel. Choosing an acclaimed Black and gay celebrity as their next host seems to have an unambiguous message, though we know–unless they change their minds between now and January–at least some celebrities will need a lot more proof of change before they’ accept the HFPA has changed they’ll end their boycott.
One of those celebrities, unsurprisingly, is Brendan Fraser. While he’s considered a frontrunner for Best Actor nominations for both the Golden Globes and the Oscars because of his performance in The Whale, the actor says he won’t be attending the Golden Globe Awards. It was a former president of the HFPA who Fraser said groped and assaulted him in 2003.
“It’s because of the history that I have with them,” Fraser answered when asked why he’d be absent at the Golden Globe Awards. “And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”
