Golden Globes To Proceed This Weekend Without Celebrity Presenters

Imagine hosting a Hollywood awards show and no movie or TV stars show up. That’s the existential crisis facing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) Sunday when the time comes to hand out the 79th annual Golden Globes.

What Happened: According to a Variety report, the HFPA was unable to secure the services of any celebrity to host or present the awards at this weekend’s event. In a letter sent to several Hollywood-based public relations agencies, the HFPA insisted there will be a show-must-go-on approach to the awards despite a conspicuous absence of star power.

“The event this year will celebrate and honor a variety of diverse, community-based programs that empower inclusive filmmakers and journalists to pursue their storytelling passions,” the letter said. “The HFPA has financially supported important underserved organizations for decades and will continue to invest in the future leaders of our industry.”

This year’s awards event got off to a very shaky start when the nominees were announced on Dec. 13. The HFPA was unable to recruit any film or television actor to read the nominations and, instead, brought in rapper and cannabis entrepreneur Snoop Doog, who created a wave of good humor on social media by mispronouncing the names of nominees Ben Affleck, director Denis Villeneuve and Irish actor Ciarán Hinds.

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What Happens Next: It is uncertain if anyone will be able to see the awards presentation — no television news network will broadcast the nominations announcement, which was livestreamed on the HFPA’s YouTube channel.

Comcast’s CMCSA NBC unit has the broadcast rights to the awards show, but it dropped the event from its line-up in the wake of several controversies including a Los Angeles Times report on the lack of Black members within the HFPA and charges of influence peddling to gain nomination for Netflix’s NFLX series “Emily in Paris.”

The HFPA has since added 21 new members to help diversify its ranks and overhauled its bylaws to ensure more transparency.

This weekend is not the first time that the Golden Globes will be absent from network television. The event was not telecast between 1969 and 1972 and was seen on the limited-reach chain of Metromedia-owned stations from 1973 to 1977.

Photo: Screenshot from the Golden Globes' livestream of Snoop Dogg announcing the award nominations on Dec. 13.