The saga of the Golden Globes took its most surreal turn yet this week, as the awards show's owner sued an entity with a nearly identical name, dragging one of Hollywood's longest-running institutional feuds back into the headlines.
Jay Penske's Golden Globes LLC filed a lawsuit against the Golden Globe Foundation, an entity spun out of the defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The suit is, in part, a rebuttal to a federal complaint filed in July by a group of former HFPA members against Penske and former Golden Globe Foundation CEO Gregory Goeckner, accusing the two of acting in concert to wage a multi-year scheme to acquire the Globes and dismantle the HFPA.
The fight turned especially bitter after foundation board member Raffi Boghosian and allies allegedly staged a coup and ousted Goeckner, an episode of boardroom drama previously reported over the summer. Boghosian was then elected interim CEO of the foundation. Penske's suit claims that, under Boghosian's leadership, the foundation fired Goeckner and its outside lawyers at a time when they were negotiating a trademark license with Penske's Golden Globes, and that Boghosian then directed and authorized the expansion of the foundation's use of the Golden Globe name.
The new complaint goes further, alleging the foundation and the old HFPA guard are coordinating against the Globes' current owners, meaning Penske and fellow billionaire Todd Boehly. Perhaps the most pointed allegation concerns money: Penske's suit claims that any legal settlement flowing to the foundation would redirect charitable funds meant for widows, orphans and other needy causes publicized during the telecast back to the HFPA to finance its lawsuit and other private disputes against Golden Globes LLC, an arrangement the plaintiff portrays as anything but charitable.
Penske's Golden Globes LLC is seeking an injunction barring the foundation from using its name, plus the foundation's profits, potentially trebled damages, attorneys' fees and costs. The foundation has not publicly responded to the new filing.
The dispute is the latest chapter in a saga that began with the sale of the HFPA and its awards assets in 2023, a transaction that was supposed to end decades of criticism over the voting body's ethics and lack of diversity. Instead, it has spawned years of dueling lawsuits, coups and counterclaims, turning what was meant to be a clean corporate reset into one of the entertainment industry's messiest ongoing legal dramas. With both sides now suing each other, the courts will have to decide who truly owns one of Hollywood's most famous trademarks.