Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - And the Loser Is... the Golden Globes

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

The Golden Globes are this Sunday, and out of all the picks for the best dramas of the year, the biggest drama might actually be… the Golden Globes themselves. Today, Nicole unpacks why the Golden Globes were almost canceled in every sense of the word, and the gigantic money trail behind the operation. Plus, Nicole spills the tea on how much actresses spend for glam and it is... insanity.

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To get started, visit bofa.com slash newprosmedia. That's B-O-F-A dot com slash N-E-W pros, P-R-O-S, media. Bofa.com slash newprosmedia. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Well, the Golden Globes are this Sunday, and out of all the picks for best drama of the year, the biggest drama might actually be the Golden Globes themselves. In recent years, with streaming and social media coming into the mix, the traditional award show format is looking a little stale and boring. Last year, the Golden Globes flopped. It was a Tuesday, after all, which is low-key embarrassing for any awards show that's

competing with the Oscars. But just like it takes 10 years to be an overnight success, the Golden Globes wasn't an overnight dumpster fire. So I'm going to unpack how the Golden Globes got here, why it was almost canceled, and the big transformation that might just save the future of the show. But even though the Golden Globes has been a bit of a mess, it's still a gigantic money machine. Not necessarily a money-making machine, but the amount of money exchanged by actors, chefs, drivers, security, producers, jewelers, tailors is staggering. So I'm also going to give you a picture of the Golden Globes by the numbers.

But let's start with the drama and why the Golden Globes are almost cancelled in every sense of the word. Now, let's be honest. The Golden Globes have always kind of been the ugly duckling of the awards season. The Golden Globes celebrate excellence in TV and film, but still don't carry as much notoriety as the Oscars or the Emmys. I mean, the G in EGOT stands for Grammy after all, not Golden Globes. The Golden Globes was founded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1943. It was a nonprofit organization of journalists who reported on the American entertainment industry. And I say it was because this June, the Hollywood Foreign

Press shut down for good. Now, the Hollywood Foreign Press has been accused countless times of giving awards based on bribes. In fact, this year The Golden Globes is being aired on CBS for the first time since 1982. The reason CBS dropped the show in the first place was, wait for it, because of conflict of interest allegations. In 1982, the New Star of the Year award was given to Pia Zadora, and if you are thinking, wait, who is that? That was kind of the problem. It is widely rumored that the Hollywood foreign press voted for her because her billionaire Wall Street tycoon husband had given voters luxurious strips and gifts.

Decades later, not a lot has changed. In 2019, for example, 30 Hollywood foreign press members were flown to France to visit the set of Emily in Paris. 30! Mon dieu, that's a whole lot of plane tickets! Two years later, Emily in Paris was nominated for two Golden Globes, while shows with more critical acclaim were noticeably ignored. In 2021, the LA Times compiled a scathing list of all of these accusations and broke the fact that there weren't any black members in the organization. For obvious reasons, this upset a lot of people and the

2021 Golden Globes were super awkward. So after the awards in 2021, the Hollywood Foreign Press hired a new strategic diversity advisor and promised that at least 13% of members would be Black. They also established a new code of conduct, they banned gifts, they instituted a hotline for reporting misconduct, and they put a limitation on travel. But then, emails from a member, Philip Burke, were leaked. In those emails, Burke called Black Lives Matter, quote, a racist hate movement. To make matters worse, Burke was an eight-term president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. So with a guy like Burke at the helm, people started to think

that the fact that all members were white was not by mistake, but by design. So needless to say, the diversity consultant jumped ship, as did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's crisis communications firm, which is never a good sign. It's like that scene in Titanic when the band starts playing. We all know the ship is going down. But actually, the mess got even worse. Netflix, Amazon Studios, Warner Media, and about 100 high-profile publicists said they would boycott the foreign press until there was real change. After that, it was impossible for the production team behind the show to find any celebrities who wanted to be presenters at the

show. And then for the cherry on top, NBC, who had been airing the televised Golden Globes since 1996, said it would end the partnership. Now, the Hollywood foreign press would tell you that the Golden Globes kind of happened in 2022, but they really didn't. There was no show. There was no televised component. There were a few private parties, but as Deadline put it, it was basically a press conference. So in early 2022, it was looking like the Golden Globes was done-zo. But the end of the Golden Globes would mean losing a big chunk of business for the team that produced the awards show for decades. And that is Dick Clark Productions.

So that year, the Golden Globes IP was purchased by Eldridge Industries. It's a holding company that owns Dick Clark Productions. They essentially split the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's operations into two organizations. A new for-profit company, Golden Globes LLC, and then they spun the philanthropic efforts into a new nonprofit called the Golden Globes Foundation. When Eldridge took over the Golden Globes, the first thing they did was make the members salaried employees. So previously, the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press who voted on who would win the Golden Globes were not paid for their work. They were journalists who made money reporting on entertainment,

and voting for the Golden Globes was just an extracurricular activity. Eldridge leadership said they chose to give members a good salary, $75,000 a year, because they thought it would make members less likely to accept monetary gifts from people vying for awards. However, there are some who say it was quite the opposite, that this salary will more significantly influence who members will vote for. And to give some fuel to that particular speculation fire, Eldridge owns production companies like A24. The first year Eldridge bought the Golden Globes, lo and behold,

A24 had the second most nominations in the film categories. But regardless, this change of management was enough to make the entertainment world hold a little more hope that the Golden Globes wouldn't be so problematic. So NBC agreed to a one-year contract to air the show in 2023, and the new and improved show managed to get some A-list celebrities back to attend. But they couldn't shake all of the controversy. They chose Jared Carmichael, a Black comedian, to host the show and give a literal speech on the stage about how taking the job was a moral racial dilemma. Even after that debacle, NBC actually wasn't against being the television partner for the 2024 awards, but the network had already scheduled an NFL game for January 7th, which is why you can watch the Golden Globes this Sunday on CBS. Interestingly, CBS had initially

said no to broadcasting the show, as did Netflix and Amazon Prime. So beyond just knowing how many awards Barbie is going to take home this year, the whole entertainment world is kind of waiting to find out whether the Golden Globes will have better viewership in 2024, which in turn affects how profitable it can be from advertising. But as I mentioned before, even if the Golden Globes isn't a big moneymaker, there is still a lot of money in and around the awards. Here's the financial picture of the big night in numbers. $20 million-ish. That's the estimated cost for producing the whole Golden Globes shebang.

Now, the Hollywood foreign press never put their financials out publicly, so we can only speculate how much the Golden Globes actually cost. But GQ used the Oscars as a proxy, and the Oscars spent $22 million on the 2016 awards show. Some of the line items to add up to that $22 million are $100K for each of the show's producers, $250K for security, $1.50 per square foot of the red carpet, so let's call it $25k. It's estimated that Wolfgang Puck spends $55,000 on food for the after show meal, and $20,000 of that is just for chocolate. True story. And I love that for him. There's also the venue fee, which is never disclosed, but we can expect it to be hefty. It's like what people say about wedding venues.

Even if you just think the word wedding, your quote doubles. Well, if you say the words Golden Globes, I can only assume that those pricing premiums play by wedding venue rules. And then there's the question of the host's fee. And that could vary by a couple of zeros And then there's the question of the host's fee. And that could vary by a couple of zeros depending on who's hosting. But when Jared Carmichael hosted, he said he was getting paid 500 grand. My guess, although I don't know this for sure, is that that number was higher than average because there was so much controversy and it was a tough slot to fill. Vanity Fair

reported that when Amy Poehler and Tina Fey hosted the Golden Globes, they were paid, quote, low six figures. Interestingly, The Hollywood Reporter says that the Oscars pay their hosts between $20,000 and $35,000, so potentially a tenth of what the Golden Globes hosts make. I guess it's sort of like the Super Bowl. The halftime performers don't do it for the money. They do it because it's such a big platform, which is just another indication that the Oscars has much better street cred than the Golden Globes. Of course, using the Oscars as a proxy for spending on food and security is not a perfect comparison because the Academy Awards

hosts around 1,500 guests and the Golden Globes hosts around 1,200 guests, which is why GQ put their estimate for the Golden Globes at around $20 million and not $22 mil. But what the Globes lacks in headcount, it makes up for in gold. Literally. According to jewelry experts, one Golden Globes statue costs around $2,000 a pop to make, while experts estimate that the Oscars statuettes cost around half of that. Here's the next number, $60 million. That's what it historically costs networks in licensing fees to air the Golden Globes. At the peak of the partnership, NBC was paying $60 million to air the show. Now, with all of the controversy over the last few years and the abysmal viewership last year, we can only assume that CBS did not pay $60 million

to get the contract. But still, if Eldridge is paying $20 million to make the show, even if CBS is getting a 50% discount, Eldridge would still make a $10 million profit. I wouldn't turn that down. Next up, $44,300. That's the cost it takes an actress to get ready for the Golden Globes, according to Harper's Bazaar. Now, that's not the cost to the actress, necessarily. I'll give you an example. Apparently, when a brand sends a dress to an actress to wear for an event, they typically also send a tailor to go with the actress to make any last-minute adjustments or alterations. And that means paying for the tailor's time, plane ticket, hotel room, and so on. But Nicole Kidman isn't paying Chanel for their tailor.

Chanel is paying for their tailor out of pocket because an A-list celebrity is wearing Chanel on the red carpet, and that is great publicity for the brand. So when I say $44,000 is the total cost for the look, it's just the amount of money exchanging hands and not necessarily the amount the celebrity is paying. The other expenses that go into the five-figure sticker price, $10,500 for a celeb stylist, $20,000 for security and insurance for the jewelry, $6K for hair, $5K for glam, a few hundred bucks for nails. What's missing from this list is the cost of what they wear, because that is often loaned to the stylist for free because, again, good publicity. So just to really hammer this point home, an actress will spend $44,000, and that is not even including the dress, the shoes, the jewelry, because all of that

is free. What a world. Lastly, $500,000. Any guesses on what this number is? That is the total cost for getting a movie nominated. This is the fact that totally shatters the illusion of what the awards process is supposed to be. But yes, there are specialist agencies whose sole function is to get films and TV shows nominated for awards. They do those for-your-consideration campaigns on billboards and YouTube ads, among other things. It's estimated that this service fee is $500k to get nominated for the Golden Globes, while a specialist agency would charge between $5mil and $8mil to get a film nominated for an Oscar. Okay, I know I just spent a long time dunking on the Golden Globes,

but I should say, when they do it right, they do it right. Their mission is to celebrate the most phenomenal film and TV of the year, and their nominees are nothing short of phenomenal. And I'm actually going to share an interview with the woman behind one of those phenomenal stories tomorrow. On Eminem's podcast Moneymaker, Nellie Galan chats with Diana Nyad, the legendary swimmer who is, no surprises here, the inspiration behind the movie Nyad. The two main actresses in the film, Annette Bening, playing Diana, and Jodie Foster, playing Diana's coach Bonnie, are nominated for Golden Globe Awards. And even better than their performance is Diana in her own words. So don't forget to tune in.

For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. You don't have to be an award-winning actress to get clothes for free. If you have an event, a wedding, a conference, or anything coming up, just reach out to a brand and say word for word, do you have any press samples that I could pull? Sure, you won't be able to get a fancy Vera Wing wedding dress for free, but a lot of times small or local brands have clothing that they use in press shoots or photo shoots that they have available to borrow. And if you can make a good case for why it would help the brand to give you something for free, like you'll wear the suit at a conference on stage in front of a lot of business people with money burning holes in their pockets, you too might get the Nicole Kidman discount.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.