Golden Globes attempts comeback, but viewers only care about Snoop Dogg

Ethan Alter

Under normal circumstances, Snoop Dogg is the person you'd most want at a big-time Hollywood party. But this year's nominations announcement for the 79th Golden Globe Awards, which considers itself to be Hollywood's biggest party, was anything but normal. With the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — the group that hands out the Globes — still under close scrutiny by the press and the entertainment industry alike for the lack of diversity in its ranks, the atmosphere around the 2022 edition is decidedly muted.

Despite that behind-the-scenes drama, the HFPA tried to get the party re-started by bringing in Snoop Dogg to emcee the reading of the nominees. His blissed-out presence alternately befuddled and delighted viewers, particularly when he pulled a John Travolta by pronouncing familiar names — like Ben Affleck — in imaginative new ways.

But the biggest surprise of this year's Golden Globes — Snoop Dogg's presence excepted — is that the ceremony is happening at all. Earlier this year, NBC, the telecast's usual broadcast home, announced that it wouldn't be airing the 2022 edition following a bombshell Los Angeles Times investigative story that revealed ethical conflicts amongst the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as well as the lack of any Black members in the group's voting body. At that point, it seemed like Hollywood's biggest party would take a year off. But by October, the HFPA said the show would go on, touting various reforms and a roster of diverse new members.

In some ways, though, it's still the same old Globes. This morning's crop of nominations included the usual mix of head-scratching surprises — like the multiple nods for The Morning Show's critically lambasted second season — and unsurprising snubs. For example, acclaimed performances like Tessa Thompson in Passing and Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers were overlooked for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, resulting in a category once again filled with all-white nominees. In fact, apart from a nod for West Side Story's Rachel Zegler in the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, no leading actresses of color were nominated in either category.

Despite current HFPA president, Helen Hoehne, insistence that the organization has strived to "be better" over the past few months, Twitter was quick to point out where those efforts fell short.

The 79th Golden Globe Awards will be held Jan. 9

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