No crowd for Globes

COVID closes awards to audience, nixes red carpet

The Golden Globes awards ceremony, set for Sunday, will be held without a red carpet or even an audience this year due to the current COVID surge, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Tuesday.

There will also be zero celebrities or non-HFPA members of the press in attendance — reflecting the seriousness of the current COVID situation and also because stars have been distancing themselves from the embattled Globes.

Those who do attend the scaled-down ceremony at the Beverly Hilton will be required to show proof of vaccination and booster shot, plus a negative PCR test within the previous 48 hours.

“All guests will be masked and socially distanced at all times while inside the ballroom,” the association said in a media release.

No details were provided about how the winners will be revealed or whether there would be a livestream or other ways for viewers to tune in.

The change comes as the awards show tries to revive its image in the wake of massive diversity scandals last year that caused NBC to announce it would not broadcast the annual awards this year. Now that is moot, given the pandemic, the association said.

After it emerged that the association had no Black members, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association subsequently added 21 Black, Asian and Latino members.

Tuesday’s release adds that Kyle Bowser, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Hollywood Bureau senior vice president, will reveal plans for a five-year initiative to increase diversity, equity and inclusion across the global entertainment industry.

The project, called “Reimagine Coalition,” is a joint effort of the HFPA and the NAACP to fund and support “projects from artists of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.”