My friend Gabe line produced a funny documentary on the Golden Globes. It aired on Trio, a small cable network owned by NBC, that gets in about 1 in 5 houses...nonetheless, it was all about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, this bizarre amalgum of international "journalists" who preside over the entire Golden Globes. Within Hollywood the Golden Globes are viewed as this big joke--these members write for mostly unheard of publications and often times have real jobs between their writing gigs. Basically, the HFPA is a group of groupies who managed to bamboozle everyone into thinking their Award show has some relevance.

The greater, irony, however, is that they ARE relevant. The real story here seems to be a commentary on our entertainment culture than a criticism of a bunch of foreign poseurs. I mean, they've been "exposed" for a long time within Hollywood and no one seems to care. They've come to serve as a preamble to the Oscars and oddly enough, they somehow manage to make fairly sensible picks (other than the best actress controversy pointed out in the documentary -- i've forgotten the actresses name, but the speculation was that her rich husband bought her the award, I believe in the 70s or 80s...I'll correct this)

In the end, they can be justified the way Hollywood justifies every crappy piece of drivel it spits out: They make MONEY.