Lawmakers Ask IRS To Investigate Nonprofit Status Of HFPA

deadline.com:

Two House lawmakers are calling on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the nonprofit status of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, citing reports of “longstanding and questionable business practices” by its leadership.“For more than a year, entertainment and national media outlets have detailed the seemingly corrupt and unacceptable deal making patterns of HFPA raising questions whether the organization solely responsible for awarding the once coveted Golden Globe Award is meeting its IRS section 501(C)(3) demands,” Rep.

Joyce Beatty (D-OH) and Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), wrote in a letter to the IRS on Tuesday. (Read it here.)Beatty is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and Lawrence is one of the vice chairs.

Lawrence also is vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee.The lawmakers cited reporting on the HFPA over the past year, including a Los Angeles Times exposé on the organization’s lack of diversity.

That led to NBC canceling its broadcast this year as the HFPA implemented a series of reforms.But the letter singles out allegations that the HFPA’s “current leadership has colluded to benefit themselves, either directly or indirectly.” Beatty and Lawrence cited IRS statute against directing earnings from a 501(c)3 to “the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.” The lawmakers also cited a report from The Wrap, which first reported on the IRS letter, that chronicled accounts of self-dealing and conflicts of interest.The HFPA, which has not received the lawmakers’ letter, did not have an immediate comment.New and returning series on broadcast, cable and streamingSeries that made it or didn’t make it in 2020-21Broadcast networks’ fall lineups and schedules