NBC Drops 2022 Golden Globes; Tom Cruise Returns Trophies

Actor Tom Cruise attends the 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 20, 1990 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
Actor Tom Cruise attends the 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 20, 1990 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
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NBC Drops 2022 Golden Globes; Tom Cruise Returns Trophies

Actor Tom Cruise attends the 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 20, 1990 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
Actor Tom Cruise attends the 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 20, 1990 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)

US television network NBC on Monday dropped its broadcast of the Golden Globes ceremony in 2022 after a Hollywood backlash over the ethics of the group that hands out the annual awards for film and television and its lack of diversity.

Tom Cruise joined a revolt led by streaming platforms and studios, returning the three Golden Globe statuettes he won for his roles in “Jerry Maguire,” “Magnolia” and “Born on the Fourth of July,” Variety and Deadline Hollywood reported.

NBC’s decision came even after the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hands out the awards, agreed to recruit more Black members and make other changes over the next 18 months. The network had initially welcomed the plan but later said it would wait to see if the reforms worked.

HFPA members have also been accused of making sexist and racist remarks and soliciting favors from celebrities and studios.

“Change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right. As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes,” NBC said in a statement.

“Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023,” NBC added.

After NBC's announcement, the HFPA said implementing “transformational change” remained an urgent priority “regardless of the next air date of the Golden Globes.”

In a statement, the HFPA reiterated its planned reforms and gave a detailed timetable. It said that by August 2021, it would hire a new chief executive, add 20 new members, approve a new code of conduct and provide diversity and sexual harassment training among other steps.

The annual Golden Globes ceremony, attended by A-list stars and industry executives, has become one of the biggest Hollywood awards shows in the run-up to the Oscars. But it has been under close scrutiny following an investigation published in February by the Los Angeles Times that showed the group of 87 journalists had no Black members.

On Saturday, Scarlett Johansson joined critics including Netflix, Amazon Studios, WarnerMedia and dozens of Hollywood's top publicity companies, who said they would no longer work with the HFPA unless it made far-reaching changes.

“For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry,” WarnerMedia said.

Johansson urged her fellow actors to “take a step back from the HFPA” and Golden Globe events. In a statement, she said that in the past “this has often meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment.”



Tomorrowland Music Festival Opens after its Main Stage was Destroyed by Huge Fire

The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
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Tomorrowland Music Festival Opens after its Main Stage was Destroyed by Huge Fire

The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Fans roared in excitement and organizers sighed with relief as the Tomorrowland music festival kicked off Friday — just two days after a massive fire engulfed the main stage and threw one of Europe's biggest summer concert events into doubt.

Workers labored around the clock to clear out the debris from the elaborate backdrop that was consumed in Wednesday's fire.

Shouting ‘’We made it!'', the festival's opening performers, Australian electronic music group Nervo, were able to take to the main stage Friday after a last-minute scramble and slight delay. Some charred frames were still visible behind them.

No one was hurt in the fire, organizers said. The causes are being investigated.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world attend Tomorrowland's annual multi-day festival outside the Belgian town of Boom.

Some 38,000 people were camping at the festival site Friday, Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said.

’’Maybe there are some few people that say, OK, we would like to have a refund, but it’s only like a very small percentage because most of them are still coming to the festival,” she told AP.

“It is all about unity, and I think with a good vibe and a positive energy that our festival-goers give to each other and the music we offer, I think they will still have a good time,″ she said. ’’We really tried our best.″

Australian fans Zak Hiscock and Brooke Antoniou — who traveled half the world to see the famed festival as part of a summer holiday in Europe — described hearing about the fire.

“We were sitting having dinner when we actually heard the news of the stage burning down. We were very devastated and shattered, quite upset because we travelled a long way,'' Hiscock said.

Ukrainian visitor Oleksandr Beshkynskyi shared their joy that the festival went ahead as planned.

‘’It’s not just about the one DJ or two DJs you’re looking to see, but about all the mood and about the dream being alive," Beshkynskyi said.