Golden Globes Group Suspends Member Accused of Extorting Tickets From Prospective Voter (Exclusive)

The organization that owns the Golden Globes has suspended voting member Nellee Holmes after she was accused of attempting to extort tickets and a non-compete pledge from a prospective member, multiple members of the group told TheWrap.

The suspension will take Holmes out of the mix during the Golden Globe Awards voting season. Fewer than 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association members vote for the annual awards, making every Globe vote significant and ensuring that participation is an important and valuable perk for members who are routinely wined, dined and feted by studios.

A spokesman for the HFPA said he was unable to reach organization officials for comment on a Sunday.

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After Ukrainian journalist Lena Basse was proposed for membership by two Scandinavian HFPA members, Aud Berggren Morisse and Magnus Sundholm, Russian member Holmes apparently demanded that Basse promise in writing not to write for a number of outlets, most of them Russian.

TheWrap has obtained an email from Basse in which she made this promise, in which she also promised to relinquish her extra Golden Globe and premiere tickets.

When Holmes demanded that Basse deliver a notarized letter making the same guarantees, Basse instead turned Holmes’ demands (on which one HFPA board member was allegedly copied) over to the HFPA office, where then-president Theo Kingma demanded action against Holmes.

The membership voted to bar Holmes from organizational junkets and Globe events and activities until March 2016, taking her out of the picture for the upcoming Globes season. Members told TheWrap that Holmes tried to negotiate a shorter suspension but was rebuffed.

The organization has weathered constant internal squabbles and many embarrassing public episodes over the years, including the suspension of former HFPA President Phil Berk who maligned fellow members in a self-published autobiography.

A substantial majority of voters opted for the longer suspension, the members told TheWrap. “It’s shameful that some people didn’t want to do anything,” said one member who asked not to be identified.

Basse, incidentally, was not one of the three new members admitted to the HFPA this year, though it appears likely that she will be put up for membership again.

Neither Holmes nor Basse could immediately be reached for comment.