Tom Cruise Returns His Three Golden Globe Awards In Protest

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Amid the growing backlash against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Golden Globes, Tom Cruise joins the boycott by returning all three of the awards he's won over the years. The first signs of trouble for the HFPA arrived earlier this year, just ahead of the 78th Golden Globes ceremony. The organization came under fire for not having a single Black member in its ranks, and for overlooking noteworthy Black productions in favor of headscratchers like Emily in Paris and Music. The HFPA promised to do better in the future and even came forward recently with some proposed reforms.

However, Hollywood has been less than pleased with those proposals, with many calling them little more than "window-dressing platitudes." Major players within the industry like Netflix and Amazon vowed to boycott the Golden Globes. Over the weekend, celebs Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson came out against the HFPA, thus adding to the fire. Finally, in the most pointed rebuke of the HFPA so far, NBC announced on Monday they would not air next year's Golden Globes ceremony.

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Just as the NBC news broke, another development emerged: Per Deadline, Cruise has made his own statement against the HFPA by returning his three Golden Globes. There are the two Best Actor awards he won for Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July, as well as the Supporting Actor trophy for Magnolia. According to sources, this just happened today.

Actively returning awards that had been given years ago is quite the statement, and that it came from an A-lister like Cruise only makes it all the more momentous. It remains to be seen if other Golden Globes winners could follow suit, but it wouldn't be surprising if they do, particularly if they are seriously against the HFPA. At the time of this writing, the HFPA hasn't responded to Cruise's protest. With this and NBC's refusal to air next year's ceremony, Monday is far from a good day for the beleaguered organization.

Perhaps this will finally prompt the HFPA to actually make real, meaningful changes in their practices. The Association said they were dedicated to real change, and this is the time to actually follow through with those words. Until that happens, though, expect even more members of the Hollywood elite to disavow the Golden Globes and the HFPA. Between Cruise, Ruffalo, and Johansson, as well as the many others who have spoken up, there are bound to be more who will stand opposite the group.