IT’S hard not to laugh when the head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association talks about refusing gifts to protect “the integrity” of the Golden Globes.
For years, the organization — which has cleaned up its act and become an uncannily accurate predictor for the Oscars — was best known for the boozy riotousness of its celebrity-packed parties and the ease with which its members accepted the generosity of studio publicists.
Its members were once described as “people who would cross the Alps for a hot dog.”
And, as one longtime Hollywood exec told The Post, “It was common knowledge in the industry that in the early days of the Golden Globes if you were able to get someone to show up and they had a movie out, you had a strong likelihood of getting an award. All you had to do was guarantee that they would be there on the night.”
Universal had particular success at the Golden Globes — thanks to the warm relationship its publicists enjoyed with members of the association.
Many of the 82 journalists who make up the association are freelancers, and Hollywood legend has it that a number of them moonlight as waiters or business people.
In the early 1980s, the association caused a stir when it voted starlet Pia Zadora the newcomer actress of the year.
It then became known that her husband, producer Meshulam Riklis, had flown members out to Las Vegas.
As recently as 1993, members took a free junket to New York to see “Scent of a Woman.” They subsequently declared the film the best picture of the year.
But since the awards began to be televised — particularly since 1996, when they were shown on NBC — Hollywood has awoken to the growing importance of the foreign film market.
Indeed you know that the Golden Globes can be about more than gifts and being photographed with celebrities when the association nominates art films “Breaking the Waves” and “Secrets and Lies” for best picture.
But glamour of the kind that Sharon Stone exemplifies still has a strong effect.
After all, in 1996, the year Frances McDormand won the Oscar for “Fargo,” Madonna won the best actress Golden Globe for “Evita.”
You hope she had a great time at the party — the award jinxed her for an Oscar nomination.