HFPA Rejects $2.5 Million Settlement Offer From 2

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has rejected the $2.5 million settlement provide from Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa and Spaniard Rosa Gamazo Robbins, who sued the Golden Globes group final yr after being denied membership.

TheWrap solely reported final week that Flaa sought $1.6 million in damages and Gamazo Robbins demanded $700,000 plus $200,000 in authorized charges, all payable over three years.

“The Board and the individual defendants unanimously rejected this proposal,” Robert J. Ellison of Latham & Watkins mentioned in a letter to members final week. “We believe the settlement offer speaks volumes about Ms. Flaa’s and Ms. Robbins’ true intentions.”

In a press release to TheWrap, Flaa mentioned: “Whenever a woman comes forward with allegations or is pointing out wrongdoings, she is often labeled as someone who is just after attention or money. It’s no surprise that the HFPA goes down that route.”

Quinto in a press release added, “Although the most recent settlement proposal was publicized by the HFPA, Kjersti Flaa and Rosa Gamazo Robbins won’t stoop to the HFPA’s level and don’t believe that two wrongs make a right… It obviously speaks volumes that because the HFPA rejected Kjersti’s not one, not two, but three attempts to persuade the HFPA to discuss a confidential settlement before she filed suit, the HFPA was willing to endure everything that might follow from the public filing of the complaint rather than allow her admission.”

Quinto additionally in an e-mail final Wednesday to the HFPA mentioned Flaa had been approached by a New York Times reporter asking for her to put in writing a e-book concerning the HFPA and her expertise being admitted. “She hasn’t signed anything yet because I asked her to hold off pending the HFPA’s response to the settlement offer she and Rosa have made.”

Quinto additionally requested “a mutual non-disparagement provision” and a promise that HFPA is not going to retaliate “against anyone the group might believe provided assistance to Quinto or the Los Angeles Times in its exposé from last month that led to a major fallout for the group.” The provision looks as if a backhanded-admission that the journalists acted as sources for the LA Times’ article alleging inside corruption by paying members to be on committees, and noting the shortage of Black members within the group.

Two months in the past, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. dismissed Flaa and Gamazo Robbins’ lawsuit accusing the HFPA of antitrust violations for denying membership to certified journalists as a consequence of an unwillingness “to share or dilute the enormous economic benefits they receive as members.” (Blumenfeld initially dismissed a lot of Flaa’s unique swimsuit final November; Gamazo Robbins was added in an amended criticism on Dec. 4.) The plaintiffs have appealed the ruling.

In her unique August 2020 swimsuit, Flaa claimed that candidates are “virtually always rejected … because the HFPA’s members will not admit anyone who might possibly compete with an existing member, either by selling to the same publications or to competing publications, the average age of HFPA members has steadily increased.” She additionally claimed that she had been denied entry to trade screenings and occasions, unique interviews with expertise, in addition to all-expenses-paid journeys to movie festivals and junkets around the globe. Plus, each member save one is on the corporate’s payroll, and 20 of the 87 members serve on the chair committees for which every member is a paid a four-figure month-to-month wage, the lawsuit mentioned.

Flaa, an L.A.-based Norwegian journalist who has represented Norwegian shops like TV2 and Dagbladet for greater than a decade, utilized for membership in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and was rejected all 3 times.

In March, Flaa and Gamazo Robbins have been amongst 14 L.A.-based leisure journalists — lots of whom mentioned that they had beforehand been rejected for HFPA…