Tom Cruise Returned His Golden Globes. Here's Why

While the tinsel-festooned stretch known best as "awards season" might be months away at the time of this writing, it seems the name of one of those most celebrated Hollywood ceremonies, the Golden Globes, is currently on everyone's lips. Now, it looks like the show orchestrated and organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is getting another wave of unwanted scrutiny because of the recent actions of an industry mega-star: actor Tom Cruise.

As publications like Deadline reported on May 10, Cruise reportedly has returned the three Golden Globes he garnered over the years for his performances in the movies "Born on the Fourth of July," "Magnolia," and "Jerry Maguire." The delivery of the statuettes occurred in the midst of yet another emergency for the press organization — the decision by NBC executives to pull their airing of the Golden Globes in 2022, an event which the network has broadcast since the show's debut in 1944. So why, exactly, did Cruise decide to mark his Golden Globes with a "return to sender?" Read on after the jump to find out.

As The New York Post summarized in their coverage of the recent Golden Globes controversy, the organization behind the awards ceremony made headlines after accusations against HFPA over a purported of an ingrained and pervasive opposition of inclusivity among its membership surfaced in late April and early May. 

Per the Post, the inciting event occurred after the organization's board president, Phil Berk, allegedly called the Black Lives Matter movement a "hate movement" and "racist" in an email to HFPA staff and the 87 members that make up the organization's award voter base. Though Berk was later kicked off the board after the Los Angeles Times broke the story in April, the damage was already done. Despite statements and at least one proposal made to implement structural changes to the organization, both NBC and Netflix have severed ties with HFPA, according to the Post and other news outlets.

Now, it looks like one of Hollywood's biggest A-listers has made his stance on the matter known. In an act of symbolic repudiation, Cruise purportedly returned his three Golden Globes in an act of protest against HFPA's lack of inclusion and Berk's past remarks. Though it is unclear as to whether his three gilded statues showed up in a package to HFPA's headquarters with a statement of intent, it seems that the gesture on its own might speak for itself.