LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – Not only did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association deny her membership, it is now dragging her name through the mud as she pursues a lawsuit, an entertainment reporter is claiming.
In response to Kjersti Flaa’s lawsuit that claims she was unfairly rejected, the HFPA – the body that puts on the Golden Globes – pointed to an awkward interview with the stars of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
The HFPA claimed Flaa has a “history of racist remarks.”
On Oct. 30, lawyers for Flaa wrote the HFPA’s allegation “is based solely on the fact that during an interview of a foreign actor who had read the Harry Potter series when she was nine, Plaintiff asked whether the actor had read them in her native Korean or in English,” Flaa’s opposition to HFPA’s motion to dismiss says.
“A few Korean Internet trolls deemed that ‘racist’ and a Korean newspaper wrote about it. Neither the Korean actor nor the American actor with (her) at the time characterized the question as ‘racist.’”
Flaa’s antitrust lawsuit says the 87-member HFPA actually discriminates against members of foreign press outlets and fails to provide a benefit to the workers it purports to represent.
“Instead, the HFPA engages in very substantial and shocking discrimination against them for the benefit of its members,” the lawsuit says.
Among the allegations are the HFPA:
-Allocates foreign markets among its members;
-Requires applicants to pledge not to offer to write for any publication or its rival claimed by a member;
-Won’t admit qualified applicants who might compete in a market against an existing member;
-Pays travel expenses for members but not non-members to attend film festivals and press junkets; and
-Leverages its status created by the Golden Globes to monopolize interview slots for popular directors and actors.
“The NFPA is so focused on protecting its monopoly position and tax-free benefits that it has adopted bylaw provisions that exclude from membership all objectively qualified applicants who might possibly compete with an existing member,” the suit says.
Flaa, of Norway, has been denied membership to the HFPA. In an Oct. 5 motion to dismiss, the HFPA attempted to justify its refusal of Flaa’s membership.
In 2018, Flaa interviewed Ezra Miller and Claudia Kim about the movie “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” She’d asked the two about their first exposures to the Harry Potter book series.
"Do you remember your first encounter with the book?” Flaa asked, to which Claudia Kim replied, "Middle school. Korea. Asked my dad's friends to get me the book from the U.S."
Flaa asked “But you read it in English then? So you did speak English when you…”
Miller cut her off – “She still does even now. She speaks English very well. It’s incredible. I only speak English. My Korean is so bad.”
When the two performers spoke a few Korean expressions, Flaa asked, “Oh, you were speaking Korean?”
Miller replied, “Yeah dude. What do you think I’m speaking? That’s a language. It’s not gibberish. It’s Korean. Okay?”
It was this conversation that the HFPA referred to as a reason it denied her application.
“According to Flaa, members should not have the opportunity to vote ‘no’ to her membership application regardless of their reasons for doing so,” the motion says.
“It matters not to Flaa that certain members are deeply offended by her demonstrated ageism, history of racist remarks, and multi-year campaign of bullying and harassment against members she perceives opposed her application.”