Scott Menzel, a founding father of the group behind the annual HCA Movie Awards and HCA TV Awards, responds to allegations by some ex-members: "The place did the cash go? It is all there."
Because the Hollywood International Press Affiliation continues to attempt to rehabilitate itself within the wake of a 2021 exposé that jeopardized the way forward for its Golden Globe Awards, one other group of leisure journalists — this one with out a multi-million greenback TV deal, however with no scarcity of star energy at its occasions — is going through questions of its personal. And in current days, on account of tensions throughout the group, the Hollywood Critics Affiliation, 10 of its members — roughly 7 % of its membership tally simply two weeks in the past — have left (9 resigned and one was expelled), together with its president.
The Hollywood Critics Affiliation was established in 2016 because the Los Angeles On-line Movie Critics Society, and adjusted its identify in October 2019. The group has yearly introduced awards recognizing work in movie since 2018 and in tv since 2021 (the latter, as of this 12 months, at two separate ceremonies, one for streaming exhibits and the opposite for broadcast community and cable exhibits). Although HCA ceremonies should not televised, they've nonetheless drawn the attendance of dozens of A-listers together with Rami Malek, Mandy Moore, Andrew Garfield and Sydney Sweeney; landed hosts corresponding to Annaleigh Ashford and Tig Notaro (the latter of whom needed to bow out on the last-minute resulting from a optimistic COVID check); and been tweeted about by the likes of Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner. The newest HCA TV Awards ceremonies, which happened on Aug. 13 and 14, packed the Worldwide Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton lodge — the identical room wherein the Golden Globes have lengthy been held.
However with the fast-growing profile of the HCA — which is comprised nearly fully of younger writers from small unbiased retailers — has come growing skepticism, from each inside and outdoors of the group’s membership, concerning the monetary and moral conduct of its management, in addition to bare-knuckled barbs. In current days, the saga has come to resemble a cross between a Christopher Visitor comedy and All About Eve, that includes Hollywood strivers, showmanship and, within the views of some, potential swindling.
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The HCA was the brainchild of We Reside Leisure internet journalistScott “Film Man” Menzel, who approached then-Entry Hollywood on-air correspondentScott “Film” Mantz in the summertime of 2016 about beginning a critics group that, not like most others, could be gender balanced and racially numerous. (Each Menzel and Mantz are white males.) Mantz preferred the concept, so the 2 Scotts, together with former Bachelor bachelorette/journalist Krisily Kennedy, launched the group later that 12 months, with Menzel listed as its founder and Mantz as its president. Kennedy dropped out of the group in 2018, adopted in September 2019 by Mantz, who was displeased that Menzel had independently appointed his spouse, Ashley Menzel, to be the group’s vice chairman, and had begun making different main choices with out session.
Presley Ann/Getty Pictures
“He approached me as a result of he knew that if I used to be part of this group with him, my identify and good standing would get him what he wanted,” Mantz now vents, asserting that he was certainly in a position to ebook high expertise to attend the group’s first two movie awards ceremonies. “So do I believe that he used me? Do I believe that he used my identify and status? Completely.” (In 2018, Mantz was terminated by Entry Hollywood, after 17 years of employment, for not disclosing that he had launched into this facet enterprise, he says.)
Menzel acknowledges, “The issue with Scott Mantz and I is that we each wished the identical factor, and that's to be entrance and heart — we wished to do the highlight stuff — and neither of us wished to do the stuff that it takes for a corporation to work, which is the fucking un-fun a part of reaching out to studios saying, ‘Right here’s the nominations. Now we have to ask you for cash for a desk, as a result of if you happen to don’t give us cash for a desk, we are able to’t do the present.'”
Through the Mantz/Menzel period, the group generated so little income that it didn’t even cowl its prices, each males verify. “I believe we had 20 members that first 12 months and so they have been all bloggers or writing for actually obscure retailers,” Mantz, who's 53, explains. “And truthfully, being profitable was one thing I by no means even thought of. I used to be simply completely satisfied to be placing my identify to good use.” Menzel, 39, notes, “I used to be nonetheless working full-time at my job at Paleo [delivering meals for the food prep company One Paleo Delivers],” however he says he fronted $23,000 out of his personal pocket to order a venue for the primary awards ceremony. “My spouse was freaking the fuck out, ‘Oh, my God, Scott, you’re going to bankrupt us as a result of you will have this fucking ardour of wanting to do that factor!'” Menzel was finally made entire because of studio sponsorships, and the ceremony moved ahead. “It was the funniest factor on the planet,” he says. “There have been 72 or 73 individuals within the room. It was actually a fucking award present for no person.” (Effectively, not precisely no person: Guillermo del Toro, Patrick Stewart, Edgar Wright, Jordan Peele and Jessica Chastain have been all within the room.)
A month after Mantz’s exit, Menzel renamed the group — considerably controversially, however helpfully for its profile — the Hollywood Critics Affiliation. Within the time since, the HCA, whereas promoting itself as a non-profit, started to develop in each sense. Its ceremonies moved from Hollywood’s Taglyan Complicated (described by Mantz as “type of a dump”) to the AVALON Hollywood (labeled as “janky” by a high publicist) to the Beverly Hilton. And from its most up-to-date gatherings, it was deriving income from gross sales to studios and networks of tables (starting from $20,000 for one to $60,000 for six), tickets ($1,250 for one, $2,000 for 2) and program adverts ($1,500 for a full web page, $2,000 for a variety or two full pages) — this on high of submission charges required to be eligible for TV awards ($285 per collection entry and $85 for appearing, writing and directing entries) and YouTube exhibits that includes HCA members discussing episodes of TV packages, typically with expertise from the present (and never all the time with a disclosure that the content material was paid for by the community behind the present).
Menzel says that he determined to pursue non-profit standing for the HCA in 2019, shortly after the group’s identify change. “I despatched within the utility by means of LegalZoom, after which LegalZoom hooked me up with 1-800Accountant,” he recounts. Then the pandemic hit, and he didn’t hear again about his utility till 2021, when the IRS referred to as him and mentioned that he had submitted the flawed type — a 1023-EZ, which is for a corporation with income of $50,000 or much less, versus a 1023, which is for a corporation with income over $50,000. “The individuals at 1-800Accountant went again and so they stuffed out the fitting type,” he says. However since then he was notified that it was “misfiled” as a 501(c)(3), when it ought to have been a 501(c)(4), so that's now being corrected.
As a way to apply for federal non-profit standing, Menzel says he was additionally advised by the IRS that the HCA wanted a board of administrators. He already had a board in place — one which had spent months drafting bylaws earlier than he disbanded it on June 7, 2021, prompting a backlash from a number of board members, together with Terence Johnson, who wrote, “There was an absence of transparency in how choices are made and the way cash is spent, even with the board in place.” After which, on Dec. 2, 2021, Menzel despatched an e mail to members inviting anybody who was thinking about serving on the board to let him know.
One among dozens who requested to be thought of was Shannon McGrew, a 39-year-old Huntington Seaside resident who runs a horror web site referred to as Nightmarish Conjurings. McGrew utilized to hitch the HCA in 2020 as a result of, she says, “I had began an internet site, I used to be writing opinions, I grew to become a part of Rotten Tomatoes and I felt like the subsequent step could be to change into a part of a critics group.” McGrew loved her membership — she attended and was a presenter on the 2021 HCA Movie Awards and on the 2022 HCA Movie Awards (she was seated at a desk with Guillermo del Toro on the latter) — but in addition says she knew that “different members felt like their voices weren’t being heard,” so she provided her providers for the board.
Her Zoom interview with Menzel on Jan. 5, 2022, whereas completely cordial, left her considerably troubled. “At the moment he advised me three individuals throughout the group wished to kick me out,” she tells THR. (Menzel says that he was simply being candid with McGrew, as different members had advised him that her frequent tweets mirrored poorly on the group.) “I by no means heard again concerning the board,” she continues — a brand new board, which included a number of Menzel friends, was introduced on April 22, 2022 — “however they talked to me about being on the advertising and marketing workforce. They have been like, ‘Yeah, we’d actually love that. We’ll get again to you.’ After which they by no means bought again to me. I used to be listening to different stuff from individuals who have been having their very own points. And I used to be like, ‘I simply need to discover out what’s happening.'”
Courtesy of the Hollywood Critics Affiliation/Shutterstock
On Aug. 15, the Monday after the HCA’s weekend-long TV awards, McGrew posted on the HCA’s non-public Fb web page a collection of considerations concerning the monetary administration of the group. Politely however firmly, she requested what HCA membership dues have been being spent on; why the group requires TV networks to pay a submission price with the intention to be eligible for an HCA nomination or award; and what had change into of funds raised by means of an HCA GoFundMe fundraiser for Ukraine 5 months earlier.
Menzel, who had stayed the night time on the Beverly Hilton after the earlier night’s ceremony, shortly replied on the thread to her considerations, noting that dues fund occasions for members; that the HCA prices a submission price for TV content material as a result of “nearly everybody together with BAFTA, CCA and the Emmys cost a submission price”; and that the GoFundMe for Ukraine was set to routinely distribute donations to CARE, a nonprofit group.
He says he then referred to as McGrew on his drive house, although she didn't decide up.
When Menzel subsequent checked the thread, he says McGrew’s feedback had “spiraled into extra of an accusatory” tone, and different members had additionally begun to weigh in. One HCA member, Debbie Elias, engaged in a back-and-forth with McGrew and ended up calling her a “bitch”; Menzel instantly reached out to Elias, who he says opted to resign fairly than be expelled. However with extra HCA members now taking sides, McGrew posted a collection of defiant tweets, a few of which HCA board members interpreted as threatening. (One, from Aug. 17, learn, “You went forward and fucked round and now you’re gonna discover out the implications of your actions.”)
On Aug. 19, the legislation agency Rosenberg & Koffman, appearing as counsel to the HCA, despatched McGrew a stop and desist letter. In it, lawyer Ronald G. Rosenberg declared, “As a member of the HCA, it's definitely inside your rights to ask questions relating to the group and its insurance policies. The issue right here, nonetheless, is the way wherein you will have been posting. You've gotten portrayed your self as being an ostracized and victimized HCA member, motivated by a pure sense of honesty and justice. Aside from not being positioned on the board, we're unsure why you're feeling this fashion.” The communique then itemized her “relentless and extended tirade in opposition to the HCA,” which it instructed was in violation of the HCA’s bylaws, earlier than asserting, “Given the gravity and depth of your harassment that resembles a smear marketing campaign, and the extreme harm already completed to the status of the Hollywood Critics Affiliation and its board members (affecting them financially, institutionally, psychologically, and emotionally), we demand a right away cease and removing, from each private and non-private dissemination channels, of all false, defamatory, and unsubstantiated claims and insinuations.”
4 days later, on Aug. 23, whereas being interviewed by THR, McGrew acquired an e mail from the HCA’s board notifying her that she had been expelled from the group for violating quite a few HCA bylaws, together with harassment, bullying, slander, sharing member-only data with non-members and breaking the code of conduct. McGrew quickly after tweeted, “There’s a particular place in hell for all the ladies on the board that stood by and let this occur. Y’all are gonna be in for one hell of a shock quickly. I hope it was all price it.”
Shortly thereafter, a number of different HCA members — Kaitlyn Kennedy, Rosie Knight, Kristen Lopez and Simon Thompson — resigned in solidarity with McGrew. And numerous different members who labored for higher-profile publications additionally bowed out, together with a trio of Selection workers, Jazz Tangcay, Clayton Davis and Angelique Jackson, in addition to — and this hasn’t beforehand been reported — HCA president Lauren Huff of Leisure Weekly. (Selection is owned by Penske Media Company, which can also be the guardian firm of The Hollywood Reporter.)
“The response [from the HCA] was utterly out of scale with what Shannon had completed,” says one member who resigned, who additionally alleges (and offered substantiating documentation), “Within the days after these items type of exploded with Shannon, there have been issues that have been faraway from the non-public members discussion board. There have been issues that have been modified on YouTube channels. Now the checklist of members has been hidden. It stayed up there till the shit hit the fan with this factor with Shannon.”
The member additional argues that McGrew’s questions have been “not an out of the blue request for transparency,” however fairly one thing that many members “have been asking for for the final couple of years, because the HCA has moved from being extra of a critics group to a content material creation platform as a lot as the rest. There have been numerous issues the place members will increase pink flags with regard to what cash is coming into the corporate, how a lot cash is coming in, the place that cash goes and who that cash goes to, as a result of there is no such thing as a transparency on this. It’s very a lot a basic, ‘Oh, it’s spent on stuff,’ which isn't the best of solutions. While you ask for transparency, the response you get is, ‘Belief me.’ It feels very harking back to an administration that we simply went by means of for 4 years.”
Whereas Menzel confirms to THR that each one HCA income goes right into a checking account to which solely he and vice chairman Nestor Bentancor have entry, he says that any insinuation that he's absconding with or getting wealthy off of the group’s cash is laughable. “I’m doing Complete Meals deliveries on the facet, I make about $60K, I stay in Moorpark and I drive a Camry,” he volunteers. “This was the primary 12 months the place we didn’t really lose cash [on HCA activities]. When it comes to the TV Awards, there was some income left over this 12 months, someplace between $30,000 and $40,000, which can just about make up for all of the losses that I confronted within the years main as much as this.”
Menzel says that McGrew’s “assaults” have “traumatized” the HCA and have been perceived by HCA members, board members and even himself as threats. “A number of individuals are going to be going after restraining orders in opposition to her as a result of they’re afraid to go to screenings and so they’re afraid to go to occasions,” he asserts, including, “We had one other board member say they’re going to depart; they actually mentioned that they’ve bought to go darkish for a few days as a result of their Apple Watch is telling them that their coronary heart price’s been very excessive. One other individual has mentioned that they’re very depressed. This has been a very traumatic expertise for individuals … I imply, I’ll inform you the reality: I really feel unsafe.” He continues, “You’re coping with individuals who have had so many struggles, people who find themselves from completely different nations, who don’t usually get an opportunity to be put entrance and heart, who're very proud to be on this group, who really feel attacked as a result of they really feel so near this group as a result of it welcomed them with open arms.”
Menzel calls McGrew’s Ukraine insinuation “probably the most comical factor” of this entire scenario. He notes that the fundraiser in query raised solely a “pathetic” $530, however that, upon listening to McGrew’s considerations, he requested GoFundMe to ship him affirmation that the cash had, actually, been despatched to its meant vacation spot, in order that he might present that to McGrew. When he did so, although, McGrew interpreted the date on the affirmation because the date on which the funds had been despatched, main her to accuse Menzel of solely sending the funds after she raised the problem. “I simply suppose that that is somebody who's craving consideration and is attempting to make statements which are very false and that I’ve debunked,” Menzel says, including, “I like my drama in my films and TV exhibits, not in my life.”
A GoFundMe spokesperson confirmed Menzel’s assertion to THR: “The fundraiser you reached out about is at present nonetheless open and accepting donations on behalf of the nonprofit CARE, which is registered as a PayPal Giving Fund charity, that means donations go on to the nonprofit and the organizer of the Licensed Charity fundraiser by no means has entry to the funds raised.”
However different considerations raised by HCA members — as an illustration, concerning the HCA’s lack of transparency so far as its voting and vote tabulating processes — might have extra legitimacy. Menzel says that after the HCA’s 2022 movie awards ceremony, he and his board “introduced in a third-party individual to assist tabulate the votes” shifting ahead, however previous to that it was primarily overseen by him. And a number of other members say they discovered the outcomes of HCA awards contests to be suspect.
Forward of the second movie awards, Mantz says he confronted Menzel after Menzel despatched out a press launch declaring that The Hate U Give, a film that was nicely reviewed however was nonetheless not an actual a part of the bigger awards dialog, had been voted the winner of the HCA’s finest image prize over that season’s a lot higher-profile contenders together with Inexperienced E book, Roma, The Favorite, A Star Is Born, BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther: “He mentioned, ‘Ashley [Menzel’s wife, who is now listed on the HCA’s website as its co-founder] and I have been going by means of the ultimate votes, and it was wanting like Roma was going to win. I didn’t need us to be similar to all people else. So Ashley and I, once we noticed which method the votes have been going, voted for The Hate U Give. This film speaks extra to what our group is about, in order that’s why I believed that it will be good if we confirmed that this film gained.’ And I mentioned, ‘Yeah, but when the members are voting and you're looking on the votes and also you’re voting one other option to give your desire, you're manipulating the vote. That’s voter fraud.’ I mentioned, ‘Scott, ethically I've a really massive downside with this.'” (Mantz provides that he didn’t and doesn’t imagine that The Hate U Give really got here wherever close to that near topping the voting.)
Menzel denies making any such admission to Mantz, although he does verify that he and his spouse voted for The Hate U Give and says that surprising outcomes like that movie successful finest image have been likelier in these days as a result of the HCA membership was then nonetheless very small. “You’re going again to that second 12 months. We had 30-something members. It’s simply numbers, that’s it.” He provides, “We've got lots of people of shade inside our group who actually preferred the film.” (Menzel says he not has entry to the e-mail account to which votes have been despatched.)
However Mantz factors out that Menzel had publicly ranked The Hate U Give and subsequent HCA finest image winners Promising Younger Lady and CODA as his private favourite movie of their respective years, and that quotes from Menzel had appeared on the DVD covers of each The Hate U Give and Promising Younger Lady, issues Mantz doesn’t imagine are coincidences.
Courtesy of Erika Doss/Twentieth Century Fox Movie Company
McGrew, for her half, recollects seeing the HCA’s nominees for finest horror film — her space of experience — and instantly doubting them. “I used to be like, ‘These are bullshit. I don’t know who's voting for these.’ After which I might hear individuals [speaking about another movie that wasn’t nominated], ‘Oh, all of us voted for this.’ And I used to be like, ‘Effectively, that’s bizarre, as a result of it looks as if it will have been nominated.”
Mantz and quite a few different HCA members additionally expressed amusement that the HCA had given a particular award to Kristen Stewart in 2020, “Actress of the Decade,” as a result of Menzel is — and this can be a phrase used independently by all of them — “obsessed” along with her. (Stewart additionally gained the HCA’s finest actress prize this 12 months.) Menzel confirms with a chuckle, “Sure, I’ve been ‘obsessed’ with Kristen Stewart since I noticed her in Converse at Sundance [in 2004]. You’re allowed to be a fan.”
Menzel overtly acknowledges the accuracy of one other allegation made by some HCA members: that he has tipped off publicists concerning the outcomes of voting earlier than these outcomes have been introduced on the present with the intention to assure their shoppers’ attendance. “After all, yeah,” he says, including, “We’ve gotten higher with it. We’ve been ready, as we’ve been rising, to inform much less and fewer individuals. The primary 12 months that it occurred and the second 12 months that it occurred and the third 12 months that it occurred, the winners have been within the room due to the truth that we advised them … This 12 months, we have been very fortunate that we have been really in a position to get a bunch of individuals there with out telling them the winners.”
Mantz says that Menzel, as a part of an effort to attempt to restore their friendship, invited him to attend the HCA’s movie awards ceremony earlier this 12 months, and that he accepted. Mantz was surprised by how a lot issues have developed since he was part of the group. “I can’t imagine it,” he marvels. “On the one hand I’m like, ‘I needs to be thrilled that this group that I helped begin has actually taken off.’ However then again, particularly after all the controversy over the Golden Globes, it simply surprises me that everybody has jumped in on this group so shortly. They get help from mainly all people. I’m simply shocked that there wasn’t extra warning so far as, ‘Wait, who're these individuals? What is that this? The place is the cash going?'”
McGrew concurs and says she has no plans to cease asking questions. “I believe their entire objective is simply to silence me,” she says. “They simply needed to be clear. I don’t suppose they’re being clear as a result of I don’t suppose they’re doing the fitting factor. I simply need them to be held accountable. The entire board needs to be dismantled at this level as a result of you possibly can’t belief anyone.”
Menzel counters, “It’s loopy to me that there’s this narrative of, ‘I requested for data and that’s the explanation why I bought booted.’ You bought your solutions immediately. You impressed us to create an FAQ factor explaining issues [on the HCA website]. We gave you every thing you wanted.” He continues, “The place did the cash go? It’s all there. We served a full dinner each nights of the [TV awards]; we didn't put hummus on the desk and name it a day. We had an after-party that we paid for … The manufacturing workforce alone on this was $174,000. The Encore price, for the lodge firm that must be there on website, was $50,000. The lodge itself, all in, was about $183,000, with the meals and the drinks and all that stuff. So it’s there.”
Above all, Menzel insists that he has nothing to cover. “I talked to anyone on the TV Awards,” he says. “Afterwards, they have been like, ‘I can’t imagine you pulled this off. How did you do it? How did you do all these items?’ I mentioned, ‘The primary factor that makes me completely different from the opposite people who find themselves doing this [running an awards group] is that I’m not in it for the cash.’ Am I hoping that I’m going to finally get a wage out of it in order that I don’t need to do facet gigs? Certain. However I’m by no means seeking to be like, ‘I've half 1,000,000 dollars due to this group.’ That’s not who I'm.”
Beatrice Verhoeven contributed to this story.