Golden Globes case: HFPA lawyer presses Dick Clark Productions exec

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First-day testimony continued Tuesday afternoon in the Los Angeles trial over broadcast rights to the Golden Globes. On opposite sides are the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which owns the Globes, and Dick Clark Productions, which has been in charge of producing the HFPA’s annual awards ceremony. At legal issue is whether Dick Clark Productions had the right to renew its broadcasting deal with NBC without consulting the HFPA.

During questioning, HFPA attorney Daniel Petrocelli tried to suggest that retired Dick Clark Productions president Fran LaMaina misled the HFPA.

Specifically, Petrocelli said that in 1993 meetings with HFPA to discuss its first TV deal with NBC, LaMaina did not disclose that the amendment in question was seen by Dick Clark Productions as giving it the power to control TV rights forever as long as the show remained on NBC.

‘I don’t think I misled the Hollywood Foreign Press,’ LaMaina said. He later added that it was ‘not [his] job to do that,’ when Petrocelli pressed him on whether he thought the HFPA fully grasped the meaning of the contract.

Petrocelli also suggested that Dick Clark Productions took advantage of then-HFPA President Mirjana Van Blaricom and implied that she didn’t do due diligence on behalf of HFPA because of what LaMaina told her.

‘It was up to the president to explain what was in the document’ to HFPA, not Dick Clark Productions, LaMaina said.

Van Blaricom is also expected to testify at the trial, which may last as long as two weeks.

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-- Joe Flint