Amy Adams stars in Nocturnal Animals directed by Tom Ford. Photo/Supplied
Amy Adams stars in Nocturnal Animals directed by Tom Ford. Photo/Supplied
One of the major surprises from this morning's Golden Globe nominations were the three nods for Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, a polarising mystery thriller that's been called everything from "intoxicating and delicious" to a "ridiculous, high-camp mess".
So how did it get nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay and BestSupporting Actor? The answer most likely lies in Ford's hyper-stylised, operatic world-building. But could the fashion designer turned movie director's fragrances have played a part?
That's one possible interpretation of a recent decision by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, anyway, who have asked their roughly 90 members (who make up the voters for the Golden Globes) to return expensive Tom Ford fragrances gifted to them in advance of voting.
The HFPA currently dictates that gifts more expensive than $90 should not be accepted in order to prevent possible vote rigging. They therefore ruled that the two bottles of Tom Ford fragrance sent to voters courtesy of Focus Features, and worth hundreds of dollars in stores, were too pricey - so they had to return one of them.
Fashion designer and director Tom Ford poses for ES magazine in 2014. Photo/Getty
"The policy is a little hard to police because you have both retail and discount prices," HFPA president Lorenzo Soria told the Hollywood Reporter. "But we keep an eye on it as much as possible and that was the only clear violation we had this season."
Certain forms of awards season "bribery" are par for the course, with the majority of award-winning actors helping seal the deal through months of industry campaigning - from the quaint likes of a For Your Consideration poster in industry paper Variety, to the relentless dinner parties, galas and ceremonies designed for actors to mingle and schmooze the industry vets who get to vote.
But while it sounds contradictory in a climate of multi-million-dollar Oscar campaigning, most physical gifting is a major no-no.
While the fragrance gifts don't explain the surprise nods for Nocturnal Animals - there has been no suggestion of corruption on the part of the voters - they do create an unfortunate shadow, one that suggests that very little is truly above-board when it comes to Oscar season.
Other Golden Globe Gifting Gaffes
One of the most notorious incidents involved the famous jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none actress and singer Pia Zadora, who won the now-defunct Golden Globe for Best New Star in 1981.
Nineteen-year-old Zadora was married at the time to the 49-year-old business tycoon Meshulam Riklis, who, knowing of the gargantuan aspirations of his young wife, funded not only her pop career but also her first movie, an erotic courtroom drama called Butterfly.
Desperate for Zadora to get awards attention, Riklis personally flew members of the HFPA in a private jet to Las Vegas for private screenings of the film, along with an intimate concert with Zadora herself.
Zadora would go on to win Best New Star, beating the likes of Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth McGovern, while simultaneously being awarded Worst New Star by the Golden Raspberries. Zadora insists to this day that her then-husband did not pay for her award. Riklis is currently bankrupt.
A similar case of alleged bribery occurred in 2000, when $400 Coach watches were sent on behalf of Sharon Stone to HFPA members; at the time, she was hoping for a Golden Globe nomination for The Muse. HFPA heads quickly demanded that their members return the gifts.
Stone at least earned a nomination that year. But a more lighthearted attempt at gifting didn't work out so well for Jennifer Aniston in 2015.
Jennifer Aniston at a screening for her film Cake. Photo/AP
In an attempt to drum up votes for her performance in the black comedy Cake, the Friends star sent personally-decorated cupcakes to members of the Academy. She also hired Lisa Taback, dubbed "the Oscar whisperer", to dictate her campaign.
Despite nabbing nominations at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, she failed to get that elusive Oscar nom.
