Not every celebrity nominated for a 2024 Golden Globe Award was in the mood to get dressed to their finest and head to the Beverly Hilton Hotel to mix and mingle with Hollywood’s biggest names. These stars took a pass on the night and had their specific reasons.
Fans who were hoping to see Eva Mendes alongside Barbie nominated partner Ryan Gosling were once again disappointed. She passed on being his plus-one for the evening, continuing to avoid joint public appearances, something they have done for years.
The same went for Swifties, as Taylor Swift attended the event without boyfriend Travis Kelce. Despite sitting out while his Kansas City Chiefs played the Chargers in Los Angeles earlier in the day, Travis had to fly back home with the team and skip the Globes with his girlfriend. Taylor’s date for the night was good friend Keleigh Sperry.
Some nominees didn’t make it to the awards show, including Woody Harrelson, Paul Mescal and Rachel Weisz. Ricky Gervais won the very first Golden Globe for Best Performance in a Stand-Up Comedy on TV, but he wasn’t there to accept the award, with fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan accepting on the Englishman’s behalf.
Earlier the day, Ricky wrote on X about the nomination and seemed to not be attending because he didn’t think he’d win. “I’m nominated for another Golden Globe tonight. This time for my Netflix special #Armageddon. Won’t win, but it’s nice to still be up there in the mix, flying the flag.”
While the lead stars of Suits – Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams – were on hand as presenters, their former costar Meghan Markle did not attend as some had expected.
Work commitments have been a major hurdle as to why some stars have skipped the Globes in past years. Taylor was nominated in 2023 for Best Original Song for her tune “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing. However, she was two months out from launching her mammoth Eras stadium tour and too in the thick of rehearsals to head to Beverly Hills for the night.
The same year, Zendaya was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, for Euphoria and ended up winning, but she wasn’t there to accept her award. Instead, the presenters noted, “She’s busy. She’s working, y’all.”
Zendaya had not attended the Globes since 2016, after failing to get nominated for season 1 of Euphoria and being snubbed in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama category for 2021’s Malcolm and Marie.
Still, she later sent out a gracious tweet despite her absence. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to be there tonight, but I just wanted to say thank you to @goldenglobes for this incredible honor,” she wrote. “To my fellow nominees, it is a privilege to be named beside you, I admire you all deeply. Thank you to my Euphoria family, without you, none of this is possible … I’m honestly at a loss for words as I type this, all I can say is thank you thank you thank you. Goodnight.”
Another winner from that night who was absent was Kevin Costner, who took home Best Actor in a TV Drama Series for Yellowstone. He posted an Instagram video to explain how excited he was to attend but had been cut off by flooding near his Santa Barbara area home and was unable to get out and make it to Beverly Hills, even noting how his then-wife Christine had a beautiful dress picked out.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association — which hands out the Golden Globes — came under fire in February 2021, one month after the awards. A Los Angeles Times expose revealed the 87-member group and no black members and few that worked for major publications abroad. The article also alleged that HFPA members were susceptible to accepting “freebies” from Hollywood studios and public relations groups campaigning for nominations.
It resulted in the 2022 Globes not being televised as a live event while the HFPA underwent a series of reforms. Once the awards ceremony returned in 2023, some stars still boycotted over the past diversity and ethics problems.
While Tom Cruise‘s Top Gun: Maverick was nominated for Best Drama Motion Picture, the normally publicity-friendly actor skipped representing his film at the ceremony. He was so upset by the revelations in the 2021 expose about the HFPA that he infamously returned the three Golden Globe statuettes he’d previously won throughout his career.
