Awards Show Slammed for Subjecting Stars to Alleged ‘Creepy Behavior’

The Critics’ Choice Awards need to undergo a major overhaul, based on a new report about the 2024 ceremony. The latest awards ceremony put on by the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association aired via The CW on Sunday, and some of the honored celebrities apparently had a poor experience behind the scenes. After the event, Puck ran a scathing report about it via its “What I’m Hearing” newsletter on Thursday.

An anonymous studio head allegedly witnessed “a hangar-sized tsunami of creepy behavior” by members of the CCA, leaving the exec to say “never again” about attending the ceremony in the future. The newsletter’s author, Puck founding partner Matthew Belloni, then elaborates, claiming that multiple sources painted a picture of the event being “a full-on petting zoo” with CCA members constantly crossing the line when it came to interacting with the stars in attendance, including Best Actress in a Drama Series nominee Jennifer Aniston.

“CCA members and sponsors constantly asked for selfies, insisted on hugs or even a few kisses on the cheek,” Belloni reported. “A source spotted a person literally petting Jennifer Aniston’s dress.”

Puck also discussed much-maligned catering for the event (pizza slices served in bags) and took a jab at the CCA’s membership. According to the outlet, most people in the group “are junketeers or television people, not critics,” implying they cover the industry and interview celebrities but don’t artfully critique films or TV shows. The CCA only requires members must be “working film critics or TV journalists whose coverage of a broad range of films in current theatrical or broadcast release is available on a regular basis to a wide audience.” Basically, it seems that CCA’s membership requirements don’t exactly mesh with the definitive organization label as being just for “Critics.”

After hearing all these complaints, Belloni’s opinion can be boiled down to the section header he attached to his report: “Let’s cancel the Junketeers Awards.” 

“This is becoming a frequent complaint from me, but why, exactly, are the Critics Choice Awards still a thing?” Belloni wrote, later adding, “The (Golden) Globes were nearly run out of town over non-journalistic behavior, but at least the Globes are watched by 9.4 million people. The Critics Choice, after all this, averaged just 1 million viewers. Again, why?”