Brendan Fraser: Actor won't attend Golden Globes after groping incident

Actor Brendan Fraser has said he will not attend Hollywood's Golden Globe Awards next year after accusing their former president of assaulting him.

The star, known for The Mummy movies, is tipped for awards success for his comeback film role in The Whale.

In 2018, he said Philip Berk, head of Golden Globes organising body the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, had groped his bottom in 2003.

Fraser has previously said the incident "made me retreat" and "feel reclusive".

The HFPA found that Mr Berk "inappropriately touched" Fraser, but that it "was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance".

Asked in a new interview with GQ whether he would go to next year's Golden Globes if invited, Fraser replied: "I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. No, I will not participate.

"It's because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn't raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that."

The 2003 incident happened at an event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and Fraser previously told the magazine he felt Mr Berk's finger as he started "moving it around".

"I felt ill," the actor said in 2018. "I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry."

Afterwards, he demanded and received an apology, but Mr Berk told GQ in 2018: "My apology admitted no wrongdoing, the usual, 'If I've done anything that upset Mr Fraser, it was not intended and I apologise.'"

The HFPA concluded the incident was meant as a joke after carrying out an internal investigation. Mr Berk told GQ he had faced no disciplinary action as a result.

"I knew they would close ranks," Fraser said in his latest interview. "I knew they would kick the can down the road. I knew they would get ahead of the story. I knew that I certainly had no future with that system as it was."

Fraser has received glowing reviews for The Whale, in which he plays as a morbidly obese literature professor.

He is widely regarded as the frontrunner to win best actor at next year's Oscars, which would normally be replicated at precursor ceremonies like the Golden Globes.

"It's hard to imagine anyone being as captivating in the role," wrote BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber, adding that the actor "richly deserves to be nominated for a best actor Oscar".

The Globes are returning as a televised event in January after this year's ceremony was dropped by broadcaster NBC following controversies including allegations of racism, sexism and conflicts of interest.

Mr Berk was expelled from the troubled organisation in 2021 after sharing an article describing Black Lives Matter as a "racist hate group".