TORONTO -- Moochers, bottom-feeders, a joke. The 96 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are called everything but journalists in The Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret, a documentary airing tonight at 10 p.m. on CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye.

Movie lovers who watch may never take the Golden Globes seriously again as Oscar-winning filmmaker Vikram Jayanti (When We Were Kings) indulges in a devastating slice-and-dice job on the mysterious Hollywood institution behind the award show.

The HFPA has faced scandal in the past when it was suggested that the votes of its members, with questionable, if any, media credentials, were for sale.

In one delightful scene, Jayanti fails to gain access to the heavily fortified association headquarters. Even the association's publicist refused to talk. In another, he shows the website of one European "journalist," a site filled with photos of her posing with stars.

The documentary says only a third of the members are actually working press and many moonlight at other jobs in southern California to make ends meet. Many aren't even foreign. None would talk to Jayanti on camera or even by phone.

A bona fide veteran correspondent for Le Monde in Paris says her membership application has been rejected year after year.

But for all that, the party-like atmosphere of the annual awards show continues to attract an A-list of celebrities.

It will be guaranteed again this year when the association presents the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement to Michael Douglas, 59.

Previous recipients include Gene Hackman, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery and Sophia Loren, but this will be the first second-generation star to be so honoured.

Kirk Douglas, 87, Michael's father, took home the same honour in 1968. Ironically, the two made their first film together last year, called It Runs in the Family.

This year's Golden Globes will air live on NBC Jan. 25 at 8 p.m.