Philip Berk, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), introduced in a luncheon Wednesday this year?s officers and members of the group that presents the annual Golden Globe Awards for film and television, including Ruben V. Nepales, the Philippine Daily Inquirer?s Los Angeles correspondent and entertainment columnist (?Only in Hollywood?).

In the star-studded event held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Berk and actress Eva Longoria Parker also announced HFPA?s record $1,541,000 in financial grants to entertainment-related charities, scholarship programs and nonprofit organizations. Each year, the group of international journalists holds one of the most-watched awards shows on television, which has enabled HFPA to donate more than $12 million to worthy causes in the past decade.

Among the stars who delivered acceptance remarks on behalf of the grants were Nicole Kidman (The Film Foundation), Jane Lynch (Outfest), Matthew Fox (American Cinematheque, Levantine Cultural Center and Latin American Cinemateca), Annette Bening (Sundance Institute), Ryan Phillippe (FilmAid International), John Slattery (UCLA), Aaron Sorkin (higher education fellowships and institutional support grants), Bryan Cranston (professional training and mentoring grants), Carla Gugino (LA Conservancy, MOMA, UC Berkeley?s Pacific Film Archive, LACMA and other film culture, history and preservation grants), and Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco (pre-professional training and education grants).

?I am proud of this philanthropic thrust of the organization,? Nepales said of the grants, which included a donation to the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. HFPA?s international philanthropic efforts have been recognized by Variety, which gave the association its Benefactor of the Year award in 2008. The reelected HFPA officers are Hans J. Spurkel (vice president), Meher Tatna (executive secretary), and Jack Tewksbury (treasurer). Nepales was reelected to the board of directors, which includes Ali Sar, Jorge Camara, Yoram Kahana, Theo Kingma and Lorenzo Soria.

Nepales, the first Filipino member in the group?s more than 60-year history, is an alumnus of the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas (UST). He was one of the outstanding alumni who received the inaugural AB Gantimpala Awards in rites held at UST last March. His column appears every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Inquirer.

Nepales lives in Los Angeles with his wife Janet Susan R. Nepales, also a journalist and an HFPA member. They have two children, Bianca Nicole (Nikki) and Rafaella Angelica (Ella).