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Tag: Academy Awards
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Oscar nominations unveiled for the 95th Academy Awards
Oscar nominations unveiled for the 95th Academy Awards – CBS News
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Nominations announced for the 95th annual Academy Awards
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The Surprises And Snubs Of The 2023 Oscar Nominations
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Oscar nominations morning is always a mixed bag. It consistently brings news to be happy or infuriated about, with a lot of both emotions bubbling up on Tuesday morning.
For starters, yay, 11 nominations for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the weird little multiverse movie that could! Yay for consistently great actors like Brian Tyree Henry and Hong Chau finally getting their due! Boo to zero women getting nominated for Best Director because, come on, there’s no excuse in the year 2023. Boo to one of the best movie experiences of the year, “The Woman King,” getting completely shut out.
Here are some of the surprises and snubs of this year’s Oscar nominations.
SURPRISES
Brian Tyree Henry For Best Supporting Actor
Brian Tyree Henry has been one of those actors who deserved an Oscar nomination for seemingly forever, especially the year he was in “Widows,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.” Whenever he shows up in anything, you know it will be good. In “Causeway,” his performance as a car mechanic dealing with the repercussions of past traumas elevates what’s otherwise a fairly standard drama. Somewhat frequently, the Academy finally recognizes an actor who has deserved a nomination for a long time, and that actor’s nomination isn’t necessarily for their best or most memorable performance. The nomination or the win is more for their entire body of work. We’ll take it even if it provokes mixed emotions because it’s a testament to that actor’s consistency. That’s certainly true of Henry. It’s great to call him an Oscar nominee at long last.
Hong Chau For Best Supporting Actress
Like Henry, Hong Chau is one of those actors who’s been working for a while and is consistently great. Again, I have mixed emotions about this nomination, though for slightly different reasons. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding “The Whale,” starring Brendan Fraser as an obese writing teacher, particularly whether the film perpetuates fatphobic tropes. But putting that aside, there’s no question that Chau, who plays Fraser’s character’s best friend and caretaker, is remarkable, and she has deserved recognition from the Academy for a while.
Stephanie Hsu For Best Supporting Actress
I put this as a surprise because many people were understandably worried that Stephanie Hsu would be omitted in place of her much more well-known “Everything Everywhere All At Once” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis. Instead, both women, pleasantly, were nominated. Hsu has to carry some of the most arduous scenes of that movie’s wild ride. She has to play two characters simultaneously: Joy, the daughter of protagonist Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), and Joy’s alter-ego Jobu Tupaki, the film’s villain. A star of stage and screen, Hsu is undoubtedly on the rise, and it’s great that this Oscar nomination will add to her growing career.
Paul Mescal For Best Actor
From making his television debut in Hulu’s “Normal People” adaptation (and giving audiences some well-needed horniness during those dark days of 2020) to being an Oscar nominee in just three years, Paul Mescal has had quite the meteoric rise. In “Aftersun,” directed by Charlotte Wells, he delivers a tender and introspective performance as a young father struggling with his mental health while taking his daughter (Frankie Corio) on vacation. It’s the kind of performance that isn’t exactly showy and, therefore, not the kind the Academy often rewards. So it’s nice to see the recognition for him.
Andrea Riseborough For Best Actress
In probably one of the biggest head-scratchers of the morning, British actor Andrea Riseborough got nominated for the little-seen indie film “To Leslie,” thanks to a partially self-funded awards campaign and support from famous peers in the industry. They mounted a coordinated Twitter campaign and hosted awards screenings and panels moderated by big names like Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron. (Vulture has a more detailed explainer here.) It’s an interesting tactic. However, it’s also worth noting that while Riseborough has undoubtedly had a respected career working steadily in acclaimed independent films, only certain types of people tend to have the connections, resources and industry-level support for this kind of come-from-behind Oscar nomination.
Ana de Armas For Best Actress
“Blonde” was one of the most divisive movies of 2022 for a host of reasons (one of them: its anti-abortion scenes, which did not sit well, especially at this particular moment in American politics). But many people agreed that however they felt about the movie, Ana de Armas did A LOT in it, taking on a demanding and perhaps impossible role as Marilyn Monroe. Plus, with lead roles in “Knives Out,” “No Time to Die,” and “Deep Water,” she has had a major couple of years.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ For Best Adapted Screenplay
The Academy sure loved “Top Gun: Maverick,” nominating it for Best Picture, which was somewhat expected, given its huge box office returns (it was a common refrain to joke that Tom Cruise saved the movies in 2022). But a screenplay nomination? OK, I guess? Action flicks aren’t exactly known for their writing. But when the Academy loves a movie, they really love it and tend to nominate it across the board.
SNUBS
Did “Women Talking” direct itself? Did members of the Academy just not see “The Woman King”? (See below for much, much more on that.) Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sarah Polley — and all the women who directed acclaimed films this year — deserve way better than this.
‘The Woman King’ Completely Shut Out
As my colleague Candice Frederick has pointed out, this is the kind of movie that the Oscars would typically really go for: A sweeping historical epic with big and technically daring action sequences. (Case in point: the new German adaptation of World War I epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” garnered nine nominations on Tuesday morning.) Plus, “The Woman King” became a huge box-office hit in a transitional year for theatrical releases.
But wait, it was directed by a Black woman and stars an incredible cast of Black women (of them, Lashana Lynch especially deserved way more awards buzz than she got). So yeah, that explains it. So deeply demoralizing that this happens time and time again.
Viola Davis For Best Actress
See above. Though Davis has been nominated four times and won an Oscar before — and certainly has always demonstrated how much she’s a legend — the Academy keeps ignoring leading roles by Black women.
Case in point: On Tuesday morning, Angela Bassett was the only Black woman nominated for an acting award for her supporting role in the “Black Panther” sequel “Wakanda Forever.” It came a whole 30 years after her first (and until now, only) Oscar nomination as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” And if you need a reminder of the Academy’s abysmal history, in the 95 years of the Oscars, only one Black woman has ever won Best Actress: Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball” over 20 years ago.
Danielle Deadwyler For Best Actress
See above. My best guess is that Riseborough and de Armas’ surprise nominations pushed out Davis and Deadwyler. The latter delivered a remarkable and really challenging performance as Mamie Till-Mobley in “Till,” directed by Chinonye Chukwu. Depicting Till-Mobley’s journey to civil rights activism in the wake of her son’s brutal death, the movie received mixed reviews and was underseen, in part due to its tough subject matter. But Deadwyler’s work was undeniably great, and once again, it is abysmal to see no Black women nominated for leading roles.
‘Decision to Leave’ For Best International Film
Widely considered one of the frontrunners for Best International Film, South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” is the latest film from director Park Chan-wook (“The Handmaiden,” “Oldboy”). It’s a twisty, Hitchcock-inspired mystery about a detective, Hae-jun (Park Hae-il), who is investigating the murder of a man… and then starts falling for the man’s widow Seo-rae (Tang Wei), who is also a suspect in the case. It’s a gorgeously shot thriller with nods to classic film noir and mystery films. As both a highly entertaining and dramatic film, it’s a strange omission for the Academy, which has really embraced a wider range of international films in recent years.
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Biggest surprises, snubs of the 2023 Oscar nominations
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Oscar nominations:
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The multiverse-skipping sci-fi indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” led this year’s Oscar nominations as Hollywood heaped honors on big-screen spectacles like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” a year after a streaming service won best picture for the first time.
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” landed a leading 11 nominations on Tuesday.
The 10 movies up for best picture are: “All Quiet on the Western Front”; “Avatar: The Way of Water”; “The Banshees of Inisherin”; “Elvis”; “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; “The Fabelmans”; “Tár”; “Top Gun: Maverick”; “Triangle of Sadness”; “Women Talking.”
If last year’s Oscars were dominated by streaming — Apple TV+’s “CODA” won best picture and Netflix landed a leading 27 nominations — movies that drew moviegoers to multiplexes after two years of a pandemic make up many of this year’s top contenders.
The nominees for best actress are: Ana de Armas, “Blonde”; Cate Blanchett, “Tár”; Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie”; Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”; Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The nominees for best actor: Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”; Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”; Austin Butler, “Elvis”; Bill Nighy, “Living”; Paul Mescal, “Aftersun.”
The nominees for best supporting actress are: Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; Hong Chau, “The Whale”; Kerry Condon, “Banshees of Inisherin”; Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The nominees for best supporting actor are: Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway”; Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans“; Brendan Gleeson, “Banshees on Inisherin”; Barry Keoghan, “Banshees of Inisherin”; Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The nominees for original screenplay are: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; “Banshees of Inisherin”; “The Fabelmans”; “Tár”; “Triangle of Sadness.”
At the Golden Globes, Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” won for best motion picture drama while “Banshees of Inisherin” took home best motion picture comedy or musical. Spielberg also won the best director award.
In the best actress categories, Blanchett won for her performance in “Tár” and Yeoh won for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The best actor awards went to Butler for his “Elvis” performance and Farrell for “Banshees of Inisherin.”
Bassett took home the Globe for best supporting actress in a motion picture — the first Marvel star to earn a major award. Quan won the best supporting actor award for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The awards show honoring the best in film is scheduled to be held March 12.
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Oscars predictions: Which films and actors will take top spots when the 2023 Academy Award nominations are announced?
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Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be unveiled Tuesday, beginning the countdown to Hollywood’s most talked-about night of the year. The anticipated list of nominees will come on the heels of two high-profile award shows, the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics Choice Awards, and closely follow a spectrum of nominations recently announced by the Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild, Directors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts — all of which, with particular attention to the artist guilds, are known to provide reasonable hints about the subsequent Oscar nods.
With a number of films and performers already generating buzz ahead of the Academy Award nominations, here is a look at what, and who, to expect to see in some of the major races.
Best Picture
With ten spots up for grabs in the Academy Awards’ top category, a handful of titles are shoo-ins for the upcoming nominations for best picture. But which remaining few will round out the list is still up for debate. The most obvious choices — and, potentially, the frontrunners to win — are Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Martin McDonagh’s Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama “The Fabelmans.”
All three films took home big accolades at the recent Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards, with “Everything Everywhere All At Once” earning the most prestigious honors from the Critics Choice Association, and “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “The Fabelmans” receiving the same from the HFPA. McDonaugh’s film won the Golden Globe for best comedy or musical this year, while Spielberg’s won the prize for best drama. Although the Critics Choice Awards have historically been better indicators of subsequent Oscar lineups than the Golden Globes — a 2021 review by The Hollywood Reporter found that the critics voted in kind with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) 73% of the time in the six major Oscar categories going back five years — the publicity that accompanies a televised win at the latter award show, which is in the process of attempting to redeem itself after allegations of corruption, racism and sexism have marred its reputation, should not be discounted, especially since this year’s Golden Globes took place just two days before the start of Oscar voting.
Allyson Riggs/A24 Films via AP
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “The Fabelmans” were also nominated in top categories for the Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild and Directors Guild Awards, which typically provide the most reliable clues as to what the Oscar nominations will look like, since there is significant overlap between guild members and members of AMPAS. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” tied for a SAG Awards nominations record this year with five nods each, in the race for best ensemble and four individual acting categories.
“Tár,” Todd Field’s psychological drama starring Cate Blanchett, a two-time Oscar winner and four-time nominee herself, is another strong contender for the best picture nomination. A clear favorite among movie critics, it was named best film of 2022 by the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and National Society of Film Critics, and ranked with the year’s best films on the American Film Institute’s annual list. Blanchett’s performance won the prize for best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes and earned a SAG award nomination in the analogous category.
“Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s biographical film about the rock and roll icon Elvis Presley could also land in the race for best picture. It was a box office triumph, pacing competitively with the record-breaker “Top Gun: Maverick,” and earned nearly two dozen nominations across the Golden Globe, Grammy, Critics Choice and BAFTA Awards. Austin Butler, who received widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of Presley, won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama.
The crowd-pleasers and box office smashes “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” both of which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and broke records with their exorbitant ticket sales, are potential candidates for the best picture nomination as well. “Top Gun” was the highest-grossing film of 2022 in U.S. markets, and “Avatar” took the same title globally. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” also performed extremely well at the box office and has made a notable splash in the awards circuit so far, although some have argued that the highly-anticipated follow-up to Marvel’s 2019 best picture nominee was snubbed in key categories by the Screen Actors Guild, possibly foreshadowing the Oscars. Looking at past best picture slates, it is probably unlikely that so many action-genre sequels will be nominated together in one year.
Scott Garfield / PARAMOUNT PICTURES / Skydance
The heartfelt and universally well-received British indie drama “Aftersun,” from Charlotte Wells in her directorial debut, could also make the cut, as could Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” which stars a packed ensemble cast of actors and is inspired by a harrowing true story about sex crimes in a Bolivian religious colony. “Triangle of Sadness,” the satirical black comedy about class conflict by French director Ruben Östlund in his first English-language film, may earn a spot in the best picture competition as well. With thematic elements and an overarching tone evoking Bong Joon-Ho’s 2019 best picture winner, the somewhat darker thriller “Parasite,” Östlund’s film, like Bong’s, received the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Netflix, which contributed two titles to the best picture category last year — Adam McKay’s timely satire “Don’t Look Up” and Jane Campion’s revisionist western “The Power of the Dog” — may throw one or two of its latest originals into the mix. The Critics Choice Awards’ best comedy and best acting ensemble winner, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” from director Rian Johnson, whose first installment in the whodunit series earned an Oscar nomination for best screenplay in 2019, will likely be weighed against its closest competitor on the streaming platform, the German anti-war epic “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which Germany announced as its submission for best international feature at the Oscars over the summer. It could be nominated, and, like “Parasite,” even win, in both categories. The film led this year’s BAFTA nominations with 14 nods, tying an all-time record, from the British Academy, whose picks often overlap substantially with the Oscar selections.
Best Actress
All four acting races typically pull heavily from the best picture contenders to choose their nominees. And, judging by the spread of guild nominations announced so far, plus the nominees and winners at the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, this year’s Oscar nominees for best actress and actor — as well as their supporting counterparts — will likely not break with that format.
Michelle Yeoh, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Viola Davis, for “The Woman King,” and Blanchett, for “Tár,” were each nominated for Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards, with Blanchett and Yeoh winning the top honors for drama and comedy, respectively, at the Globes, and Blanchett winning again at the Critics Choice Awards. Their recognition thus far across the industry is a solid suggestion that all three women will vie for best actress at the Oscars and that best actress may shape up to be one of the night’s most contentious competitions.
Potentially joining them in the category are: Danielle Deadwyler, who received SAG Award, Critics Choice and BAFTA nominations for her performance in “Till,” Ana de Armas, who also received SAG and BAFTA nominations for her widely-acclaimed portrayal of Marylin Monroe in the otherwise divisive drama “Blonde,” and Margot Robbie, a Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominee for her role in “Babylon.” Robbie and de Armas have both received Oscar nominations before.
Ilze Kitshoff
Whether or not Michelle Williams — who received a Golden Globe nomination but was, by some accounts, snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild for her role in “The Fabelmans” — or Olivia Colman — a Golden Globe nominee for “Empire of Light,” who has consistently appeared on the Academy Awards roster since her breakout win for “The Favourite” in 2019 — will be included in the best actress list is a toss up. It is worth noting that Colman’s past Oscar nods coincided with SAG Award nominations, which she did not receive this year.
Best Actor
In a category with only five slots available, the lineup for the award for best actor could be fairly predictable. Four leading men — Austin Butler, for “Elvis,” Brendan Fraser, for “The Whale,” Colin Farrell, for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” and Bill Nighy, for “Living” — have already received nominations for Critics Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Awards, making each a probable candidate for an Oscar nod.
Apparent favorites to take home this year’s best actor prize are: Fraser, whose viral comeback performance as a recluse in “The Whale” won the Critics Choice Award; Butler, whose title role in “Elvis” won him the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama and garnered praise from the Presleys themselves; and Farrell, whose reunion with McDonaugh for “The Banshees of Inisherin” was hailed as one of the year’s greatest performances by TIME and won him the award for best actor in a comedy at the Globes.
Based on the spate of previously announced nominations, it looks like the fifth spot in the running for best actor is anyone’s game. It could go to Paul Mescal or Tom Cruise, both of whom competed in the lead acting race at the Critics Choice Awards for their roles in “Aftersun” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” Hugh Jackman or Jeremy Pope, who were nominated in the Golden Globes’ best dramatic actor contest for “The Son” and “The Inspection,” Diego Calva, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver or Ralph Fiennes, who competed in the Globes’ corresponding comedy race for their roles in “Babylon,” “Glass Onion,” “White Noise” and “The Menu” — or, perhaps, the final spot will offer a surprise with Adam Sandler, who recently earned his first SAG Award nomination for his performance in the sports drama “Hustle.”
Warner Brothers
Best Supporting Actress
Hollywood awards veteran Angela Bassett is poised to lead this year’s group of Oscar nominees for best supporting actress, after winning the equivalent title at both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which also earned her a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.
Other possible contenders in this category include a fairly broad array of actors, comprised of both familiar players and some newcomers: Hong Chau, for “The Whale;” Kerry Condon, for “The Banshees of Inisherin;” Jamie Lee Curtis, who has been campaigning for her first Oscar nomination for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once;” her costar, Stephanie Hsu, whose breakout performance in the same film was met with critical acclaim; Jessie Buckley, for “Women Talking;” Janelle Monáe, for “Glass Onion;” Dolly De Leon, for “Triangle of Sadness;” or Carey Mulligan, for “She Said.”
Best Supporting Actor
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” brought a career revival for Ke Huy Quan, who took a decades-long hiatus from acting after appearing in a handful of classic films between the late 1980s and early 1990s, including “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “The Goonies” and “Encino Man.” Quan’s latest performance won him a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award, and earned him a SAG Award nomination, possibly securing his spot in the race for best supporting actor at the Oscars.
Other likely contenders include Paul Dano, for “The Fabelmans,” Brendan Gleeson, for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Barry Keoghan, for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Eddie Redmayne, for “The Good Nurse,” Judd Hirsch, for “The Fabelmans,” Brian Tyree Henry, for “Causeway,” and Brad Pitt, for “Babylon.” Behind Quan, Gleeson and Keoghan’s consistency so far in the awards circuit, plus Henry’s standout praise from critics, could signal their upcoming nominations from AMPAS, although Dano, Redmayne, Hirsch and Pitt, with extensive individual resumes and previous accolades, may still have a fighting chance.
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The Year of the Slap: Pop culture moments in 2022
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Taylor Swift was up. Elon Musk was in, out, and in. Tom Cruise was back. BTS stepped aside, and so did Serena Williams, and Tom Brady too — oops, scratch that.
But the slap? The slap was everywhere.
Ok, so maybe it wasn’t on the level of a moon landing, or selection of a pope. But henceforth all you need say is “the slap” and people will know what you mean — that moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and a global audience said, “Wait, did that happen?” Even in the room itself — maybe especially in the room itself — there was a sense that everyone had imagined it, which helps explain why things went on as normal, for a bit.
The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping, and people rushing to buy things like, oh, Taylor Swift tickets!
We’ll take any segue to mention Swift, who already had a big year in 2021, but just got bigger — heck, she broke Billboard records and then she broke Ticketmaster. (No word if she got her scarf back).
It was a year of celebrity #MeToo cases like Harvey Weinstein (again), R. Kelly (again), Kevin Spacey, Paul Haggis, Danny Masterson. And the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, its every excruciating turn captured on TV.
On the big screen, there were big comebacks. Mourning its dearly missed star, Chadwick Boseman, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was a box office triumph. James Cameron’s “Avatar” planned a December return.
Then there was Tom Cruise, turning 60 in ’22, just like the Rolling Stones, swooping into Cannes with his most successful movie, and showing, like those still-touring rockers, that when they tell you “The end is inevitable,” as they do in “Top Gun: Maverick,” you can always reply “Maybe so, sir, but not today.”
Will audiences one day find Cruise – or the Stones, for that matter – too wrinkled and past the sell-by date? Maybe so, but not this year.
Our annual, totally selective journey through a year in pop culture:
JANUARY
It’s GOLDEN GLOBES time. But is a Globes with no telecast, boozy celebs or red carpet a Globes at all? The embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, reeling from stunning failures over diversity, holds a private event and plans a comeback next year. Hey, remember the original wardrobe malfunction? Well, JANET JACKSON says she and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE have moved on, and so should we. The New York Times buys Wordle, and we’re all thinking in five-letter words (though W-O-R-D-L-E is six, just saying.) Meanwhile, it’s a month of loss, heading off a year of loss: pioneering Black actor, director and activist SIDNEY POITIER dies at 94.
FEBRUARY
What would a year in pop culture be without BRITNEY? Just months after her liberation from her restrictive conservatorship, Spears is reported to have signed a mammoth book deal, but at year’s end we’re still waiting for news. RIHANNA is pregnant! TOM BRADY retires! (Stay tuned, on that one.) TAYLOR watch: JAKE GYLLENHAAL speaks out, saying he really has nothing to do with that song, that it’s about an artist’s relationship with her fans — but fans shouldn’t be cyberbullying, either.
MARCH
Quick, who wins Oscars this month? Well, “CODA” does, a feel-good drama with a largely deaf cast, and TROY KOTSUR becomes the first deaf actor to win an acting Oscar. Alas, all anyone can talk about is — you know. SMITH, who wins the best actor award not long after slapping Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, won’t truly address the issue until the end of the year, so keep reading. KARDASHIAN watch: Kim K is declared legally single again in her ongoing divorce with YE, the rapper formerly known as KANYE WEST. And BRADY, retired for 40 days, says, “Never mind!”
APRIL
It’s GRAMMY time, and JON BATISTE wins big, taking five statuettes. The musician’s huge year will later include performing at the first state dinner of the Biden administration, for French President Emmanuel Macron. The next day Macron will meet with MUSK (thanks for the segue, Monsieur le President) who begins his acquisition of TWITTER this month, leading to untold – and still unfolding – changes at the social media giant.
MAY
So imagine you’re sipping cocktails at the MET GALA and a musician comes sauntering through, playing the melodica — of course it’s BATISTE, because the Met Gala’s that kind of crazy party. The biggest splash of the night, though, is KARDASHIAN, on the arm of boyfriend PETE DAVIDSON, wearing the same sequined, skin tight gown MARILYN MONROE wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK in 1962. In movies, “Top Gun: Maverick” opens, the highest-grossing domestic debut in CRUISE’S career, and his first to surpass $100 million on opening weekend. HARRY STYLES fans rejoice! His album, “Harry’s House,” is here.
JUNE
Stunning news for the global fanbase of BTS as the K-pop supergroup announces it’s taking a break to focus on members’ solo projects. On the legal front, a Virginia jury hands DEPP a victory in his very messy libel case over allegations of domestic abuse, finding that former wife HEARD defamed him in a 2018 op-ed. On a happier note, Britney gets married….
JULY
Only one wedding, Britney? BENNIFER has two! Maybe what happens usually stays in Vegas, but not when you have 227 million followers on Instagram. With a winking reference to being a “Sadie” (married lady) JENNIFER LOPEZ directs fans to her newsletter where she shares pics of her quickie wedding to BEN AFFLECK. “Love is beautiful,” she writes. “And it turns out love is patient.” Speaking of patience, fans of BEYONCÉ are rewarded for theirs, with the release of her long-awaited seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” her first solo album in six years.
AUGUST
So, we were saying …. Bennifer’s second wedding , on Affleck’s compound in Georgia, is bigger and fancier. One wedding, one split: KARDASHIAN and DAVIDSON are no longer. In other summer news, the world remembers Princess Diana, whose shocking death in a car crash happened 25 years ago, and whose life is being rehashed for a new generation in the current season of “The Crown.” And only days later, that same Netflix series will pause production briefly as a mark of respect for Queen Elizabeth II as Britain — and the world — mourn the beloved monarch, who dies at age 96 after more than 70 years on the throne.
SEPTEMBER
Mounting political intrigue in Europe, and by that we mean … did spit fly at the Venice premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling”? Either way the movie, directed by OLIVIA WILDE and starring her boyfriend (alleged spitter STYLES), is saddled – or blessed? – with more than its share of extracurricular drama. At the EMMYS, behold SHERYL LEE RALPH, who wins for “Abbott Elementary” and schools the crowd on the power of dreams and self-belief. “This is what believing looks like,” she says. You know what else believing looks like? Rachel Berry from “Glee” – aka LEA MICHELE – at last getting to play Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” on Broadway. In sports, with four rueful words that resonate with working moms everywhere, SERENA WILLIAMS says she’s stepping aside from tennis, because: “Something’s got to give.”
OCTOBER
The second HARVEY WEINSTEIN trial opens in Los Angeles. ADIDAS drops YE, part of a cascade of companies that will sever ties with the rapper over his antisemitic and other troubling comments. The MUSK era begins at TWITTER as the world’s richest man carries a sink into the office, to “let that sink in.” HEIDI KLUM’s Halloween costume is a slimy, glistening rain worm. But before the month worms away from us, let’s cede it to SWIFT for dropping her new album, “Midnights” (Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day), then adding seven bonus tracks, then becoming the first artist to occupy all top 10 slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Let THAT sink in! P.S. Celebrity divorce watch: BRADY and wife GISELE BUNDCHEN split.
NOVEMBER
Did we say LAST month was Taylor Swift month? Well now, millions of eager fans crowd a presale for her much-awaited Eras Tour, resulting in crashes and endless waits. Ticketmaster cancels the general sale, citing insufficient stock. Multiple state attorneys general announce investigations. Takeaway: People want Taylor Swift tickets. At the multiplex, they also want their Wakanda. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” meets the double challenge of following up one of the biggest blockbusters in history and losing its biggest star.
DECEMBER
Love ‘em or hate ’em, here come HARRY and MEGHAN again, with a Netflix “documentary” being watched very, very closely by royalty across the pond. Cameron’s “AVATAR” sequel finally appears, 13 years after the original broke records. Will viewers flock to Pandora once again? And bringing the year full circle, SMITH emerges to promote his new film, “EMANCIPATION,” and hoping people will forget about … what was it? … at least enough to check out the movie.
In this year of comebacks, will Smith’s be the biggest?
Check back with us in 2023.
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The Year of the Slap: Pop culture moments in 2022
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Taylor Swift was up. Elon Musk was in, out, and in. Tom Cruise was back. BTS stepped aside, and so did Serena Williams, and Tom Brady too — oops, scratch that.
But the slap? The slap was everywhere.
Ok, so maybe it wasn’t on the level of a moon landing, or selection of a pope. But henceforth all you need say is “the slap” and people will know what you mean — that moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and a global audience said, “Wait, did that happen?” Even in the room itself — maybe especially in the room itself — there was a sense that everyone had imagined it, which helps explain why things went on as normal, for a bit.
The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping, and people rushing to buy things like, oh, Taylor Swift tickets!
We’ll take any segue to mention Swift, who already had a big year in 2021, but just got bigger — heck, she broke Billboard records and then she broke Ticketmaster. (No word if she got her scarf back).
It was a year of celebrity #MeToo cases like Harvey Weinstein (again), R. Kelly (again), Kevin Spacey, Paul Haggis, Danny Masterson. And the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, its every excruciating turn captured on TV.
On the big screen, there were big comebacks. Mourning its dearly missed star, Chadwick Boseman, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was a box office triumph. James Cameron’s “Avatar” planned a December return.
Then there was Tom Cruise, turning 60 in ’22, just like the Rolling Stones, swooping into Cannes with his most successful movie, and showing, like those still-touring rockers, that when they tell you “The end is inevitable,” as they do in “Top Gun: Maverick,” you can always reply “Maybe so, sir, but not today.”
Will audiences one day find Cruise – or the Stones, for that matter – too wrinkled and past the sell-by date? Maybe so, but not this year.
Our annual, totally selective journey through a year in pop culture:
JANUARY
It’s GOLDEN GLOBES time. But is a Globes with no telecast, boozy celebs or red carpet a Globes at all? The embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, reeling from stunning failures over diversity, holds a private event and plans a comeback next year. Hey, remember the original wardrobe malfunction? Well, JANET JACKSON says she and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE have moved on, and so should we. The New York Times buys Wordle, and we’re all thinking in five-letter words (though W-O-R-D-L-E is six, just saying.) Meanwhile, it’s a month of loss, heading off a year of loss: pioneering Black actor, director and activist SIDNEY POITIER dies at 94.
FEBRUARY
What would a year in pop culture be without BRITNEY? Just months after her liberation from her restrictive conservatorship, Spears is reported to have signed a mammoth book deal, but at year’s end we’re still waiting for news. RIHANNA is pregnant! TOM BRADY retires! (Stay tuned, on that one.) TAYLOR watch: JAKE GYLLENHAAL speaks out, saying he really has nothing to do with that song, that it’s about an artist’s relationship with her fans — but fans shouldn’t be cyberbullying, either.
MARCH
Quick, who wins Oscars this month? Well, “CODA” does, a feel-good drama with a largely deaf cast, and TROY KOTSUR becomes the first deaf actor to win an acting Oscar. Alas, all anyone can talk about is — you know. SMITH, who wins the best actor award not long after slapping Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, won’t truly address the issue until the end of the year, so keep reading. KARDASHIAN watch: Kim K is declared legally single again in her ongoing divorce with YE, the rapper formerly known as KANYE WEST. And BRADY, retired for 40 days, says, “Never mind!”
APRIL
It’s GRAMMY time, and JON BATISTE wins big, taking five statuettes. The musician’s huge year will later include performing at the first state dinner of the Biden administration, for French President Emmanuel Macron. The next day Macron will meet with MUSK (thanks for the segue, Monsieur le President) who begins his acquisition of TWITTER this month, leading to untold – and still unfolding – changes at the social media giant.
MAY
So imagine you’re sipping cocktails at the MET GALA and a musician comes sauntering through, playing the melodica — of course it’s BATISTE, because the Met Gala’s that kind of crazy party. The biggest splash of the night, though, is KARDASHIAN, on the arm of boyfriend PETE DAVIDSON, wearing the same sequined, skin tight gown MARILYN MONROE wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK in 1962. In movies, “Top Gun: Maverick” opens, the highest-grossing domestic debut in CRUISE’S career, and his first to surpass $100 million on opening weekend. HARRY STYLES fans rejoice! His album, “Harry’s House,” is here.
JUNE
Stunning news for the global fanbase of BTS as the K-pop supergroup announces it’s taking a break to focus on members’ solo projects. On the legal front, a Virginia jury hands DEPP a victory in his very messy libel case over allegations of domestic abuse, finding that former wife HEARD defamed him in a 2018 op-ed. On a happier note, Britney gets married….
JULY
Only one wedding, Britney? BENNIFER has two! Maybe what happens usually stays in Vegas, but not when you have 227 million followers on Instagram. With a winking reference to being a “Sadie” (married lady) JENNIFER LOPEZ directs fans to her newsletter where she shares pics of her quickie wedding to BEN AFFLECK. “Love is beautiful,” she writes. “And it turns out love is patient.” Speaking of patience, fans of BEYONCÉ are rewarded for theirs, with the release of her long-awaited seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” her first solo album in six years.
AUGUST
So, we were saying …. Bennifer’s second wedding , on Affleck’s compound in Georgia, is bigger and fancier. One wedding, one split: KARDASHIAN and DAVIDSON are no longer. In other summer news, the world remembers Princess Diana, whose shocking death in a car crash happened 25 years ago, and whose life is being rehashed for a new generation in the current season of “The Crown.” And only days later, that same Netflix series will pause production briefly as a mark of respect for Queen Elizabeth II as Britain — and the world — mourn the beloved monarch, who dies at age 96 after more than 70 years on the throne.
SEPTEMBER
Mounting political intrigue in Europe, and by that we mean … did spit fly at the Venice premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling”? Either way the movie, directed by OLIVIA WILDE and starring her boyfriend (alleged spitter STYLES), is saddled – or blessed? – with more than its share of extracurricular drama. At the EMMYS, behold SHERYL LEE RALPH, who wins for “Abbott Elementary” and schools the crowd on the power of dreams and self-belief. “This is what believing looks like,” she says. You know what else believing looks like? Rachel Berry from “Glee” – aka LEA MICHELE – at last getting to play Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” on Broadway. In sports, with four rueful words that resonate with working moms everywhere, SERENA WILLIAMS says she’s stepping aside from tennis, because: “Something’s got to give.”
OCTOBER
The second HARVEY WEINSTEIN trial opens in Los Angeles. ADIDAS drops YE, part of a cascade of companies that will sever ties with the rapper over his antisemitic and other troubling comments. The MUSK era begins at TWITTER as the world’s richest man carries a sink into the office, to “let that sink in.” HEIDI KLUM’s Halloween costume is a slimy, glistening rain worm. But before the month worms away from us, let’s cede it to SWIFT for dropping her new album, “Midnights” (Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day), then adding seven bonus tracks, then becoming the first artist to occupy all top 10 slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Let THAT sink in! P.S. Celebrity divorce watch: BRADY and wife GISELE BUNDCHEN split.
NOVEMBER
Did we say LAST month was Taylor Swift month? Well now, millions of eager fans crowd a presale for her much-awaited Eras Tour, resulting in crashes and endless waits. Ticketmaster cancels the general sale, citing insufficient stock. Multiple state attorneys general announce investigations. Takeaway: People want Taylor Swift tickets. At the multiplex, they also want their Wakanda. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” meets the double challenge of following up one of the biggest blockbusters in history and losing its biggest star.
DECEMBER
Love ‘em or hate ’em, here come HARRY and MEGHAN again, with a Netflix “documentary” being watched very, very closely by royalty across the pond. Cameron’s “AVATAR” sequel finally appears, 13 years after the original broke records. Will viewers flock to Pandora once again? And bringing the year full circle, SMITH emerges to promote his new film, “EMANCIPATION,” and hoping people will forget about … what was it? … at least enough to check out the movie.
In this year of comebacks, will Smith’s be the biggest?
Check back with us in 2023.
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Brendan Fraser is back. But to him, ‘I was never far away’
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NEW YORK — In a darkened hotel room in New York’s Soho neighborhood, Brendan Fraser kindly greets a reporter with an open plastic bag in his hand. “Would you like a gummy bear?”
Fraser, the 54-year-old actor, is in many ways an extremely familiar face to encounter. Here is the once ubiquitous ’90s presence and action star of “The Mummy” and “George of the Jungle,” whose warm, earnest disposition has made him beloved, still, many years later.
But Fraser, little seen on the big screen for much of the last decade, is also not quite as you might remember him. His voice is softer. He’s more sensitive, almost intensely so. He seems to bear some bruises from an up-and-down life. If Fraser seems both as he was once was but also someone markedly different, that’s appropriate. In Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” he gives a performance unlike any he’s given before. And it may well win him an Academy Award.
Fraser’s performance been hailed as his comeback — a word, he says, that “doesn’t hurt my feelings.” But it’s not the one he’d choose.
“If anything, this is a reintroduction more than a comeback,” Fraser says. “It’s an opportunity to reintroduce myself to an industry, who I do not believe forgot me as is being perpetrated. I’ve just never been that far away.”
Fraser is very close at hand, indeed, in “The Whale.” In the adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s play, which A24 releases in theaters Friday, Fraser is in virtually every scene. He plays a reclusive, obese English teacher named Charlie whose overeating stems from past trauma. As health woes shrink the time he has left, the 600-pound Charlie struggles to reacquaint himself to his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink).
Fraser’s performance, widely celebrated since the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere, has two Oscar-friendly traits going it for: A comeback narrative and a physical metamorphosis. For the role, Fraser wore a massive body suit and prosthetics crafted by makeup artist Adrian Morot that required hours in makeup each morning.
But regardless of all the role’s transformation trappings, Fraser’s performance resides in his sad, soulful eyes and compassionate interactions with the characters that come in and out of his home. (Hong Chau plays a friend and nurse.) It adds up to Fraser’s most empathetic performance, one that has returned him to the spotlight after years making quickly forgotten films like “Hair Brained” (2013) and the straight-to-DVD “Breakout” (2013). On stages now from London to Toronto, standing ovations have trailed Fraser — a leading man reborn — wherever he goes.
For Fraser, who spent much of his previous heyday in Hollywood swinging on vines and racing through pyramids, playing Charlie in “The Whale” has a cosmic symmetry. He could identify with him, Fraser says, “in ways that might surprise you.” When he was in his late 20s trying to be as fit as he could be for “George of the Jungle,” Fraser encountered his own body-image issues.
“All I knew is that I never felt like it was enough. I questioned myself. I felt scrutinized, judged, objectified, often humiliated,” Fraser says. “It did play with my head. It did play with my confidence.”
Some have questioned whether Fraser’s role in “The Whale” ought to have gone to someone who was authentically heavy. But Fraser, who collaborated with the Obesity Action Coalition in building the performance, says he intimately understands a different kind of appearance-based judgment.
“The term was ‘himbo,’” he says. “I wasn’t sure if I appreciated it or not. I know that’s bimbo, which is a derogatory term, except it’s a dude. It just left me with a feeling of profound insecurity. What do I have to do to please you?”
“It didn’t matter, really, because life took over. I did other things. I now arrive at a place where I see the flip side of the coin.”
After seeing the play 10 years ago at Playwrights Horizon, Aronofsky, the director of “Pi,” “Requiem for a Dream” and “Black Swan,” spent years contemplating different actors who could play the protagonist of “The Whale” without any success. Then he had Fraser come in and read for the part.
“It wasn’t like I went into this with a calculation: Oh, a forgotten American-Canadian treasure,” says Aronofsky. “He was the right guy for the right role at the right time. If anything, I was wondering would people think it was a silly choice or something. There wasn’t any cool factor that I could see.”
Aronofsky instead depended on his gut and an old axiom: “Once a movie star, always a movie star.” Plus, Fraser was hungry. He wanted the part desperately and was ready to put in all the work, all the time in the make-up chair. Still, Aronofsky would later marvel, watching a clip reel of Fraser at an awards ceremony, at the juxtaposition of “The Whale” with movies like “Encino Man,” “Bedazzled” and “Airheads.”
“He plays this kind of very present, truthful, innocent goofus kind of guy,” says Aronofsky. “Then you intercut it with ‘The Whale.’ It was kind of jaw-dropping to me that this was one human being. There’s a gap in between of a lot of years.”
Fraser never stopped working, but his movie star days mostly dried up in the years after his 2008 films “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” and the 3D “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Around that time, he and his wife, Afton Smith, with whom he has three sons, divorced.
“I took some personal time. It was important,” says Fraser. “Mostly connecting with my life as a father. It gave me an appreciation for my capacity to love. What I learned informs the latter half of my professional life now.”
“Now I know my purpose. Take everything I’ve learned. Own it. And, if possible, let if fuel the work that comes before me,” adds Fraser. “It’s a nice idea, but what work will come before me?”
At a Beverly Hills, California, luncheon in 2003, Fraser was groped by Hollywood Foreign Press Association member Philip Berk, Fraser said in 2018. (Berk disputed Fraser’s account.) The experience, Fraser told GQ, made him feel like “something had been taken away from me” and “made me retreat.”
Last month, Fraser announced he won’t attend the Golden Globes in January, whether he’s nominated or not. “My mother didn’t raise a hypocrite,” Fraser said. Still, the nature of awards campaigns will likely keep Fraser in the public eye through the Oscars in March. Is he at all trepidatious about being back in the spotlight?
“I think it’s going to be for the rest of my career,” Fraser replies. “No. I have an obligation to do this. I feel duty bound to, as politely as a I can, to use that casual prejudice to describe this character, to remind them that there’s a better way of doing that. Obesity is the last domain of accepted, casual bigotry that we still abide.”
During shooting on a sound stage in Newburgh, New York, Chau was often impressed by how Fraser worked steadily with a hundred pounds of cumbersome prosthetics on him and crew members buzzing around him before every take.
“I just thought Brendan was such an angel and so gracious in the way he managed that and compartmentalized all that was going on around him,” says Chau. “I naturally felt like taking care of him on set. Making sure his water bottle was someplace close by. Holding his hand and making sure he got up off the couch OK.”
Little about the film, or Fraser’s journey with it, was inevitable. His first meeting with Aronofsky was in February 2020. The pandemic nearly led to the production’s cancellation.
“I gave it everything I had every day,” he says. “We lived under existential threat of COVID. An actor’s job is to approach everything like it’s the first time. I did but also as if it might be the last time.”
Instead, Fraser’s performance opened an entire new chapter for him as an actor. He recently shot a supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Pondering what comes next, though, will have to wait until another day. When the time for the interview is through, Fraser stands up and graciously pulls a bag out of his pocket.
“Gummy bear for the road?” Fraser asks. “I recommend pineapple.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’ role taught him lesson post-slap
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LOS ANGELES — While filming “Emancipation,” Will Smith routinely drew inspiration from the words “sacred motivation” that were written on the front page of a script. But the Oscar winner heavily leaned on the phrase even more in recent months, as he tried to overcome the backlash to his Oscars slap and banishment from the ceremony.
“It’s like when you can locate and center yourself in your divine purpose, you can withstand anything and everything,” Smith said of the phrase that greeted him when he took on the lead role in Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation,” which is currently in theaters and will be available to stream Friday on Apple TV+. “Sacred motivation” became like a theme for him and his castmates, Smith said.
The film, completed months before Smith strode onto the Oscars stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock for a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, was a grueling shoot. Inspired by an iconic 1863 photo of the scarred back of “Whipped Peter,” Smith portrays the character Peter — a man who attempts to escape slavery while he uses his wits to dodge slave hunters and brave alligator-infested Louisiana swamps in his quest for freedom.
The photos of “Whipped Peter” were taken during a Union Army medical examination that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly. An image known as “The Scourged Back” showed countless mutilated whip marks on Peter’s bare back that were delivered by his enslavers. The photo contributed to the growing opposition to slavery.
Smith said his character taught him a lesson in overcoming adversity after he faced condemnation, memes and a 10-year Oscars attendance ban. The “slap” seemingly overshadowed his own biggest career milestone, which came later in the night: winning his first-ever Academy Award, best actor for “King Richard.”
The backlash rocked Smith, but Peter ultimately helped steer him back on track too.
“Peter has absolutely helped me through these last few months, just reestablishing within myself in what my purpose is in this world,” Smith said in a recent interview, one of his first since the Oscars. He has repeatedly apologized for his behavior after accepting his ban.
Normally, “Emancipation” might earn Smith some serious Oscars buzz. He’s still eligible for nominations and awards, but can’t personally accept them. Given backlash to “The Slap,” Smith mainly hopes that audiences will still watch Fuqua’s film.
“This movie was so grueling. Literally across the board, everybody had to devote a hefty amount of suffering to what you see on that screen,” Smith said. “So my greatest wish, and I guess I can talk about my greatest fear, is that my team would be penalized for my actions. I’m out with this film that I love and strictly want my people to get their flowers.”
Fuqua knows Smith made a mistake, but he hopes audiences can move past it. The director believes the story about Peter’s search for freedom, fighting to get back to his family and being a catalyst in highlighting the horrific side of slavery in “Emancipation” is much bigger than “The Slap.”
“Peter’s story is so inspiring, especially as a Black man. We go through a lot of things daily, just being Black,” said Fuqua, known for directing “Training Day,” “Equalizer” films and “The Magnificent Seven.” He said his new film tackles how certain elements of racism in America that still occur today.
“For me, it’s a mistake,” Fuqua said of Smith striking Rock on live television. “Hopefully everybody can get back on track and God bless everyone. But we’re talking about 400 years of brutality.”
Bingwa, who plays Peter’s wife Dodienne, credits Smith’s ability to endure the adversity while pushing forward through it.
“It’s in line with the film. I imagine it’s been a tough period,” said Bingwa, who hopes audiences can learn more about Peter’s determination to return home after making a promise. “I don’t want to speak on Will’s behalf, but he’s been an inspiration to so many for so long. I love seeing him with his head held high. Everyone can learn from his experience. I just love the way you took it on the chin, you’re wearing it and walking forward. We’re all human.”
While promoting the film, Smith held private screenings for several influential figures including Rihanna, Tyler Perry, Dave Chappelle, LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates along with students at Morehouse College. He garnered a great amount of support from those individuals, giving him somewhat a sigh of relief.
Each time Smith harkened back to Peter’s story, the more he became empowered to share his character’s journey.
“I feel very comfortable in this current situation with this project, with these people,” he said. “I feel cleansed. I feel purified and transformed in many ways. And as one of the lessons from Peter is, ‘Suffering leads to salvation.’ So I am comfortable taking my medicine.”
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Will Smith, opening up about Oscars slap, tells Trevor Noah ‘hurt people hurt people’ | CNN
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CNN
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Will Smith opened up to Trevor Noah about the now-famous slap at the Oscars in March during an appearance that aired Monday night on “The Daily Show.”
While promoting his forthcoming film “Emancipation,” Smith called it “a horrific night” and said he “lost it” when he stormed the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock.
“And I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody is going through,” Smith said. “I was going through something that night. Not that that justifies my behavior at all.”
Smith said that what was most painful to him was that his actions made it “hard for other people.”
“And it’s like I understood the idea where they say hurt people hurt people,” he said.
“That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” Smith said.
Noah pointed out how Smith had written in his memoir about growing up being afraid of conflict and the talk show host also noted the negative things that have been said about Smith and his family on the internet.
“It was a lot of things,” Smith said in response. “It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know. All of that just bubbled up in that moment.”
Smith said who he was in that moment was “not who I want to be.”
In July Smith addressed the slap and issued a public apology on social media.
The Academy has sanctioned Smith by banning him from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years.
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Will Smith addresses
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Eight months after the slap heard around the world, actor Will Smith sat down with “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah on Monday to address his confrontation with Chris Rock on the Oscars stage.
In March, Smith went on the Oscars stage and slapped Rock across the face after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock referred to her as “G.I. Jane” in a failed attempt to poke fun at her hair loss, which happened because of the autoimmune disorder alopecia. Smith has since apologized for the incident, but had yet to sit down for a major TV interview to discuss what happened.
“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine,” Smith told Noah. “There’s many nuances and complexities to it, but at the end of the day, I just – I lost it. I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody’s going through.”
Smith turned to the audience and used them as an example, saying that people could be sitting next to others who just lost a parent, has a sick child, lost their job or other issues that are taking a toll on their well-being.
“I was going through something that night. And not that that justifies my behavior at all. You’re asking what did I learn and it’s that we just got to be nice to each other, man. It’s hard. And I guess the thing that was most painful for me is that I took my hard and made it hard for other people.”
Noah told Smith that even with the controversy surrounding the slap and the significant criticism that arose from it, to him, the incident seemed to be a response to years of unrelated happenings in the actor’s life. Smith agreed.
“It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother. It’s all of that just bubbled up in that moment. It’s just – that’s not who I want to be,” Smith said.
Noah responded by saying that “everybody can make a mistake,” and that the reason the slap was so shocking is because it was not who Smith really is at his core. That response prompted Smith to tear up.
“I understand how shocking that was for people, man. … That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” Smith said. “But I understand the pain.”
Smith also spoke with FOX 5 DC’s Kevin McCarthy on Monday about his new movie, “Emancipation,” his first major post-slap movie that’s set to be released this weekend. Even though Smith was banned from the Oscars for a decade and resigned from the Academy for his actions, he could still be nominated and win an Oscar for his role in the film.
He told McCarthy that he would understand if people refrain from watching the movie and aren’t “ready” to embrace him again. His utmost concern, however, is that he doesn’t want his actions to come at the cost of the team who made the film possible.
But ultimately, even with that possibility, Smith told Noah, that the situation has taught him one presiding thing: “I had to forgive myself for being human.”
“There’s no better that hates the fact that I’m human more than me,” he said. “…I’ve always wanted to be Superman. I’ve always wanted to swoop in and save the damsel in distress and I had to humble down and realize that I’m a flawed human and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart and hopefully helps other people.”
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Will Smith says he
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Actor Will Smith says he would understand if audiences are not ready to see him on the big screen so soon after the infamous Oscars slap earlier this year.
On Monday, Smith spoke to FOX 5 DC’s Kevin McCarthy about his new film, “Emancipation,” which is set to be released in theaters on December 2 and starts streaming on Apple TV+ on December 9.
It is his first major project since he slapped Chris Rock on stage during the Academy Awards ceremony in March after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Following the incident, Smith publicly apologized to Rock and was banned from the Oscars for 10 years. While Smith also resigned from the Academy, he is still eligible to be nominated and win.
When asked what he would tell people who aren’t ready to see him on the big screen following the slap, Smith said he would respect that choice but said he hopes his personal actions don’t diminish the hard work of the team behind the film.
“I completely understand that, if someone is not ready I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready,” he told McCarthy. “My deepest concern is my team… the people on this team have done some of the best work of their entire careers, and my deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team.”
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
“I’m hoping that the material, the power of the film, the timeliness of the story, you know, I’m hoping that the good that can be done would open people’s hearts at a minimum to see and recognize and support the incredible artists in and around this film,” Smith added.
“Emancipation” centers around Smith’s character, Peter, an enslaved man who escapes a Louisiana plantation and makes his way north. According to Apple, the film was inspired by1863 photos of a man whose bare back was mutilated from whippings by his enslavers — brutal images that helped coalesce public sentiment in opposition to slavery.
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‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ singer-actor Irene Cara dies at 63
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NEW YORK — Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Grammy winning singer-actress Irene Cara, who starred and sang the title cut from the 1980 hit movie “Fame” and then belted out the era-defining hit “Flashdance … What a Feeling” from 1983’s “Flashdance,” has died. She was 63.
Her publicist, Judith A. Moose, announced the news on social media, writing that a cause of death was “currently unknown.” Moose also confirmed the death to an Associated Press reporter on Saturday. Cara died at her home in Florida. The exact day of her death was not disclosed.
“Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief,” Moose wrote. “She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films.”
During her career, Cara had three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Breakdance,” “Fame” and “Flashdance … What A Feeling,” which spent six weeks at No. 1. She was behind some of the most joyful, high-energy pop anthems of the early ’80s, including “Out Here On My Own” and “Why Me?”
Tributes poured in on Saturday on social media, including from Deborah Cox, who called Cara an inspiration, and Holly Robinson Peete, who recalled seeing Cara perform: “The insane combination of talent and beauty was overwhelming to me. This hurts my heart so much.”
She first came to prominence among the young actors playing performing arts high schoolers in Alan Parker’s “Fame,” with co-stars Debbie Allen, Paul McCrane and Anne Meara. Cara played Coco Hernandez, a striving dancer who endures all manner of deprivations, including a creepy nude photo shoot.
“How bright our spirits go shooting out into space, depends on how much we contributed to the earthly brilliance of this world. And I mean to be a major contributor!” she says in the movie.
Cara sang on the soaring title song with the chorus — “Remember my name/I’m gonna live forever/I’m gonna learn how to fly/I feel it coming together/People will see me and cry” — which would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. She also sang on “Out Here on My Own,” “Hot Lunch Jam” and “I Sing the Body Electric.”
Allen took to Twitter Saturday to mourn, posting pictures of them together and calling Cara a “a gifted and beautiful genius. Her talent and her music will live forever! Forever remember her name!”
Lenny Kravitz addressed Cara in a tweet: “You inspired me more than you could ever know. Your songwriting and vocals created pure energy that will never cease. You also defined an era that is so close to my heart.” Stephanie Mills. who co-starred with Cara in “Maggie Flynn” on Broadway in 1968, wrote: “Such an amazing talent and sweet person.”
Three years after her triumph with “Fame,” she and the songwriting team of “Flashdance” — music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Keith Forsey and Cara — were accepting the Oscar for best original song for “Flashdance … What a Feeling.”
The movie starred Jennifer Beals as a steel-town girl who dances in a bar at night and hopes to attend a prestigious dance conservatory. It included the hit song “Maniac,” featuring Beals’ character leaping, spinning, stomping her feet and the slow-burning theme song.
“There aren’t enough words to express my love and my gratitude,” Cara told the Oscar crowd in her thanks. “And last but not least, a very special gentlemen who I guess started it all for me many years ago. To Alan Parker, wherever you may be tonight, I thank him.”
The New York-born Cara began her career on Broadway, with small parts in short-lived shows, although a musical called “The Me Nobody Knows” ran over 300 performances. She toured in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” as Mary Magdalene in the mid-1990s and a tour of the musical ”Flashdance” toured 2012-14 with her songs.
She also created the all-female band Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel and put out a double CD with the single “How Can I Make You Luv Me.” Her movie credits include ”Sparkle” and “D.C. Cab.”
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Associated Press reporters Hillel Italie and Freida Frisaro contributed to this report.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ singer-actor Irene Cara dies at 63
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NEW YORK — Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Grammy winning singer-actress Irene Cara, who starred and sang the title cut from the 1980 hit movie “Fame” and then belted out the era-defining hit “Flashdance … What a Feeling” from 1983’s “Flashdance,” has died. She was 63.
Her publicist, Judith A. Moose, announced the news on social media, writing that a cause of death was “currently unknown.” Moose also confirmed the death to an Associated Press reporter on Saturday. Cara died at her home in Florida. The exact day of her death was not disclosed.
“Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief,” Moose wrote. “She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films.”
During her career, Cara had three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Breakdance,” “Out Here On My Own,” “Fame” and “Flashdance … What A Feeling,” which spent six weeks at No. 1. She was behind some of the most joyful, high-energy pop anthems of the early ’80s.
Tributes poured in on Saturday on social media, including from Deborah Cox, who called Cara an inspiration, and Holly Robinson Peete, who recalled seeing Cara perform: “The insane combination of talent and beauty was overwhelming to me. This hurts my heart so much.”
She first came to prominence among the young actors playing performing arts high schoolers in Alan Parker’s “Fame,” with co-stars Debbie Allen, Paul McCrane and Anne Mear. Cara played Coco Hernandez, a striving dancer who endures all manner of deprivations, including a creepy nude photo shoot.
“How bright our spirits go shooting out into space, depends on how much we contributed to the earthly brilliance of this world. And I mean to be a major contributor!” she says in the movie.
Cara sang on the soaring title song with the chorus — “Remember my name/I’m gonna live forever/I’m gonna learn how to fly/I feel it coming together/People will see me and cry” — which would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. She also sang on “Out Here on My Own,” “Hot Lunch Jam” and “I Sing the Body Electric.”
Allen took to Twitter Saturday to mourn, posting pictures of them together and calling Cara a “a gifted and beautiful genius. Her talent and her music will live forever! Forever remember her name!”
Three years later, she and the songwriting team of “Flashdance” — music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Keith Forsey and Cara — was accepting the Oscar for best original song for “Flashdance … What a Feeling.”
The movie starred Jennifer Beals as a steel-town girl who dances in a bar at night and hopes to attend a prestigious dance conservatory. It included the hit song “Maniac,” featuring Beals’ character leaping, spinning, stomping her feet and the slow-burning theme song.
“There aren’t enough words to express my love and my gratitude,” Cara told the Oscar crowd in her thanks. “And last but not least, a very special gentlemen who I guess started it all for me many years ago. To Alan Parker, wherever you may be tonight, I thank him.”
The New York-born Cara began her career on Broadway, with small parts in short-lived shows, although a musical called “The Me Nobody Knows” ran over 300 performances. She toured in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” as Mary Magdalene in the mid-1990s and a tour of the musical ”Flashdance” toured 2012-14 with her songs.
She also created the all-female band Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel and put out a double CD with the single “How Can I Make You Luv Me.” Her movie credits include ”Sparkle” and “D.C. Cab.”
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Associated Press reporters Hillel Italie and Freida Frisaro contributed to this report.
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Publicist: Irene Cara, star of the movie ‘Fame’ and winner of an Oscar for the title song for ‘Flashdance,’ has died
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Publicist: Irene Cara, star of the movie ‘Fame’ and winner of an Oscar for the title song for ‘Flashdance,’ has died
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Elizabeth Taylor’s “lucky charm” Oscar dress found in suitcase in London
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A “lucky charm” Christian Dior dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor on the night she won best actress at the 1961 Oscars is to be sold at auction next month after being stored in a suitcase in London for over 50 years. It had been assumed the floral print gown with a crimson silk bloom at the waist was already in the Christian Dior archive in Paris.
In fact, the gown – along with 11 other garments owned by the star – had been carefully stored in a large plastic suitcase in her former personal assistant’s spare room since 1971.
Taylor, accompanied by fourth husband Eddie Fisher, wore the dress designed by Marc Bohan for Dior to the 33rd Academy Awards.
Her relationship with Fisher, whom she was accused of stealing from actor Debbie Reynolds, was considered a scandal and had sparked a storm of negative publicity. The outcry had left Taylor convinced she would not win, said Kerry Taylor, whose specialist vintage fashion auction house is selling the dress.
DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
“She had been the bridesmaid and never the bride at the Oscars and on this occasion she really didn’t expect to win having been passed over before and having had all the negative press over Eddie Fisher,” she told AFP.
After her Oscar triumph, the star came to regard the dress as “something of a lucky charm” and took it with her all over the world.
“Elizabeth Taylor was still taking this dress from place to place with her after 10 years. She didn’t wear it on other occasions, she just liked to have it with her,” Taylor said.
The garments in the suitcase were among a large number gifted to former employee Anne Sanz, whose husband Gaston worked as Taylor’s chauffeur and bodyguard. The couple traveled the world with the actor and her fellow Hollywood star husband Richard Burton at the height of their fame in the 1960s and ’70s.
But despite the Dior dress’s sentimental value, by 1971 Taylor’s travel wardrobe was sometimes running to 40 huge suitcases and she was happy to let it go. The actor opened up her wardrobe at London’s Dorchester Hotel one day in 1971, telling Sanz “take whatever you like!” Taylor had also given Sanz a white cocktail dress and matching bolero for her wedding.
Other items due to be sold include Tiziani haute couture by Karl Lagerfeld and a “black widow” robe Taylor wore in the 1967 film “Boom,” also by Lagerfeld.
Taylor and Burton were godparents to the Sanzes’ daughter Elizabeth but Anne and Gaston quit after their star employers’ second separation, torn over who to continue working for.
Over the years, Sanz wore a couple of the dresses and gave others away to friends and family, never regarding them as particularly significant or valuable.
“Anne obviously wore the white matelasse dress for her wedding and there was one other dress that she wore – a yellow and blue dress with matching coat,” Kerry Taylor said.
“But in a sense these were just second hand dresses that belonged to Liz Taylor. So what? This was before celebrity mentality became the thing,” she added.
The auction at which the Dior Oscar dress is expected to fetch between £40,000-60,000 ($48,000-$73,000) will take place in London on Dec. 6.
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Honorary Oscar awards celebrate Fox, Weir, Warren and Palcy
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LOS ANGELES — Four standing ovations in one night might seem a little over-the-top, even by Hollywood standards. But at the Governors Awards Saturday night, where Michael J. Fox, Euzhan Palcy, Peter Weir and Diane Warren were celebrated with honorary Oscar statuettes, each moment felt worthy.
After several pandemic-adjusted years, the annual event to hand out honorary Oscar statuettes, put on by the Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was back in full form at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel on Saturday.
The ballroom was teeming with stars including Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Angela Bassett, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Yeoh, Robert Downey Jr., Michelle Williams, Cher, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Rooney Mara, Jessica Chastain, Damien Chazelle, Jordan Peele and Ron Howard, to name just a few.
The Governors Awards is a celebration of the honorees and a chance for many of the filmmakers and actors hoping to win awards to mingle with potential voters before everyone takes leave for the holidays with an armful of screeners to watch and consider.
“It’s a really special night,” Butler said. “I just had a really special moment with Robert Downey Jr.”
This was the first Governors Awards for the “Elvis” star, who was accompanied by director Baz Luhrmann and Priscilla Presley.
“Armageddon Time” actor Jaylin Webb, another first-timer and self-proclaimed “superhero nerd,” was excited to see several people from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
“It’s a little overwhelming,” Webb said.
The room at the Governors Awards brings many unexpected star pairings, as everyone clamors to meet someone they admire. Near one table, Hanks could be seen sharing a laugh with Yeoh. In another part of the room, Chastain chatted with Billy Eichner, while Jude Law caught up with director Daniel Kwan and Ke Huy Quan posed for a photo with Elizabeth Banks and Rian Johnson.
But the main event brought everyone to their seats: The presentation of the honorary Oscars.
Fox, who was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his contributions to Parkinson’s disease research, was up first and received a colorful introduction from his friend Woody Harrelson.
“He’s a genuinely great guy,” Harrelson said. “What can I say? He’s Canadian.”
The 61-year-old “Back to the Future’ and “Family Ties” star was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 at age 29 and in 2000 started a foundation to fund further research into the condition. To date, the foundation has raised more than $1.5 billion.
“My optimism is fueled by my gratitude,” Fox said.
Fox gave a sharp, funny, thoughtful speech to accept the award. He recounted how he dropped out of high school to give acting a shot and a teacher told him, “Fox, you’re not going to be cute forever.”
“I didn’t know how to respond and I said maybe just long enough,” Fox said.
He has had a particularly challenging year with injuries, including a broken cheek, hand, shoulder, arm and elbow, and the loss of his mother, who died in September, all of which he spoke about in-depth in a recent People Magazine cover story. Tracy Pollan, Fox’s wife with whom he has four children, was there to support him and he called her on stage to close his speech.
“I can’t walk and carry this thing (the Oscar) so I once again ask Tracy to carry the weight,” Fox said.
Cher was on hand to introduce Warren, the prolific songwriter and 13-time Oscar nominee. She laughed that Warren will often call her to say she’s written her best song yet, to which Cher responds, “You always say that.”
When Warren took the stage, she said the words she’s been waiting to say for 34 years, since she got her first Oscar nomination: “I’d like to thank the Academy.”
“Mom, I finally found a man,” Warren said, looking at the golden statuette. “I know you wanted him to be a nice Jewish boy but it’s really hard to tell.”
Jeff Bridges came out to celebrate Weir, the Australian filmmaker who directed him in the 1993 film “Fearless.” He said it was Robin Williams who brought them together.
Weir, too, reflected about Williams, with whom he worked on “Dead Poets Society” and marveled about how Williams was when no one was around and inspiration would strike.
Weir, 78, was a leading voice in the Australian New Wave movement, with pictures like “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “The Last Wave” and “Gallipoli,” before successfully transferring to Hollywood filmmaking where he traversed genres with ease directing films like “Dead Poets Society” and “The Truman Show” to “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” The Australian auteur received many Oscar nominations over the years, but hasn’t made a feature since “The Way Back,” from 2010.
“I had a wonderful 20 years of making studio pictures,” Weir said. “I love craft I think that’s what it’s all about. Don’t you love something that’s well made whether it’s a chair a table or a statue?”
Davis helped close out the night celebrating Palcy, who was first Black woman to direct a film produced by a major studio (MGM with “A Dry White Season.”)
“I am always defending my womanhood and my blackness,” Davis said. “You said, ‘I ain’t gonna do that, I’m going to wait for the work that is worthy of my talent.’ You used it as warrior fuel.”
Palcy also retreated from Hollywood moviemaking in the past decade, but unlike Weir, the 64-year-old Martinique native is ready to come back and make films again.
“Black is bankable. Female is bankable,” Palcy said. “My stories are not Black, they are not white, they are universal.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
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