Another of Brad Pitt‘s children has dropped his last name. Maddox, Pitt’s eldest child with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, removed Pitt from his last name in the credits of his mom’s new movie, Couture, on which he served as an assistant director.
The film stars Angelina as an American film director diagnosed with breast cancer just as she arrives in France to film a video for a Paris fashion show. In the end credits, Maddox’s name was listed as Maddox Jolie instead of Maddox Jolie-Pitt. The production notes provided by journalists at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 also listed Maddox’s name as Maddox Jolie.
The change is a shift from Maddox’s credit in Angelina’s 2024 Netflix movie, Maria, in which she played late opera singer Maria Callas. In the credits of the film, which Maddox worked as a production assistant for, Maddox was credited with his father’s last name as Maddox Jolie-Pitt.
Maddox, 24, is Jolie and Pitt’s eldest child. His siblings include Pax, 22, Shiloh, 19, and 17-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Maddox isn’t the first of Brad’s children to distance themselves from him. In a Playbill for the Broadway musical The Outsiders in May 2024, which Vivienne helped Angelina produce, the twin was credited as Vivienne Jolie, instead of Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.
In August of that same year, Essence also shared a video of Zahara introducing herself as, “My name is Zahara Marley Jolie. And [I] landed all the way from the Golden State in the city full of angels: Los Angeles, California.” That same month, news broke that Shiloh, who was born as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, had legally changed her name to Shiloh Jolie after she turned 18 and reached the legal age to do so. At the time, Shiloh’s attorney said that Shiloh’s name change was part of “an independent and significant decision following painful events.”
“He’s aware that Shiloh dropped his last name,” a source told People at the time of Brad’s feelings toward Shiloh’s legal name change. “The reminders that he’s lost his children, is of course not easy for Brad. He loves his children and misses them.”
A source also told Us Weekly in 2024 that Brad sees the changes as “more than a name change.” “It was a symbol of a deeper estrangement that has been brewing for years,” the insider said, with another source claiming that Brad was “finding it extremely difficult to come to terms with” the name change. The first source also added that Brad was “devastated” by the change.
Jolie has been waiting for her twins, Vivienne and Knox, to reach adulthood before making a long-considered move abroad.
The “Eternals” star “never wanted to live in L.A. full-time,” a source previously told People. “She didn’t have a choice because of the custody arrangement with Brad.”
Vivienne and Knox, the youngest of her six kids, turn 18 on July 12.
Angelina Jolie is planning her exit from the United States.(Thomas SAMSON / AFP via Getty Images)
“She’s eyeing several locations abroad,” the insider added. “She’ll be very happy when she’s able to leave Los Angeles.”
Jolie’s decision to move abroad is rooted in one priority — her children.
“When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be … that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here.”
She added, “I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world.”
Angelina Jolie is reportedly waiting for her youngest children to turn 18 in July before leaving Los Angeles.(Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
Jolie has a history with Cambodia. The “Girl, Interrupted” actress adopted her first child, Maddox, from Cambodia in 2002.
“Cambodia was the country that made me aware of refugees,” she later explained in an interview with Vogue India. “It made me engage in foreign affairs in a way I never had, and join UNHCR. Above all, it made me a mom.”
“In 2001, I was in a school program in Samlout playing blocks on the floor with a little kid and as clear as day I thought: ‘My son is here,’” she revealed. “A few months later, I met baby Mad at an orphanage. I can’t explain it and am not one to believe in messages or superstition. But it was just real and clear.”
Angelina Jolie pays respect to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni as former queen Monique looks on during the premiere of Jolie’s film “First They Killed My Father” on Feb. 18, 2017.(Str / Afp Via Getty Images)
Jolie adopted two more children, Zahara and Pax, after beginning her relationship with Pitt. The “Fight Club” star later adopted all three children as his own.
The now-50-year-old actress has said her decision to adopt was rooted in something deeply personal, not performative.
“When I was growing up, I wanted to adopt because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents,” she previously told Vanity Fair in 2008. “It’s not a humanitarian thing, because I don’t see it as a sacrifice. It’s a gift. We’re all lucky to have each other.”
“I look at Shiloh — because, obviously, physically, she is the one that looks like Brad and I when we were little — and say, ‘If these were our brothers and sisters, how much would we have known by the time we were six that it took into our 30s and 40s to figure out?’ I suppose I’m giving them the childhood I always wished I had.”
Angelina Jolie inspects the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Jan. 2.(Ali Moustafa / Getty Images)
Her international ties have long shaped how she sees the world and, more recently, how she sees the United States. Jolie criticized the state of America in September while attending the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain.
“I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country,” Jolie said during a panel discussion, according to Variety.
“I’ve always lived internationally, my family is international, my friends, my life… My worldview is equal, united, and international. Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous.”
She added, “These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together.”
Angelina Jolie shares six kids with ex-husband Brad Pitt.(Anthony Harvey)
Jolie has been outspoken in her criticism of America for years, writing an op-ed for The New York Times in 2017 opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration ban.
At the time, Jolie emphasized she wanted the country to be safe but claimed the policy would do more harm than good.
“We can manage our security without writing off citizens of entire countries – even babies – as unsafe to visit our country by virtue of geography or religion,” Jolie wrote.
Brad Pitt might have uncovered a “smoking gun” in the long-running legal fight against his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie.
Fox News Digital can confirm a judge recently ruled in Pitt’s favor, forcing Jolie to turn over 22 previously undisclosed documents. The docs reportedly contain Jolie’s private text messages and emails, which could be damaging to the “Maleficent” star’s case.
Pitt first sued Jolie over the sale of her stake in Château Miraval in 2022 after the actress sold her stake to a subsidiary of the Stoli Group. Jolie attempted to sell her company, Nouvel, to Tenute Del Mondo, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, in 2021, effectively transferring her 50% ownership interest in Miraval. Pitt has fought this sale, claiming the move breached a contract between the two.
The previously undisclosed documents, including Jolie’s private text messages, could be “outcome-changing or even outcome-determinative” to Pitt’s case against the actress, legal experts told Fox News Digital.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been engaged in a legal battle over Miraval since 2022.(Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu via Getty Images | Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
“I cannot imagine a scenario where Jolie’s team would fight this battle based on a long-shot argument if the documents were not helpful to Brad’s case,” Brett Ward, a partner in Blank Rome’s Matrimonial and Family Law Group, explained to Fox News Digital.
“Generally speaking, the bigger the effort to protect documents, the more important they are. So, given Jolie’s significant effort to protect them, I would expect that these texts and emails weaken Jolie’s position in the case, perhaps fatally.”
While the discovery ruling is very common, entertainment lawyer Tre Lovell noted it could be a big win for Pitt.
“The parties to litigation have disputes all the time as to what documents must be produced, what questions must be answered and what discovery responses need to be addressed as opposed to pure objections,” he explained to Fox News Digital. “Obviously, these documents are believed to be very damning against Jolie due to the extent and effort her attorneys expended to avoid producing them. It appears to be a big win for Pitt.”
Brad Pitt sued Angelina Jolie over her portion sale of Château Miraval, claiming that when the former pair purchased the property back in 2008, they agreed to never sell their respective interests without the other’s consent.(Michel Gangne)
Jolie’s legal team had argued the undisclosed documents were protected by non-disclosure agreements. However, Pitt’s team insisted the messages were unprotected conversations between Jolie and her personal aides.
Jolie’s private text messages could expose the actress, or they could never see the light of day.
“With regard to whether or not the text messages become public, that is really up to Brad Pitt,” Patrick Baghdaserians, a family law attorney, told Fox News Digital. “Generally speaking with discovery motions, the documents that are ordered to be produced are not made a part of the record unless somebody files them with the court or presents it as evidence during a public trial.”
“The overall impact on this case will depend on what is contained in those documents that were improperly withheld,” he explained. “These documents may be the proverbial smoking gun to undermine Angelina Jolie’s case.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Pitt and Jolie’s representatives for comment.
Brad Pitt’s legal team argued the communications between Angelina Jolie and her team were not protected.(Getty Images)
Angelina Jolie had claimed the documents were protected by a non-disclosure agreement.(Samir Hussein/WireImage)
With Jolie now being forced to hand over the documents, legal experts told Fox News Digital the ruling could even bring the case to an abrupt end before the most sensitive material is disclosed.
“There is also a chance that, if the texts and emails are very detrimental to Jolie’s case, it might push the case to resolution before the texts and emails are even turned over,” Baghdaserians claimed.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were together for 12 years and married for two before she filed for divorce in 2016.(Getty Images)
Pitt and Jolie bought a controlling stake in Château Miraval in 2008 and spent time at the home throughout their relationship. After Pitt sued Jolie, the actress’ company accused the actor of running a “vindictive campaign” to “loot” the profitable business since she first filed for divorce in 2016.
Nouvel accused Pitt of “hijacking” Château Miraval and “wasting” the company’s assets on unnecessary renovation projects, including spending $1 million on swimming pool renovations, according to court documents previously obtained by Fox News Digital.
Pitt and Jolie are expected to face off in court over the winery dispute in 2027.
The Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) unveiled the full lineup for its 22nd edition on Wednesday, including films starring the likes of Angelina Jolie, Marilyn Monroe, Jude Law, and Willem Dafoe, twice. The festival in Scotland will also feature 13 Scottish films and celebrate the life and work of Marilyn Monroe 100 years after her birth with “a string of the icon’s classic hits shown on the big screen,” organizers said.
Taking place Feb. 25-March 8, the GFF will host 126films, including 16world, European and International premieres, 68 U.K. premieres, and 18 Scottish premieres, with titles from 44 countries, including 13 from Scotland. As previously revealed, Scottish films will open and close the festival, with the U.K. premiere of Felipe Bustos Sierra’s documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street, executive produced by Emma Thompson, kicking off the fest, while James McAvoy’s directorial debut, California Schemin’, wrapping it up. Both films were shot in Glasgow.
This year’s edition marks Paul Gallagher’s first edition as head of program.
Among the GFF 2026 highlights are the U.K. premieres of such movies as Rebuilding starring Josh O’Connor, high-fashion world film Couture featuring Angelina Jolie, relationship drama Erupcja led by Charli XCX, political thriller The Wizard of the Kremlin withJude Law, Paul DanoandAlicia Vikander, as well as Late Fame and The Birthday Party, both starring Dafoe.
The Scottish premieres set for Glasgow include Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion winner Father Mother Sister Brother with Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett, Mark Jenkin’s mysterious drama Rose of Nevada withGeorge MacKay and Callum Turner, and dark thriller The Good Boy starring Andrea Riseborough and Stephen Graham.
Among the Scottish films in the program is the world premiere of Molly vs The Machines, “the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s death,” and the U.K. premieres of dark comedy The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, starring Peter Mullan, and Midwinter Break, written by Bernard MacLaverty and starring Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville.
GFF26 will also showcase 50 films not in the English language, with a total of 44 languages being represented in the lineup. Speaking of languages: The Gaelic language is represented at the fest with the world premiere of Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People), a documentary by Jack Archer about Scotland’s tradition of Gaelic psalm singing.
Meanwhile, Glasgow’s “Marilyn Monroe 100” program will be screening a selection of her films, including noir film The Asphalt Jungle (1950), iconic crime comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), and the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s divorce continues to be acrimonious. In new court documents related to the former couple’s ongoing legal battle over their winery, Château Miraval, Jolie writes that she and their children haven’t been to the property since the pair’s separation, citing “painful events” as the reason.
In new court documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on October 6 and obtained by People, Jolie says that she left her ex-husband “control (and full residency) of our family homes in Los Angeles and at Miraval, without compensation, which I hoped would make him calmer in his dealings with me after a difficult and traumatic period.”
Jolie maintains that she and her six kids with Pitt—Maddox, 24; Pax, 21; Zahara, 20; Shiloh, 19; and twins Vivienne and Knox, 17—have not returned to the property. “To this day, the children and I have never again set foot on the property, given its connection to the painful events leading to the divorce,” Jolie writes in her statement.
Jolie and Pitt met on the set of the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. They were together for 12 years and separated in 2016 after two years of marriage. In December 2024, they finalized their lengthy divorce. However, their legal battle over Château Miraval, which they co-owned, is still not over. Jolie sold her stake in the French winery to Tenute del Mondo, the wine division of the Stoli Group, in 2021. In February 2022, Pitt filed a lawsuit alleging that Jolie’s sale infringed upon a prior agreement that neither would sell unless the other person approved. Jolie responded with a countersuit in September 2022, alleging that Pitt had been “waging a vindictive war against” her since their divorce.
In the most recent court filing, Jolie goes on to detail her process of trying to find a new home for her family after leaving Pitt. “Post-separation, I immediately began to look for a new house for me and our children, initially renting a home while looking for a more stable solution,” she writes. “Because I wanted to ensure that Brad remained an important part of our children’s lives, I looked to buy a property near his home. At the time, my savings were tied up in Miraval, and I had not asked Brad for alimony or any other financial support.”
A source close to the matter shared: “This is a commercial dispute that has nothing to do with the divorce proceedings. This filing is one side trying to conflate the two and justify the sale of Miraval.”
“It was a focal point of our family life,” Jolie writes in the October 6 filing. “We were married there, I spent part of my pregnancy there and I brought our twin children home there from the hospital. To have such a sudden break from my home and memories has been hard, and it was especially difficult for the children to have their lives so disrupted.”
Vanity Fair has reached out to Jolie and Pitt for comment.
Angelina Jolie waded into the political waters Sunday at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
Ahead of the premiere of “Couture,” where Jolie portrays an American filmmaker named Maxine who discovers she has cancer, Jolie was asked during the press conference what she feared as an artist and an American, according to Variety.
Jolie, 50, reportedly sighed deeply, paused in thought and noted that it was “a very difficult question.”
Angelina Jolie attends the “Couture” red carpet during the 73rd San Sebastian International Film Festival at Kursaal on September 21, 2025, in San Sebastian, Spain.(Juan Naharro Gimenez)
“I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country,” Jolie said during the panel discussion.
“I’ve always lived internationally, my family is international, my friends, my life… My worldview is equal, united, and international. Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous.”
She added, “These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together.”
The Academy Award-winning actress has previously discussed her desire to leave the states behind and move abroad.
“I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country.”
— Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie admitted she doesn’t “recognize” the United States during a press conference in Spain.(Reuters)
Jolie explained to The Hollywood Reporter last year that although she “grew up” in Los Angeles, the only reason she remains in the city is “because I have to be here from a divorce.”
“But as soon as they’re 18, I’ll be able to leave,” she said, referring to her youngest children, twins Vivienne and Knox, 17, whom she shares with ex Brad Pitt.
The Maleficent star admitted she was searching for “privacy” for her “big family,” which also includes Maddox, 24; Pax, 21; Zahara, 20; and Shiloh, 19.
“When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety,” Jolie told the outlet. “I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be… that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here.”
Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016.(Getty Images)
She added, “I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world.”
“I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be… that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here.”
— Angelina Jolie
A source recently told People magazine that Jolie’s move may be sooner than expected as she’s preparing to “put the house up for sale.”
“[Jolie] never wanted to live in L.A. full time. She didn’t have a choice because of the custody arrangement with [ex-husband] Brad [Pitt],” the insider claimed.
According to the source who spoke with People, Jolie “plans to relocate as soon as Knox and Viv turn 18 next year. She’s eyeing several locations abroad. She’ll be very happy when she’s able to leave Los Angeles.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had six children together, Maddox, 24; Pax, 21; Zahara, 20; Shiloh, 19; twins Vivienne and Knox, 17.(Getty Images)
In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt after two years of marriage. They reached a settlement last December after an acrimonious and highly-publicized eight-year legal battle.
“More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt,” Jolie’s lawyer, James Simon, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”
A source close to the matter told Fox News Digital, “She doesn’t speak ill of him publicly or privately. She’s been trying hard to be light after a dark time.”
“The kids have grown up seeing that some people have so much power and privilege that their voices don’t matter,” the insider added. “Their pain doesn’t count. They have wanted her to speak up for herself, to defend herself over these years, but she reminds them to focus on changing laws over telling public stories.”
“Couture” is a drama set during Paris Fashion Week, starring Angelina Jolie as a character who is fashion world-adjacent — a goth-glam director of hip indie horror films named Maxine Walker, who has come to Paris to shoot a lavish short (it features a forest fire and wolves and a model playing a fang-bearing vampire) that’s set to accompany one noteworthy fashion house’s runway show. (The house is never named, but the suggestion is that it’s Chanel.) All of which makes “Couture” sound like a backstage movie that’s shiny and glossy and combustible and hot.
Actually, though, the film is extremely neutral and low-key in that French not-a-documentary-but-it-feels-like-one style. Jolie is at the center of an ensemble piece that’s structured as a loose neorealist ramble, built around characters like an 18-year-old model from Sudan (Anyier Anei) who’s being launched as the new “exotic” face of fashion; a makeup artist (Fella Rumpf) who’s writing a memoir she’s told has no commercial viability; Maxine’s sexy cinematographer (Louis Garrel); a seamstress (Garance Marillier) we see sewing tiny trinkets onto the white mesh dress that Anei’s character will wear; and the physician (Vincent Lindon) Maxine has to check in with when it looks like there may be a complication to her breast-cancer biopsy.
You envision Paris Fashion Week as a glitzy thicket of drama, and it certainly has the potential to be. Watching “Couture,” we may think: Where’s the editor-of-Vogue character? The international media blitzkrieg? That’s the kind of hot-mess action that Robert Altman tapped into 30 years ago when he made his grandiose fashion-world satire “Prêt-à-Porter.” But Alice Winocour, the French writer-director of “Couture,” is having none of that. She works in a way that’s deliberately defused of drama. If the Dardenne brothers were to make a film set in the French fashion world (a good idea, now that I think of it), it would likely have more going on it than “Couture” does.
As Ada, the newly recruited model who is just finding her footing (literally, when it comes to learning how to strut on the catwalk) and has none of the hard-partying worldliness of the European models she’s thrown in with, Anyier Anei is captivatingly beautiful, like the young Shelley Duvall — we see why she’s been chosen to open the show — and also quiet and grounded in her sane caution. When she enters the apartment where the other models are staying (there’s no bedroom for her), she gets some lip from one of them, but for the rest of the movie the other models help her out, and they all make a point of supporting one another. We see no drugs, no eating disorders, no pageantry of dysfunction. Winocour’s intent seems to be to take the fashion world, in its slightly unreal glamour and money and power, and bring it gently down to earth and humanize it.
That feels like an honorable agenda, but it’s not an exciting one. “Couture” does throw us one dramatic curveball. Maxine, who’s in the middle of a divorce, with a teenage daughter and a career that’s buzzing (she’s about to start shooting a new horror film), treats her biopsy report with a blah lack of concern. She’s convinced everything will be fine. But it’s not that simple. After slipping away from her film set to visit the doctor (which causes a bit of a kerfuffle, since she won’t tell anyone where she went), then getting an MRI, she learns that she does indeed have breast cancer. This is not necessarily the film we were expecting. And though a health crisis is a valid subject for drama, the effect of this one is to make the fashion-world ephemera that fills up the rest of the movie seem even more inconsequential.
Jolie, drawing on a family history of cancer for which she herself underwent preventative surgeries, gives a vivid performance, endowing Maxine with cool-director verve and then a fear and sorrow we can’t help but respond to. Yet it never feels like the health-crisis movie and the portrait-of-the-fashion-world movie entirely go together. That’s supposed to be the point — that a crisis like this one can happen when we least expect it. But if “Couture” were more intricately about couture, it might have been more distinctive and more memorable. It shows us the surfaces of a fashion world that we often think of as all surface. Ironically, the effect of that is to make us yearn to see it more deeply.
For those of us who love the glamor and the glitz of the entertainment industry, September passes by in a train of tulle and sartorial spectacle. Fashion weeks across New York, Paris, London, and Milan take the cake.
Packed front rows and celebrity-studded catwalks keep the internet entranced. From my couch – clad in my hole-ridden sweatpants – I judge couture and ready-to-wear fashion shows from the mega-brands and the sparkling stars who actually attend these exclusive events.
But to me, fashion week is just the punctuation to the summer film festival season. There’s the Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes, Toronto Film Festival, and Venice International Film Festival to name the heaviest hitters. Some films premiere across all these festivals; others are more selective. But each one has its headlines: the drawn-out standing ovations, the celebrity attendees, the future award winners.
Indeed, September marked the Venice Film Festival, one of the most anticipated film events of the year, and spawned some of the most talked about films of the year. The 2024 Venice Film Festival’s pomp and circumstance – arguably the film festival circuit’s glittering crown jewel – transforms the floating city into a playground for the cinematic elite.
Venice has long been the preferred launchpad for Oscar hopefuls and auteur passion projects alike. In recent years, Timothee Chalamet used it to flex his fashion prowess, the cast of The Idol used it to gaslight us into thinking it was going to be a good show (as we extensively reviewed: it wasn’t), and the Don’t Worry Darling cast played out their workplace drama for the world to see. This year was no exception. Lido was alight with couture gowns and paparazzi flashes, albeit a lot less drama and gossip to satiate us. So, rather than hashing out the latest cast feuds, let’s talk about the films.
What to watch at the Venice Film Festival 2024?
The 81st Venice International Film Festival is organized by La Biennale di Venezia and ran on the Lido di Venezia from 28 August to 7 September 2024. A parade of A-listers descended upon the city, ferried to Lido in glamorous water taxis to promote some of the films we’ll be seeing at award shows this year, and….some films that flopped.
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore – those chameleons of the silver screen – graced the red carpet for Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut, The Room Next Door, which ultimately snagged the coveted Golden Lion (Venice’s top prize). The ever-ethereal Nicole Kidman turned heads alongside her fresh-faced co-star Harris Dickinson after her turn in The Perfect Couple. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig proved he’s still got it, swapping his Bond tuxedo Loewe alongside new It Boy Drew Starkey in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”
This year’s theatrics were at their peak – enough to manufacture and stoke social media chatter. And it worked. Brad Pitt and George Clooney played up their pairing’s nostalgia factor by chasing each other around the red carpet, reliving their youth but also relying on the reputations of their glory days. Luca Guadanino took a selfie with his absolutely stacked cast. Jenna Ortega looking fabulous in one of her gothic Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice outfits proved that thematic press tour dressing is far from dead.
But this year’s films were just as conversation-worthy. Let’s dive into the films that have everyone talking:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Tim Burton returns to the 1988 classic that launched his career, reuniting with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder while adding Gen Z darling – Jenna Ortega – to the mix. After her turn in Wednesday, Scream, and even the video for Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste,” it’s clear that Ortega can handle horror – she’s a scream queen with the acting chops to back it up. The result is a nostalgic trip that manages to feel fresh, thanks in large part to Ortega’s deadpan charm (honed to perfection in Wednesday) as set in counterpoint to Keaton’s manic energy. It’s a welcome return to form for Burton. His triumphant release is a rare example of commercially and critically successful and was an energetic opening to the Festival.
Babygirl
The latest in the buzzy pantheon of female-driven age-gap dramas, Babygirl carves out a fresh niche for our darling Ms. Kidman. After her comic turn in A Family Affair, A24’s latest offering sees her playing an all-business CEO who becomes entangled with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). Fans of Triangle of Sadness, Scrapper, or The Iron Claw will recognize Dickinson and admire his remarkable range. It takes an impressive young actor to shine alongside Kidman but Dickinson is up for the task. Director Halina Reijn – fresh off her Gen Z slasher hit Bodies Bodies Bodies – brings a distinctly female gaze to the May-December romance trope. The result is a steamy, thought-provoking exploration of power dynamics that will have HR departments squirming in their seats.
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar ventures into English-language territory with this Golden Lion winner, proving that his particular brand of melodrama translates beautifully in any tongue. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s book What Are You Going Through, the film pairs Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, two of cinema’s most captivating chameleons. It follows a writer who reconnects with an old friend after years of distance in a tale of friendship, grief, and deep discussions about what it means to be a writer. It’s intimate and intellectual but feels accessible and human thanks to Almodóvar’s direction and the nuanced performances of these two powerhouse thespians.
Maria
This year’s Venice International Film Festival was a big one for shimmering stars of the silver screen. Angelina Jolie triumphed as opera legend Maria Callas, securing instant iconic status and positioning herself for Oscar recognition. The gravitas she lends to Pablo Larraín’s portrait of Callas reveals that Jolie’s side projects (like her fashion brand, Atelier Jolie) have not dampened her acting skills. Following in the footsteps of Natalie Portman’s Jackie and Kristen Stewart’s Spencer, Jolie disappears into the role of the troubled diva. Larraín’s dreamlike direction and Jolie’s raw performance make for a haunting exploration of fame, art, and the price of genius. When picking Jolie for the titular role, Larrain said he wanted an actress who would “naturally and organically be that diva,” and Jolie delivered with aching nuance. Oscar buzz is already building, and rightly so.
Queer
Speaking of actors challenging themselves, no one is in their comfort zone in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. For this adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novel, Guadagnino reunites with his A Bigger Splash star Ralph Fiennes and ropes in Daniel Craig. Craig shed his 007 persona entirely in order to play Lee – a Burroughs stand-in – as he navigates the seedy underbelly of mid-century Mexico City. It’s a mix between last year’s Venice darling Strange Way of Life by Pedro Almodóvar and Guadagnino’s famous Call Me By Your Name.Drew Starkey – of Outer Banks fame – is the object of his desire, with Guadagnino’s camera lingering on his lithe frame in a manner that would make even Timothée Chalamet blush. It also stars singer Omar Apollo in his first major acting role. Between unflinching sex scenes and luscious landscapes, it’s a heady blend of desire and ennui that solidifies Guadagnino’s place as cinema’s Yearner In Chief.
Disclaimer
Venice isn’t all movies. Some limited dramas also make their way to Lido. Two years ago, The Idol got the full Venice treatment, but we know how that went. Luckily, Alfonso Cuarón’s return to the festival circuit fared better. This twisty psychological thriller stars Cate Blanchett – last at Venice with Tar. This time, she plays a documentary filmmaker whose life unravels when a mysterious novel appears on her bedside table. As always, Blanchett is a force of nature, her icy exterior cracking as she realizes that she’s the subject of a book that will reveal her long-buried secrets. Cuarón proves he’s as adept at space epics as he is with intimate character studies, crafting a nail-biting exploration of truth, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves.
The Order
Starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Jurnee Smollett, The Order is a historical crime drama that plunges us into the action-packed world of counterfeiting operations, bank robberies, and armored car heists in the Pacific Northwest. Told through the eyes of the lead detective, these crimes are deemed acts of domestic terrorism, revealing the deep-seated hatred and violence in the United States. Inspired by the January 6 insurrection – when nooses were hung in front of the Capitol Building – this film references a fictional white nationalist insurrection that’s at the center of William Luther Pierce’s 1978 novel The Turner Diaries. Taking this hatred back to its roots, The Order explores how these same psychologies have been buried in the US consciousness for decades.
Joe Alwyn, Taylor Swift’s ex-London Boy, sauntered through Venice alongside castmates Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. This sprawling epic follows a Hungarian immigrant architect (Brody) navigating love, loss, and artistic integrity. Initially forced to toil in poverty, he soon wins a contract that changes the course of his life for the next 30 years. Clocking in at a hefty three-and-a-half hours, it’s not for the faint of heart. But those who stick with it will be richly rewarded with a deeply felt meditation on the American Dream and the cost of creation. Corbet’s ambition is a labor of love, as his official statement expresses how he spent “the better part of a decade revving the engine to bring this particular story to life.” His toiling is definitely worth it.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Closing Venice was the ambitious, melodramatic Jukebox musical Joker: Folie à Deux. It’s the polarizing sequel to the controversial original, and although everyone’s talking about it — no one can make up their minds about whether or not it’s good. Todd Phillips returns to Gotham, bringing Lady Gaga along for the ride as Harley Quinn to Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. The addition of musical numbers is either a stroke of genius or a bridge too far, depending on who you talk with. Phoenix and Gaga commit fully to the madness, their chemistry undeniable even as the plot threatens to buckle under the weight of its own ambition.
This is a swing for the fences that doesn’t always connect, but you have to admire the creative audacity. Gaga is electric, though you can’t help but wonder if her talents are wasted in this convoluted film that, just like the original, isn’t always sure what it’s trying to say.
As the curtain falls on another Venice Film Festival, one thing is clear: cinema is alive and well, continuing to push boundaries and provoke thought even in the face of industry upheaval. Whether these films will stand the test of time remains to be seen, but for now, they’ve given us plenty to chew on as we sail away from the Lido and into the heart of awards season.
We see people get catfished all the time — there’s an entire reality series about it called Catfish: The TV Show starring Nev Schulman on MTV. There’s an episode where a man believes he’s truly in a relationship with Katy Perry…and now, we have two women in Spain who were scammed out of over $300,000 by none other than Fight Club’s own, Brad Pitt.
Except, as you may have realized, it wasn’t the former husband of Angelina Jolie who was actually talking to these women. On September 25, five people were arrested for posing as Brad Pitt on WhatsApp and scamming two women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Look, I get it. I, too, spend my days yearning for Harry Styles to slide into my DM’s. It’s just…I know that’s never going to happen. And if it does, it’s a fake account, of course. But, for some, they want to believe Brad Pitt (or any catfish celeb) is really speaking to them.
CNN reported that scammers profiled the victims and contacted them through a Brad Pitt fansite. They claimed the actor wanted to work with them on projects. Individually, one victim lost $195,000 and the other lost $167,000. Sadly, police were only able to recover $95,000.
It’s important to research before responding to or contacting a “celebrity” asking for money. Typically, legal professionals would handle such matters, and Brad Pitt likely doesn’t need your financial help.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow took visual effects to new heights 20 years ago. Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, writer-director Kerry Conran’s sci-fi feature is set in 1939 and focuses on a pilot (Law) and a reporter (Paltrow) teaming up to save the world amid attacks from flying robots. First-time […]
A woman (Salma Hayek Pinault) walks into a plaza sparsely occupied by patrons enjoying an afternoon coffee and a magazine and lottery ticket kiosk. She approaches the booth and fingers a stack of newspapers before asking the attendant (Demián Bichir), an older man with rounded shoulders and reading glasses perched on his nose, a question. Her delivery is studied, as if a more natural cadence battles against an inherent severity. She begs the man to close up the shop and have a drink with her. Her mannered sweetness becomes more urgent with his refusal. This is a command, not a request.
Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, Without Blood is Angelina Jolie’s latest foray into directing. The actress, who is making waves this festival season with her performance in Pablo Larrain’s Maria, adapted this thinly plotted parable from the novella of the same name by the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco. Without Blood obliquely investigates the psychological and generational toll of war.
Without Blood
The Bottom Line
Plays it safe.
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations) Cast: Salma Hayek Pinault, Demián Bichir, Juan Minujin Director: Angelina Jolie Screenwriter: Angelina Jolie, Alessandro Baricco
1 hour 31 minutes
Jolie treads familiar ground here: A handful of her previous directorial efforts, including In the Land of Blood and Honey, Unbroken and First They Killed My Father, set their action against the distressing backdrop of war. Whereas these other films grounded themselves with the details of real conflicts like the Bosnian War or the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, Without Blood claims no land or era. This lack of specificity may have worked in the hands of a more risk-taking helmer, but Jolie’s approach to direction can be as stiff as the woman’s initial encounter with the kiosk attendant. Despite bursts of intelligence, especially when it comes to conveying the fractured quality of trauma narratives, Without Blood’s vagueness ends up blunting many of its lessons.
An uneasy tension hangs in the air as the man and woman settle into a nearby restaurant. She begins to tell her story, parts of which Jolie shows early in a confidently staged scene. Her name is Nina, and when she was a young girl, three men broke into her house and executed her father (Alfredo Herrera) and brother (Alessandro D’Antuono). While her father’s screams overwhelmed the bungalow and her brother’s blood dripped onto her ankle, Nina hid silently in a burrow beneath some floorboards.
Her fate became lore in this unnamed country where a years-long battle brewed between two factions. Whether that conflict is regional or political is never made clear and, in Jolie’s estimation, is not relevant. Without Blood is more concerned with how all war wounds people, from its youngest victims to its oldest perpetrators. Most of the film takes place in a cafe, where Nina and the man, whose name we later learn is Tito, exchange different versions of her fate. In Nina’s telling, she is adopted by a pharmacist (Pedro Hernández), who gambles her off to a count (Luis Alberti). She ends up married at 14 and bearing the wealthy baron three sons. As Tito tells it, Nina’s union was a botched assassination turned marital arrangement: The count fell in love instead of killing her. The truth lies somewhere between Nina’s scarred memories and Tito’s vague recollections. In between these exchanges, the pair offer platitudes about the dangers (but never the details) of war.
The conversation between Nina and Tito swings between gripping moments and duller ones that are helped along by Hayek Pinault and Bichir’s tense banter. Their chemistry is defined by mutual recognition and shared trauma. Hayek Pinault hones in on understated motions — tears welling up in the eyes, tightening the grip on her spoon or pursing her lips — to convey the depth of her character’s pain. Bichir nails the subtle shifts required from his character, whose innocence becomes less black-and-white over the film’s brisk 90-minute runtime.
Still, Jolie’s overly cautious visual language limits the impact of the drama. Flashbacks to the pair’s past offer some dynamic moments, like bird’s-eye-view shots that suggest Tito has been watching Nina over the years, gesturing at their linked fates. There’s beauty here, too, as Jolie captures the vividness of the ochre landscape. For the most part, though, she relies on close-ups, toggling between the two diners’ faces in straightforward edits by Xavier Box and Joel Cox.
That innocent people suffer from conflict is not a provocative stance. But it seems like the only point Without Blood can make when it’s not focused — more interestingly — on observing how trauma lives in the body and shapes the mind. Despite flashes of power, the story ultimately seems too thin to bear the weight of its themes.
The Venice Film Festival has begun—get ready for 11 days of some of the best red carpet fashion of the year. WireImage
While last year’s Venice Film Festival was a quieter, more subdued occasion than usual due to the SAG-AFTRA and WAG strikes, the 2024 iteration is expected to bring the usual array of A-list filmmakers and celebrities to the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido for a week and a half of premieres, screenings and parties.
Isabelle Huppert is the 2024 jury president, and this year’s cinematic line-up is packed with some of the most anticipated movies of the year. Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, as is Luca Guadagnino’s Queer (with Daniel Craig and Jason Schwartzman), Pablo Larrain’s Maria (starring Angelina Jolie) and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl (Nicole Kidman), among many others. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, screened out of competition, will open the festival.
Along with plenty of must-see films, the stars also bring their sartorial best for the glamorous film festival in Venice, Italy, strutting down the red carpet in fashionable designs—this is, after all, the very event that brought us couture moments like Florence Pugh’s dazzling black glitter Valentino ensemble at the Don’t Worry Darling premiere, along with Zendaya’s custom leather Balmain dress in 2021 and Dakota Johnson in bejeweled Gucci.
The 81st annual Venice International Film Festival kicks off on August 28 and runs through September 7, which means a whole lot of high-fashion moments are headed for Lido. Below, see the best red carpet fashion from the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
In Oscar terms, we’ve lived through a whole season in about a week—at least when it comes to the best actress race.
Between the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals, what once felt like a shapeless and wide-open lead actress field has come into abrupt, exciting focus. Credit Nicole Kidman’s thrilling but bittersweet Volpi Cup win in Venice this evening. Her performance in Babygirl,Halina Reijn’s acclaimed erotic drama, is among the very best of her screen career—fearless, vulnerable, and slyly comic at once. But she was unable to accept the award in person, as after just returning to Venice for the closing ceremony, she received some tragic personal news.
“Today I arrived in Venice to learn shortly thereafter that my beautiful, brave mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, has just passed,” Kidman wrote in a statement, which Reijn read while accepting the award on her behalf. “I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me, and she made me. I’m beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Helena. The collision of art and life is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”
As Kidman steps out of the public eye to be with her family, she’s likely to remain on many voters’ minds as the race continues. Let’s start with Telluride, where several potential players cemented their status as major contenders. There was Saoirse Ronan’s The Outrun, which played well enough in Sundance, and first-time campaigners Mikey Madison (Anora) and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), coming off of their movies’ Prize-winning launches in Cannes. The Colorado mountains offered each film a second wave of screenings, and goodness did both play spectacularly—as well as, if not better than the world premieres on the ground. Ronan was also honored with a Tribute Medallion, Telluride’s highest honor for actors, while I heard of hundreds being turned away from Anora and Emilia screenings due to demand. For those that did find a seat, the films and performances were received extremely well.
Over in Venice, beyond Kidman’s Babygirl, Angelina Jolie’s tour-de-force Maria launched. While the movie divided critics, her work at its center is undeniable, and the emotional biopic met a warmer reception overall in Telluride. With the Oscar winner out and about in Colorado, she’s clearly putting her might behind this one, and is not one to be counted out—especially with Netflix backing her campaign. (They’ve secured nominations in the category of late for Annette Bening and Ana de Armas, whose movies similarly received mixed reviews.) Here in Toronto, I also just caught another Venice premiere, Walter Salles’s terrific I’m Still Here, where Fernanda Torres is simply transcendent as Brazilian human rights activist Eunice Paiva. Sony Classics is handling that movie, The Outrun, and The Room Next Door—with a lovely Julianne Moore running in lead—so they have their hands full. But any discussion of this race without Torres is, to my mind, an incomplete one—and in an era of a globalizing Academy, merits serious consideration.
On Friday night, Toronto then introduced two intriguing, if less obvious, names to the mix. Screening opposite each other, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and John Crowley’s We Live in Time offer diametrically opposed experiences—the former a prickly, intimate, uncompromising character study, and the latter a classically packaged tearjerker. Yet in the former, Marianne Jean-Baptiste is sensational, reuniting with the director behind the film that earned her an Oscar nomination, Secrets & Lies. Her role here is even richer, if a bit less broadly accessible. We Live in Time, meanwhile, certainly doesn’t have that problem—who doesn’t want to cry along to Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield’s tragic love story? But while Pugh gives yet another major, wrenching performance as a young woman facing the end of her life, A24 will have to work to position the film in a way where voters take it as more than a basic weepie.
When the filmmakers and celebrities aren’t attending premieres, screenings and official fêtes, they’re enjoying all that Venice has to offer, and they’re doing so in style—the Venice Film Festival is where you’ll find some of the best off-duty looks, because is there really any better backdrop than that of a Venetian gondola?
While last year’s Venice Film Festival was a somewhat sleepier event due to the SAG-AFTRA and WAG strikes, the 2024 edition is back in full force, with highly anticipated movies including Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, and Pablo Larrain’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie, set to premiere.
The 81st annual Venice Film Festival runs from August 28 through September 7, so get ready for 11 days of incredible fashion. Below, take a look at the best off-duty looks from all your favorite stars at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
Callas is not, of course, quite as famous as Jackie or Spencer, and the movie takes care to introduce her to less informed viewers. Born in New York to Greek immigrants, Callas grew up in poverty and sang at her mother’s behest for money, before her singular skills as a soprano launched her career in Italy. She battled mental and physical health struggles all her life while pushing opera forward in the popular imagination, amid its turn toward elitist circles. (As the movie demonstrates, at least in ’70s Paris, she was very famous.) Shot on film by Edward Lachman (Oscar-nominated earlier this year for Larraín’s El Conde), Maria cuts between striking color photography in the present, as our struggling heroine returns to voice lessons amid rumors of a comeback, and cool black-and-white flashbacks that showcase Callas at the height of her powers while deep into her love affair with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer)—the shipping magnate who, in a nice bit of full-circle storytelling from Larraín, eventually left Callas to marry Jackie Kennedy.
Jolie’s approach to her character is simultaneously heartbreaking, erratic, and imposing, displaying a cellular kind of understanding of Callas’s desperation to reclaim herself before it’s too late. “This is the greatest diva of the 20th century, and who could play that?” Larraín says. “I didn’t want to work with someone that didn’t have that already. I needed an actress who would naturally and organically be that diva, carry that weight, be that presence. Angelina was there.” He describes her preparation as “very long, very particular, very difficult.” She worked on posture. She studied breathing. She developed an accent befitting a woman of both the world and another plane of fame. Then came the voice lessons.
Yes, that really is Angelina Jolie singing, although not just her. Larraín and his star worked closely with Oscar winner John Warhurst (Bohemian Rhapsody, the upcoming Michael), who as Larraín puts it has “dedicated his life to actors who sing in movies,” to create innovative, synthesized recordings.
Over months, Jolie learned her subject’s cadence and her signatures. Eventually, she got to the point where she’d hear the operas in an earpiece while singing them herself. Larraín and Warhurst would record Jolie’s performance, then mix it with Callas’s. “You always listen to Angelina and you always listen to Maria Callas,” as Larraín puts it. “When we listen to Maria Callas in her prime, most of the sound is Callas—90%, 95%—and when we listen to Callas older and in the present, almost all of it is Angelina.” Worth noting: The bulk of the film takes place in the present.
Larraín describes seemingly contradictory tasks. One: “How can you make a movie about Maria Callas without using her voice? You can’t.” And two: “You can’t make a movie like this with an actress that is not actually singing it.” It’s not karaoke, he stresses. “This is the real thing—it was very scary for her, but she did it.” When they finally got to filming, Larraín noticed just how deep his star had gone—appropriate, maybe, given the rawness of the material and the extent of training Jolie completed before actually being able to attack it.
A few weeks in, Larraín stopped giving Jolie instructions. The best direction was silence; the best note was no note. “It was so truthful, we just kept rolling and let her do her thing,” he says. “She can let you in when she wants, and she can create a distance where she wants. It’s a dance of vulnerability.”
Larraín takes an unusual hands-on approach to his sets: He acts as his own camera operator. So even as he gave Jolie her space, they were connected. “It’s very intimate because this is a film where the camera is often very close to her—so we were together all the time,” Larraín says. “Sometimes she would feel me. We would complete a take and she would look at me, just by the way I would look at her.” He calls their dynamic “sensorial.”
Capping Larraín’s makeshift trilogy, Maria is the most deeply felt and wholly realized of the films. Credit certainly goes to Jolie’s searing turn and the movie’s immaculate craft—you’ll remember while watching that Lachman, best known for lensing Todd Haynes’s Carol and Far From Heaven, is a master of period cinematography—and the score being driven by an opera legend imbues Maria with tremendous emotion. Yet it ultimately comes down to the director’s vision. Larraín’s exacting approach to these biopics has drawn critical acclaim, but the actors at their center tend to, inevitably, gobble up the attention (and awards recognition). That ought to change here. This may be the most personal film Larraín has ever made.
His initial way into Maria was rooted in a longstanding desire to make a movie about an artist. “As she was singing, she was living everything she had been through on the stage,” Larraín says. “That’s why she was also very respected, not only because of the quality and the color and the specificity of her voice, but also the way she performed.” He says capturing that on film felt exposing. How? “I connected through how the crafting of your work can sometimes be devastating,” he says. “Even though this is the story of a woman that lived from the ’20s to the ’70s and had a completely different life from me, there is a fragility that is unavoidable. It’s impossible to hide yourself.” He continues, “She burned her voice, her life, by doing her work—and I think that I burned myself a little bit doing this.”
Maria will premiere this Thursday at the Venice Film Festival and is seeking U.S. distribution. This feature is part ofAwards Insider’s exclusive fall film coverage, featuring first looks and in-depth interviews with some of this coming season’s biggest contenders.
Daniel Radcliffe with some of his Merrily costars. Andy Henderson
Lincoln Center was abuzz with celebrity star-studded parties after the 77th Annual Tony Awards Sunday night and Observer was there to witness all the excitement. Across the street from the David H. Koch Theater where the award show was held for the first time, Best Play winner Stereophonic held its party at PJ Clarke’s. When the telecast ended after 11 p.m., guests from inside the 2,500-seat theater quickly filled the restaurant. The crowd cheered as newly minted Tony Award-winning director Daniel Aukin walked in. Sliced steak, salmon and Caesar salad were served along with cocktails with clever names like the mezcal-infused “Mud F*ck”—a nod to the play. Aukin made his way downstairs where he sat down at a round table in a corner with friends and family to eat dinner. Next door at Rosa Mexicano, The Outsiders celebrated its Tony Award win for Best Musical, where producer Angelina Jolie also made an appearance.
A few blocks south at Shops at Columbus Circle, Water for Elephants held its party on the fifth floor at Jazz on Lincoln Center, and Merrily We Roll Along, which won Best Revival of a Musical, celebrated in the Ascent Lounge. Guests were treated to the “Our Thyme” cocktail made with Grey Goose Vodka infused with thyme, elderflower liqueur and watermelon juice as a DJ kicked off the evening with “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. The young children in the cast were allowed to stay up well past their bedtimes and were dancing up a storm. In a separate roped-off area, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe snapped photos with his new trophy.
The cast of Water For Elephants celebrating. The cast of Water For Elephants
For the third year in a row, some of the biggest stars of the night attended Late Night at Pebble Bar, the annual Tony afterparty at the 132-year-old institution in Rockefeller Center. Best Actress nominee Kelli O’Hara and Arian Moayed, nominated last year, hosted the festivities with cocktails by Pernod Ricard—the “Moon Unit Zappa” was a spicy pineapple margarita with Código 1530 Blanco Tequila.
Billy Porter and Mary Martha Ford. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Billy Porter was one of the first people on the fourth floor to start dancing, then we spotted him later talking to O’Hara, dressed in a stunning hot pink peplum gown. Porter’s found phone was a notable addition to the scene—he’d mentioned on TV earlier in the evening during his acceptance speech for the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Award that he couldn’t find it.
Sarah Paulson at the Carlyle. Little Fang
All eyes in the room turned round as winner Sarah Paulson holding her Tony and her Appropriate co-stars Corey Stoll, Ella Fanning and Ella Beatty walked in and went straight to the bar. Paulson, who changed for the parties into a black slinky ensemble with silver swirl embellishments, took numerous photos with the group before they all noshed on Brooklyn-based Fini pizza topped with Petrossian Caviar. On the other side of the room was Stoll’s West Side Story co-star Brian D’Arcy James chatting it up with Leslie Odom Jr., while his wife Nicolette Robinson sparkled in her strapless glimmery gold A-Line gown among the sundry guests. At around 2 a.m., Elle Fanning headed for the elevator—this was her first Tony Awards ceremony. “I just wanted Sarah Paulson to win,” she was overheard saying on her way out. She said she had to catch an early flight to Norway for work the next morning.
After the individual parties wrap, everyone who’s anyone winds up at the legendary Rick Miramontez DKC/O&M and John Gore after-afterparty at the Carlyle Hotel.
Shaina Taub with her Tonys at the Carlyle. Little Fang
Host Ariana DeBose, wearing the same dress she ended the telecast in, was spotted sitting along a long velour couch gabbing with Julianne Hough, who co-hosted the 6:30 p.m. show on Pluto. Two-time winner for Suffs, Shaina Taub, held a Tony in each hand, leaving her no way to carry a purse or phone. Stereophonic star Sarah Pigeon held her heels in her hand as she strolled through the hotel lobby and into Bemelmans Bar. That’s where Daniel Radcliffe, still holding his Tony, and his Merrily co-star Jonathan Groff were, too, and they were spotted taking in their victories together. Groff, who won Best Actor in a Musical, surprised the crowd and sang “Old Friends” from the show with Billy Stritch on piano. Shrimp cocktail, sliders and mini quiche were among the passed hors d’oeuvres.
On the second floor, a chef was making fresh omelets. In the next room, Ashley Park danced with her former Mean Girls co-star Jonalyn Saxer to Destiny’s Child “Bills, Bills, Bills,” then walked over to the bar for a soda before grabbing a group and heading downstairs.
Alicia Keys and Roy Nachum, co-founder and creative director of Mercer Labs, at the Hells Kitchen afterparty. Mercer
While the Hell’s Kitchen’s party was held all the way in the financial district at Mercer Labs, many in the cast made a point to still show face on the Upper East Side, including winner Kecia Lewis and her nominated co-star Shoshana Bean. Kara Young, who won a Tony Award after being nominated three years in a row, arrived around 2:30 a.m. and changed into a sequin copper mini dress so as not to ruin her long, flowy, green award show gown (someone might have stepped on it). Billy Eichner mosied around the party, too.
At 3:45 a.m., Groff made his way outside with a group of friends posing for photos outside the hotel as other guests waited for their Ubers, and most of us called it a night.
Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne. Little Fang
Grant Gustin and LA Thoma Gustin
Grant Gustin and LA Thoma Gustin. Marcus Middleton
Sue Wagner
Sue Wagner. Valerie Terranova Photography
Sarah Pidgeon
Sarah Pidgeon. Valerie Terranova Photography
Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold
Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Kelli O’Hara and Leslie Odom Jr.
Kelli O’Hara and Leslie Odom Jr. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Lindsay Mendez
Lindsay Mendez. Andy Henderson
Will Brill
Will Brill. Little Fang
Eli Gelb and Sarah Pidgeon
Eli Gelb and Sarah Pidgeon. Valerie Terranova Photography
Observer correspondent Leigh Scheps with her husband
Observer correspondent Leigh Scheps with her husband. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Angelina Jolie and her daughter Vivienne, 15, have an incredible bond, so much so that they have worked together on a very special project close to both of their hearts.
In April, the mother-daughter duo’s Broadway musical, The Outsiders, opened in New York City, and has received rave reviews ever since. What’s more, the show has even been nominated for an incredible 12 Tony Awards, including for Best Musical, up against the likes of Alicia Keys’ show Hell’s Kitchen, Illinoise, Suffs, and Water for Elephants.
It is also nominated for Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, Lead Actor, Featured Actor, Lightning Design, Sound Design, Choreography, amongst more.
You may also likeVIDEO: Angelina Jolie opens up about her children and personal life
The prestigious awards show will be taking place in New York City on June 16, and Angelina and Vivienne are likely to attend the ceremony.
The synopsis of The Outsiders reads: “In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1967, the hardened hearts and aching souls of Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade and their chosen family of ‘outsiders’ are in a fight for survival and a quest for purpose in a world that may never accept them.
Angelina Jolie, and Vivienne’s show is nominated for over 10 Tony Awards
“Adapted from S.E. Hinton’s book and Francis Ford Coppola’s film, The Outsiders is a story of the bonds that brothers share and the hopes we all hold on to.
This gripping new musical reinvigorates the timeless tale of ‘haves and have nots’, of protecting what’s yours and fighting for what could be.”
Vivienne has enjoyed working with her mom on The Outsiders
Vivienne has been working as an assistant on The Outsiders, while Angelina has been the producer, and the special project has been an incredible bonding experience for them both.
The Outsiders is an adaptation of the popular book under the same name, written by S.E. Hinton. What’s more, Angelina recently got a new tattoo in honor of the musical.
Angelina’s daughter worked as an assistant on The Outsiders
She recently stepped out in New York City to promote the Broadway show, and could been seen with a tattoo reading ‘Stay Gold,’ which is a line that’s mentioned in both the original book and the movie.
In the play, there is also a song with the same name. Angelina and Vivienne recently appeared on the Today Show to talk about the show, which marked Vivienne’s debut TV appearance, as she appeared from the audience in the famous plaza.
Angelina has a new tattoo in honor of The Outsiders
Hoda Kotb asked Angelina about her daughter’s involvement with the show, mentioning that she was the one who turned her mom onto the production, and Angelina reiterated that it was all about “family.” “She did,” the Oscar-winning star responded.
“But I think that’s to say for anybody watching and anybody who is going to see this and what they brought forward…this is about family.”
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Justin Levine and Angelina Jolie
“And the same reason it responded to her and the same reason she wanted me next to her watching it and the same reason we all hugged when I came out here is because this is about family.”
Hoda asked how the Girl, Interrupted star reacted to receiving 12 Tony nominations for the show (the second-most of the ceremony for a musical after Hell’s Kitchen), and she revealed that it was actually her youngest daughter who broke the news to her that morning.
The star was left almost lost for words as she replied: “It was…I woke up, my daughter was sitting on my bed and she told me. And I was…I love this group so much, I’m so proud of the work that they’ve done and I’m in awe of all of them.”
“Awards don’t always say it [all], when something’s not nominated it could still be the most wonderful piece. But when people you love, you feel like they deserve it and they’ve worked hard for it, they do get recognized, it means a great deal.”
Describing the show as a “passion project,” Angelina stuck around for the Fourth Hour of Today to speak with Hoda and Jenna Bush Hager about passing down the love for theater from her mother Marcheline Bertrand to her own kids.
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Hollywood makes me feel delusional and deranged on the daily. From the insane beauty standards it perpetuates to the startlingly low amount of representation, it’s a problematic industry. But perhaps its most toxic trait is propping up men who should not be idolized.
We saw it with Harvey Weinstein — who enjoyed a prosperous career and untouchable hero status until the #MeToo movement exposed his repfehensible behavior. On a smaller scale — but still a symptom of the same toxic culture in the industry and society at large — we’re seeing it now with Brad Pitt.
How many times have you watched an award show and heard attendees gush about being in the same room as Pitt? Or thanked him in their acceptance speeches? That’s because Pitt made himself indispensable to people’s careers and to the industry in general. You might think of him as a 90s – 2000s heartthrob, but he spends more time producing than acting these days. And, most likely, he’s responsible for many of your favorite films.
Plan B, the production company he co-founded with Jennifer Aniston and then assumed control when they split, is known for taking huge swings at movies that have been neglected by other studios. One of their biggest successes was 12 Years A Slave, which went on to win Academy Awards and cement Plan B as a major player in the industry.
So, no wonder nobody wants to say the quiet part out loud: Brad Pitt is an abuser, a bad father, and a prime example that Hollywood will protect its money-making interests at all costs.
What Did Brad Pitt Do
From the outside, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie looked like the perfect Hollywood power couple. Even if you were Team Jennifer Aniston, you had to admit: they were the dream. In 2005, they even did a notorious magazine spread for W Magazine: “Domestic Bliss: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at Home.”
However, when Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, she alleged that she had suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of Pitt in front of their children.
The abuse allegations are one factor that’s dragging out their divorce proceedings, as they struggle to gain control of their custody agreement. However, as most of their children are no longer minors, their continued relationship with Jolie and their fractured — in some case estranged — relationship with Pitt tells us all we need to know.
An old screenshot from Pax Jolie-Pitt’s Instagram account recently went viral due to his open vitriol for his father. The screenshot, posted on a Father’s Day to his Instagram story, read:
““Happy Father’s Day to this world class a**hole!! You time and time again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person. You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence. You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you are incapable of doing so. You have made the lives of those closest to me a constant hell. You may tell yourself and the world whatever you want, but the truth will come to light someday. So, Happy Father’s Day, you f***ing awful human being!!!”
Despite all this, Brad Pitt’s career seems unconquerable. He won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a (abusive, racist) stuntman in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood. People whine about canceled culture but Brad Pitt is proof that it doesn’t exist. What happened to believing women? It’s like the industry is saying that people will be held accountable for their actions … unless they’re hot. And although some sputter about separating the artist from their art, the amount of praise and adoration Brad Pitt far outpaces his art.
And now he’s trying to capitalize on the success of his most popular role — Rusty in the Oceans movies — by pairing with George Clooney once again for a new film, Wolfs.
What Is Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s New Movie Wolfs About?
Think, George Clooney in The Ides of March, but a thriller. Directed by Jon Watts, Wolfs stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney alongside Amy Ryan and Austin Abrams. The duo play two lone wolf fixers who are assigned to the same job. It’s slated for a September 20th release with the first teaser dropping on May 28th.
It’s brooding. It’s gritty. It seems like it will draw entirely on the pair’s history and chemistry. The teaser trailer is just the two of them sitting in silence in a car, sharing in comical discomfort. But I’m not laughing.
While all the reports are celebrating their reunion after 16 years in 2008’s — Burn After Reading — none are questioning Brad Pitt’s recent penchant for buddy-thrillers. He’s trying to keep us on his side. And with Hollywood firmly in his corner, they’re more than happy to make mountains of money while sweeping his behavior under the rug.
Anyone could’ve played this role. Instead, the industry would rather protect one of their own and try to distract from the newscycle by feeding us this nostalgic pairing.
Watch the full trailer here (and throw tomatoes at your screen, like me):
In some ways, I understand. It’s hard to believe your heroes are capable of doing such awful things — especially when they continue to support underrepresented groups and produce admirable work. But this support is akin to blood money. This is all to say: Boycott Brad Pitt.
It is being reported that just days after turning 18, she has hired legal counsel to help drop “Pitt” from her surname to become just “Shiloh Jolie,” a move that mimics her own sisters’.
You may also likeCelebrity children who dropped their parents’ famous last names
The Jolie-Pitt clan have traditionally remained tight-lipped when it comes to personally sharing more details of their relationship with their dad, particularly in the midst of a complicated and lengthy legal battle over custody, purported abuse, and shared assets.
However, as anyone with knowledge of Hollywood in the late ’90s and early aughts might remember, their journey with their dad, particularly when it comes to dropping his name, doesn’t deviate much from Angelina’s own.
The now 49-year-old is the daughter of actors Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight, and while she and brother James were close with their mom, who inspired them to start acting, they had a dysfunctional relationship with their father.
The couple’s daughters are reportedly attempting to distance themselves from their famous dad
Their father and mother separated when Angelina was just six months old. Marcheline raised the siblings while their father was much less of a presence in their life. While they did appear at press events together occasionally, and Angelina made a small appearance in her father’s Lookin’ to Get Out in 1982, the father-daughter relationship was strained.
In 2001, they reconnected briefly when they starred together in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, but that soon deteriorated. “We don’t really speak that much anymore,” she told Vogue in 2002.
Angelina’s own relationship with her dad Jon Voight was complicated
Angelina, who at the time had been using her middle name “Jolie” for her stage name, then filed a legal petition to officially change her name to “Angelina Jolie,” as did James, which was granted in September 2002, officially dropping the “Voight.”
Things changed, though, when in 2007, Marcheline died at the age of 56 from a bout with ovarian cancer, which led to her and her dad reconnecting through their grief, bringing them closer together.
After Jon separated from Marcheline, his relationship with his kids became strained
They eventually went public with their reconciliation, with the Oscar-winning Coming Home star making appearances with his daughter and grandchildren as well. After her separation and divorce from Brad, Angelina spoke with Vanity Fair in 2017 about reconnecting with her father and having him be a permanent part of the family.
The father-daughter pair reconciled after Marcheline’s death in 2007
“He’s been very good at understanding they needed their grandfather at this time,” she said of his relationship with her six children with her ex. “I had to do a therapy meeting last night and he was just around. He knows kind of the rule — don’t make them play with you. Just be a cool grandpa who’s creative, and hang out and tell stories and read a book in the library.”
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