You’re an OG in the stylist game—what do you make of the landscape of styling right now?
The thing that’s changed more than anything is the way brands function with VIP [talent] and stylists. It has changed dramatically post COVID, and I think it’s really changing right now too with all the new regimes. Every house with a new designer is getting a new VIP team, which means they’re getting a new strategy. Brands now have these hard and fast lists, but before you used to be able to kind of hustle someone at a brand to trust you based on a personal relationship. It was a personal decision of a VIP PR person with a stylist in that relationship to lend them something for a client or not. That is disappearing, I would say. Now, so much is on contract and predetermined. People are really laser focused on their celebrity placements in a way they didn’t used to be. I mean, there’s also the famous stylist thing that I feel like has been going on forever, and that was Rachel Zoe.
The point you make about brands is interesting, because it carries into editorial—who magazines can photograph wearing what.
Right, it’s always “she has a contract.” I don’t know how politically correct this is to say, but the reality is that brands are who hold the purse strings right now. When I started doing this, movie companies paid. I would make money doing a press tour, and now I am paid less for the same work than I was 15 years ago. And production companies now really rely on movie stars having brand deals to subsidize this. I think that’s even true with magazines. I don’t know whether you all want to admit it. We talk so much in this industry about the decline of luxury, but in fact, who has money? Dior and Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Movie companies aren’t making the money anymore. Magazines aren’t making the money anymore. Even celebrities, to a certain degree, aren’t making the kind of money making movies that they make from brand deals. I think really, you can just follow the money to see where the industry’s changed. Sorry, that’s not a very glamorous take.
It’s not, but it is the take. It’s why this conversation series exists—people have questions and you have answers. As we keep talking about brand ambassadors and deals, what’s it like to work with someone who doesn’t have one? Has it become harder, or is it more fun?
No, it’s so fun. It’s really fun to have freedom. I was doing a lot of editorial up until not that long ago still just because I liked it, I come from that and I love doing photo shoots, but I was doing this editorial with a cover and had the run through and the editor in chief said to me, “okay, so you’re going to shoot this for the cover and this inside and you have to shoot these.” I had a sheet with the jewelry that needed a full page and a sheet with the accessories, and I was like, this is a catalog, so what do you need me for? And if I shoot a catalogue, I don’t do it for $250 a day. I actually walked off the shoot, which is I think one of the only times I ever have. But I knew this actress and we had been friends for years. She wasn’t a regular client, but she was somebody I know who asked for me because she trusted my vision. I also didn’t work at this magazine, so there’s nothing in it for me to shoot X, Y, and Z. I didn’t think it was good for my brand to show up with this rack of advertisers and tell her what she had to wear when it didn’t align with my taste.
A second season of “Heated Rivalry” is in the works, with shooting expected to begin in August.
“We are writing it now,” show creator and director Jacob Tierney said on “CBS Mornings” on Thursday. “We’re getting ready to start shooting this summer. And there will be more ‘Heated Rivalry’ on your TVs as — like, truly — as soon as humanly possible.”
The next season is expected in 2027, but a release date has not been announced yet.
“Like the best parts of this show, just enjoy the yearn,” executive producer Brendan Brady said about the wait for the second season.
The romance on HBO Max about hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov begins with a secret fling between two rivals and eventually turns into a yearslong journey of love, denial and self-discovery. It is based on the “Game Changers” book series by Rachel Reid and has been so popular that it has averaged more than 10.5 million viewers per episode in the U.S. alone, according to Warner Bros. Discovery.
Tierney believes it resonates because it is “very romantic.”
“It has the hallmarks and trappings of a real classic romance, years of longing and yearning and trying to get together and do the right thing for each other and not being able to, and then eventually a happy ending,” he said.
“It is laser-focused on that love story. There’s not a lot of diversion from it. And I think that’s what the audience responds to, is kind of the intensity and the focus of the storytelling,” he said.
Editor’s note: “Heated Rivalry” Season 2 will begin shooting in August, but no official release date has been announced.
Together with Kelly, Calvin Klein took his eponymous brand to the next level. She was the one who came up with the idea of adapting men’s underwear for women. From the casual comment “there’s something sexy about wearing your boyfriend’s underwear” came one of the brand’s best-sellers and iconic designs, generating $70 million in 1984. Kelly Rector became a true reflection of the Calvin Klein woman, one who encapsulated glamour and sophistication in a simple cashmere knit dress. The couple married in 1986 while on a business trip to Rome. She wore an ensemble of silk pencil skirt, matching blazer, and a lace bodice, designed by Calvin. They were married until 2006, when their divorce was made official, although the couple had separated 10 years earlier.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images
But beyond being Calvin Klein’s wife or his muse, Kelly now defines herself on her Instagram account’s bio as a “designer, photographer, interior designer, author, ceramacist, and mother.” She has edited seven photography books. The first one, Pools, launched in 1992 at a party in New York where all the personalities of the moment were present. In 2015, she published a retrospective of her own photographs, many of which have been published in magazines such as Vogue and Interview. In an interview with Equestrian Living, she credited her parents with helping her develop her aesthetic sensibility. “I think both of my parents were quite stylish,” admits Kelly. “My dad was a film director, so he was quite creative, and mom was an antique dealer who collected art and antiques. She’s had many stores, so I think I got a lot of my art background by growing up with ‘50s and ‘60s furniture in the house, and maybe that inspired me for my modernism background. I was surrounded by the arts growing up, so yes, they definitely had an influence on me.”
Before he was fully Hollywood Barack, he was merely President Barack who quietly aspired to get in on Tinseltown wheelings and dealings. However, hints of his future media mogul aspirations were there all along. One such example is reportedly in the pages of a forthcoming memoir by former Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton (and co-author Joshua L. Steiner). In From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You, Lynton recalls an unexpected interaction with the then-sitting president that took place right after the infamous mid-aughts hack by an allegedNorth Korean operative that hit Sony and threatened to bring the whole studio down.
Let’s properly set the scene for Lynton’s anecdote.
INT. SONY PICTURES CEO’S OFFICE – JULY 2015 – NIGHT
MICHAEL LYNTON, 55, sits at his desk, still cleaning up the mess left by hacker group “Guardians of Peace” eight months later. After breaching Sony’s network and melting 70 percent of the studio’s servers, they made off with a trove of sensitive data, including unfinished scripts for unannounced films and 47,000 Social Security numbers. Making matters worse were the emails they later leaked, which resulted in Amy Pascal’s exodus and strained relationships with talent. And all this over some dumb Seth Rogen comedy about assassinating Kim Jong Il.
MICHAEL I can’t even with these hackers. They’ve taken my studio from Gucci to ratchet.
Suddenly, Michael’s phone lights up, announcing an unknown caller.
As Lynton’s book explains, he and the rest of the world had just learned of North Korea being the likely culprit behind the hacks and the production of “The Interview” being a motivating factor, when the President deigned to give him an earful.
“What were you thinking when you made killing the leader of a hostile foreign nation a plot point? Of course, that was a mistake,” chided Obama.
Living up to the title of his book, Lynton makes no bones about regretting greenlighting that film in a way that inadvertently adds some funny context to Rogen’s current series, The Studio, where he stars as a bumbling, validation-seeking studio executive.
“I wanted to join the badass gang that made subversive movies. For a moment, I wanted to hang—as an equal—with the actors,” said Lynton. “The party got out of hand, and the company, its employees, my family, and I all paid dearly.”
Sobering words, but that past does indeed seem owned. And who among us doesn’t have a few past mistakes that need owning? Whether you didn’t properly show up in a relationship or just bailed out the banks responsible for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it’s never too late for a mea culpa. Lynton’s book hits bookstore shelves on Feb. 24 if you or anyone else in your life could use a little guidance.
In February 2026, the release of Seedance 2.0 marked a significant shift in the generative AI landscape.
Developed by ByteDance, the model has gained international attention for its ability to generate high-fidelity video content that challenges traditional production methods. Its arrival has prompted immediate reactions from major media organizations and industry bodies regarding copyright and the protection of digital likeness.
What is it and who developed it?
Seedance is a generative AI video model developed by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The 2.0 version, launched in early 2026, is an evolution of ByteDance’s “Seed” ecosystem of foundation models. It is currently integrated into ByteDance’s creative suite, including Jianying, the Chinese counterpart to the video-editing app CapCut.
What are its technical capabilities?
Seedance 2.0 is capable of generating hyper-realistic video clips up to 15 seconds long. Unlike previous models that relied solely on text-to-video, this model utilizes a multimodal “@ reference system.” This allows creators to provide specific anchors for the AI to follow, including:
Face Reference: Users can upload a photo to ensure a character’s face remains consistent across different scenes.
Motion Reference: A separate video can be used to dictate specific choreography or physical movements.
Audio Integration: The AI can synchronize visual movements with provided audio tracks.
By using these specific references, the tool solves the “consistency problem” that previously plagued AI video, where characters’ features would often drift or change between frames.
Why is the film industry concerned?
The primary concern for the film industry is the precision with which Seedance can replicate the likeness of established actors. Shortly after its launch, a viral video surfaced showing Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a cinematic sequence. The realism of these “digital twins” was high enough to spark a swift response from industry unions and advocacy groups.
Legal and Ethical Issues:
Consent and Likeness: Labour union SAG-AFTRA has raised alarms over the ease with which the tool can infringe on an actor’s right of publicity. The union argues that the ability to generate a performance without the actor’s physical presence or consent threatens the livelihood of human performers.
Copyright Infringement: The Motion Picture Association (MPA), representing studios like Disney and Paramount, has alleged that ByteDance likely trained the model on vast amounts of copyrighted film and television content without authorization. Legal representatives for Disney and Paramount have reportedly issued cease-and-desist notices to address these training data concerns.
What is the broader impact?
The tension surrounding Seedance 2.0 highlights the widening gap between rapid technological advances and existing legal frameworks. While ByteDance has stated it intends to implement safeguards and respect intellectual property, the efficiency of the tool is undeniable.
Production analysts estimate that while a traditional visual effects shot can cost thousands of dollars, a Seedance-generated clip costs less than a dollar. This economic shift, combined with the technical ability to maintain character consistency, is forcing a fundamental reassessment of how digital content is protected and produced globally.
Actor Eric Dane announced in April of 2025 that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “I’m fighting as much as I can,” he said a few months later, shortly after finishing work on the third season of Euphoria, on which he played Cal Jacobs, the father to Jacob Elordi‘s Nate Jacobs. But ALS is an unrelenting and merciless degenerative disease, for which there is no cure. And on February 19, the 53-year-old actor died, after final days spent with friends and family.
“With heavy hearts, we share that Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon following a courageous battle with ALS,” Dane’s family has said via a statement shared with media. “He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world. Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight.”
Dane was born on November 9, 1972, in San Francisco, California. He fell in love with acting as a youth, after he was cast in a high school production of All My Sons. He moved to Los Angeles after graduation to seek his fortune as an actor, but it took a while for Hollywood to catch on to his easy grin and athletic charm. Eventually, he started winning small roles in the TV shows of the day: Married… with Children, Saved by the Bell, and Roseanne.
His big break was a recurring role in short-lived Y2K medical drama Gideon’s Crossing, followed soon thereafter by a central role in the later seasons of supernatural series Charmed. That combination of roles cemented Dane as the go-to for a certain type of sturdy and appealing television role, but it was his role as Dr. Mark Sloan beginning in the second season of Grey’s Anatomy that made Dane a household name—that, as well as his 2004 marriage to actor Rebecca Gayheart. Dane left the show six years later, in 2012, but reruns and syndication kept his lab-coated figure in the public eye long after that.
While he worked consistently in the years since, it was his role on Euphoria that opened a new chapter in Dane’s career. As closeted Cal Jacobs, the seemingly perfect family man living a double life, Dane received some of the best reviews of his career. As Variety‘s Daniel D’Addariowrote in 2022, “Dane is simply spectacular” in the role, citing a Jacobs-centered episode as “a high-water mark for an exceptional series.”
“I don’t know what it’s like to be Cal, but I know what it’s like to live a double life,” Dane told Vanity Fair in 2022. “I’ve had my own experience with drug and alcohol abuse. That’s a double life.
Fans of Robert Duvall are mourning his passing on Sunday February 15 at age 95. The star of films including 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird (he played Boo Radley), Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, and Network began his career on stage, then working alongside fellow icons Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. In the 1970s and ’80s, Robert Duvall was a big-screen mainstay, even winning the Academy Award in 1983 for his role as a down-on-his-luck country singer in Tender Mercies.
Below, find 28 images that barely scratch the surface of his epic career.
As Tom Hagen, the trusted consigliere to the Corleone crime family in The Godfather saga, Robert Duvall did what he did better than any other actor of his generation—a generation that fed and fueled the New Hollywood revolution of the late ‘60s and ‘70s—he listened.
Make no mistake, Duvall was a bona fide Hollywood star with seven Oscar nominations and one win (for 1983’s Tender Mercies) to his credit. But deep down, the California native was a character actor through and through. On screen, he was authentic and selfless, pushing those around him to shine a little brighter than they otherwise would have. Showboating just wasn’t his style. Instead, he propped up others like a reinforced steel buttress, never demanding the close-up or the girl. No one could turn a side dish into an entrée like Duvall did during his brilliant seven-decade career. “It all begins with and ends with talking and listening,” Duvall once said. “I talk, you listen; you talk, I listen…. That’s the journey in an individual scene. There’s no right or wrong; just truthful or untruthful.”
Duvall died on Sunday, February 16 at age 95, his wife Luciana Duvall announced Monday via Facebook. “Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” she wrote. “Thank you for the years of support you showed Bob and for giving us this time and privacy to celebrate the memories he leaves behind.”
Scrounging for any kind of role in 60s New York, chasing girls, lending money to whichever of them was the most broke, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Duvall shared the risks, the rejections, and a fascination with the human drama. As they remember, stardom was unlikely—and irrelevant.
Born in San Diego in 1931, Robert Duvall was the child of a Navy rear admiral and a mother who had put her own acting ambitions aside to raise a family. His father thought that Duvall would follow in his footsteps with a career in the military, but instead the path that the young man would forge was his mother’s unfulfilled one.
After graduating from Illinois’ Principia College where he majored in drama, Duvall served in the army from 1953 to 1954, narrowly missing out on the Korean War. On the GI Bill, he began studying at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City under the legendary Sanford Meisner. His classmates included two other struggling actors, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, with whom he shared a shabby apartment when they weren’t passing one another on the way to menial jobs and no-hope auditions. They were hungry, in every sense of the word.
Duvall paid his early dues in New York’s exploding off-Broadway scene in the late ‘50s, taking parts in such stage classics of the era as Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. About that production, Hackman recalled to Vanity Fair: “In the first rehearsal, Bobby already had this kind of physical thing he was doing—like an animal—kind of glided across the stage. I was really impressed.” Night after night, performance after performance, tears would wet Duvall’s cheeks during his final monologue. By the early ‘60s, Duvall had segued into supporting roles on television (Naked City, The Twilight Zone) and eventually motion pictures. As luck would have it, Duvall’s debut film would become an instant classic—1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird—in which he played the misunderstood small-town bogeyman Boo Radley. Hoffman told Vanity Fair in the same 2013 article, “The feeling was that Bobby was the new Brando. I felt he was the one, and probably I wasn’t.”
If awards ceremonies were a family dinner table, the Independent Spirit Awards 2026 would be the cool, artsy cousin. Since 1984, nonprofit arts org Film Independent has been honoring American TV and filmmakers who operate outside the studio system, with an annual awards ceremony that falls between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. The 2026 ceremony—the organization’s 41st—will be held on Sunday, February 15 at 5 p.m. ET (the time will be 2 p.m. in Hollywood).
A huge change this year is the ceremony’s location. For years, it’s been held at the Santa Monica pier, but construction for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics bumped it from that spot. Instead, it will be held at the Hollywood Palladium, in the heart of Sunset Boulevard. But other things that set the awards apart remain, such as its gender neutral acting awards and its focus on movies and TV that don’t always get mainstream love. This year’s host, Ego Nwodim, has also promised an edgy show, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “This is my whole thing: Don’t ask permission, ask forgiveness. I didn’t ask permission.”
Read on for all the winners at the 2026 Independent Spirit Awards:
Film categories
Best feature
Peter Hujar’s Day The Plague Sorry, Baby Train Dreams Twinless
Best first feature
Blue Sun Palace Dust Bunny East of Wall Lurker One of Them Days
John Cassavetes Award (best feature made for under $1M)
The Baltimorons Boys Go to Jupiter Eephus Esta Isla (This Island) Familiar Touch
Best director
Clint Bentley, Train Dreams Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Lloyd Lee Choi, Lucky Lu Ira Sachs, Peter Hujar’s Day Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
Best screenplay
WINNER: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, Splitsville Angus MacLachlan, A Little Prayer James Sweeney, Twinless Christian Swegal, Sovereign
Best first screenplay
Andrew DeYoung, Friendship Elena Oxman, Outerlands Alex Russell, Lurker Syreeta Singleton, One of Them Days Constance Tsang, Blue Sun Palace
Best lead performance
Everett Blunck, The Plague Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch Chang Chen, Lucky Lu Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams Dylan O’Brien, Twinless Keke Palmer, One of Them Days Théodore Pellerin, Lurker Tessa Thompson, Hedda Ben Whishaw, Peter Hujar’s Day
Best supporting performance
Naomi Ackie, Sorry, Baby Zoey Deutch, Nouvelle Vague Kirsten Dunst, Roofman Rebecca Hall, Peter Hujar’s Day Nina Hoss, Hedda Jane Levy, A Little Prayer Archie Madekwe, Lurker Kali Reis, Rebuilding Jacob Tremblay, Sovereign Haipeng Xu, Blue Sun Palace
Best breakthrough performance
Liz Larsen, The Baltimorons Misha Osherovich, She’s the He Kayo Martin, The Plague SZA, One of Them Days Tabatha Zimiga, East of Wall
Best cinematography
Alex Ashe, Peter Hujar’s Day Norm Li, Blue Sun Palace David J. Thompson, Warfare Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, Dust Bunny
Best editing
Ben Leonberg, Good Boy Carson Lund, Eephus Fin Oates, Warfare Sara Shaw, Splitsville Sofía Subercaseaux, The Testament of Ann Lee
Callum Turner is an expert at sidestepping questions he doesn’t want to answer. The 35-year-old model-turned-actor (36 if you’re reading this tomorrow—his birthday is February 15) has honed that skill evading queries about his relationship with singer Dua Lipa, whom he dated for a year and a half before the couple confirmed their engagement in 2025. It’s a level of stealth worthy of James Bond, who, some say, Turner is all but certain to soon play.
But those “some” don’t include Callum Turner, based on a Saturday media event. The London-born thespian who’s worked steadily since he entered the profession at age 20, spent Valentine’s Day at the Berlin Film Festival. He was there to promote Rosebush Pruning, Karim Aïnouz’s star-studded satire about a wealthy (and yet, so so sad) family picking at each other as they languish in a lavish Catalonian villa.
It was the film’s world premiere, but at a press conference for the movie, one of the earliest questions passed over stars Pamela Anderson, Tracy Letts, Jamie Bell, and Lukas Gage, and landed squarely on Turner’s sturdy shoulders.
The presser had just kicked off when a journalist said they wanted to address “the elephant in the room,” and asked about the chatter surrounding Turner’s rumored role in Dune director Denis Villeneuve‘s upcoming Bond film, the first under the franchise’s new owner, Amazon (yes, that Amazon) MGM Studios.
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner pose on the red carpet for Rosebush Pruning
RALF HIRSCHBERGER/Getty Images
“It’s very early for that question,” Turner responded as he swiveled back-and-forth in his seat. “I’m not going to comment on it, thank you.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning Letts interrupted at that point to say “I’m sorry, I’m the next James Bond.”
“Tracy, I thought you weren’t going to say anything,” Turner responded, to laughter from the crowd. (The 60-year-old American was clearly joking, but odder ideas have certainly been proposed!)
A full-page handwritten letter posted on Instagram. This is how Katie Holmes decided to say goodbye to James Van Der Beek, who died on February 11 at the age of 48 from colorectal cancer. Holmes and Van Der Beek starred on the ’90s teen drama series Dawson’s Creek in their youth. Last September, Holmes attended a special reunion organized in New York by their Dawson’s Creek costar Michelle Williams to raise money for cancer research. Van Der Beek was unable to attend the reunion being held in his honor for health reasons. His wife, Kimberly, and their six children attended in his stead. Holmes addressed his wife and children in her handwritten letter, writing, “I formed some words with a heavy heart. There is a lot to process. I am so grateful to have shared in a piece of James’ journey. He is beloved. Kimberly, we love you and will be here always for you and your beautiful children.”
Cast reunion in 2025
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Addressed simply to “James,” Holmes’s handwritten letter thanked Van Der Beek first and foremost, saying, “To share space with your imagination is sacred.” She did not go into the details of their memories, but emphasized the word “laughter” and recalled “conversations about life, James Taylor songs—adventures of a unique youth.”
Although she wrote that her heart was “holding the reality of his absence,” the actor still wanted to emphasize her “deep gratitude” for the effect he had on her. And she promised Kimberly eternal support: “We are here for you always.”
Fellow Dawson’s Creek cast member Busy Philipps started a GoFundMe campaign to help Van Der Beek’s widow and their six children get back on their feet, especially after the exorbitant cost of treatment, which had already led Van Der Beek to sell some memorabilia from the set in order to meet the expenses. Many stars have already lent their support with messages of condolence, such as Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill), who called the news of the passing “so damn sad,” and Jennie Garth (Beverly Hills, 90210) and Leslie Bibb, who both responded with a broken heart emoji.
For the last few years, the question of who would succeed Bob Iger hovered over Disney. Entertainment executive Dana Walden’s decades-long career in television, her reputation as a talent-whisperer, and her close relationship with Iger made her the obvious choice from Hollywood’s perspective: “The word about succession is that it’s all Dana all the time,” a top agent told VF in 2024. Her biggest competition was Josh D’Amaro, the silver-haired head of Disney’s parks and resorts division, who had a devoted following inside and outside the company. When he showed up at Disney theme parks, visitors often lined up to meet him.
The company finally ended its executive bake-off Tuesday with the announcement of D’Amaro as its new CEO. Disney shied away from the historic choice of appointing a first woman to top the company, though a new position was created for Walden: She’s been named President and Chief Creative Officer, giving her oversight of both film and television at Disney.
“Reading the tea leaves for at least the past six months or so, there was a sense that Josh was out in front,” says a veteran Hollywood producer who has worked with Disney. “If you want the most experienced executive in a tumultuous financial environment that’ll give confidence to Wall Street, then Josh is your guy.”
D’Amaro’s appointment might shock those who remember the disastrous, short, and disastrously short tenure of another former parks chief—Bob Chapek—whom Iger handpicked to be his successor in 2020. Among other things, Chapek enraged Hollywood talent by messing with Scarlett Johansson over her Black Widow contract and pissed off a sizeable proportion of Disney fans by flip-flopping on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Things got so bad that Iger raced back to the boardroom in 2022 to clean up the mess, spending the next four years deliberating on the best choice to take the company forward into a complicated future. He offered ongoing guidance to his top candidates, who were said to be educating themselves on all elements of the business.
Walden seemed perfectly placed as Iger’s protege. They both rose through the ranks of the television business, lived near to each other in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood, and were often spotted taking walks together. Walden was riding particularly high in 2024: that’s when she lured her good friend Ryan Murphy to Disney from Netflix, a streaming era coup. (“Dana, like Bob [Iger], is a real star,” Murphy told me back then.”When they walk into a room, the energy changes.”) And it looked like Kamala Harris, Walden’s pal for more than 30 years, might become president, giving her a hotline to the White House.
Of course, Trump won the presidency instead—and soon, the vibe shifted heavily in D’Amaro’s favor. After paying $15 million to settle a defamation case brought against ABC by Trump, yanking a trans storyline from a Pixar streaming series, and fighting a high-stakes battle over Jimmy Kimmel and free speech, Disney seemed eager to remove itself from the crosshairs of the culture wars and the current administration. Perhaps 2026 suddenly didn’t feel like good timing for the company’s first female CEO.
Bruce Willis does not know that he is sick, wife Emma Heming Willis confirmed in a podcast interview released this week. He still does not understand what is happening to him, she says, and is unaware of the diagnosis that, since 2023, has forever changed his life and that of his family.
“Bruce never connected the dots. He never realized he had this disease.” Emma said on the latest episode of the Conversations with Cam podcast. “It is both a blessing and a curse,” she continued. “But I’m really glad he doesn’t know.”
FTD is the most common form of dementia in people under 60 (Bruce Willis is 70) and can also manifest with loss of motor skills, difficulty walking, swallowing or muscle spasms.
A condition called anosognosia frequently accompanies FTD — and it did in Willis’s case. “It’s when the brain can’t recognize what’s happening to it,” Emma said. “For these people, what they experience is simply normality. A lot of people think it’s denial, like when someone refuses to go to the doctor saying ‘I’m fine,’ but it’s not,” she says. “There is no denial here. It is the brain that is changing. It’s part of the disease.”
her words this week echo what she told Vanity Fair‘s Anna Peele in 2025. “Bruce would not be involved with his own coming-out process,” Peele wrote then regarding his FTD diagnosis. “He and Emma did not yet know this, but the part of his brain that controls self-awareness was deteriorating. Bruce will never understand what happened to his brain.”
Speaking now, Emma says the lack of awareness of his situation has also become a form of protection for Bruce Willis. “Bruce never latched on to the diagnosis. Never,” says his wife. “And I’m glad he doesn’t know what’s happening to him.”
Over time, the family has learned to move within a new daily routine, adapting to the progression of the disease. “He is still very much in his body,” says Emma, who found her husband a house near theirs, where he lives assisted by professionals. “And we have moved on together with him. We adapted, step by step.”
As a result, the relationship between the husband and wife has been transformed. “The way he connects with me and our daughters is not what you would normally have with a loved one,” she says. “But it’s still something very beautiful. It’s still full of meaning. It’s just different. You just have to learn to adapt.”
America’s once-promising EV transition may have taken a U-turn, but at least some in Hollywood are trying to do their part. Rivian partnered with Grey’s Anatomy to make a custom electric ambulance for the long-running series.
The ambulance is a modified version of Rivian’s Commercial Van. The custom “vanbulance” serves a dual purpose: preventing on-set exhaust fumes (which could harm the cast and crew) and integrating a green storyline. “As an added benefit, the elimination of engine noise brought a welcome quiet while cameras were rolling,” Rivan wrote in a blog post.
Among other modifications, it has rear double doors instead of a roll-up one. (Rivian)
The vehicle includes some production-specific touches. Its walls and roof panels are removable, allowing cameras to reach angles required for interior shots. In addition, Rivian replaced the standard van’s rear roll-up door with double doors while adding a side entry to the cargo area. The company also added custom lighting and an exterior wrap reading “Seattle Emergency Response Services.”
The team consulted with the Huntington Beach Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department to inform the interior layout. “Their feedback was invaluable to understand how first responders actually use their vehicles,” Rivian wrote.
At least Hollywood’s fictional worlds are transitioning to electric. (Rivian)
The Hollywood Reporternotes that the electric ambulance debuted in the November 13, 2025, episode of Grey’s Anatomy. However, it was featured more prominently in Thursday’s episode — hence Rivian choosing this week to highlight it.
George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Paul Mescal, Amanda Seyfried, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis and Brad Pitt are some of Hollywood’s biggest names who failed to receive an Oscar nomination in acting categories when the nominees for the 98th Academy Awards were announced in Hollywood on Thursday.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, both nominees last year for their performances in “Wicked,” were not similarly nominated for the sequel. In fact, “Wicked: For Good,” was shut out of all categories.
On the opposite end, “Sinners” broke the record for Oscar nominations, with 16, including one in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ newest category, best casting. “One Battle After Another” followed with 13 nominations, while “Frankenstein,” “Marty Supreme” and “Sentimental Value” each earned nine.
Best actor
George Clooney as a movie star receiving a career tribute in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”
Peter Mountain/Netflix
Clooney, who played a Hollywood star much like himself in “Jay Kelly,” was left off the best actor list, as were Jesse Plemons (“Bugonia”), Oscar Isaac (“Frankenstein”), Jeremy Allen White (“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”), Daniel Day-Lewis (“Anemone”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Eddington”), and Denzel Washington (“Highest 2 Lowest”). Hugh Jackman was not nominated for “Song Sung Blue,” though his partner in the film, Kate Hudson, was. Joel Edgerton, the central pillar of the film “Train Dreams,” was not nominated, though the picture earned four nominations, including best picture. Brad Pitt was also left in the pit stop for his performance in “F1,” but as a producer he shared in the film’s best picture nomination.
Michael B. Jordan received his first nomination for playing two characters in “Sinners,” while Leonardo DiCaprio earned his eighth for “One Battle After Another.” “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet, at age 30, became the youngest male to earn three best actor nominations (after “Call Me By Your Name” and “A Complete Unknown”), taking that title from Marlon Brando.
Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”; Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”; Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”; Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners;” and Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent.”
Best actress
Amanda Seyfried in “The Testament of Ann Lee.”
Searchlight Pictures
The best actress category was over-stuffed with fine performances this year. Golden Globe nominees Amanda Seyfried (“The Testament of Ann Lee”), Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”), Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Die, My Love”), Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”) were left out of the Oscar nominations in this category, as were Julia Garner (“Weapons”), Dakota Johnson (“Materialists”), Jodie Foster (“A Private Life”), and Laura Dern (“Is This Thing On?”).
Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”) and Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) each received their first Oscar nominations, while Emma Stone earned her fifth acting nod, after having won two Oscars.
Nominees: Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”; Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”; Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”; Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”; and Emma Stone, “Bugonia.”
Best supporting actor
Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in “Hamnet.”
Universal/Focus Features
The Screen Actors Guild’s Actor nominees Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”) and Miles Caton (“Sinners”) were left out of the Oscars, as were Adam Sandler (“Jay Kelly”), Aidan Delbus (“Bugonia”), Kevin O’Leary (“Marty Supreme”), Josh Brolin (“Wake Up Dead Man” and “Weapons”), Idris Elba and Tracy Letts (“A House of Dynamite”), William H. Macy (“Train Dreams”), Jack O’Connell (“Sinners”), Andrew Scott (“Blue Moon”), Josh O’Connor (“Wake Up Dead Man”), Mark Hamill (“The Life of Chuck”), and Andrew Garfield (“After the Hunt”).
Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”), Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”) and Stellan Skarsgård (“Sentimental Value”) each received their first Oscar nomination, while Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, of “One Battle After Another,” previously have seven nominations and three Oscars between them.
Nominees: Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”; Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”; Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”; Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”; and Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value.”
Best supporting actress
Rebecca Ferguson in the White House Situation Room tracking an incoming missile in “A House of Dynamite.”
Eros Hoagland/Netflix
Rebecca Ferguson (“A House of Dynamite”) was one of the most notable absences from the list of best supporting actress nominees, but there was a plethora of performances that didn’t make it, including Golden Globe nominee Emily Blunt (“The Smashing Machine”), Odessa A’zion and Gwyneth Paltroe for “Marty Supreme,” Glenn Close (“Wake Up Dead Man”), Regina Hall (“One Battle After Another”), Hailee Steinfeld (“Sinners”), Mia Goth (“Frankenstein”), Jennifer Lopez (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Margaret Qualley (“Blue Moon”), Zoey Deutch (“Nouvelle Vague”), Felicity Jones (“Train Dreams”), Laura Dern (“Jay Kelly”), Mariam Afshari (“It Was Just an Accident”), and Oona Chaplin (“Avatar: Fire and Water”).
Apart from Amy Madigan (“Weapons”), all the nominees in this category are first-timers.
Nominees: Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”; Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”; Amy Madigan, “Weapons”; Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”; and Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another.”
Best picture
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident.”
Neon
It was a shock that the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize-winner, the powerful “It Was Just an Accident,” was not among the Oscar finalists; four of the previous Palme d’Or recipients (including Oscar-winners “Parasite” and “Anora”) managed to get nominated. It was just as shocking to find the Formula One racing film “F1” in the running, as it only earned nominations in the editing, sound and visual effects categories. But other crowdpleasers were also missing, including “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Weapons,” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
Nominees: “Bugonia,” “F1,” “Hamnet,” “Frankenstein,” “One Battle After Another,” “Marty Supreme,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners,” and “Train Dreams.”
Best director
Guillermo del Toro and Oscar Issac on the set of “Frankenstein.”
Ken Woroner/Netflix
Despite “Frankenstein” earning eight nominations, including best picture, Directors Guild nominee Guillermo del Toro was not cited for directing (though he did earn a nomination for his adapted screenplay). Also left out were Jafar Panahi (“It Was Just an Accident”); Kleber Mendonça Filho (“The Secret Agent”); Zach Cregger (“Weapons”); Yorgos Lanthimos (“Bugonia”); Park Chan-wook (“No Other Choice”); Clint Bentley (“Train Dreams”); Richard Linklater (“Nouvelle Vague,” “Blue Moon”); Kathryn Bigelow (“A House of Dynamite”); Mona Fastvold (“The Testament of Ann Lee”); Mary Bronstein (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”); Rian Johnson (“Wake Up Dead Man”); Kelly Reichardt (“The Mastermind”); and DGA nominee Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).
Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”; Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”; Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”; Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”; and Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet.”
Best original song
It’s been common practice that when Hollywood adapts a Broadway musical, a new song is created in the hopes that it will earn a best original song nomination. Often that is the case, and in rare instances (“Evita”) they’ve won. But Stephen Schwartz, despite having two new “Wicked” songs on the Oscar shortlist, was left out. Also missing out: Miley Cyrus (“Avatar: Fire and Ash”), Ed Sheeran (“F1”), Billy Idol (“Billy Idol Should Be Dead”), and Nine Inch Nails (“Tron: Ares”).
Not left out was songwriter Diane Warren, who earned her 17th Oscar nomination, though she has never won. Always a bridesmaid…
Nominees: “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”; “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”; “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”; “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!” and “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams.”
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien (who sadly did not get a best supporting actor nomination for playing a therapist in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), will be presented March 15 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
An Albuquerque judge denied the state’s request to detain actor Timothy Busfield while he awaits trial. Busfield, who has denied the allegations, is accused of inappropriately touching two young boys while directing the TV series, “The Cleaning Lady.”
“Somebody in power in the United States may be disappointed,” Ullman continued. “He will lose it.”
Read on for the full list of 2026 European Film Awards winners below, and don’t miss Vanity Fair’s complete coverage of the 2026 awards season.
Best Film
WINNER: Sentimental Value
Afternoons of Solitude Arco Dog of God Fiume o Morte! It Was Just an Accident Little Amelie Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake Riefenstahl Sirāt Songs of Slow Burning Earth Sound of Falling Tales From the Magic Garden The Voice of Hind Rajab With Hasan in Gaza
Director
WINNER: Joachim Trier—Sentimental Value
Yorgos Lanthimos—Bugonia Oliver Laxe—Sirāt Jafar Panahi—It Was Just an Accident Mascha Schilinski—Sound of Falling
Sergi López—Sirāt Mads Mikkelsen—The Last Viking Toni Servillo—La Grazia Idan Weiss—Franz
Screenwriter
WINNER: Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier—Sentimental Value
Santiago Fillol and Oliver Laxe—Sirāt Jafar Panahi—It Was Just an Accident Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter—Sound of Falling Paolo Sorrentino—La Grazia
Documentary
WINNER: Fiume o Morte!
Afternoons of Solitude Riefenstahl Songs of Slow Burning Earth With Hasan in Gaza
Animated Feature
WINNER: Arco
Dog of God Little Amelie Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake Tales From the Magic Garden
Best Score
WINNER: Hania Rani—Sentimental Value
Jerskin Fendrix—Bugonia Michael Fiedler, Eike Hosenfeld—Sound of Falling
Cinematographer
WINNER: Mauro Herce for Sirāt
Fabian Gamper for Sound of Falling Manu Dacosse for The Stranger
Editor
WINNER: Cristóbal Fernández—Sirāt
Yorgos Mavropsaridis—Bugonia Toni Froschhammer—Die My Love
Production Designer
WINNER: Laia Ateca—Sirāt
James Price—Bugonia Jørgen Stangebye Larsen—Sentimental Value
Kianna Underwood, a former child actor known for roles in early-aughts Nickelodeon hits including All That and Little Bill, was killed Friday while walking in New York City. She was 33.
“I have fond memories of that place, and I have fond memories of my costars and stuff like that,” Thompson said. ”So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that is really tough.”
Underwood was also the voice of Fuschia Glover in Little Bill, an animated series created by Bill Cosby. The Nickelodeon series, on which Kianna Underwood appeared from 1999-2004, was based on Cosby’s books of the same name. Cosby has faced allegations of sexual assault and abuse since at least 2014, when survivors including actor and model Beverly Johnsonpublicly accused him of drugging and raping them. Cosby was convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but was released from prison in 2021 after the conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
As a child star, Underwood also appeared on stage, spending a year with the first national tour of Hairspray in the role of Little Inez. Underwood also had a brief career in film, appearing in the 1999 indie The 24-Hour Woman alongside Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Patti LuPone.
In 2023, actor Angelique Bates, who appeared on All That with Underwood, took to Instagram to seek help for her former cast mate, who Bates said was struggling with homelessness. “She’s one of us and she needs help but she’s not getting it … and nobody’s speaking on Kianna Underwood,” Bates said at the time. According to the New York Post, Underwood remained unhoused at the time of her death.
“Y’all have no idea how much this one hurts…Sick to my stomach,” Bates said Saturday via Instagram. “So many people failed baby girl,” she concluded.
Lisa Foiles, another former All That cast mate, mourned Underwood via Instagram stories early Saturday, writing, “I heard the news and I am absolutely devastated. Still processing it. I’m utterly heartbroken.”
An NYPD spokesperson says via statement that Underwood was crossing the intersection of Watkins Street and Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn at 6:45 a.m. Friday when she was struck first by the driver of a black Ford SUV, then was “subsequently struck by a black and gray sedan.” She died immediately, police say. Neither driver remained at the scene, and as of publication time, “There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad.”
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a movie about the devil, who just happens to be a guy named Jimmy.
A direct follow-up to last year’s 28 Years Later, this zombie sequel picks up where the last one left off, with a young boy named Spike having encountered a clan of blonde-haired track-suit-wearing psychos, all of whom go by the name of Jimmy. The Jimmys take their name from their leader, a scraggle-toothed Brit played by Jack O’Connell, who wears an upside down cross and claims to be the son of Satan.
In the movie’s post-zombie-apocalypse timeline, the U.K. has been cordoned off by the world, left to deal with the infected undead all on their own. 28 Years Later used this as a sprawling quasi-metaphor for Brexit, immigration, and British independence, but The Bone Temple has other ideas on its mind. It’s a movie about mystic evil and ordinary men, and how they are the same thing.
The Bone Temple was directed by Candyman’s Nia DaCosta and feels more like a conventional horror film than its predecessor as a result. But like 28 Years Later, as well as the first film in the series, 28 Days Later, it was scripted by Alex Garland. Beyond the films in the series, Garland is the writer and director of movies like Civil War and ExMachina. He first came to attention with The Beach, a novel about a supposed backpacker paradise off the coast of Thailand, a self-sustaining island society that looked like heaven but turned out to be a new kind of hell.
Garland’s primary interest is in what happens after the veneer of society collapses and people are left to fend for themselves without social rules or governmental systems to rein them in. Do mutually beneficial moral frameworks assert themselves? Or do people devolve into something uglier and more brutish? He’s a sort of philosopher of anarchy, and his answer to both of those questions is: yes, but it depends.
The Bone Temple is a case study in both scenarios. On the one hand, there are the Jimmys, who terrorize and torture what’s left of the British population in the name of Old Nick, their Satanic inspiration, the devil-father that Jimmy claims to serve. On the other hand, there’s Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), last seen in 28 Years Later, waxing elegiacally about life, death, and the meaning of it all. He spends much of the movie in what feels strangely like a romcom scenario, except with the gigantic zombie alpha Samson. Fiennes’ disarmingly gentle and weird performance was one of the highlights of last year’s movies, and if nothing else, The Bone Temple succeeds simply by giving us more time to spend with him.
Kelson is damaged but still hanging on to his humanity. He’s trying to treat the infected zombies with kindness and perhaps even some medical interventions, as a doctor and even a scientist who believes that humans can make the world better through a combination of objective science, artistry, and common decency. It’s a belief he carries with him, and that also carries him, even through the zombie apocalypse; it’s how he retains his dignity, in spite of everything.
Inevitably, these two worldviews come to a head in what amounts to a philosophical battle between the demonic and the secular, a contest of morality (or lack thereof) in a decimated world with no form or rules. As the film progresses, Jimmy’s minions spot Kelson and believe he must be the manifestation of Old Nick. Jimmy engineers a sort of devil show in which Kelson, under threat, agrees to play the part.
The result is what is sure to be one of this young year’s great scenes, a demonic farce in which Kelson plays the devil while blasting Iron Maiden in a temple of bones. It’s a riot, audacious and bizarre and terrifying, but the message is clear enough: the devil isn’t some mystical evil force from another plane. It’s just people. The devil is just Jimmy, and everyone who believes themselves to be unbound by morality as a result of some mystical higher purpose. In Garland’s brutal secular worldview, that sort of mysticism always cashes out as tortured bodies. There’s no higher power, no mystical evil, just flesh and guts. The devil is real, but it’s just Jimmy. It’s just us.
