The scene at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday seemed to be a happy one: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stood shoulder-to-shoulder with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Vince McMahon. The magnate and the action star were all smiles as he rang the exchange’s opening bell, a gesture intended to celebrate his move to join the board of the WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings. Just a few days later, the makeup of TKO’s board would change again, but this time, McMahon was presumably less jolly.
The 78-year-old abruptly resigned as the executive chairman of the board of directors on Friday after a former employee accused McMahon of sex trafficking, rape, and workplace harassment.
McMahon’s statement said he was leaving the board “out of respect” for WWE and TKO Group.
The allegations, which were made as part of a lawsuit brought by Janel Grant in Connecticut’s US District Court, are not the first time McMahon has faced high-profile claims of abuse. In 2022, McMahon temporarily resigned from the role he then held with the WWE following a Wall Street Journal report detailing millions in so-called “hush money” allegedly paid out to “keep secret allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.” A subsequent investigation by the WWE’s board “found that over 16 years he had spent $14.6 million in payments to women who had accused him of sexual misconduct,” the New York Times reports; a second internal investigation revealed an additional $5 million paid to two women. McMahon, for his part, denied that any interactions he had were nonconsensual.
McMahon was also accused of sexually assaulting a Florida tanning salon employee in 2006. He was arrested by Boca Raton police and charged with sexual battery, but prosecutors declined to move forward with the case, the Daily Beast reported in 2018.
Despite the multiple scandals, McMahon—who owned the bulk of the WWE’s shares—returned to the company in 2023, where he was seemingly re-embraced by Johnson and others, including influential Hollywood figure Ari Emanuel. Emanuel’s company, Endeavor, merged with the WWE in 2023; the new parent organization, known as TKO, named McMahon its executive chairman.
But that changed on Friday. According to the WSJ, which was the first to report on Thursday’s lawsuit, Grant accused McMahon of multiple 2021 assaults, said he coerced her into relations with other company executives, and alleged that he shared revealing photos and videos of Grant with other staffers, among other claims. The full filing, which details Grant’s claims in graphic detail, is available online.
The timing for the suit couldn’t have been worse for TKO, which named Johnson to its board Tuesday. “I’m very motivated to help continue to globally expand our TKO, WWE, and UFC businesses as the worldwide leaders in sports and entertainment,” Johnson said, name-checking two McMahon-affiliated businesses in a statement reported by ESPN. The same day, the company announced a landmark deal with Netflix in which the WWE’s flagship show, Raw, would depart linear television for the streaming giant.
Both moves resulted in glowing comments from folks like Johnson’s fellow wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, who told Variety that he “couldn’t be happier” for McMahon’s companies.
“WWE’s always my family,” Cena said of the formerly McMahon-led org this week. “I’ll always be there in any capacity they’ll have me.”
Cena, I should note, has been a longtime supporter of McMahon’s. He addressed the earlier claims against McMahon in a 2023 interview with the Associated Press, saying then, “I love Vince McMahon. He’s everything you could want in a great friend, business partner, father, mentor. I love the man.” When asked about the allegations against McMahon, Cena replied, “When you love somebody, you take them as imperfectly perfect as they are. We all make mistakes, we all have poor decisions.”
It’s unclear if Cena continues to hold that view, and a request for comment was not responded to as of publication time. However, by Friday, TKO started to distance itself from its executive chair.
“Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE,” the company said in a statement. “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
On Friday, TKO staffers were informed via email that McMahon had left his company once more. “He will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE,” TKO president Nick Khan said in a memo viewed by the NYT.
In a significant shake-up in late-night TV, Jon Stewart is set to make a grand return in hosting “The Daily Show” weekly in its upcoming season. CBS News’ Vladimir Duthiers has more.
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NEW YORK — Comedian Jon Stewart is rewinding the clock, returning to “The Daily Show” as a weekly host and executive producing through the 2024 U.S. elections cycle.
Comedy Central on Wednesday said Stewart will host the topical TV show, the perch he ruled for 16 years starting in 1999, every Monday starting Feb. 12. A rotating line-up of show regulars are on tap for the rest of the week.
“Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored to have him return to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,” Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement. “In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.”
Over the years, “The Daily Show” — first hosted by Craig Kilborn, then Stewart and Trevor Noah — has skewered the left and right by making the media a character and playing it absolutely straight, no matter how ridiculous. The show, which won an Emmy Award this month for best talk series, has not had a permanent host since Noah left last year.
The show’s long-term legacy as a talent incubator is sterling, becoming a launching pad for the likes of Aasif Mandvi, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore, Jordan Klepper and Samantha Bee. Stewart was awarded the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2022.
Recently, Stewart’s “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” which debuted in 2021, was canceled on the Apple TV+ streaming service.
The mystery at the heart of True Detective: Night Country is starting to heat up. Literally.
After arriving at the site where the missing Tsalal Arctic Research Center scientists were found frozen into a grotesque tableau in the season premiere, Ennis Police Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) decides to have the mass of bodies transported to the town ice rink to slowly thaw. But not before an officer haphazardly snaps off one of the scientist’s hands, prompting a reaction that alerts everyone around that he’s somehow still alive.
Night Country‘s second episode centers on Danvers and state trooper Evangeline Navarro’s (Kali Reis) search for a connection between Annie K (Nivi Pedersen), a local Indigenous woman who was murdered six years earlier, and Tsalal paleomicrobiologist Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell), the mysteriously convulsing scientist from the season’s cold open. In the premiere, Danvers discovered that Clark had been photographed wearing what appeared to be a pink parka that once belonged to Annie K. And after learning this episode that he also had a spiral tattoo on his chest that matched both the design drawn on the surviving scientist’s forehead and a tattoo on Annie K’s back, it seems clear they’re onto something.
Tsalal scientists frozen in the ice in True Detective: Night CountryMichele K. Short—HBO
Some smart detective work by Navarro leads her to the realization that Annie K and Clark were apparently involved in some level of romantic relationship, which they kept secret by rendezvousing in an old RV parked at a rundown trailer park known as the Nook. When Danvers and Navarro go to investigate the trailer, they discover Annie K’s phone inside alongside a mess of animal bones, a collection of creepy yarn sculptures, a shrine of photos, and—you guessed it—another painting of that same crooked spiral.
Seasoned fans of True Detective will remember the spiral from the series’ first season, in which it became known as a symbol of the sadistic cult at the center of the neo-noir crime saga.
Detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) originally encountered the spiral painted on the dead body of Dora Lange, whose murder set in motion their investigation into a string of ritualistic killings in the Louisiana bayou. It then continued to crop up in various forms throughout the season, both as a literal sign of the cult and a more overarching motif representing the series’ occult influences. (The Tuttle United company name-dropped in Night Country as the corporation funding Tsalal also seems to be a reference to the sinister Tuttle family behind Season 1’s cult.)
While we still don’t know what the spiral means in the context of Night Country, Foster says she believes all the True Detective stories are interconnected in some way. “Whether it’s the Louisiana bayou or the big city of Los Angeles or the Ozarks or northern Alaska, how these extreme settings affect the psyches of the detectives is very important,” she told TIME. “There’s an eerie connection between these places and the detectives’ journeys as human beings.”
Are there other references to True Detective Season 1 in Night Country?
Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle in True Detective season 1HBO
Naturally, the spiral isn’t Night Country‘s only callback to True Detective’s original entry.
When Rust and Marty examine Dora Lange’s diary in the second episode of Season 1, they find mentions of the “Yellow King”—a title they eventually discover refers to a seemingly mythical figure worshipped by the men responsible for killing Dora and an untold number of other women and children. There are also several lines in Dora’s diary pulled directly from Robert W. Chambers’ 1895 anthology The King in Yellow, in which a fictional play by the same name casts an ominous shadow over the 10 short stories that make up the collection of “weird fiction.”
In the book, the play is said to lure readers in with an ordinary first act before driving them mad with a second act that reveals unbearable truths about the universe. Nods to the play appear throughout the anthology, but it features most prominently in the collection’s debut story, a tale titled “The Repairer of Reputations” in which an unreliable narrator named Hildred Castaigne reads The King in Yellow while recovering from a head injury in a mental asylum.
Those familiar with this literary lore may have noticed that the Night Country premiere opens with an epigraph attributed to Hildred Castaigne: “For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake.”
However, that quote never actually appears in Chambers’ work. Instead, Season 4 showrunner Issa López said she made it up to include another “little wink” to Season 1 for the fans. “I was looking for the perfect quote to talk about the things that hide in the dark and I couldn’t find it,” she told Business Insider. “So I wrote it.”
PARK CITY, Utah — PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Chiwetel Ejiofor had read Jeff Hobbs’ “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace” years before Antoine Fuqua asked if he might consider writing and directing an adaptation.
The book, which explores the complex life of a brilliant boy who grew up in the crime ridden and blighted East Orange, New Jersey, was written by Peace’s old Yale roommate. His story did not fit neatly into familiar tropes about rough beginnings, incarcerated fathers or overly simplistic ideas about success and “getting out.” This was a person who wanted to remain tied to his community, to his father, and also to succeed in his schooling and athletics (water polo) first at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark and then at Yale where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics.
Nine years after he graduated from university, in which he spent time teaching at his old prep school, traveled extensively, considered grad school and made money selling marijuana, Peace was killed. Some of the narratives chalked it up to the fact that he went back to where he came from. Ejiofor said Peace’s mother told them that in the aftermath of his death, television crews came and filmed the garbage on the streets instead of the community.
But Hobbs and, subsequently, Ejiofor saw something more complicated and nuanced about the flawed idea of “social mobility” and about the “confluence of race, housing, education and the criminal justice system.” And, most importantly, he felt like he hadn’t seen these ideas engaged with in film.
“I thought it was very special and very powerful,” Ejiofor told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It was sort of coincidental that I had had this big response to the book, but I hadn’t pursued it in any way. I jumped at the opportunity.”
Fuqua, who had teamed up with Hobbs’ wife, Rebecca, to adapt the film, thought Ejiofor would be the right person after seeing his feature debut, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” about a 13-year-old boy in Malawi who gets inventive after his family can no longer afford school.
“I knew it was meant to be a film,” Antoine Fuqua wrote in an email. “It was clear that (Chiwetel’s) humanistic approach to storytelling was a perfect fit to bring Rob’s life to screen.”
“Rob Peace” is having its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, where it hopes to find a distributor to get it out to the world.
“Movies like this need to be loved into existence, and that takes a village,” said producer Alex Kurtzman, who got close to Ejiofor while directing him in “The Man Who Fell to Earth” series. “You don’t make movies like this for money. You don’t make movies like this for any reason other than this is an important story to tell. And some reason, we are lucky enough to be able to tell it.”
To play Rob, who would have to carry the film and live in the very different worlds he traversed in his life, Ejiofor and his casting director found Jay Will, a recent Juilliard graduate.
“I never felt that it was a story about somebody who was able to play a role in different places,” Ejiofor said. “It was a story about somebody who very naturally and consistently was all of these things at once. You really had to invest and believe that about him. Jay very naturally did that because that’s part of his experience as well. He’s also just a fabulous actor and has this great charisma and real charm.”
The performance is a meaty showcase for a fresh face who had done some television, including “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Taylor Sheridan’s “Tulsa King,” which had not yet come out.
Mary J. Blige was already on board to play his mother, Jackie, and Camila Cabello plays an on and off girlfriend Naya. Ejiofor cast himself in the role of the father, Skeet, self-aware enough to know that because it was in his wheelhouse, he’d just be directing another actor to play him as he would.
“He’s kind of a of mercurial character in a way,” Ejiofor said. “There has to be a sequence of question marks about him, but you also have to be very compelled by him. And Rob’s journey is pulled by that sort of magnetic link he has to this to his father.”
As with “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” the director-actor, father-son dynamic actually ended up helping the film, too.
Kurtzman marveled at Ejiofor’s ability to elegantly and calmly navigate three very different roles — writer, director and actor — under the high pressure environment of making a low-budget indie in just 28 days with no money for overtime.
“I never saw him crack, break, get stressed ever,” Kurtzman said. “That he was able to hold space for all of those three things at the same time and know how to put them in a box while the clock was ticking, that’s a true artist.”
Equally important to Ejiofor was to make the film look beautiful. He’d been appalled by the story of the TV crews and the garbage and sought out “Beanpole” and “The Last of Us” cinematographer Ksenia Sereda to realize this vision.
“What she’s done here is elevated this with a real elegance and beauty and a style of telling the story, which doesn’t necessarily feel like we’ve seen before within this kind of cinematic experience,” he said.
All of these facets work together to upend stereotypes and expectations. Ejiofor wants audiences to have a sense of hope in Rob’s story as well as to feel enriched by knowing him.
“By the end of the film, you’re not just left with this bleakness. It’s obviously a tragic story, but it’s much, much richer than that,” he said. “Understanding his journey, I think, is profoundly important and enriching and enlightening. It has been for me.”
As the exquisitely frazzled Terry Goon, John Early has to keep many plates spinning at once. In some cases, literally; Theda Hammel’s debut feature, Stress Positions, shows Goon rushing around a derelict Brooklyn brownstone once called the “Party House” prepping a chicken parm, his fingers caked to Frankensteinian girth with egg and bread crumbs. He’s looking after his nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), a 19-year-old model with the face of a cherub, while his broken leg heals. Also in the mix for a 4th of July backyard BBQ are his intense, inscrutable, chain-smoking landlady (Rebecca F. Wright), his clout-chasing, flag-burning BFF (Hammel, a longtime friend of Early’s), her novelist girlfriend (Amy Zimmer), and eventually, Terry’s not-quite-ex-husband (John Roberts). And because it’s summer 2020, the COVID-conscious Terry does it all while obsessively sanitizing, distancing, gloving, re-gloving, and banging his pots in thanks to the nurses.
“I’ve always had this bourgeois clown that I do, that for whatever reason I’m hyper-fixated on,” Early tells Vanity Fair shortly before the world premiere of Stress Positions at Sundance. “For better or worse, I’m always putting this character in a dinner party scenario. That, or giving a toast.” He hopes Hammel’s snappy, savvy farce can change that, fully exorcizing this stock type from his repertoire: “After this, I’m not allowing myself to do that guy anymore.”
Early has often gravitated to the minefield that is having company over. In his episode of Netflix’s 2016 sketch anthology series The Characters, Early has a minor breakdown during his own wedding after learning the venue once housed slaves. Elliott, the compulsive liar he played for five seasons on TBS’s Search Party, lived his entire life as a meticulously composed act. For a 2017 New York Magazineprofile, Early invited the interviewer over and whipped up a cacio e pepe at home. (The story includes a recipe that’s heavy on all-caps and interrobangs (?!). Read between the lines, and you can see his blood pressure spiking.)
For Early, the pressurized, claustrophobic Stress Positions pushes this bit to its breaking point, “putting that clown in a fully-realized world, with a history and relationships, to deconstruct him and ask why he’s this way.” Hammel wrote him the role of Terry Goon—whose name, Early says “could absolutely” be a reference to the slang term for protracted masturbation, judging by Hammel’s “cloacal” sense of humor—as the culmination of a collaboration dating back to their days at the Atlantic Theater Company. Back then, he was working the front desk and she was taking an acting course. “We were both [chuckles] alive with the technique,” Early says in a sarcastic tone, then pauses. “See, that’s the kind of thing that is going to make me sound so pretentious in print. I need them to hear the irony in my voice.”
The desire to be seen the right way weighs far heavier on Terry. Over the course of a hot summer night, the desperately woke thirtysomething comes undone while trying to keep up with the younger, queerer, and hipper. Terry’s self-destructive drive to play host speaks to his broader and deeper fixation on optics, a distinctly millennial slant on the need to project an image of goodness. “There’s been an uncanny feeling watching art in the past 10 years, where it’s didactic, a way of morally purifying yourself, proving that you’re on the right side of history,” Early says. “It’s folly to try and prove how coherent and unimpeachable your stances are, which is possible on the internet. But socially, that breaks down immediately in a way that can be quite funny.”
He explains: “It’s there in the way Israel and Palestine, for instance, can confuse people’s identity-matrix logic. There’s this feeling of, ‘Wasn’t the rule that because of this equation of my identity, I am the oppressed?’ Then here comes something that doesn’t fit snugly into that narrative, because it’s about power and militarism and not necessarily identity, and that confuses people so much. I think this movie is about that confusion. ‘Weren’t we just in the streets celebrating gay marriage?’ Terry feels like he was supposed to have more time celebrating the triumph. But the world, unfortunately, moved on.”
Early specifically admires how Hammel has picked up on the “phrases and cadences of the internet” without fully absorbing them. “She’s not an eccentric hermit,” he says. “She’s logged on. But she has a strong constitution.” Hammel jabs at her generation, illustrating how the effort to uphold progressive principles can turn us into corny, self-righteous, annoying versions of ourselves. Terry embodies a particular strain of entry-level liberalism closer to the ideological center, a #StillWithHer subscriber to “the Pete and Chasten model of gay guy.” Early confesses that he’s not totally unfamiliar with the mentality. “I look back at some of my behavior online, back in 2020, and I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes like, ‘Oh, god!’ remembering something I posted, just sweating.”
Through precise minor details marking time and place, Hammel and Early shade Terry’s aspirations for respectability and correctness. His conflicted relationship to homosexuality, for one, comes across in his porn-site preference for the jocky, white-bread Sean Cody. Before his guests arrive, he hides his sex gear—as well as Chekhov’s Theragun—in a symbolically loaded closet, and rolls a disco ball the size of a Sisyphean boulder out to the trash. While huffing and puffing, he mutters, “Everybody has a fucking septum piercing now.” Terry may frantically flit in and out of rooms like Frasier Crane, but in this resentment about aging into irrelevance, Early sees the character as something closer to “a gay, millennial Tony Soprano.”
Early’s hectic but tightly controlled style gels with a screenplay of elaborate, fine-tuned construction, closer to Molière than your average New York indie. “It’s not vibey,” he clarifies. “It’s not improvised.” The shoot was a crucible, with the entire crew crammed into a stuffy, crumbling house during a sweltering stretch of September that saw a toilet explode and send water pouring through the ceiling below. Early herniated a spinal disc; once production picked up following a brief postponement, Hammel incorporated his back problems into the character. “I can’t tell whether that was generous or sadistic of her,” he laughs.
Even as Early gains deeper insight into this fun-house-mirror alter ego, he still takes pride in the work itself. He knows that slipping on a tenderloin of raw chicken requires finesse, and he just wants to ensure that he does the gag justice. “You have a person looking you dead in the eye, explaining the safety precautions, and I’m listening,” he says. “At the end of the day, though, my body is falling through the air. No wires. This is not The Matrix. But these pratfalls were always essential to the script. It was scary for me, less in terms of hurting myself, and more about not delivering. If there’s anything I should be able to do, it’s that.”
LOS ANGELES — Country music star Reba McEntire will grace next month’s Super Bowl stage to sing the national anthem while Post Malone will perform “America the Beautiful.”
The performances will take place Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before the championship matchup and halftime show featuring Usher.
Andra Day will also perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as part of the pregame performances that will air on CBS.
Actor Daniel Durant will perform the national anthem in American sign language. He’ll follow his “CODA” film castmate and Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, who took on the role last year.
Model-dancer Anjel Piñero will sign “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be signed by actor-dancer Shaheem Sanchez.
Emmy winner Adam Blackstone will produce and arrange the national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation company and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show.
McEntire, a three-time Grammy winner, has become a country music icon with more than 30 studio albums that includes a variety of hits such as “Fancy,” “Consider Me Gone” and “Does He Love You.” The highly decorated performer was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011 and received a Kennedy Center honor in 2018. She starred in the Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun” and earned a Golden Globe nomination for her lead role on television series “Reba.” She also released her latest album “ Not That Fancy ” and new book last year.
Post Malone, a 10-time Grammy nominee, has recorded multiple hits including “Congratulations” with Quavo, “rockstar” with 21 Savage and “Sunflower” featuring Swae Lee from the 2018 animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The singer-rapper-songwriter released his fifth studio album “Austin” last year.
The end of the year calls for reflection — hence our 2023 Popdust Music Awards, celebrating all of the great music we heard last year. And now, the beginning of the year indicates a time of anticipation. For that, we have our 2024 Artists to Watch, which also means that Awards Season is right around the corner.
Starting with the Golden Globes on January 7, we are about to experience countless red carpet shots, couples debuts ( still waiting for you, Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan), and teary-eyed acceptance speeches.
While there are the BAFTAs, the Emmys, the Oscars, and the SAG Awards, my speciality is music. And there is no bigger mecca for musicians than the GRAMMY Awards. Held on February 4, 2024, and hosted by comedian Trevor Noah, the GRAMMYs are music’s biggest night.
Awards Season brings out everyone’s inner critic. Suddenly, we think we know more than the Recording Academy. Every year, there are viral moments and scandalous decisions. The Recording Academy ultimately outrages the general public in some way or another — and inevitably, fandoms will take to apps like X to become the next Joan Rivers.
It’s a delicious time of year when your favorite celebrities are forced out of hiding and into the spotlight, and we can’t wait. To get everyone in the spirit of judgment, here are some way-too-early GRAMMY predictions for the year!
Record Of The Year: “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
Any Kid Harpoon song is a classic, and Cyrus’ return from a brief hiatus from music was met with high marks. It was Spotify’s most streamed song in a week ever, spent time at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100, and was the fastest song in Spotify history to reach 1 billion streams.
Album Of The Year: Midnights by Taylor Swift
She’s won this coveted award three times already, and it’s impossible to discredit the year of Taylor Swift. She is on track for the highest-grossing tour of all time with the Eras Tour, Midnights is Apple Music’s biggest pop album of all time in terms of first-day streaming, and the album is the reason she was all 10 of Billboard’s Top 10 Songs (the first time all women have dominated the charts ever). Give Swift her flowers.
Song Of The Year: “A&W” by Lana Del Rey
Another Jack Antonoff production, Lana Del Rey’s album is a spiritual awakening. With an essence of transcendentalism and a hint of gospel, it’s Lana to her core. “A&W” is hailed Song of the Year by many already, and it’s time we recognize her for the artist she is, was, and always will be.
Best New Artist: Ice Spice
I haven’t seen many people rise to the top as quickly as Ice Spice, nor have I seen someone garner such a passionate fanbase. The rapper has hits like “Deli” and collabs with rap queen Nicki Minaj on “Barbie World” and Taylor Swift on “Karma”, not to mention her Munchkin drink at Dunkin Donuts.
Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical): Jack Antonoff
Not only is Antonoff the mastermind behind many Taylor Swift albums, including Midnights, but he has Lana Del Rey’s multi-nominated album, “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?,” under his belt. He can’t miss, and for that, he wins.
Best Pop Solo Performance: “What Was I Made For? [From The Major Motion Picture Barbie]”
This song is stunning, productionally perfect, and sonically flawless. Billie and Finneas continue to grow as an unstoppable singer-songwriter duo who can make any song fit any moment.
Best Pop Vocal Album: GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo wanted to have fun with her sophomore album following the immense pressure and success of her debut, SOUR. With GUTS, we had viral singles yet again that promise Rodrigo is here for the long haul.
Best Dance/Electronic Recording: “Strong” by Romy + Fred again…
Developing a cult following in the electronic music world, Fred again… is one of the hottest house dance artists in the world right now. Following a successful bout of live shows and reaching fans on almost every platform imaginable, “Strong” is a winner.
Best Pop Dance Recording: “Rush” by Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan understands how to make out-of-the-box pop music, and seals it with one hell of a dance number. He’s the embodiment of a popstar, and “Rush” was just an example of the high precedent he’s set.
Best Rock Performance: “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius
Compiled of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, boygenius is a supergroup showing the world how to rock again. “Not Strong Enough” showcases what each member brings to the group in one sound synergy.
Best Rock Album: Starcatcher by Greta Van Fleet
Hailed as The Next Led Zeppelin, Greta Van Fleet brings you on a journey with their Starcatcher album. Each song a delight, Greta Van Fleet has developed their sound and found their stride.
Best R&B Performance: “Kill Bill” by SZA
SOS is one of the best albums of the year, and while I don’t see it winning in the Big 4 due to competitors like Swift, I still think it wins in general. “Kill Bill” was one of the biggest songs and continues to be one of the most viral.
Best Rap Performance: “Rich Flex” by Drake & 21 Savage
The saying “I like what Drake likes” holds true for many…and the collaboration album, Her Loss, with 21 Savage was one of the biggest of the year. “Rich Flex” makes sense for two of the biggest rappers out there right now.
Best Rap Album: Heroes & Villains by Metro Boomin’
Metro Boomin’ is the rapper and producer responsible for countless hits like Migos’ “Ric Flair Drip”. His Heroes & Villains album is a masterclass for high quality rap, intricate detail in production and songwriting, and straight up hits.
Watch the 2024 Grammy Awards live on February 4, 2024 at 8 PM EST exclusively on Paramount+!
LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Succession” secured its legacy with its third best drama series award, “The Bear” feasted as the night’s top comedy, and the two shows about squabbling families dominated the acting awards at Monday night’s Emmys.
Quinta Brunson of “Abbott Elementary” and Steven Yeun and Ali Wong of “Beef” also had historic wins at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony that was finally held four months late after a turbulent year of strikes in Hollywood.
“Succession,” the HBO saga of the dysfunctional generations of a maladjusted media empire, won the top prize for its fourth and final season. It also won best actress in a drama for Sarah Snook and best actor in a drama for Kieran Culkin.
“We all put our all into it, and the bar was set so high,” Snook said.
“The Bear,” the FX dramedy about a contentious family and a struggling restaurant at the center of the life of a talented chef, won best comedy series for its first season. It also made a meal of the comedy acting categories, with Jeremy Allen White winning best actor, Ayo Edebiri winning best supporting actress, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach taking best supporting actor. All three were first-time nominees.
“This is a show about family, and found family and real family,” Edebiri said from the stage as she accepted the first trophy of the night at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Instead of the usual producer speeches, Matty Matheson, a real-life elite chef who plays a kitchen newbie and repairman on “The Bear,” spoke for the show while surrounded by the cast near the end of the Fox telecast.
“I just love restaurants so much, the good and the bad, we’re broken inside,” Matheson said before getting a long kiss on the mouth from Moss-Bachrach.
Brunson won best actress in a comedy for the show she created, ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” becoming the first Black woman to win the award in more than 40 years and the first from a network show to win it in more than a decade.
“I am so happy to be able to live my dream and act out comedy,” Brunson said during her acceptance, fighting back tears. The writer-actor was among the stars with standout looks on the Emmys’ silver carpet.
“Succession” won six Emmys overall including best supporting actor in a drama for Matthew Macfadyen and best writing in a drama for show creator Jesse Armstrong. The only drama acting category it didn’t win was supporting actress, taken for the second time by Jennifer Coolidge of “The White Lotus.”
“The Bear” won in every category it was nominated for Monday night, and along with the four it had won previously at the Creative Arts Emmys, took 10 overall, the most of any show.
“Beef” from Netflix won best limited series, while Yeun and Wong became the first Asian Americans to win in their categories – Yeun for best actor in a limited series and Wong for best actress. Creator Lee Sung won Emmys for writing and directing. It had eight Emmys overall after three wins at the Creative Arts Emmys.
Brunson had won a writing Emmy for “Abbott Elementary,” her mockumentary about a predominantly Black and chronically underfunded grade school in Philadelphia, but this was her first for acting. Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons” was the only previous Black woman to win the category in 1981.
The show held on the King holiday saw three Black women win major awards: Brunson, Edebiri and Niecy Nash-Betts, who won best supporting actress in a limited series for “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
On the Netflix show, Nash-Betts played a neighbor of the serial killer whose complaints to authorities about his behavior go unheeded.
“I accept this award on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard and over-policed,” she said.
“Everybody having fun at the chocolate Emmys tonight?” host Anthony Anderson said during the show. “We are killing it tonight! … This is like MLK Day and Juneteenth all rolled up in one!”
The tweaked awards calendar made for some oddities. Edebiri and White won their Emmys for the show’s first season eight days after winning Golden Globes for the second season.
Culkin as little brother Roman Roy outshined the older brother and the father to win the last lead actor Emmy for “Succession.”
He had twice been nominated for best supporting actor for “Succession” without a win. But in the final season, in which his character goes from sideline wisecracker to emotional disaster at the center of the show’s drama, he was put in the lead category and won over his fictional father Brian Cox and brother Jeremy Strong.
After praising his on-screen family, he shifted to his own family, getting big laughs during his speech when he told his wife Jazz Charton that their two young kids weren’t enough. “I want more,” he said. “You said if I won, we could talk about it.”
Snook took her first Emmy in three nominations for “Succession” for playing the family’s lone daughter Shiv Roy, and her show-husband Macfadyen won the second Emmy of his career for playing Tom Wambsgans, the son-in-law that began the HBO series as a hanger-on and ended it as the closest thing it had to a victor.
Emotions ran high from the start of the ceremony. Edebiri and Brunson were both quick to cry as they took the stage, and the first presenter, Christina Applegate, who said in 2021 that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, got a standing ovation as she came out using a cane, helped by Anderson. As the tears welled in her eyes, she struggled to get through the nominees and winner.
Anderson told the nominees at the beginning of the night that instead of having their speeches cut off by music, his mother, actor Doris Bowman, sitting in the audience, would tell them when it was time to move on. But she more often shouted down her son in the running gag.
Honoring television history was the theme at the 75th Emmys. Anderson opened the show on a “Mr. Rogers” set and performed TV theme songs including “Good Times,” and several cast reunions were spread throughout the show.
Cast members including Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell from “Martin,” Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman from “Cheers,” and Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers from “All in The Family” performed short bits from recreations of their sitcom sets before presenting awards.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunited to present in the form of their 2001-2005 “Weekend Update” team-up from “Saturday Night Live.”
“We’ve reached the stage in life where we’ll only present awards sitting down,” Fey said.
One notable appearance came from Katherine Heigl, who joined Ellen Pompeo and other former “Grey’s Anatomy” castmates on a hospital room set after leaving the show, now about to start its 20th season, on less than ideal terms in 2010.
“Yes, there have been changes over the years,” Heigl said with a wry smile, “But the one constant is the amazing fanbase.”
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Our News, Politics and Culture teams invest time and care working on hard-hitting investigations and researched analyses, along with quick but robust daily takes. Our Life, Health and Shopping desks provide you with well-researched, expert-vetted information you need to live your best life, while HuffPost Personal, Voices and Opinion center real stories from real people.
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As the 2024 presidential race heats up, the very foundations of our democracy are at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a vibrant democracy is impossible without well-informed citizens. This is why we keep our journalism free for everyone, even as most other newsrooms have retreated behind expensive paywalls.
Our newsroom continues to bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes on one of the most consequential elections in recent history. Reporting on the current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly — and we need your help.
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LOS ANGELES — The Emmys are ready to celebrate a quarter-century of television history — and honor the best in television (in some cases, two seasons ago).
The strike-delayed 75th Emmy Awards are airing Monday night from Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, with Anthony Anderson hosting the ceremony.
The “black-ish” star is a seasoned host and has had more time to prepare than Golden Globes host Jo Koy, whose monologue tanked a week ago.
While the Globes honor both film and television stars, the Emmys have one job: celebrate television. This year they’re planning a series of cast reunions and recreations to honor shows like “The Sopranos,” “Cheers” and “Martin.”
Here’s what you need to know about Monday’s Emmys, including how to watch and stream the red carpet and show, and who’s nominated.
The show begins at 8 p.m. Eastern and is being shown live on Fox, which is available with an antenna or through cable and satellite providers.
The Emmys can be streamed live through live TV streaming services that include Fox in their lineup, like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and FuboTV.
For those without the service, the Emmys will be streaming Tuesday on Hulu.
Dozens of Emmy Awards are given out before Sunday’s telecast, and some of those will be included in a special presentation of the Creative Arts Emmys airing Saturday night on FXX. That will be available Sunday on Hulu.
“The Last of Us” comes in with a big head start on the grand total after winning eight at the Creative Arts Emmys, which are typically held about a week before the main ceremony. The dystopian video-game adaption won best guest actor and guest actress in a drama for memorable one-episode performances from Nick Offerman and Storm Reid. And it dominated in the technical categories, winning best visual effects and best prosthetic makeup for its fungus-faced walking dead.
The Emmys are watchable in dozens of countries. The Television Academy website has a handy list of broadcasters and in some instances, air times. You can access that at https://www.emmys.com/watch.
There are several ways to watch the Emmys red carpet.
E! kicks off its “Live from E!” coverage beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and also has an after-party show that begins at 11 p.m.
People and Entertainment Weekly are also hosting a red carpet show that will stream on their websites and YouTube pages.
As is typical at the Emmys, HBO shows dominated the nominations when they were announced way back in July. The top three nominees — “Succession” with 27, “The Last of Us” with 24, and “The White Lotus” with 23 — were all from the Emmy darling cable channel.
“The White Lotus” managed to get five nominees in the supporting actress category, including Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza.
“The Bear,” nominated in comedy categories despite being heavy on drama, won four Emmys at the Creative Arts ceremonies and is nominated for 13 overall. “Ted Lasso,” which won two, was tops among comedies, with 21 overall nominations for its final season.
For a list of nominees, click here.
___
For more on this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards
Originally scheduled for Sept. 18, the 75th Emmys Awards wiggled their way into this year’s awards season after the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes put Hollywood on pause.
But the best television of 2023 will finally get its time to shine on Monday, when the Emmys air live from the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles at 5 p.m. EST.
Who’s Hosting And Where To Watch
Anthony Anderson is taking on hosting duties as the Emmys are broadcast live on Fox. The awards will be available on Hulu the following day.
Fashion fans can catch E!’s official red carpet show starting at 6 p.m. EST.
The best television of 2023 will finally get its time to shine on Monday, when the Emmys air live from the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles at 5 p.m. EST.
Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
Who’s Nominated
Monday’s Emmys might give TV fans a minor dose of nostalgia. The 75th annual television awards considered programming that aired between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, and announced its nominees last July.
“Succession” swept up 27 nominations with its final season, making the HBO drama the most-nominated series at this Emmys. HBO’s “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus” also got major recognition, snagging 23 and 24 nominations apiece.
Television’s Biggest Night
The fanfare of the 75th annual Primetime Emmys comes at a tricky time for the television industry.
Months of strike-related production delays drastically reduced the number of shows networks have in the pipeline, leaving the 2024 release calendar more sparse than usual.
Meanwhile, streaming services are trying to contend with stagnant subscription numbers and major mergers like HBO Max’s partnership with Discovery+ and Disney+’s takeover of Hulu.
See all the nominees for the 75th annual Primetime Emmys here:
Preparations for the 75th Emmy Awards were in full swing over the weekend, ahead of Monday’s show.
VALERIE MACON via Getty Images
Outstanding Drama Series
“House of the Dragon”
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Jeff Bridges, “The Old Man”
Brian Cox, “Succession”
Kieran Culkin, “Succession”
Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”
Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”
Jeremy Strong, “Succession”
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Sharon Horgan, “Bad Sisters”
Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”
Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”
Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”
Sarah Snook, “Succession”
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
F. Murray Abraham, “The White Lotus”
Nicholas Braun, “Succession”
Michael Imperioli, “The White Lotus”
Theo James, “The White Lotus”
Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”
Alan Ruck, “Succession”
Will Sharpe, “The White Lotus”
Alexander Skarsgård, “Succession”
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”
Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”
Meghann Fahy, “The White Lotus”
Sabrina Impacciatore, “The White Lotus”
Aubrey Plaza, “The White Lotus”
Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul”
J. Smith-Cameron, “Succession”
Simona Tabasco, “The White Lotus”
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
Murray Bartlett, “The Last of Us”
James Cromwell, “Succession”
Lamar Johnson, “The Last of Us”
Arian Moayed, “Succession”
Nick Offerman, “The Last of Us”
Keivonn Montreal Woodard, “The Last of Us”
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Hiam Abbass, “Succession”
Cherry Jones, “Succession”
Melanie Lynskey, “The Last of Us”
Storm Reid, “The Last of Us”
Anna Torv, “The Last of Us”
Harriet Walter, “Succession”
Outstanding Comedy Series
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
“Only Murders in the Building”
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Jason Segel, “Shrinking”
Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”
Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”
Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”
Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face”
Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Carrigan, “Barry”
Phil Dunster, Ted Lasso”
Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”
James Marsden, “Jury Duty”
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”
Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”
Henry Winkler, “Barry”
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Alex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”
Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”
Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”
Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso”
Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”
Jessica Williams, “Shrinking”
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Jon Bernthal, “The Bear”
Luke Kirby, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Nathan Lane, “Only Murders in the Building”
Pedro Pascal, “Saturday Night Live”
Oliver Platt, “The Bear”
Sam Richardson, “Ted Lasso”
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Becky Ann Baker, “Ted Lasso”
Quinta Brunson, “Saturday Night Live”
Taraji P. Henson, “Abbott Elementary”
Judith Light, “Poker Face”
Sarah Niles, “Ted Lasso”
Harriet Walter, “Ted Lasso”
Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
“Daisy Jones & The Six”
“Fleishman Is in Trouble”
Outstanding Television Movie
“Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas”
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Taron Egerton, “Black Bird”
Kumail Nanjiani, “Welcome to Chippendale’s”
Evan Peters, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
Daniel Radcliffe, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
Michael Shannon, “George and Tammy”
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Lizzy Caplan, Fleishman Is in Trouble”
Jessica Chastain, “George & Tammy”
Dominique Fishback, “Swarm”
Kathryn Hahn, “Tiny Beautiful Things”
Riley Keough, “Daisy Jones & The Six”
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Murray Bartlett, “Welcome to Chippendales”
Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”
Richard Jenkins, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
Ray Liotta, “Black Bird”
Jesse Plemons, “Love and Death”
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Annaleigh Ashford, “Welcome to Chippendale’s”
Claire Danes, “Fleishman Is in Trouble”
Juliette Lewis, “Welcome to Chippendale’s”
Camila Morrone, “Daisy Jones and the Six”
Niecy Nash-Betts, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
Merritt Wever, “Tiny Beautiful Things”
Outstanding Animated Program
“Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal”
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance
Julie Andrews, “Queen Charlotte”
Alex Borstein, “Family Guy”
Mel Brooks, “History of the World, Part II”
Maya Rudolph, “Big Mouth”
Wanda Sykes, “Crank Yankers”
Ali Wong, “Tuca & Bertie”
Outstanding Narrator
Mahershala Ali, “Chimp Empire”
Angela Bassett, “Good Night Oppy”
Morgan Freeman, “Our Universe”
Barack Obama, “Working: What We Do All Day”
Pedro Pascal, “Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World”
Outstanding Variety Talk Series
“The Daily Show With Trevor Noah”
“Late Night With Seth Meyers”
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”
“The Problem With Jon Stewart”
Outstanding Scripted Variety Series
“A Black Lady Sketch Show”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”
“Saturday Night Live”
Outstanding Variety Special (Live)
“The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna”
“Chris Rock: Selective Outrage”
“Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium”
“75th Annual Tony Awards”
Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
″Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter”
“John Mulaney: Baby J”
“Lizzo: Live in Concert”
“Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music & Laughter”
“Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would”
“Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer”
Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special
“The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey”
“My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy”
“Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy”
“Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi”
“United Shades of America With W. Kamau Bell”
Outstanding Structured Reality Program
“Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives”
Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
Outstanding Competition Program
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, “Queer Eye”
Nicole Byer, “Nailed It!”
Padma Lakshmi, “Top Chef”
Amy Poehler & Maya Rudolph, “Baking It”
RuPaul, “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special
“Being Mary Tyler Moore”
“My Transparent Life”
“Pamela, A Love Story”
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”
Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series
“Secrets of the Elephants”
“The U.S. and The Holocaust”
Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking
“The Accused: Damned or Devoted?”
Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series
“Awkwafina Is Hangin’ With Grandma”
“Better Call Saul Filmmaker Training”
“Carpool Karaoke: The Series”
“I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson”
“Only Murders in the Building: One Killer Question”
Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series
Kevin Hart, “Die Hart 2: Die Harter”
Tim Robinson, “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson”
Ben Schartz, “Die Hart 2: Die Harter”
Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series
Nathalie Emmanuel, “Die Hart 2: Die Harter”
Jasmine Guy, “Chronicles of Jessica Wu”
Paula Pell, “Die Hart 2: Die Harter”
Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series
“House of the Dragon: Inside the Episode”
“The Last of Us: Inside the Episode”
“Saturday Night Live Presents: Behind the Sketch”
“Succession: Controlling the Narrative”
“The White Lotus: Unpacking the Episode”
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The Stakes Have Never Been Higher
At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.
Our News, Politics and Culture teams invest time and care working on hard-hitting investigations and researched analyses, along with quick but robust daily takes. Our Life, Health and Shopping desks provide you with well-researched, expert-vetted information you need to live your best life, while HuffPost Personal, Voices and Opinion center real stories from real people.
Help keep news free for everyone by giving us as little as $1. Your contribution will go a long way.
At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.
Help keep news free for everyone by giving us as little as $1. Your contribution will go a long way.
As the 2024 presidential race heats up, the very foundations of our democracy are at stake. A vibrant democracy is impossible without well-informed citizens. This is why HuffPost’s journalism is free for everyone, not just those who can afford expensive paywalls.
We cannot do this without your help. Support our newsroom by contributing as little as $1 a month.
As the 2024 presidential race heats up, the very foundations of our democracy are at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a vibrant democracy is impossible without well-informed citizens. This is why we keep our journalism free for everyone, even as most other newsrooms have retreated behind expensive paywalls.
Our newsroom continues to bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes on one of the most consequential elections in recent history. Reporting on the current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly — and we need your help.
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Joyce Randolph, best known for her role as Trixie Norton in the hit classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” has died at age 99, her son confirmed Sunday to CBS News.
Randolph died on Saturday evening, her son Randolph Charles said in a statement to CBS News.
The Broadway and TV actress starred in the 1950s sitcom which chronicled the comedic misadventures of New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason, and his wife Alice, played by Audrey Meadows.
Randolph played Trixie, the wife of Ralph’s best friend Ed Norton, played by Art Carney.
This is a scene from the classic television show “The Honeymooners”, shown in this undated photo. Pictured are, from left: Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden; Art Carney as Ed Norton; Audrey Meadows as Alice Kramden; and Joyce Randolph as Trixie Norton.
AP Photo
She was the last surviving member of the original cast.
Originally a recurring sketch on Gleason’s live variety TV show, “The Honeymooners” aired on CBS as filmed productions beginning in 1955.
While only 39 episodes were shot, the characters were brought back for Gleason’s ’60s variety show, making a run on American television screens until 1970 — and, to this day, continuing in syndication.
In 1955, Randolph married to businessman Richard Lincoln Charles, who died in 1997 at the age of 74.
Joyce Randolph is survived by her son.
Actress Joyce Randolph, who played “Trixie” on the TV series “The Honeymooners,” on Nov. 24, 1990, in New York. Randolph, who played Ed Norton’s sarcastic wife Trixie, has died at age 99.
Richard Drew / AP
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Tom Shales, who won a Pulitzer Prize working for the Washington Post — where he spent more than three decades writing about everything from network sitcoms to evening news programs — has died at the age of 79.
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NEW YORK — Someday soon, someone will be walking down the street proudly carrying a ludicrously capacious bag, bought for a ludicrously capacious price.
The voluminous Burberry tote is one of the most famous props used on “Succession,” the famed HBO saga of the Roy family dynasty, and it sold at auction Saturday for $18,750.
But that bag, which became notorious when Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom Wambsgans savagely ridiculed it, wasn’t even the priciest item sold from the set of the addictive drama expected to also clean up at Monday’s Emmy Awards, on the heels of its Golden Globes wins.
No, that was a set of pink index cards containing Roman Roy’s eulogy notes for his father’s funeral — a speech he never gave. Beginning, “My father Logan Roy was a great man,” the four cards represent the tragic failure of Roman (Kieran Culkin) to meet the moment. They have a new life now with someone who paid $25,000 and hopefully will frame them nicely.
The online auction on behalf of HBO at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, ending Saturday, brought in a total of $627,825 for 236 lots. The results showed not only that people loved the show, says Heritage spokesperson Robert Wilonsky, but also that meaningful objects, and not the show’s high-end “stealth” fashion, clicked most with bidders.
“At the end of the day, it was key moments of the show that resonated with fans,” he says.
Props often take a back seat to costumes. After all, there’s no award for “best props” at awards shows, like there is for costumes, notes “Succession” prop master Monica Jacobs, who joined the show after the pilot episode. But prop departments go to extreme lengths to secure just the right item — even if it only appears for a few seconds. Jacobs shared the origin stories of some of the show’s most iconic props.
Why did Tom give wife Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) a paperweight of a dried scorpion encased in resin? Who knows? It certainly illustrated the turbulence of their marriage — and also caused a few turbulent hours in Jacobs’ kitchen at home.
“It turns out you can buy (dead) scorpions pretty easily,” she says, “but they’re small. Getting them large enough was not easy.”
Once she had a bunch — duplicates are always needed — she had to soak them to loosen up the glue so that she could reposition them for maximum effect. She stabilized them with wire and slow-baked them for hours on low heat until they were dry enough to be encased. All for a brief appearance. And maybe a spot on someone’s desk: a duplicate sold for a cool (and baked) $10,000.
Roman’s sad, pink notecards with that eulogy never spoken were not the only scribbled words that went for a fortune. On the day Logan died on his private plane, Shiv was the one who spoke to the waiting press.
“You’ll understand I won’t be taking questions,” she said, in part, “but my brothers and I just want to say Logan Roy built a great American family company…”
The words were written in block letters in Snook’s own handwriting. She did the first card and then, for duplicates, her writing was recreated. Likewise, Culkin’s handwriting inspired his pink notecards, Jacobs says. As for Jeremy Strong, who played Kendall, he often preferred to write every copy himself. Shiv’s speech card went for $17,500.
Let’s just say Bridget, the date of Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) at Logan’s birthday party, made an unfortunate accessory choice. Tom, in his worst “human-grease-stain” way, imagined aloud what could be in the “ludicrously capacious” tote: “Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail? … You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank job.”
Jacobs explains that finding the perfect bag to match the script was a collaboration between the props and wardrobe departments.
“Everybody brought in a version,” she says. “We had to decide, how big IS this bag, actually?” Also — it needed to be just the right level of high-end, “not enough for the Roy world, but still higher end than I am,” she quips. Ultimately, costume designer Michelle Matland “had the vision,” Jacobs says.
The winning bidder also got an embroidered Sandro dress.
When the Roys appear on the cover of New York magazine, you might think it’s just a matter of slapping together a few pages in the art studio. But no.
It begins with a real issue of the magazine, to get the weight and the size exactly right. Then, not just the cover but inner pages are created too, and carefully incorporated.
“It’s a very delicate process” to make the magazine look authentic, Jacobs says. “We’re very picky about how we do it.”
The cover sold for $10,000.
Remember that horrific game, or hazing ritual, that Logan inflicted on his poor executives, forcing them to grunt like pigs and beg for sausages? Some sausages were real, as needed, and some fake. (A group of prop sausages went for $5,250.)
But mostly, food — at weddings, or other gatherings — was not only real but intricate, evocative of the locale, and fun to create, says Jacobs.
“Every cheese board has to be a little different than the last time we did a cheese board,” she says. “We got very creative.”
Ever wonder what serves for cocaine on set? A set of vials containing a white powder went for $2,000. Jacobs and her colleagues had to use substance that looked real and was also … snortable.
In this case it was a naturally occurring sugar, inositol. At other times, lactose powder was used — “as long as the person could tolerate lactose.”
Three lots of Roy family credit cards were auctioned, but they won’t be accepted at your local supermarket. The cards were crafted by a graphic designer, then sent for printing at a special shop in New York, on either plastic or metal.
“The plastic ones are are actually much more durable as props,” says Jacobs. “But,” she adds, “with ‘Succession’ characters it made sense for most of them to be metal.”
Indeed. Kendall’s cards — two American Express Platinums, two Mastercards and one driver’s license — went for $10,000.
___
For more coverage of the 75th Emmy Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards.
Nearly 35 years after her Oscar-winning turn as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in TheSilence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster is back to her crime-solving ways in True Detective: Night Country.
Premiering Jan. 14, the long-awaited fourth season of HBO’s acclaimed anthology series opens in Ennis, Alaska, as the remote fictional town is plunged into polar night, a period of prolonged winter darkness that occurs annually north of the Arctic Circle. As Ennis police chief Liz Danvers, Foster stars opposite Kali Reis’ state trooper Evangeline Navarro—a duo with a complicated history who come together to investigate the mysterious disappearance of eight scientists working at the nearby Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Naturally, a web of dark secrets soon begins to unravel.
Following a near-universally beloved first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a seemingly mismatched pair of homicide detectives in pursuit of a serial killer responsible for a string of sadistic, ritualistic murders in the Louisiana bayou, the show’s second and third entries failed to reach the heights of their predecessor. But ahead of its debut, True Detective Season 4, which Foster also produced, has been drawing high praise from critics.
“[Showrunner Issa] López’s gorgeously realized story grounds its hardboiled mystery in multidimensional characters, believably immerses viewers in a unique community, and makes a strong case for the continuation of the franchise,” wrote TIME TV critic Judy Berman. “In contrast to the gold-hued desert heat and white machismo that defined True Detective’s iconic first season, Night Country is cold, blue, female, attuned to the perspectives of Native women. Where True Detective could be heady to the point of pretension, Night Country is humanistic.”
Foster is also fresh off a scene-stealing performance in Nyad, a 2023 biopic about history-making long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) in which Foster plays Nyad’s coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll.
TIME spoke with Foster about her relationship to true crime, the satisfaction of a supporting role, and the hard-won rise of female directors.
TIME: Your performance as Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs paved the way for a new generation of on-screen female detectives. How has that role evolved in pop culture?
Foster: I didn’t realize I was doing anything special at the time. I just wanted to go on the hero’s journey. And the classic hero’s journey was reserved for men. Silence of the Lambs was revolutionary in that it posited that the hero’s journey could be a female journey. It’s been wonderful over the last 30 years to see different voices come into the picture—women protagonists and antiheroes that are complex and complicated and messy.
How did it feel to once again take up the mantle of lead detective in a crime drama 30+ years after Silence of the Lambs became a defining film in your career?
It feels great to be back in this horror, eerie, crime puzzle-solving genre. [Silence] was truly a wonderful movie. It’s like the great-grandmother to True Detective Season 4 in some ways. Silence inspired Seven which inspired True Detective Season 1 which inspired True Detective Season 4. So it’s a little chain of events. And I feel like I have a direct emotional connection to telling that kind of story.
True Detective has traditionally been a show with a lot of masculine energy and characters. This season flips that dynamic. How does that switch add new dimensions to the series?
These are more complicated humans and we need more complicated humans for our culture to grow and evolve. The first season [of True Detective] was extraordinary. But when you look back on it, you’re like, “Wow, that’s a lot of masculinity.” It was a lot of questions about masculine identity and masculine suffering. That’s a valuable story to tell. But we were interested in telling a story about the feminine world. So it’s a different path. We look at misogyny through different eyes, instead of through the eyes of the misogynist.
True Detective: Night Country was shot in Iceland to double for Alaska. What was it like filming in those extreme winter weather conditions?
There is an inherent survival instinct and a smallness in the face of nature when you live somewhere that could just snap you like a twig. And that really is true of living above the Arctic Circle. At any moment, you could go. So there’s an appreciation of and a humility about living. One of our characters talks about Alaska as the end of the world. It’s a place where the seams are splitting open and the old world is revealing itself. When you live in an extreme place, the damage human beings have done to the earth is starting to show itself.
Showrunner Issa López has said she’s fascinated with true-crime mysteries, including the stories that inspired this season. Are you a true crime person?
I’m much more interested in cinema than the weird, awful things people do to each other in real life. So I love when we as an audience are drawn through the darkest of psyches. There’s something healing about watching the good guy swim through this horrible darkness and emerge in the light. That’s very transformative, and it’s as old as the hills in terms of narrative structure.
There’s a good amount of pretty graphic imagery in the show. As someone who’s starred in things like Silence of the Lambs, do scenes like that ever still get to you?
It’s funny because when you’re acting and you interact with the special effects, it doesn’t affect you because you can see the spaghetti behind the curtain. But it’s wonderful seeing the magic once it gets on screen and still feeling the chill and still not seeing the denouement coming. If you go back to Silence of the Lambs, it’s a particularly bloodless movie. There really isn’t a lot of violence in it. It’s actually the insinuation that’s worse. That’s what makes that movie so creepy. I think that’s true with this, too. It’s really more the allusion to angst and anxieties that we already have that’s scary.
(L-R): Kali Reis as Evangeline Navarro and Jodie Foster as Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night CountryMichele K. Short—HBO
Your True Detective partner this season is Kali Reis, a relatively untested actor. As someone who has been acting since they were very young, what was that experience like?
Kali is an extraordinary actress. She’s a world champion boxer, so she brings that fierceness and completely disciplined presence. You just can’t stop watching her. But she is also so sensitive and spiritual and instinctual, and all of that comes through too. It’s nice to see a combination of those things. Her character of Navarro is really special. She is the central journey of True Detective: Night Country. My job was to support that journey and to allow that central Indigenous voice to shape the show.
In both True Detective and Nyad, you play one half of two very different partners in crime. How does that compare to the more singular leads you’ve done?
When I was younger, I was more interested in a singular journey. I didn’t trust that I would still be able to find my center in partnership. Now I’m in my 60s and finally realize how satisfying it is to be part of a team. I didn’t know how content it would make me to play the role of supporting the person whose journey is central.
Nyad is about the unbreakable friendship between swimmer Diana Nyad and her friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. What attracted you to that story?
There are two reasons I wanted to do Nyad. One was Bonnie and Diana, who I know and who are extraordinary. Diana’s feat of swimming 110 miles at 64 in shark- and jellyfish-infested Gulf Stream currents is amazing. And then, of course, the great Annette Bening. I’ve loved every minute of working with her. It’s a real treat to work with somebody you respect so much.
The film does a great job depicting how women, particularly older women, are more than capable of breaking out of the boxes they’re too often placed in. What about Nyad made it such an effective vehicle to convey that message?
People really connect to feeling like, “Wait, I’m not done just because I’m a certain age.” If you have a mission in life but people keep telling you that opportunity is over—who says? And for women of a certain generation who sometimes had to choose between having a full life and being partnered and having children, there’s also this story of deciding to link arms and say, “You’re my best friend, you’re my family, and we will be together till the day we die.” It’s really hard to explain how deep that kind of friendship is.
In a 1991 TIME cover story, you said directing isn’t a business that’s kind to women, and you hoped someday there could be an “old-girl network” in Hollywood. How do you look back on those sentiments today?
Sometimes I read things I said in my 20s and I’m like, really? But that’s a pretty good one. When I was young, there were really no American women directors, maybe a few. I didn’t think I was allowed to be a director. And that’s not true anymore. I couldn’t be prouder to have watched Greta Gerwig this year with Barbie. Not only was this wonderful director recognized, but it was because there were people behind her saying, “You’re not a risk.” I never thought that was going to happen. So there’s just a big smile on my face.
What have you learned as an actor that you could only have learned after doing this for decades?
You don’t have to worry so much and try so hard. It’s all about relaxing. So much of being excellent is just not getting in your own way. So that just means you can take naps and drink coffee and show up.
Two original “Friends” scripts, parts one and two of “The One With Ross’s Wedding,” have quite a story of their own to tell.
After being dumped in a London trash can 25 years ago, the scripts are headed to auction, Hansons Auctioneers announced this week. The 1998 episodes made up the season four finale, and follow the comedic quintet of Ross, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Rachel as they travel to England to attend Ross’ wedding.
After they were done filming, the cast and crew were ordered to destroy their copies of the scripts so the storyline wouldn’t get leaked before the episodes aired, according to the auction house. But it appears a pair of scripts were found by a now-retired staff member at the TV studio where the shows were filmed, Hansons explained.
The “Friends’” scripts and old live studio audience ticket
Hansons Auction House
“I found them in a bin a couple of weeks after filming had finished,” the unnamed former staff member told Hansons. “It was part of my job to ensure everything was tidy and no rubbish was left around. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so I just put them in my office drawer.”
Fortunately for the “Friends” cast and crew, the studio staffer never leaked the plot details. They left their job the next year and forgot about the scripts entirely. After rediscovering them in their bedside table years later, they decided to get the scripts evaluated by Hansons.
“Funnily enough, I’m not a big Friends fan,” the former staffer told the auction house. “I don’t dislike the show but I only recently watched the episodes I have the scripts for. American humor is different to ours. These scripts deserve to be owned by a big ‘Friends’ fan.”
Amanda Butler, the head of operations at the auction house, said she isn’t sure how much the scripts will go for.
“We’re guiding them at £600-£800 [roughly $765-$1,022], but thanks to the show’s huge global appeal, who knows where the hammer may fall,” Butler said. “‘Friends” final show aired 20 years ago in 2004 but it’s still watched and enjoyed by millions.”
The scripts will be available for bidding on Friday.
Fans of the beloved show are still mourning the death of Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing in the show. Perry died suddenly last fall from “acute effects of ketamine.”
Jodie Foster walks into the room smiling. It’s something she has learned to do over her decades of stardom: to beam at strangers and let them ask her searching questions. She wears a kind of invisible armor over her elegant white shirt, understandable for someone who has dealt with more than her (or anyone’s) fair share of creeps and stalkers. I don’t quite fall into either of those categories, though I have been watching Foster for as long as I can remember, starting with movies like Freaky Friday and Candleshoe and aging up along with her.
She’s had a career any actor would dream of: her first Oscar nomination at age 14, her directorial debut before the age of 40, and a Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at 50. Foster’s radiant performance in last year’s Nyad has landed her more noms. And that’s just an appetizer for her riveting role in the new season of the HBO series True Detective: Night Country, in which she plays Liz Danvers, a gruff “Alaskan Karen” who is police chief of the icy fictional town of Ennis. Danvers and officer Evangeline Navarro (former boxer Kali Reis) find themselves entangled in a mystical mystery that ties together the murder of an Indigenous woman and the disappearance of eight male scientists from a climate change research station.
Courtesy of HBO.
Foster never expected to be doing any of this at the age of 61. Her manager-mother convinced her that her Hollywood career would be washed up at 18, and, later, that directing was the wrong career move. “She had fear, so that was what she gave me,” Foster says now, four years after her mother’s death. That anxiety never seems to have quite dissipated. Yet sitting in front of me in a West Hollywood hotel room, Foster seems serene and excited to talk about her spiritual experience on True Detective, playing an out lesbian in Nyad—and why she’s happy she was turned down for the lead part in The Blue Lagoon.
Vanity Fair:Before I walked in here, I was thinking about how I grew up watching you play tough, smart child and teen characters in movies fromBugsy MalonetoFoxesthat were very different from most of the roles out there. They really created a space in the 1970s for a different kind of girlhood onscreen.
Jodie Foster: I guess I got lucky that I was the face of a tomboy girl, right? We all knew they existed but they just weren’t onscreen.
At what point did you start thinking about yourself as someone who could shape your career and make choices?
My mom did that for me. My mom, who was an amazing woman, had been a publicist when she was young. She was from a pre-feminist era and she didn’t have a lot of faith in her own abilities in some ways. So I think she kind of vicariously got me to do that. She was very clear: You will be respected, you will have this type of career. So when the Brat Pack [came along], for example, I didn’t do any of those movies.
I didn’t really think about my career until after the Oscar nomination [for Taxi Driver] when I was 14. And she said that my career would be over by the time I was 18. She’d always say to me, what are you going to be when you grow up? A doctor, a lawyer, a politician? So when I went to college, she sold her house and moved into a small place. We were ready to say, Jodie will probably never work again. I did movies while I was in college to make money. I thought, I’ll do this until they tell me I’m not going to do this anymore. Then I got out of college and figured, I’ll just give it a last hurrah because I thought I was gonna go to grad school. And then it all snowballed and after The Accused, I said: I guess I’m not going to grad school!
Winning an Oscar forThe Accusedwas a good sign your acting career wasn’t over. But I can’t believe how pragmatically you approached it all.
LOS ANGELES — Adan Canto, the Mexican singer and actor best known for his roles in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Agent Game” as well as the TV series “The Cleaning Lady,” has died. He was 42.
Publicist Jennifer Allen, told The Associated Press Canto died of appendiceal cancer and had opted to keep his diagnosis private.
“Adan had a depth of spirit that few truly knew. Those who glimpsed it were changed forever,” Allen wrote in a statement. “He will be greatly missed by so many.”
Born in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico and raised in Texas, Canto began his career at age 16, when he left home for Mexico City to work as a singer-songwriter. He then began pursuing acting, making his TV debut on the 2009 Mexican series “Estado de Gracia.” His American debut came later, on Kevin Williamson’s 2013 Fox drama series “The Following,” which starred Kevin Bacon.
His notable roles include Vice President-elect Aaron Shore on “Designated Survivor,” Colombian politician Rodrigo Lara Bonilla on “Narcos,” and the mutant Sunspot in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Canto starred in Halle Berry’s directorial debut, “Bruised,” as well as “Agent Game.”
He also directed his first short film in 2014 and a second one in 2020, a provocative western starring Theo Rossi.
Canto was starring as Armand Morales on Fox’s “The Cleaning Lady” at the time of his death, which is currently filming its third season. He was unable to participate in the production due to his illness but was hoping to rejoin later in the season.
Canto had a broad smile and a boisterous laugh. His friends said he also had a sensitivity and humility that could seem at odds with the big frame and square jaw of a leading man.
Kiefer Sutherland, who stared alongside Canto on “Designated Survivor,” shared a tribute on his Instagram page.
“It seems lately I have had to make too many posts like this one, but I am heartbroken by the loss of Adan Canto. He was such a wonderful spirit,” Sutherland wrote in a caption partnering a photo of the two of them on set. “As an actor his desire to do well, to be great, and then do better, was truly impressive and he will be greatly missed. I am also heartbroken for his wife, Steph and his two young children. Adan, may you rest in peace.”
Canto is survived by his wife Stephanie Ann Canto and two children, Roman Alder, 3, and Eve Josephine, who is 18 months old.
The pirates that launched a thousand pieces of fan art have been brought back to port. Max announced on Tuesday that Our Flag Means Death, the silly and romantic pirate comedy starring Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi, has been canceled. Its second season, which ended with Darby and Waititi’s pirates, Stede and Blackbeard, setting up new lives as innkeepers on a Caribbean island, wrapped on October 26.
“Getting to share this show with you and watching you make it yours has been a dream come true,” creator David Jenkins wrote to the show’s legion of fans on Instagram. “The second season was made possible by the enthusiasm of one of the most likable fan communities in the history of this medium.”
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The show was a modest success when it premiered in the spring of 2022. A passionate fan community gathered swiftly, waiting anxiously for word of a season two renewal, which came that June. But with a shortened eight-episode season 2 and a move to production in New Zealand that brought costs down, there was a sense that the period comedy might be at risk in the current Max environment. Like Minx]s recent cancellation after being bought from Max by Starz, it’s the end of a show that was beloved but too small for the now-contracting era of post-peak TV.
The season 2 Our Flag Means Death pulled off, though, was something to treasure. As Sarah Catherallreported from the set, the second season allowed the show to dive deeper into its motley crew of characters, show off stunning New Zealand locations, and bring a happy conclusion to several of the most affecting love stories on television (all of which, not incidentally, were queer). “There’s a way of life that they’re fighting for,” Jenkins told Vanity Fair about the season (now series) finale. “It’s about belonging to something.”
That sentiment certainly goes for the show’s fans, who greeted the show’s ending with much less of the rage that usually greets any word of cancellation these days. “I am so happy we have created this community, I am so happy we’ve found our people,” wrote one fan. “Thank you for creating such a safe space for us all.”
