The Motion Picture Academy announced on Thursday the first round of presenters for the 95th annual Academy Awards.
Among them will be Oscar winners Riz Ahmed, Jennifer Connelly, Arian DeBose, Questlove and Ahmed’s The Sound of Metal co-star Troy Kotsur.
Also taking the podium will beSamuel L. Jackson, Creed III‘s Jonathan Majors and Michael B. Jordan, Donnie Yen, Zoe Saldaña, Melissa McCarthy, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Glenn Close and Janelle Monáe.
More presenters will be announced soon.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Academy Awards will air live on ABC Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
On Wednesday’s red carpet for the Billboard Women in Music Awards gala in Los Angeles, Yellowstone‘s Lainey Wilson and Piper Perabo were asked by Entertainment Tonight about rumors the show was drawing to an end.
As reported, there have been rumors of disagreements with the producers about Kevin Costner‘s shooting schedule, which might lead to either the end of the series or his character, John Dutton’s, involvement in it. Officially, Paramount Network remained mum on the reports.
Perabo, who joined the cast as environmental activist Summer Higgins in season 4, warned ET, “I mean there’s always a lot of drama when it comes to Yellowstone, don’t believe everything you hear!”
For country star Lainey, playing Abby on Yellowstone was her first acting gig and she hopes it continues, regardless of what shakes out. “I don’t know much, but I have a feeling they’re going to end it the right way, and there’s gonna be more of it. And I know they haven’t taken me to the train station, so I’m hoping I’m gonna be back in it!” The latter referred to the euphemism of how the show’s Dutton clan eliminates their problems.
Perabo added of star Costner, her onscreen love interest for a spell, “He’s so amazing. He’s such a movie star and it’s so inspiring to be around an actor like that.”
She added of the show’s future, mentioning its creator, “Taylor Sheridan knows to play it really close to the vest, and I know better than to speak outside the ranch, but I’m excited to see what happens next.”
HBO dropped the final trailer to the fourth, and officially final, season of its award-winning drama Succession.
Emmy winner Brian Cox starts with his Logan Roy intoning, “Why does everyone keep asking how I feel? I got done a huge deal. I got the election. I got ATN. I’ve got plenty on my plate,” charting Roy’s recent corporate successes.
He’s later seen “terrifyingly moseying” among his employees’ cubicles by a spying Greg (Nicholas Braun). “It’s like if Santa Claus was a hitman,” he tells Emmy winner Matthew Macfadyen‘s Tom.
As the Roy siblings plot to take dad down, Logan attempts to recruit Roman (Kieran Culkin). “I need you. I need a firebreather,” Roy says after warning, “there’s a Night of the Long Knives coming.”
Logan then tells his children, “I love you. But you’re not serious people.”
Sarah Snook‘s Shiv later says of her father, “He’s out of control.”
“I want to kill the competition!” her dad screams at his employees. “I want to cut their throats! We’re pirates!” the corporate raider says to cheers of his name.
Priscilla Presley is lending her voice to the role she was born to play in Agent Elvis: herself.
The adult animation series’ official trailer dropped Wednesday, revealing that Priscilla would be voicing herself alongside Matthew McConaughey as Elvis Presley.
“So excited for Agent Elvis to come out on March 17th on @netflix and so proud to be a part of this amazing cast!” she captioned an Instagram post sharing the full trailer.
Viewers don’t see much of Priscilla in the trailer, but do see her get in on the action for a brief moment. She even gets a memorable line: “It’s groovy, don’t you think?”
According to the show’s official synopsis, “Elvis Presley trades in his white jumpsuit for a jet pack when he is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country he loves — all while holding down his day job as the King of Rock and Roll.”
The 10-episode series was co-created by Priscilla and John Eddie, and developed by co-showrunners Mike Arnold and Eddie.
In addition to McConaughey and Priscilla, the cast includes Don Cheadle, Kaitlin Olson, Johnny Knoxville, Niecy Nash and Tom Kenny, among others.
The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night, and surprised the chat show host and geek with his very own Star Wars action figure — but Kimmel returned the favor with a surprise of his own.
After Kimmel happily received his custom figure — a miniature of him smiling, frozen in a block of carbonite like Han Solo — Kimmel shocked Favreau by revealing a “secret” video Jon had shot on the set of 2008’s Iron Man.
Favreau recalled asking Samuel L. Jackson — a “real geek” — to take part in a “top secret shoot” that would become the first of many Marvel post-credit scenes. In the movie,Jackson’s Nick Fury made his first appearance and informed Robert Downey Jr.‘s Tony Stark about what Fury called The Avengers Initiative, which laid the groundwork for the eventual Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But Favreau said he shot an alternate take “for me, I knew it wouldn’t be in the movie … just for fun.”
Sure enough, there were Downey and Jackson once again in Tony’s living room, but acting out new dialog.
“Who the hell are you?” Stark asks Fury.
“Nick Fury, motherf***er,” Jackson replies, deadpan.
Favreau was asked if he knew that film would lead to dozens more movies and a shared cinematic universe. “We didn’t know, honestly,” he said.
“When Robert Downey was cast, that’s when I thought, ‘Oh, this could be cool and really special.’ And we attracted, because of Robert, I think, a lot of great other actors like Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth [Paltrow], and … the characters became interesting and comedy was offbeat.”
When Steven Spielberg wants to write a movie with you, you write a movie with Steven Spielberg. That’s what happened to Tony Kushner, who co-wrote and produced The Fabelmans alongside the acclaimed director. Their film is up for seven Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards, including nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
So, how does one go about co-writing a film? Kushner tells ABC Audio about their process, which started during the COVID lockdowns in 2020.
“First, we just did Zoom calls, and talked about the outline and stuff like that,” Kushner says. “Then, when it was time to write – Final Draft software has a feature called collaboration, where two people can type on the same document at once.”
While both men had access to the document, Kushner says he was doing most of the heavy lifting, typing-wise.
“I’m a much better typer than Steven is. I’m not a great typist, but Steven really isn’t fast. So, I did all the typing, but he could see what I was doing,” Kushner says. “We were on Zoom so we could look at each other. And we did it three days a week, four hours a day for two months, and we finished the screenplay.”
The Fabelmans, which follows a fictional story inspired by Spielberg’s childhood, has already taken Kushner around the awards circuit this year.
“You get to meet people whose work you really love, and then sometimes they become friends and that’s a nice thing,” Kushner says.
There was one celebrity interaction in particular that Kushner considers his highlight.
“The day after the Golden Globes my husband and I got to have breakfast with Jennifer Coolidge,” Kushner says. “I think it was, like, the prize for the whole season.”
Emma Heming Willis, Bruce Willis‘ wife, posted a sweet throwback video of her husband in an Instagram Story, weeks after revealing that his aphasia condition has developed into frontotemporal dementia.
“What’s this new memory thingy on IG!? OMG my biggest fan. I’m in love with him,” Emma said of the video, and her husband since 2009.
In the footage, the Die Hard franchise star reads a headline about his wife’s skin care line. “USA Weekly: ‘Interview with Emma Heming Willis, founder and CEO of CocoBaba,'” he reads.
“How about it?” she replies off-camera.
“‘How about it?’ I’m crazy about it!” Bruce says.
Emma also posted a video of herself scrolling through hundreds of replies from her more than 619,000 followers. Set to The Rascals “A Beautiful Morning,” she notes, “I see you all. I read all your stories. There’s so much love and support in here,” adding “Thank you” with a heart emoji.
Last month, Emma explained there’s no cure for the “cruel disease” Willis is facing.
On Monday, she posted a picture in which she’s embracing dementia specialist Teepa Snow, “who has helped me add to my dementia care toolbox.” Calling her a “gift,” Heming Willis said, “She’s a loving, compassionate and skilled leader in this space who navigates herself with pure empathy.”
In response, Snow expressed, “@emmahemingwillis has done an absolutely remarkable job of providing the right support for Bruce as his abilities have changed and created a place space and life that continues to provide him with what he needs to live well.”
She added, “Frontal temporal dementia is never easy but with the right programming and support, it truly is possible to continue living life.”
Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is back on the market following her split with Harry Styles, a source tells Us magazine.
“Olivia is ready to date again, making it clear she’s available, and she isn’t looking for anything less than an amazing guy,” says the insider.
The 38-year-old actress/filmmaker and the “As It Was” singer, 29, met in September 2020 while filming Don’t Worry Darling and seemingly confirmed their relationship by holding hands in January 2021. They both kept their relationship private and declined speaking about it publicly.
Reports surfaced in November that the pair was “taking a break” and the decision to part ways was “amicable.”
The former couple began dating a year after Wilde and ex-fiancé Jason Sudeikis ended their nine-year relationship. Olivia and the Ted Lasso star share son Otis, 8, and daughter Daisy, 6.
Jay Leno made an appearance on Wednesday’s installment of The Kelly Clarkson Show and talked about his recovery from that fiery garage accident in November of last year that left him with serious burns to his face, and body.
“You look great, though,” Kelly said, to which the 72-year-old comic replied, “Well, this is a brand new face.”
Leno explained, “I was working on a car and I got a face full of gasoline. It caught fire,” Leno explained, recalling the November, 2022 freak accident. “I had been eating a Flamin’ Hot Dorito, and when I bit into it, it set my face [on fire],” the former Doritos pitchman joked.
“It was all third-degree burns, it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad,” Leno said, getting serious for a moment, to which Clarkson added that “you can’t even tell” anything had happened.
“Yeah, you’d think there’d be a zipper here or something, but no,” Leno said, pointing to his famously large chin.
“Only for the second time in my career am I the new face of comedy,” Leno said, cracking Kelly up. “I got in once in the ’80s and now I get it again,” before pointing to the left side of his head and his “brand-new ear.”
Jay underwent skin graft surgery and other therapies during a 10-day stay at the Grossman Burn Center after the accident, which occurred when he was working on a vintage car in his collection.
In January, the former Tonight Show host suffered multiple broken bones in a motorcycle accident, to boot.
Deadline reports Daisy Ridley, best known for playing Rey in the J.J. AbramsStar Wars trilogy, has been tapped to star in The Better Liar, a drama series based on Tanen Jones‘ book of the same name, in development at Amazon. Ridley will also executive-produce the adaptation, along with True Blood writer Raelle Tucker, who will script the show as well. The Better Liar, per Amazon, follows “a woman who hires a lookalike in an effort to conceal her sister’s death and claim their shared inheritance,” but “her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets”…
She’s a cool mom: Girls5eva star Busy Phillips is the latest addition to the cast of Tina Fey‘s movie adaptation of her hit Broadway musical Mean Girls, according to Entertainment Tonight. Philipps will play the mother of Plastics leader Regina George, the role originated in the first Mean Girls film by Amy Poehler. Phillips joins previously announced cast members Jenna Fischer, Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Fey, Tim Meadows, Avantika, Christopher Briney and Bebe Wood. The first Mean Girls film in 2004 grossed over $130 million worldwide…
Kristen Bell is set to star in a new comedy series headed to Netflix from Modern Family creator Steve Levitan and Erin Foster, co-creator and star of VH-1’s Barely Famous, according to Variety. The as-yet untitled series is said to center on “the unlikely relationship between an irreverent, outspoken, agnostic woman — played by Bell — and an unconventional rabbi,” per the streamer…
Fox has given a third season renewal to Rick & Morty co-creator Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy Krapopolis, according to Deadline. Additionally, the premiere of the show — most recently set for May — has now been pushed to the 2023-2024 season. Billed as the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain, Krapopolis, which features the voices of Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham and What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry, will center on “a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.” Susan Sarandon, Will Forte, Michael Urie, Jane Lynch, Amber Stevens West, Yvette Nicole Brown and Dave Franco are set to guest star…
