Country star Morgan Wallen is ending 2021 in a place few would have expected to find him a few months ago: in the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart. “Broadway Girls,” his collaboration with rapper Lil Durk, came out just before Christmas and ascended this week to the top of the chart that perhaps
The universe has a new a queen — and her name is Grag Queen. The Brazilian performer was crowned the winner Wednesday of the debut season of “Queen of the Universe,” Paramount Plus’ international drag queen singing competition series from the creators of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The finale, in which the audience chose the winner
There’s a moment in “Don’t Look Up” when Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dr. Mindy character channels Peter Finch’s Howard Beale from “Network” (1976). In an explosion of rage on a fictional morning TV show, he vents his frustrations about the world’s ignorance about a catastrophic comet heading towards Earth and the lack of empathy humanity has shown
China’s government-backed Golden Rooster Awards honored Oscar-winning drama “The Father” with the event’s first-ever prize for best international film in the coastal city of Xiamen on Thursday. Beijing hopes that its star-studded awards ceremony can rival and surpass the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards, once known as the “Oscars of Asia” for Chinese-language content. This year,
SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses the ending of “No Time to Die,” currently available for digital rental and purchase. Please do not read if you have not seen the film. If audiences knew anything walking into “No Time to Die,” it was that Daniel Craig’s fifth movie as James Bond — and the 25th (official)
There’s much talk of the proverbial British stiff upper lip in “Munich: The Edge of War,” as that dignified reserve mutates into damaging caution in matters of politics, days away from the start of the Second World War. In the film’s opening scene, a German Oxford student criticizes his host country as being “distant from
I’m not sure when I first learned about Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but I know exactly when I first saw him. I mean, really saw him. I was in college watching a documentary called “A Long Night’s Journey Into Day.” It told the story of four amnesty hearings during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post
One thing that probably all sides of a divided nation can agree on: Ted Nugent, for better or worse, is almost certainly never getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the right-wing rocker says he’s fine with that , claiming he’d just as soon not be part of a hall that includes
Nicolas Cage is an Academy Award winner known for turning in memorable, completely original performances in a wide range of beloved movies: The action hit “Face/Off,” the searing drama “Leaving Las Vegas” and the wonderfully surreal “Adaptation.” Even after acting for several decades, Cage manages to surprise and find completely original ways to approach roles.
Even in a world of ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive streaming services, there’s a cluster of freeloaders out there who want to get something for nothing. “WandaVision,” Marvel’s first TV series for Disney Plus starring Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision, was the No. 1 most pirated show of the year on
Hollywood has all but given up on ringing in 2022. COVID’s highly transmissible Omicron variant, which has ripped through the country at a shockingly fast rate, has prompted a wave of New Year’s Eve entertainment cancellations. Fox scrapped its “New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast,” and Phish rescheduled their “New Year’s Run” concerts. Still, the
After headlining “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and propelling it to a massive $1 billion-plus worldwide box office, Tom Holland will trade in his web shooters for the white henley of treasure hunter Nathan Drake in Sony’s “Uncharted” movie. The film is based on the massively popular video game series of the same name. Envisioned as
A tally of the year’s most-watched TV networks seems wildly incomplete in the 2020s without Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus or HBO Max in the mix. But with no real apples-to-apples way of comparing viewership on the streaming platforms to linear consumption, we’ll continue to measure them in different ways, at least for
For most, the pandemic with its lockdowns and quarantines has meant days filled with repetition. Working from home, sticking to a routine, indulging in smaller circles of pre-vetted activities — the beat goes on and on and on. If 2020 brought back the guitar (credit: Harry Styles), 2021 was the year of the drummer —
Voting has only just begun for select nominees at the 2022 WGA Awards. Drama series, comedy series and new series votes will be taken until Jan. 5, while voting doesn’t even open for original and adapted screenplays until Jan. 12 (with a deadline of Jan. 26). Nominations for the television categories, as well as new
The BBC has apologized for broadcasting an interview with Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz without disclosing that Dershowitz has also been accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s victims. Dershowitz appeared on BBC News live from New York on Wednesday evening, shortly after a jury handed down the guilty verdict in Ghislaine Maxwell’s
With less than a week before it’s set to kick off, the 2022 CES trade show remains set to take place in person in Las Vegas — even as more companies continue to bail on the conference because of the resurgence of COVID infections. The latest companies to axe their CES in-person plans amid the
The beef between Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel is far from squelched … because “The Rock” just blasted his former ‘Fast & Furious’ co-star, calling him manipulative. TMZ reported back in 2016, when they were filming the 8th installment of the franchise — “The Fate of the Furious” — the 2 men were
Kim Kardashian‘s neighbor has another bone to pick with her … and it’s not about an alleged underground vault this time, but something way more ordinary. According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Kim’s neighbor, Sarah Key, filed for an injunction … to stop Kim from putting a driveway on a strip of land
Galvanised in part by spectacular late-year figures for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” box office surged this year 47.2% and 45% in France and Spain respectively in comparison to 2020, Comscore announced Thursday. The full year 2021 figure for cinema theatre admissions in France was 96 million ticket sales, up from 65.2 million in 2020. In
The keenly anticipated trailer for Tamil-language blockbuster “Valimai,” starring Ajith Kumar, finally dropped on Thursday. Huma Qureshi (“Army of the Dead”) co-stars. Ajith Kumar, known to his fans as “Thala” (Leader), is one of the most bankable stars from South India’s Tamil-language film industry and has a following across India. Action-thriller “Valimai” reunites the star
Italy’s Cinecittà Studios has signed a preliminary agreement with state bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to acquire a plot of land adjacent to the Rome filming facilities. The land will give them space to roughly triple the backlot and build several new sound stages. Under the deal Cinecittà, which is undergoing a radical revamp, will
SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses many major plot developments in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” currently playing in theaters. Please do not read if you have not seen the film. Of the many multiversal pleasures of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” one of the most satisfying has been how every single person involved — from director Jon
Saif Ali Khan (“Bunty Aur Babli 2”) has wrapped a 19-day filming schedule in the northern Indian city of Lucknow for Bollywood film “Vikram Vedha.” Also starring Hrithik Roshan (“War”), the film shot its first schedule in Abu Dhabi. The film, which also stars Radhika Apte (“Raat Akeli Hai”) in a pivotal role, is a
Dwayne Johnson has publicly declined “Fast & Furious” series star Vin Diesel’s request to rejoin the action franchise for its upcoming 10th mainline entry. In November, Diesel extended an invitation to Johnson on Instagram, imploring Johnson to reprise his role as secret agent Lucas Hobbs for the next entry in the series. “The world awaits
The group Dead & Company is offering a break to fans experiencing second thoughts about attending the Playing in the Sand festival in Mexico next month. The shows will go on as planned, but the band and festival promoter have set up a brief window in which ticket holders concerned about traveling during the omicron
The Sundance Film Festival is planning to offer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to eligible in-person attendees, multiple sources told Variety. Following last week’s festival mandate requiring all participants in screenings and official events to show proof of three vaccination shots, Sundance is putting resources into offering boosters on the ground in Park City, Utah. Over
Latinos are having a banner year in cinema, proven by the outstanding performances, and invigorating filmmakers and artisans, behind many of this year’s leading contenders for the Oscars. During this holiday break, we’re sitting in the midst of voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards (which opened on Dec. 6 and closes Jan. 9) and
LL Cool J is pulling out of this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2022″ after testing positive for COVID-19. The ABC special, which is marking its 50th anniversary this year, is still moving forward as planned with hosts Seacrest and Liza Koshy, but will have to make an adjustment due
After announcing the cancellation of the Palm Springs Film Awards last week, the Palm Springs International Film Society announced Wednesday that the entire film festival would not take place in 2022. Here is the statement from the festival: “Based on the current rise of COVID cases, the Palm Springs International Film Society has announced that