There’s so much we’d like to erase about 2020 — but never, ever the elation, élan, empathy, harmony, rich social commentary and dumb fun that the year’s best music brought us. Yes, we do hope the door hits 2020 on its way out, as long as it doesn’t make the needle jump on the songs
Justin Bieber’s New Year’s Eve concert was appointment viewing for his millions of fans, not just because it was available to all for a reasonable fee of $25 (free to T-Mobile customers) on a night when much of the world remains locked down due to the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic, but also because the engagement represented
Bess Kalb didn’t mean to end 2020 by making Christopher Hitchens’ “Why Women Aren’t Funny” go viral. The 2007 Vanity Fair essay is — like so much of its late author’s work — self-indulgent, poorly written and lacking any well-defined quality beside its ability to irritate people. One of those irritated people, more than a
David Petruschin is better known to “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fans as Raven. The fan favorite competed in both Season 2 and “All Stars” Season 1, and has been working as RuPaul’s makeup artist since 2017. In 2020, Petruschin worked under truly unique conditions when he went back to work both the U.S. and U.K. iterations
Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars from Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Following Academy Awards history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar predictions are updated regularly with the current year's contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long:
Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars from Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Following Academy Awards history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar predictions are updated regularly with the current year's contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long:
“Cobra Kai” Season 3 just dropped on Netflix, which sees John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) further escalate his plans to reestablish his domination of the San Fernando Valley karate scene. The cast of the series confirmed that Kove and the character of Kreese are all but interchangeable at this point, though Kove is much
In the brief history of the streaming wars, the year 2020 has already borne witness to the sharp rise and fall of various direct-to-consumer entertainment services. Disney Plus flourished beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. Quibi faltered and faded in less than a, well, you know. As the streaming market continues to saturate, the new year finds
The amount of literary content German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were able to publish during the early to mid-19th century has given Hollywood a seemingly bottomless trove of imaginative narratives to pull from. Inspiration from these more than 200 fairy tales was used, for example, to produce six seasons of the NBC fantasy police
Verizon and Hearst Television reached a distribution agreement to stave off a New Year’s Day blackout of the broadcasting group’s channels on Fios TV in five markets. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The telco had alleged Hearst TV was demanding price hikes of more than 45% to carry the local channels. The companies’
After “Hamilton” made an earwormy global phenomenon from the life story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, no chapter of history can be declared too dour for spangly, heart-on-sleeve musical treatment — though the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is still a pretty unlikely candidate. The stage roots of “Stand!” go back further than Lin-Manuel
The book has closed on “KISS 2020 Goodbye,” the band’s livestream event broadcast from the Palm in Dubai — but not without changing a couple verses to adhere to local customs in the United Arab Emirates city. The band replaced the phrase “virgin soul,” from the Gene Simmons-sung “God of Thunder,” to “sacred soul,” and
The stalking and intimidation cases brought by four women who have accused TV actor Danny Masterson of rape must now go through mediation within the Church of Scientology, a Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday. The ruling comes just days before Masterson’s scheduled arraignment on three charges of rape between 2001 and 2003. In early November,
The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced plans to include a memorial ceremony for Americans lost to COVID-19 during the events scheduled for Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. The ceremony, which will feature lights surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, the day before Biden’s inauguration. “The inauguration of President-elect
More than two dozen Southern California-based television series have been place on extended hiatus amid calls for a pause in production activity as COVID infection rates rise in Los Angeles County. Warner Bros. TV confirmed Thursday that series productions such as comedies “Mom,” “B Positive,” “Bob Hearts Abishola” for CBS, and dramas “Shameless” (Showtime) and
A year ago, the guitar was in dire straits. With songs like Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” and Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes” among the most consumed of 2019, programmed beats and horns were the sonic flavors of popular music. Sure, there were outliers — the Jonas Brothers’
Following Thursday’s announcement of rapper MF Doom’s death on Oct. 31, musicians and industry professionals took to social media to remember his career. No cause of death was provided in a post written by his wife, only that the hip-hop artist had “transitioned.” Brooklyn-based rapper Kota mourned his death, writing, “2020 had to do us
Daniel Dumile, best know as the rapper and producer MF Doom, died on October 31, his wife announced on the artist’s Instagram page on Thursday afternoon. He was 49. “To Dumile. The greatest husband, father, teacher, student, business partner, lover and friend I could ever ask for,” his wife wrote. “Thank you for all the
Times Square in New York City will be closed to the public this New Year’s Eve — but you’ll be able to live-stream the festivities, including the famous 2021 ball drop and musical performances, for free. The six-hour Times Square 2021 Webcast will kick off at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 31 with the ball
Despite this year’s best efforts, 2020 will in fact still end at midnight on Dec. 31. To mark the occasion, multiple broadcast networks are still planning to hold their annual New Years Eve specials on Thursday night as the ball drops over Times Square in New York City. But like everything else this year, those
Dawn Wells, the “Gilligan’s Island” star who died Dec. 30 at the age of 82, was always considerate of the show’s super fans, as she demonstrated on an episode of Netflix 2019 dating show “Love on the Spectrum.” The series focuses on young adults on the autism spectrum as they navigate the dating world. In
Voice actor Tom Kane, known for his work on various entries in the “Star Wars” franchise, suffered a stroke two months ago that left him largely unable to speak, according to a Facebook post written by his daughter. “He had a left side stroke that gave him right sided weakness and damage to the speech
Academy Award winner Jared Leto credits his success in the entertainment industry to several factors – one being stubbornness. “I’ve been really fortunate, and you know, I’ve just been really stubborn,” he revealed on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I think eventually, people are like, ‘OK, well, fine. He’s here, we might as well just let
The pandemic may have cancelled live performances and moviegoing for most of 2020, but for film-music buffs, that just meant more time at home listening to their favorite music, including many releases of music never before heard outside their original cinematic contexts. “There is still an unquenchable thirst for classic scores, both previously unreleased and
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” will stay dark next week amid the growing alarm about rising COVID-19 infection rates in Los Angeles County and the rest of California. The syndicated daytime talk show has been airing reruns since Dec. 10 when DeGeneres announced that she had contracted coronavirus. The show had hoped to resume production on
While 2020 has wreaked havoc on society in more ways than one, one small bright spot were several brilliant series and films offerings that helped us make it through this year. Offering everything from escapism to honest portrayals of everyday life, these are the movies and films that helped us make it through the year.
Phyllis McGuire, the lead singer and last remaining member of the 1950s trio known as the McGuire Sisters, died in her Las Vegas home on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. She was 89. McGuire’s death was confirmed to the Times by the Palm Eastern Mortuary, but no cause of death was announced. “I
The selfie mode has two faces in “Sweat,” a hard, glistening study of life on the hamster wheel of Instagram celebrity, in which influence and inconsequence aren’t quite the opposites they seem. Swedish writer-director Magnus van Horn’s aggressively accomplished sophomore feature takes as its subject an outwardly easy target for satirical character study — young,
During an exceptionally scary year, genre fans were able to find solace in a creative batch of horror movies. In a sign of the times, many titles mimicked the isolation of quarantine, with protagonists trapped deep in the ocean (“Underwater”), at a snowy retreat (“The Lodge”), in an Airbnb from hell (“The Rental”) or even
Ticketmaster agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine to avoid prosecution over charges that it illegally accessed systems of a startup rival to steal proprietary info in an attempt to “choke off” the smaller company’s business, federal authorities said. On Wednesday, the ticketing giant entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement in federal court in