Kevin Hart Defends Will Smith Over Chris Rock Slap at Oscars: 'The World Should Step Out of It'

Trailblazing director Sally Potter’s latest short film “Look At Me,” a verbal battle of wills between a combative rock drummer (Javier Bardem) and the harried director of a fundraising gala (Chris Rock), is a passionate Trump-era time capsule featuring two mesmerizing performances from its leads.  The short was originally conceived as part of Potter’s profoundly personal 2020 film “The Roads Not Taken,” which starred Bardem as a Mexican-American man named Leo whose dementia sees him traveling inside his mind through past choices and Elle Fanning as his grown daughter tasked with his care.

“Every movie needs a rabbi,” the great and grumpy Robert Altman once warned fellow filmmakers. “You need at least one important critic to champion your cause.”

An evening with Peyton Manning and Luke Bryan hosting the CMA Awards – now that might be a country fan's "kind of night." In a promo video for the 56th annual CMA Awards, which will be co-hosted by the former NFL quarterback and the country crooner, Manning and Bryan get into crunch mode to prep for their hosting duties, entering into a "bootcamp." The clip shows the men doing exercises like picture-association with famous country stars, including Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker. In a cheekily executed moment, Manning draws on a white board, as if he's going over a football route showing the direction he would go in if someone were to attack him from the audience, in what was likely a nod to Will Smith's now infamous slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.

David O Russell’s oeuvre, it’s that great film-making chops (Three Kings!) meet wildly divergent outcomes (often within a single film); Russell will fall out with some of his cast, and said cast will be star-filled. His latest is Amsterdam, a period crime romp led by Margot Robbie, Christian Bale and John David Washington, abetted by Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Rami Malek, Mike Myers, Andrea Riseborough, Zoe Saldaña, Michael Shannon and Taylor Swift. Results may vary.

“Amsterdam,” the new David O. Russell historical mystery, has enough mega-watt stars to power a midsized American city.The cast includes (but is not limited to) Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Zoe Saldaña, Timothy Olyphant and Matthias Schoenaerts. If there’s a lead in the movie, it’s Christian Bale, who developed the project with Russell and who stars as an injured veteran of World War I who is now looking to help his fellow wounded soldiers start their new lives in New York.

Jordan Moreau “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is slowly getting ready to take a bite out of the weekend box office. It earned $575,000 from 3,453 theaters in Thursday previews, while David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” picked up $550,000 million from 3,005 theaters. Sony’s live-action/CGI hybrid, co-financed by TSG, is a family-friendly movie about a singing crocodile, starring Grammy-nominated artist Shawn Mendes as the titular reptile. The studio projects an opening haul of $11 million to $12 million, with some projections belting out upwards of $15 million. With a budget of $50 million, it will need plenty of support from kids and families over the fall to snap up a profit. The cast includes Javier Bardem as Hector P. Valenti, Lyle’s flamboyant owner, Brett Gelman as Mr. Grumps and Constance Wu, Scoot McNairy and Winslow Fegley as the Primm family. The Primms move to a new house in New York City, where they discover Lyle, a saltwater crocodile with the voice of a high-end recording artist, living in their attic.

Every role is designed for Leonardo DiCaprio, according to Christian Bale.

Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy . . .

“Amsterdam” is a star-studded film.Its cast includes (deep breath) Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldaña, Andrea Riseborough, Rami Malek and Robert De Niro (among others). It’s a lively, spirited historical mystery about World War I and a vast right-wing conspiracy on American shores. But the movie becomes even more electric when two stars appear on screen together: Mike Myers and Michael Shannon.The two performers play spies who assist our heroes, first in the title city and later in New York, as they attempt to thwart a growing threat to democracy.

Will Smith earn another Oscar after this year's on-stage showdown with Chris Rock? Technically, yes. As buzz begins to build around Antoine Fuqua's Apple Original Film, -- in which Smith stars as a man who escapes from slavery — speculation is swirling about the film's awards season promise. According to a report from, Smith still be nominated for another Best Actor Oscar even after his fallout from slapping Rock during the live 2022 Academy Awards broadcast.But there's a catch: following the incident, Smith resigned as a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, and was ultimately banned from the Oscars telecast and other Academy-sponsored events for 10 years.

smacked Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars, won Best Actor minutes later and became an instant worldwide pariah. Then, once the Academy conducted a hilarious “investigation” of an event plainly viewed by millions, he was rightly banned from the ceremony for 10 years. Needless to say, not being allowed into the Oscars for a decade is not a good look for a movie actor.But in Hollywood, who cares about how their own people behave?! On Monday, Smith, 54, returned to the limelight with the abruptness of, well, a slap in the face.Apple dropped the fancy highbrow trailer for Smith’s new movie “Emancipation,” a serious drama directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) in which he plays an escaped slave, and announced it will be released in December during peak award campaign season.   Smith getting another Best Actor nod in a few months’ time is a very real possibility.

EXCLUSIVE: Theo Rossi has joined the Netflix Amblin Jaume Collet-Serra directed feature thriller Carry On opposite Jason Bateman, Taron Egerton and Sofia Carson.

Will Smith screened the film Emancipation with an audience for the first time at a private event on Saturday (October 1) in Washington D.C.

The first screening of upcoming Apple TV+ drama “Emancipation” took place Saturday in Washington, D.C., with director Antoine Fuqua and star Will Smith both in attendance.

Jimmy Carr looked every inch the doting dad on Friday as he took his boy out for a low-key stroll in his buggy in North London. The comedian, 50, cut a casual figure in a blue T-shirt and navy trousers as he walked along the street while occasionally checking on his son. Jimmy added a pair of black and white slip-on shoes to his look and hooked a pair of sunglasses on his top, while jackets were seen under the buggy should the weather change.

Amsterdam as David O. Russell wouldn’t call cut.The actor, starring in the American Hustle filmmaker’s new film alongside Christian Bale and John David Washington, spoke on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to explain that “technically, we didn’t ever really stop”.Robbie explained that the shoot went beyond the permit allowances while shooting in Pasadena, which forced the police forces to intervene.“You get a permit to shoot somewhere. We were in Pasadena and the time was up,” Robbie said.