Lena Waithe Believes A.V. Rockwell’s ‘A Thousand and One’ Deserves ‘Respect’ at the Oscars

The eagerly-anticipated second series of The Traitors begins on BBC One on January 3, with 22 contestants battling it out at a Scottish castle in the psychological game show that gripped viewers last year.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jeremy Allen White may co-star with Zac Efron in Sean Durkin’s new wrestling drama “The Iron Claw,” but the Emmy-winning “The Bear” actor has something to admit — he has never watched a “High School Musical” movie. “I haven’t seen them,” White says on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast. “Sorry, Zac.

Valerie Wu Intern Norby Walters, a music agent who hosted the annual “Night of 100 Stars” Oscars viewing party for more than 25 years, died Dec. 10 in Burbank. He was 91.

The ominous task that faced Eve Hewson when she first read John Carney’s script for Flora and Son had been accepted before she even realized it.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jennifer Lopez admits not everyone in her camp initially supported the idea to document her romance with husband Ben Affleck in her upcoming “This Is Me…Now” album and companion film. “As artists, we have to follow our heart and this is me following my heart and doing something that maybe everybody didn’t think was the best idea, but I had to do it,” Lopez tells me. Lopez is set to drop “This Is Me…Now,” a new album that marks the 20th anniversary of “This Is Me…Then,” on Feb.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Annie Starke doesn’t want to talk about last Christmas. The host of the freshly minted Magnolia Network show, “The Mountain Kitchen,” admits her family dinner was a disaster. “I probably had too many drinks in the morning,” Starke tells me, laughing.

Wham! taking the lead for the peak position on the charts.The news follows a neck-and-neck race between the iconic ‘80s pop duo Wham! And Eurovision star Sam Ryder over the past week, with their respective songs ‘Last Christmas’ [1986] and ‘You’re Christmas To Me’ [2023].At the first look at the race last week, just 42 chart units stood between the two taking the top spot on the UK charts, however, this week it has been revealed by the Official Charts that Wham! are in pole position, and have widened the gap between Ryder’s Amazon Music original track – which remains at Number Two.However, it doesn’t seem likely that the charts will stay this way until Christmas, with Ryder set to play a fan-exclusive gig tonight (December 19) in Shoreditch, London, in a push to promote the song in time for Christmas Day.Similarly, today (December 19) The Pogues are sharing a special, limited-edition physical run of their own iconic Christmas song ‘Fairytale Of New York’ in a push to climb the charts.Originally released in 1988 and featuring Kirsty MacColl, the track is being reissued in memory of the band’s late singer Shane MacGowan, who died “peacefully” in hospital from pneumonia on November 30. He was 65 years old and his funeral took place in Nenagh, County Tipperary on December 8.All proceeds from the reissue will be donated to the Irish charity Dublin Simon Community, and the release also arrived alongside a fan campaign to get Fairytale of New York to Christmas Number 1 for the first time.The push for the top position on the charts has also been endorsed by Shane MacGowan’s widow, Victoria Mary Clarke.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events With so many Broadway icons — including Christine Baranski, Kelli O’Hara, Michael Cerveris and Nathan Lane, to name a few — starring in HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” Morgan Spector thinks a musical episode of the series is overdue. “You know what we should do? There’s the British tradition of the Christmas special,” Spector tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “If we could have a Christmas special, then we could have some singing and it would be great.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events “The View” co-host Sunny Hoston is taking a little more time to enjoy the TV milleu. The multi-hyphenate is in the early stages of developing her first novel, “Summer on the Bluff,” as a television series for Amazon MGM Studios. The series will be produced Hostin’s Sunny Hostin Productions, Amazon MGM Studios and Octavia Spencer’s Orit Entertainment.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events As we know by now, Zack Snyder has massive plans for his “Rebel Moon” universe. The franchise launches with the Netflix movie “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” followed by a sequel that will be released next year. Snyder is developing a “Rebel Moon” comic book series, mobile game (“I would love to do big console game,” he says), an animated component, and is even releasing his first book of photography featuring a collection of black and white portraits he shot on set.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures’ adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi‘s novel Children of Blood and Bone is gaining momentum. Deadline is hearing The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood is coming on to helm. Prince-Bythewood will develop the next pass of a draft penned by Adeyemi.

Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event launches Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. PT, the latest in our series of showcases that this time turns the focus toward global cinema via discussions with the casts and creatives of 12 movies submitted by their countries for the 2024 Academy Awards’ International Feature race.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off a huge win against one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams. The Orlando Magic are currently 14-7 and sit in third place in the east. With a top-three-rated defense, the Magic are not to be taken lightly, and the Cavs knew that.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Former French President François Hollande is part of the voice cast for “Silex & the City – The Movie,” a big-screen spinoff of the popular short-format animated series set in the Stone Age. “Silex & the City” is adapted from the comic book series by the same name created by French cartoonist Jul, which has sold over a million copies.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events While the LGTBQ rights movement has made tremendous strides since that first rock was thrown at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969, there are still many areas of the U.S. where the queer community doesn’t feel safe. In the new Hulu documentary, “We Live Here: The Midwest,” director Melina Maerker and producer David Clayton Miller chronicle queer families living in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events As Fantasia Barrino rides the awards season buzz for her feature film acting debut in “The Color Purple,” the second season “American Idol” winner is thinking of her next moves on the big screen. “I want something very challenging,” Fantasia told Variety Tuesday night at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event in Los Angeles, where she was honored alongside her co-stars Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jennifer Lopez may have gotten a ton of awards season buzz for her work in the 2019 drama “Hustlers,” but she didn’t walk home with any major honors. In fact, she reflected on not receiving any top prizes in the entertainment world at Monday’s Elle Women in Hollywood event. “I don’t have an Oscar.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Gael García Bernal is nursing a slight cold. He thinks he may have caught a bug during a flight to Los Angeles. But he theorizes it could have also come from the Academy Museum Gala, held in the museum’s open-air atrium, which he attended two nights before I meet him for breakfast at Chateau Marmont.

Lionel Messi and Antonela Roccuzzo stepped out on Sunday night with their friends and family. The celebrity couple enjoyed a fun dinner at the celebrity hotspot Sexy Fish in Miami, joined by the athlete’s sister Maria Sol Messi, and his teammate Sergio Busquets, accompanied by his romantic partner Elena Galera.LIONEL MESSI AND HIS FAMILY CAUSED A COMMOTION AMONG FANS DURING THEIR VISIT TO DISNEY WORLDANTONELA ROCCUZZO SHARES A LOOK INTO HER EXTRAVAGANT TIFFANY & CO. EXPERIENCEAntonela wore a black minidress featuring cutouts, showing off her toned abs and incredible figure.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Joey King is speaking out about her “Kissing Booth” co-star Jacob Elordi’s criticism of their hit Netflix rom-com franchise. “I think it’s unfortunate anyone would feel that way,” King told me Saturday at the Balenciaga fashion show in Los Angeles. “I had a great time making those movies no matter what anyone says.” Elordi disappointed the casts of the three “The Kissing Booth” films as well as their fans when he slammed the film in his GQ Men of the Year cover story.