Marc Malkin-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Transgender “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Gottmik is speaking out against the spread of legislation being pushed throughout the U.S. that bans drag queen performances as well as health care for trans people. “I actually can’t believe that we are turning back time like this,” she told me at Versace’s pre-Oscars fashion show on Thursday in West Hollywood. “But the queer community isn’t going anywhere. So no matter what you’re gonna try, we are here. And we’re going to be loud and proud. I think this is just a wake up call for all of us to be louder and prouder than we ever have been before.” Gottmik says she’s hopeful the queer community will prevail but that doesn’t mean she’s not worried. “The last round of bills has scared me a little bit and affected my mental health a little bit, to be honest,” she said. “But I just had to pick myself up and realize that we aren’t going anywhere. I’m so proud. Even in the car on the way to the Versace show today I was thinking about how cool it is that I’m a trans man able to dress in drag and go to the Versace show in Los Angeles. It’s just unbelievable.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Chloé Zhao has known “Everything Everywhere All at Once” directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — aka, the Daniels — for about a decade. They met when they were fellows at the Sundance Directors Lab. “They were making ‘Swiss Army Man,’” Zhao recalls. “To be able to reunite with them and see that they have been able to stay as authentic as when I first met them 10 years ago and the world embracing them, it’s so beautiful to watch.” I recently caught up with Zhao, who became the second woman ever and first woman of color to win best director at the Oscars for “Nomadland” in 2021, ahead of this year’s big night. She’s teamed up with Johnnie Walker on First Strides, an initiative that has provided more than $1 million to women’s organizations such as IFundWomen and She Should Run since its launch a year ago. The Johnnie Walker program is part of Friday’s Women in Film pre-Oscars event in Hollywood, providing free 30-day trials to MUBI to encourage people to watch more women-made films. “I joined Johnnie Walker to not only celebrate but to create support for women filmmakers and women-made films,” Zhao said.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Donatella Versace knows how to bring out the stars. The glamorous guest list at her Versace fashion show on Wednesdsay night, staged on the roof of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, included Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Cher and her boyfriend Alexander Edwards, Lil Nas X, Pamela Anderson, Dua Lipa, Danielle Deadwyler, Lily James, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Channing Tatum, Ariana DeBose, Matt Bomer, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Lucien Laviscount, Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, Russell Tovey, “Queer Eye” stars Antoni Porowski and Tan France, Paris Hilton, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Gottmik, Simone Ashley and Hunter Doohan.A post shared by Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) The show was timed so that it ended just as the sun began to go down in Los Angeles, creating a dusty blue glow as the models — including Naomi Campbell, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner — took their last walk around the champagne-colored runway. Versace appeared briefly to wave to the starry crowd.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor While accepting the Groundbreaker Award at this year’s Queerties on Feb. 28, Dylan Mulvaney declared, “It’s day 352 of being a girl!” The 26-year-old TikTok star, who has been chronicling her journey on social media, will mark one year of transitioning with “Dylan Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live!,” a one-night only cabaret show on March 13 at New York’s iconic Rainbow Room. The live stream event, which benefits The Trevor Project, will feature appearances by Dominique Jackson (“Pose”), Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Jonathan Van Ness (“Queer Eye”), among others. Mulvaney’s show will include original tunes plus standards and covers of Kate Bush songs. She’s planning on four wardrobe changes thanks to designers like Christian Siriano and fashion house Amsale.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Angela Bassett goes into the Oscars as a supporting actress nominee for her work in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The first and last time she was nominated was 29 years ago for “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” On Wednesday night, she recalled her early days in Hollywood. “When I came into this business, the path was not clear,” Bassett said while being honored at Time magazine’s Women of the Year gala at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. “I grew up at a time when it was a special occasion when people who looked like me were featured on the television screen or movie screen or in the theaters. But it was women like Rosalind and Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson, whose perseverance and resilience led me to have courage — courage to stay the course no matter what the obstacles.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Not drinking any liquids after 12 o’clock noon because I didn’t want to miss a thing, didn’t want to have to go to the loo and missing anything — not just my category but anyone’s category. I just wanted to soak it all in.” “Yea, it was 2019 with ‘Knives Out.’ I remember hanging out at the bar with Adam Driver, Noah Baumbach and the whole ‘Marriage Story’ crew and discovering the bar is the cool place to be during the ceremony. I remember when ‘Parasite’ won.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor I was clean-shaven when I left for Palm Springs for Christmas. A few days later, I arrived back at home in Los Angeles with a beard. I didn’t plan on my new hirsute look. I just don’t like shaving. I avoid it when I can. But as my beard grew in, my friends started telling me they liked it. They remarked at how “distinguished” it looked with its mix of ginger and white. I worried I might appear older than I am, but my cousin insisted that she thought it actually made me look younger. I decided to go for a trial run by keeping the beard for the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s opening night gala red carpet. I needed to see how it looked on camera. The beard was a hit. Austin Butler told me he liked it and so did Colin Farrell. A few days later at the Golden Globes, Andrew Garfield said, “The beard looks nice. The ginger and white is like a Prince Harry thing you’ve got going on.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor We might not be able to notice it yet, but Paul Mescal says he’s been training every day to get in shape for his work in the upcoming “Gladiator” sequel. “Every time someone asks me if I’ve started working out, I’m like, ‘What do you mean? You can’t tell?’” the actor told me with a laugh at the Independent Spirit Awards. “I’m working hard. Hopefully, when you see me in three or four weeks you’ll be able to see it.” He doesn’t mind the daily routine. “I like exercise,” he said. “It’s not something I dread, thank God.” Mescal first talked to me about the training at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon last month. “I imagine it will be like the classic thing of eating lots of chicken and broccoli,” he said. I’m looking forward to it because anything that is kind of structured and difficult, it’s kinda fun.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Donatella Versace participated in a wide-ranging talk about her late brother Gianni, Prince, supermodels and her support of the queer community on Monday morning at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Following a tour of the center’s Hollywood campus, Versace said she was most excited talking to the young people in the audience at the Renberg Theatre at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The tour and talk, moderated by center CMO Phillip Picardi, coincided with the launch of a new Versace Foundation and Council of Fashion Designers (CFDA) scholarship program for LGBTQ fashion students.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Publicist Jillian Roscoe has launched Birch Public Relations. Her clients include Donald Glover, Melissa Rauch, Gerard Butler, John Cho, Jeremy Allen White, James Marsden, Judy Greer, Jesse Garcia, Mandy Moore, Sharon Horgan, David Duchovny, Lake Bell, Jim Parsons, Fred Armisen, Ty Burrell, Ben Schwartz, Jesse Tyler Ferugson, Kemp Powers and Hannah Fidell, among others. Roscoe was previously a senior vice president at ID PR. She left that firm — run by Kelly Bush and Mara Buxbaum — after 20 years last month. Publicists Rachel Karten and Lindsay Krug recently announced the formation of their company, Origin Public Relations, after also leaving ID in early February after 16 years with the company.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Gabrielle Union says Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has messed with the wrong people, after the Republican governor signed a bill into law on Friday banning gender-affirming health care for minors. “There is an army that rebukes you, that does not agree with you and that will not lie down while this fascist rule is instituted,” Union told me Saturday at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica. “And that’s just one state. There are several states who were doing the same thing, and they will be met with resistance. People are not going to take this lying down. They’re just not. So if you thought this was going to be a cakewalk, you’re in for a rude awakening.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor In the final stretch to the Oscars, Hollywood’s A-List and industry insiders get their party on in the days and nights leading up to the big show. From Gina Prince-Bythewood being among the honorees at Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood Awards and a Friday night Versace fashion show to a celebration of Kerry Condon, Jessie Buckley and Eve Hewson at the Oscar Wilde Awards, this year’s Academy Award soirres and events are in full swing. Of course, the partying continues into the wee hours after the awards are handed out. Here, Variety gives you this year’s ultimate Oscar party guide.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Close” director Lukas Dhont’s discovery of one of his film’s stars, Eden Dambrine, is straight out of a book of Hollywood legends. Dhont approached Dambrine on a train in their native Belgium and asked if he’d like to audition for his movie. “I was a bit worried,” Dambrine, 16, recalls. “I asked my friends to search on Google to see if it was really Lukas Dhont who was talking to me. It was so I felt a bit more safe.” Fast forward to 2023, and “Close” is up for best international feature at the Oscars. The A24 film is a drama about 13-year-old best friends Leo, played by Eden, and Rémi (Gustav De Waele). Tragedy occurs when Leo begins to distance himself from Rémi after they become the target of school bullies who believe the boys are a couple.  

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Former ID PR publicists Rachel Karten and Lindsay Krug have launched their own firm, Origin Public Relations. Their client roster already includes Kathy Bates, Hannah Einbinder, Tracee Ellis Ross, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Hampshire, D’Arcy Carden, Gillian Jacobs, Uzo Aduba, Abbi Jacobson, Christopher Storer, Jen Statsky, Andrea Savage, Busy Philipps, Ilana Glazer, Chris Estrada, Martha Plimpton, Lennon Parham, Jessica St. Clair, Liam James, May Calamawy, Michaela Watkins, Annabel Oakes, Jillian Bell, Abe Sylvia, Katy Mixon and Ellen Rapoport. Karten and Krug left ID PR — founded by power player Kelly Bush Novak in 1993 — in early February after 16 years with the company. “We are grateful to ID for their guidance and mentorship over the past 16 years. We are thrilled to be launching our own publicity firm and embark on this next chapter of our careers,” Karten and Krug told Variety in a joint statement shorting after announcing their departures.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor ID PR vice president Alla Plotkin has left the company. Plotkin, whose clients have included Bette Midler, Sarah Paulson, Holland Taylor, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nicholas Braun, Michelle Williams, Titus Burgess and Jessica Williams, has not announced her next move. She had been with ID for almost 16 years. At the same time, ID PR announced that 20-year company veteran Rebecca Sides Capellan has been promoted to senior vice president. Her client list includes Lupita Nyong’o, Rachel Weisz, Natasha Lyonne, Lena Dunham, Cynthia Nixon and Broadway producer and theater owner Jordan Roth.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Legendary New York City drag queen Kevin Aviance has found new management following Beyoncé sampling him her album “Renaissance.” Aviance has signed with Voss Management. “Thank you, Beyoncé! I finally feel validated!,” he told me Thursday. “I never thought at 54 years of age that a Black, bald queen from the New York City underground scene would be offered an exclusive contract with a leading LGBTQ+ management firm. I’m so ready to make Kevin Aviance a household name!” Aviance’s vocals from his 1996 dance hit, “Cunty,” can be heard at the top of “Pure/Honey,” Track 15 on “Renaissance.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Dylan Mulvaney isn’t letting the hate get to her. The 26-year-old TikTok star shot to fame by chronicling her gender transition for the last year on social media. “It’s day 352 of being a girl!” she said Tuesday night while accepting the Queerties’ Groundbreaker Award in Hollywood. She continued, “This is kind of an intimidating title, ‘Groundbreaker,’ because truly I’m only still in my first year and I’m in a room full of some of the most incredible trans people in the world, and I just gotta say thank you to all my trans siblings who have been taking such good care of me.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor If only Theo James were not joking. I asked “The White Lotus” star what he thinks about all the fan chatter hoping that he and Will Sharpe’s characters were going to hook up during Season 2 of Mike White’s hit HBO show. “They cut the sex scene,” James deadpanned on the red carpet at the SAG Awards, eliciting a big laugh from his TV wife Meghann Fahy. “It began in a kind of romantic way but then it gets very carnal, but Mike decided to cut it. No, I’m joking! There was no sex scene.” James and Fahy also revealed that they didn’t have to do a chemistry read together before they were cast. “We didn’t do any table reads either, which I loved,” Fahy said.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Raven-Symoné will receive the Icon Award at this year’s Better Brothers LA Truth Awards. Broadcasting on Fox Soul, the gala, which is co-presented by Sheryl Lee Ralph and her The DIVA Foundation, will also honor Netflix’s The Upshaws (Cultural Affirmation Award), Judge Greg Mathis, Greg Mathis Jr. and “Mathis Family Matters” (Family Award), Starz #TakeTheLead (Corporate Leadership & Diversity Award), Tabitha Brown (Ally Award), Byron Perkins (Courage Award), Dr. Darnell Hunt (Excellence in Education Award), Dr. David Malebranche (Advocate Award) and the Unique Woman’s Coalition (Advocate Award). Better Brothers Los Angeles (BBLA) is a networking and social organization for members of the Black LGBTQ+ community.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Ever since I broke the news that is playing Madame Morrible in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” movies, she has been saying that the films will mark her singing debut. However, Yeoh’s biggest fans have posted videos on social media of her showing off her vocal chops while singing the theme song of her 1993 movie “Butterfly and Sword.” Yeoh laughed when I brought it up at the Mandarin Oriental-hosted dinner in honor of her Oscar nomination for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” “That was so many years ago in Taiwan,” she said. At the time, she asked the song’s lyricist to make things simple for her. “I said to him, ‘I don’t sing, and I don’t speak Mandarin. Can you please not have many words?’” Yeoh recalled. “But then the first time he showed me, I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Jean Smart is “doing well” following a recent heart procedure. The “Hacks” star announced on Feb. 23 that she had undergone an unspecified procedure. Production on Season 3 of the HBO Max series has paused while she is on the mend. “She’s doing well,” co-star Hannah Einbinder told Variety on the red carpet at the SAG Awards. “She’s recovering. We just visited her.” Co-star Poppy Liu added, “She requested a lot of photos from all of us. We will be FaceTiming with her.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Sounds like the sequel to “Freaky Friday” is close to being greenlit — if it hasn’t been already. While a reunion of Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan hasn’t been officially announced, Curtis offered the ultimate tease when we chatted Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards. “It’s going to happen,” she said. “Without saying there’s anything officially happening, I’m looking at you in this moment and saying, ‘Of course it’s going to happen.’ It’s going to happen.” On Feb. 14, Curtis shared a photo of her and Lohan on Instagram with the caption, “It’s Friday. I’m just sayin! Freaky fingers crossed!””

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Riley Keough may be Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, but she didn’t let the pressure of trying to live up to the family name get to her while shooting “Daisy Jones & The Six,” Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel. She stars as the lead singer of a Fleetwood Mac-like band in the 1970s. “I have a quality where I don’t really care if I mess up, if I do something stupid or if I do a bad performance,” she told me Thursday night at the series premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. “I kind of just brush it off and I also have a sense of humor about it.” Keough also recalled her late mom Lisa Marie Presley didn’t flinch when she told her she was playing a singer: “She’s always supportive of everything I do.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Cocaine Bear” director Elizabeth Banks is worried about her mother seeing the horror comedy when it opens on Friday. “I’m going to be honest with you, no one knows what to make of it when I tell them about it,” Banks told Variety at the movie’s premiere Tuesday night at Regal LA Live. “My poor mother is the least informed. She’s going to go with my aunts and they’re going to lose their minds. I told her she’s going to be mad. She will laugh and she’s going to love Margo Martindale and Isiah Whitlock Jr. and the dog. Not enough people talk about the dog, Rosette. She’ll love those parts, but she’ll close her eyes for a lot of it.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Bette Midler had her first professional wardrobe fitting when she made her Broadway debut in 1967 playing Tzeitel in “Fiddler on the Roof.” “I remember the clothes had layers and layers so that they had weight and so they moved when you danced,” the two-time Oscar nominee recalls on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “They would curl themselves around your feet. It was so beautiful.” Since then, Midler has been transformed on stage and screen by countless costumes. “I’ve worn them all,” she says. “I have been an old lady, a young lady, a witch, a mermaid, a showgirl, a stripper, a bad lounge singer. I’ve run the gamut. And I have to say, it’s been a blast.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor What better way to celebrate Jamie Lee Curtis’ Oscar nomination for her work in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” then by slipping on a pair of hot dog finger gloves? That’s exactly what a star-studded crowd did Wednesday night during a party for the Hollywood icon at Dear Jane’s in Marina del Ray. Demi Lovato, Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Amy Landecker, Amanda de Cadenet, Jennifer Grey, Katey Sagal, Tiffany Haddish and Jaimie Alexander donned the gloves to sip drinks, eat turkey hot dogs and pose for laugh-filled photo ops. “The first time I met Jamie we did a movie together called ‘She’s in the Army Now,’” Griffith told me. “This was 1980. I remember having to go through basic training with Jamie. We might have met before that, but that’s when we became friends.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Move over, Tom Cruise! The “Top Gun: Maverick” legend wasn’t the only star Hollywood’s latest group of Oscar contenders were excited about seeing at Monday’s nominees luncheon. “The Banshees of Inisherin” stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson gushed over meeting Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”). “I spent a long time chatting with him,” Gleeson told me after the annual luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. In fact, Gleeson texted Mescal after the nominations were announced in January. “I had to ask my son Domhnall for his number. I was very proud of [Mescal],” Gleeson said.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor When “Batgirl” completed its seven-month production in Scotland, star Leslie Grace received a wrap gift from Brendan Fraser, who played her nemesis, Firefly, in the DC movie — a gold necklace that included two charms, a little bell and a pair of dice. “The card said a lot of really sweet things, but he basically said, ‘I give you this necklace because in this business you gotta have a little luck. So ring your bell and never stop,’” Grace says. “It was just like, Whoa. And after all this, it’s had so much meaning.” “All this” is the August bombshell that Warner Bros. Discovery had decided to kill the film, co-directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. After the first disappointing test screenings, WBD executives chose to take a tax write-off instead of trying to complete work on the film, which had cost the debt-ridden studio $90 million, and would have cost many more millions to finish.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Zendaya has conquered acting and singing, but now it sounds likes she’s going to impress us with her tennis skills. The “Euphoria” star trained for months for her role as a tennis player-turned-coach in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film “Challengers.” “She’s wonderful,” Guadagnino told Variety Saturday night at the Academy Museum Gala. “I mean, wow. We edited the movie and we almost actually don’t use any of her double. She’s so good.” The film, which Guadagnino described as a “sexy comedy,” follows Zendaya’s character as a love triangle develops while coaches her player-husband (“West Side Story” actor Mike Faist) for his big match against her ex and his childhood best friend, played by Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”).

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Keke Palmer has thrown her name in the hat for “Sister Act 3.” No, not a formal audition, but she showed off her vocal chops by singing a snippet of “Joyful, Joyful” on the carpet at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday evening. “I’m your girl,” Palmer said. “I’m ready.” “Sister Act” star Whoopi Goldberg recently revealed her dream cast for a potential third installment of the nun comedy. “I’m gonna ask Keke to come. You know, I want everybody to come in. I want Lizzo to come,” Goldberg said during an appearance on Comedy Central’s “Hell of a Week With Charlamagne tha God.” Nicki Minaj is also on her wish list.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen were in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to meet with politicians to talk about their nonprofit Hilarity for Charity, and the need for more funding for brain research and home-based care. “We just want to really make sure that moving forward, there is some sort of plan to address the great need that this country has in terms of care,” Miller Rogen says. Rogen adds, “Washington is in a strange place right now, but it’s always encouraging to see that there are people working in the government that actually have this as a priority. As many as there aren’t, there are many who are so it’s somewhat encouraging.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Lin-Manuel Miranda has a message to the trolls who have targeted their hate at Halle Bailey, star of the live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” — watch Brandy in “Cinderella.” “I’m old enough to remember that being a game changer for my generation,” Miranda told me during a Zoom chat from the L’Attitude conference in San Diego, where he was making an appearance with American Express to support Latino small business owners. “And Rob Marshall was the choreographer on that and is now the director of the movie. I’m really thrilled by that symmetry.” Besides, Miranda thinks the positivity and excitement around the new film far outweigh the negativity. Just take a look at the sneak peek of Bailey singing a snippet of “Part of Your World,” which racked up 104 million global views within days of its debut at the D23 Expo. “I’m not interested in giving them any oxygen because I know the lives that are going to be changed. Halle is perfect for the part,” said the Tony winner, who wrote four songs for the movie with composer Alan Menken. “She is going to blow them away. If that’s the thing that makes you mad, then stay mad. But examine your choices.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Rachel Zoe, Julie Plec and Jennifer Salke will be honored at this year’s Barbara Berlanti Heroes Gala. Zoe will be presented with the Vanguard Award and Plec will receive the Barbara Berlanti Hero Award. The Humanitarian Award will go to Salke. The event, taking place Oct. 1 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica and chaired by Greg Berlanti and Robbie Rogers, will include musical performances by Tori Kelly, En Vogue and The Scarlet Opera. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit Fuck Cancer. The guest list includes Aisha Tyler, Azie Tesfai, Daniel Ezra, David Ramsey, Hailey Bieber, Jesse L. Martin, Kheng Hua Tan, Lily Cowles, Maz Jobrani, Michael Trevino, Misha Collins, Olivia Liang, Peter Facinelli, Sara Foster, Taylor Zakhar Perez, TR Knight, Tzi Mai, Yasha Jackson and Yvonne Chapman.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Martin Short and Shania Twain are in final talks to join ABC’s “Beauty and the Beast” special. Sources tell Variety that Short would play Lumière while Twain will take on the role of Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.” The news comes just days after Variety exclusively reported that David Alan Grier will play the role of Cogsworth in the production. Previously announced cast members include Oscar winner H.E.R. as Belle, Grammy winner Josh Groban as Beast and Joshua Henry as Gaston. EGOT legend Rita Moreno will serve as the show’s narrator in the live-action/animated hybrid production.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor The late great songwriter Allee Willis was celebrated Wednesday night with a fashion show and party benefiting the Willis Wonderland Foundation. Willis, whose credits included the Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” better known as the “Friends” theme song, Earth Wind and Fire’s “September” (yesterday was the 21st) and a gaggle of disco-era hits, started the foundation to support the arts in underserved communities. She passed away from a cardiac event in 2019 at age 72. “She was a visual artist, performer, collector, party thrower extraordinaire with a whole amusement park full of kitsch-tastic colorful fashions,” Willis’ partner and the foundation’s CEO Prudence Fenton said. “Everything she did was all about making people happy. She lived to inspire others to express their own inner and outer creativity in every way. Creating art and music makes life worth living.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor ABC is celebrating Norman Lear’s 100th birthday with a television special on Sept. 22. Variety was on hand for exclusive interviews with Lear and his starry guests as they made their way into the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel earlier this month for the filming of the show, “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter.” Lear, who turned 100 on July 27, has famously credited laughing as the key to living a long life. He also told me that staying in the present is equally as important. “We don’t pay enough attention to the words ‘over’ and ‘next,'” he said. “When something is over, it’s over and we’re all onto the next. If there was a hammock in the middle, that would be the best description I could offer for living in the moment.”