Column Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe announcement that Elon Musk was going to host “Saturday Night Live” seemed startling and odd on its face. That’s exactly how publicity stunts are supposed to feel.

Linda Chorney I’m not sure how the major labels feel about the Recording Academy finally eliminating the Nomination Review Committees (NRC), but I can promise you that independent artists like me are doing back flips, just like I did the day I was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for best Americana album — the first in the category without a label, publicist or manager. How the fuck did that happen? There was no NRC in American Roots.

Chris Willman Music WriterRIP to “the room where it happens” — the Grammy Awards’ blue-ribbon committees, which are officially being laid to rest this year after being an essential part of the nominating process in most categories since the 1990s. Never again will non-insiders have to play the role of Aaron Burr, wondering if there was actually smoke filling those rooms, and if so, what kind.

Last month marked one year since much of Europe and the U.S. was plunged into pandemic lockdown.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticWhat a year not to have montages. And what a year to not have the anchor of a host.The 2021 Oscars came at the end of a long year for movie fans.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorEven in a TV landscape strewn with new streaming services, media is still all about the bundle. The rise of mighty new platforms bolstered with high-wattage content has been heralded as evidence of the great un-bundling in the pay-TV sector, a trend that does not bode well for Hollywood’s balance sheets.

Priya Darshini Guest ColumnistWhen my debut album, “Periphery,” nabbed a 2021 Grammy nomination, messages began pouring in from back home, first from friends and family, and then from fans across social media.“You are our Indian pride,” posted one YouTuber. “Hope you’ll make India proud,” said another.

Before the pandemic, I had been in practice as an ear, nose and throat doctor in Manhattan for nearly 17 years. Last spring, I was seeing about 125 patients a week, COVID-19 patients along with everyone else.

Editor’s note: Dwayne Barnes wrote a touching column on his portrayal as a desperate crack addict in Menace II Society, when a recent controversy reared up over an agent sending that clip from the film to a manager. Today, he brings a journeyman actor’s perspective to why the 93rd Academy Award cannot be dismissed even if prognosticators prove right and TV ratings suffer in the recognition of films that bowed when theaters were closed by a global pandemic. – MF

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThere’s little in this world more soothing than turning on a nature documentary and hearing David Attenborough’s calm, steady voice. Even as a disembodied narrator, the 94-year-old presenter has become such a ubiquitous presence that watching any nature doc without him feels strange, as if trying to put on a shoe before realizing it’s on the wrong foot.

Y’all. I admit, when I heard there were murmurings of Hollywood boycotting the Georgia film industry again after Governor Kemp signed the egregious SB 202, I ignored them.

Grace Kao is the IBM Professor of Sociology and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University.Peter Shinkoda has been a film and TV actor for more than three decades.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticBy now, a great many people have seen “Godzilla vs. Kong,” and what a lot of them seem to agree on — even many who like it — is that the movie makes almost no sense.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticMost late night talk shows nowadays aim to serve an audience that is, late at night, not watching their TV set.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticBy now, more than a year deep into the social disruption wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had several examples of awards shows trying their best to accomplish something like the traditional experience for viewers at home.What we hadn’t seen, exactly, was a show deciding to lean into the alienation and isolation of the past 13 months, and to put everything on remotely.

Dr. Andrew R.

Editor’s Note: As we saw last weekend from Deadline’s coverage of Jay Baker losing his position as longtime CAA agent after sending manager Jewerl Keats Ross a Menace II Society movie clip depicting a crack addict willing to perform a sexual favor because he was so desperate to feed his habit, we are in a moment of heightened sensitivity that leaves everyone in Hollywood standing upon a trap door that can be triggered by a single insult or misdeed.

The slew of recent allegations against Joss Whedon from women of Buffy and Angel, shows he created and directed, are heartbreaking. Actor Charisma Carpenter’s brave statement set off a chain reaction, with others following suit including Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg, who was a teenager at the time.

Martha Lauzen For the first time in its 93-year history, the Academy has nominated two women for best director. Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell will compete with David Fincher, Lee Isaac Chung and Thomas Vinterberg for the coveted honor.

Moky Makura Guest ColumnistNothing new to see here, move along.Like the stereotypical narratives we have come to expect from Hollywood about Africa, “Coming 2 America” offers nothing new to audiences despite the 33 years that separate the original from the sequel.The fictional country of Zamunda is a mixed bag of persistent stereotypes about African poverty, disease, conflict, poor leadership and hypersexual women who lack agency, all coated in Eddie Murphy’s brand of slapstick comedy that uses

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor 45 years, Hollywood has churned out sequels to more or less any movie that makes a big enough splash at the box office. The rationale has always been simple: The fans want it.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorI’ve often been told that I’m not Asian enough. Not white enough.

On March 19, 1934, The Hollywood Reporter published a special issue devoted to screenwriting, featuring the voices of industry notables on trade topics such as "Should Writers Produce?," mulling censorship ("Sense or Censors") and discussing the craft of writing for the big screen.Author Vera Caspary, who had published several novels by this time and had seen stories adapted for film,tackled a pressing question: should writers devote time to original stories to pitch to studios?Caspary's full

Just about one year ago, I left my office on the Sony lot in Culver City around 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night, expecting to return the next morning to pick up again on the latest Sisyphean tasks.

Ross Golan This column by songwriter-producer Ross Golan — who has worked with Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Celine Dion, Justin Bieber and many others and is also creator and host of the “And the Writer Is” podcast — calls for the Recording Academy to change the “33% rule” it uses to determine which contributors to an album receive an award. Variety welcomes suitable and responsible guest columns, to submit please email [email protected].

Editors Note: For the latest in Deadline’s A Year of Covid series looking back at the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, Time’s Up boss Tina Tchen surveys the damage the lockdown inflicted on women in the workforce, and some of the steps we can take to begin rebuilding in a healthy and inclusive way.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorI worry a lot about my parents these days.It used to be the other way around; they’d be the ones nitpicking at me, always finding something to fuss about whenever I visited home.

an Irish Times column on Sunday night's bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, Patrick Freyne makes clear he has no great sympathy for her royal guests, Prince Harry and his American celebrity wife, Meghan Markle — or even Oprah, described as "wearing roundy Harry Potter glasses.

Editors note: Oscar winner Laura Dern is executive producer of the Oscar-shortlisted animated short film If Anything Happens I Love You, which depicts a couple attempting to move through their daily lives in the aftermath of their daughter’s death in a school shooting — while devastating, the film also instills hope. Dern and Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley penned a guest column for Deadline exploring our current moment in the face of the continued gun violence in America.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticLast February, just before the pandemic upended virtually everything about how the film industry operates, “Parasite” made history at the Academy Awards. The ingenious South Korean thriller became the first international film to “overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” and win best picture, as director Bong Joon Ho phrased it at the podium.But that was just one of the many barriers to “Parasite’s” potential success.

Editor’s Note: Brian Tee has become a notable face of Asian Hollywood, providing representation to a community that has been wildly been underrepresented and, on more than one occasion, misrepresented. He has appeared in big banner films such as The Wolverine, Jurassic World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been overwhelmed by phone calls, emails, public comments and DMs of support in response to an open letter that I had posted on social media about my personal experience with an abuse of professional power. The truth is that while the inundation of comments and calls were rooted in good intentions, some still fell short.

Editors note: Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize in 2008 for his debut novel The White Tiger, which his old Columbia University classmate Ramin Bahrani turned into the movie that has been generating awards buzz since its Netflix release in January. Adiga penned a guest column for Deadline about how the pair became fast friends by bonding over Scorsese films in Bahrani’s dorm room, a kinship that has lasted ever since.

Since my recent hernia operation, I’m back at work on Morning Live. But it’s been a slow recovery.The operation itself was a success, but I’ve suffered a few infections since and it’s set me back.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor once, the people who said they were shocked really looked shocked. Jodie Foster may have won some of the biggest kudos of the night for showing up in her pajamas and cuddling with her wife, actress Alexandra Hedison, on the couch, but when Foster won for best supporting actress in a motion picture and said, “Are you kidding me? I think you made a mistake,” there was no faking the lack of fakery.

Editor’s Note: A regular on the barrier-breaking Vida over the three-season run of the Starz series, Ser Anzoategui has long identified as non-binary. With the Golden Globes tonight, Anzoategu, whose credits also include East Los High and Better Things, has penned a guest column for Deadline about what they see as a need for a significant shift in the way performers are categorized in awards season.