Variety Probes Oscar Telecast Controversy With Artisans Special Report

Editors note: In Hollie McKay’s latest special report for Deadline, the veteran foreign affairs correspondent and author of Only Cry for the Living: Memos From Inside the ISIS Battlefield reports from the battlefields of Ukraine, where Russia’s invasion is targeting journalists and the truth.

red carpet moments every year at the Oscars, some of the best ones have been when couples walk the red carpet together. Remember Leonardo DiCaprio and Gisele Bundchen? Or Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise? Despite the fact many of them have since broken up, there’s nothing quite like commemorating some of Hollywood’s most glamorous pairings from years gone by. Especially when there are so many celebrity couples you might have forgotten were even together at all, like Jack Nicholson and Angelica Huston, or Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr.

Moon Knight wasn’t originally in the script.The American actor plays a mercenary suffering with dissociative identity disorder in the upcoming Marvel series. Along with the personalities of mercenary Marc Spector and vigilante Moon Knight, one of them is a British man named Steven Grant.Isaac’s British take on Grant however wasn’t originally pitched by Marvel, with the actor convincing Marvel boss Kevin Feige to go with his interpretation.Speaking to the Radio Times, Isaac said: “It wasn’t necessarily written that way at all.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe upcoming Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival will be honoring Italian directors Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”) and Enrico Casarosa (“Luca”) as well as costume-designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (“Cyrano”) all of whom have scored nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards. The 17th edition of the pre-Oscars event will be held March 20-26 at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre and also online.This year’s opening ceremony will be hosted by veteran Italian-American actor Robert Davi, who is also this year’s president of the event. Sofia Milos (“CSI: Miami”) and Hollywood acting coach Bernard Hiller will co-host.Consul General of Italy Silvia Chiave and Italian Institute of Culture chief Emanuele Amendola will also be introducing honorees both at the Chinese Theatre and during a separate March 25 event being held at the Italian Institute of Culture.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards, Features EditorIt’s been less than a year since the Oscars aired a stripped-down version of the show at Union Station, but the 95th annual Academy Awards is set to take place March 27, back at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. With voting opening March 17, we take a look at the top categories and where things stand.A Perfect 10 For the first year, the Oscars expanded the best picture race to guarantee 10 films.

Entertainment Tonight at the 2022 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday that the “Twilight” actor was in a different league than him and his friends because of his fame from the vampire romantic drama film.“The pity invite? No. I think with Rob it’s always been like, he sort of had success earlier, so we were a bit like, ‘Does he really fit in with us?’ Because we were not working, and he’s working all the time,” Dornan said.

So in love! As Twilight fans supported various romantic relationships on screen, the cast of the hit vampire film series saw sparks fly off screen.

Jamie Dornan is responding to some recent claims Robert Pattinson made about their friendship.

Sergei Pugachev was once dubbed ‘Putin’s banker’. Today he is considered a ‘traitor’ and is exiled in France.

Ariana DeBose is one step closer to Oscar glory!

“Monster Challenge” and an episode of the animated series “Star Trek: Short Treks,” but the Marvel film will mark his feature debut.While details about the project are being kept strictly under wraps, individuals with knowledge say the character may be based on “Werewolf by Night,” the name used by two separate Marvel characters.The first, Jack Russell, was created by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog, based on concepts by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, and first appeared in a 1972 issue of “Marvel Spotlight.” Russell starred on an ongoing “Werewolf by Night” series that ran for 43 issues and ended in 1977.Russell is a descendant of the mystically-altered offshoot of humans known as Lycanthropes, who eventually becomes capable of transforming on his own volition even without a full moon, and retaining his intellect while transformed. Among other things, that series is notable for having the first appearance of Moon Knight, a character whose own Disney+ series, starring Oscar Isaac, will stream in 2022.Marvel introduced a second incarnation of the character, Jake Gomez, last year in “Werewolf by Night” (Vol.

Ashley Greene was crushing on one of her co-stars. ET's Denny Directo recently spoke with the 35-year-old actress, and she revealed that, while filming the popular vampire franchise, she had her eye on one of her fellow actors.«was essentially my first real job that I was on set consecutively, and separating the on-set chemistry that you have to create with real life, I wasn't quite skilled in that yet,» Greene, who played Alice Cullen, admitted.

Nicole Kidman may be a nominated for her fifth Oscar for her work in “Being the Ricardos,” but she wasn’t at the annual nominees luncheon on Monday at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel.Variety can exclusively reveal that Kidman is at home in Nashville under doctors’ orders, recovering from a torn hamstring. She was filming the upcoming Amazon series “Expats” in Los Angeles when the pre-existing injury flared up.The show is continuing to shoot this week but will temporarily pause while producers figure out when they can resume and if they need to shoot around Kidman until her return, according to an Amazon rep.“Expats,” based on Janice Y.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterTech-centric holding company Ballantyne Strong has launched Strong Studios to create content under the company’s Strong Entertainment division. David Ozer, formerly CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s Landmark Studio Group, will serve as president of the new studio.Based in New York, Strong Studios will develop and produce original feature films and television series, as well as acquire third party rights to content for global multiplatform distribution.

Diversified holding company Ballantyne Strong has launched Strong Studios, a new wing of its entertainment division, with two scripted series already in the works for 2022.

The hot pre-ceremony topic among attendees of the 26th annual Art Directors Guild Awards tonight was the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ controversial decision to pre-tape several artisan awards – including production design – and edit them into the live network broadcast.

earning positive notice for his new take on the Batman character, but the actor says that while reaction to his initial casting as the Caped Crusader had its share of naysayers, it was nothing compared to the reaction when he was first cast in “Twilight.”“It was less aggressive than when I got cast in ‘Twilight,’ which is strange because no one even knew who I was,” Pattinson told Josh Horowitz of MTV News. “That was literally off one photo and people were like, ‘Absolutely not’ (laughs).”When Horowitz noted that the reaction to his Batman casting was mostly positive, he seemed befuddled as to why.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThe hardest blow is the feeling that their work doesn’t matter as much as other filmmaking disciplines. That was the sentiment shared by a panel of veteran artisans who represent the craft categories that will no longer be presented live at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on March 27.“What offends me is that somebody in the Academy would claim to or imply that they know which crafts are more important and more deserving of respect than time than other crafts,” Randy Thom, a two-time Oscar winner for sound.

Tony Walton, one of the most prolific, honored and celebrated designers of sets and costumes on Broadway and in Hollywood, has died. He was 87.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorArtisans are hoping for an Academy Awards do-over before the ceremony begins.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sparked outrage and frustration last week when it revealed plans to award eight craft Oscars before the live telecast and sprinkle footage of those presentations throughout the three-hour show — all to make room for other entertainment elements designed to boost viewer engagement and sagging ratings. Adding to the upset: Unsuspecting nominees felt ambushed by the Zoom announcement about the impending change during a virtual town hall last week.Susan Cabral-Ebert, a member of the Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild, is among those hoping the Academy rethinks its plans before the March 27 ceremony.