Latest news with #Oscar-night
Time of India
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Timothée Chalamet misses kiss from Kylie Jenner and the internet is screaming
Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet just made their long-awaited red carpet debut, but it is a kiss that did not happen that has everyone talking. The stylish duo rocked up hand-in-hand to the David di Donatello Awards in Rome this week, exuding couple goals energy in matching all-black designer looks. Kylie stunned in a figure-hugging floor-length Schiaparelli gown, while Timothée looked dapper in a velvet suit that screamed "effortlessly chaotic art boy." All was going smoothly, until it was not. Camera caught Timothée Chalamet missing the kiss at an award show When Chalamet's name was announced as the winner of the David Award for Cinematic Excellence, he stood up, beaming, and leaned in for a quick kiss. So far, so cute. But as Kylie leaned in for what looked like a second peck… he totally missed it. Like, fully leaving her hanging. Kylie and Timothée shared a kiss before he claimed his award, so sweet! Fans are going insane, call it, 'so awkward' And yes, it was all caught on camera. Fans were quick to share their secondhand embarrassment online, dubbing the moment 'icky' and 'so awkward.' One Reddit user said it gave them the 'ick,' while another added, 'There's no chemistry, and he can't even fake it.' It was not exactly the Hollywood kiss moment we are used to. Especially considering Kylie missed out on that iconic Oscar-night kiss earlier this year, when Chalamet lost the Best Actor award to Adrien Brody. Maybe the award show PDA curse is real? Despite the hiccup, the couple still looked smitten during their debut, whispering to each other, holding hands, and smiling for the cameras. At one point, Kylie turned away from the flashing bulbs to whisper something into Timothée's ear. The man stayed locked in, arm wrapped firmly around her waist. Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner's relationship The pair have been going strong since April 2023, when Kylie's car was spotted outside Timmy's house. Their relationship was confirmed a few months later when they were caught kissing at Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour. A source at the time said Kylie was loving how different this relationship felt from her previous ones, exciting, new, and lowkey in the best way. But honestly, no matter how famous you are, no one is immune to an awkward moment, especially when the whole world is watching.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Shadow of Trump and DEI at the Oscars
IT WAS SEVEN YEARS AGO, during the first Trump administration, that Frances McDormand won an Oscar for Best Actress. She asked every woman nominated for any award that night to stand, pointedly noted that 'we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed,' and urged Hollywood's powerbrokers to follow up. 'I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider,' she said. Then she bent down, picked up her statuette, and walked off the stage. As searches for the phrase surged online, McDormand explained what she meant backstage in an Oscar-night elaboration. She had recently learned, she said, that in negotiating a contract with a studio, an actor could 'ask for, and/or demand, at least 50 percent diversity in not only the casting, but also the crew.' That was an oversimplification, but the word was out. 'Inclusion rider' went viral and, at least in Hollywood, triggered a reckoning on the underrepresentation of women and minority groups in the film industry. The #MeToo movement had erupted a few months earlier and journalists were exposing new stories of sexual harassment and assault every week. Harvey Weinstein was arrested a couple of months after McDormand's speech. Diversity, equity, and inclusion were seen as ideals to live by, welcome and overdue. A few short years later, instead of DEI, we've got DIE: discrimination, inequity, and exclusion. MAGA uses 'DEI hire' as a slur. For them and their leader, Donald Trump, DEI is a reason for failures, an excuse for firings, a rationale for making sure white men get what they think they are owed. Because it's their world and the rest of us just live here. Darren Beattie, named by this month by Trump to run public diplomacy at the State Department after years of racist and sexist commentary and getting fired by the Trump White House in 2018 for appearing with white supremacists, put it this way on X a month before Election Day 2024: 'Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.' Share BACK IN 2018, I was one of the many women thrilled by McDormand's speech. I wrote about my life as a 'child feminist' and struggle to get into journalism when the field had few women and even fewer reporting on politics. At the same time, I worried about my two white sons, trying to make it in tough, traditionally male arenas that were finally aiming for more diversity. 'Was 'reverse discrimination' about to become personal for me?' I wondered. I am now, as I was then, skeptical of that concept and supportive of affirmative action—casting a wide net to help redress the discrimination, inequity, and exclusion of the past. It is real, unlike the aggrieved performance art of privileged people like Trump. It has for centuries limited the potential of women, LGBTQ people, disabled people, and people of all colors to be all they can be, as the Army would say, and contribute all they can to America. It surprised me to learn this month that in September 2020, McDormand said she regretted tacking 'inclusion rider' onto the end of what the Hollywood Reporter called her 'inadvertently industry-shaping' speech. 'I wish I'd never fucking said it now. . . . I was not educated enough, I didn't have enough information about it,' she told the publication. The University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has done 'very, very important' work on inclusion in the workplace, McDormand said. But she added that 'it is complicated, and it has to be almost customized for every single event.' Reality is complicated. Sign up for a free or paid subscription and receive our clarifying independent journalism right in your inbox. The Annenberg inclusion rider template of the time was indeed complicated, and some nuances (like the words 'whenever possible' repeated twice in the document and no mention of any particular percentage, despite McDormand's 50 percent reference) were lost on Oscar night. A more recent version of the rider encourages companies to set 'flexible goals' and diversify their workforces over time. What's inarguable is that McDormand sparked new awareness—both about the talent pools excluded from the industry and, in practical terms, what diversity brings to the table in terms of perspective, audience, and profits. As UCLA wrote last year in a headline announcing the school's Hollywood Diversity Report on 2023 films (which included Barbie): 'Diversity in demand: People of color, women—in audience and on the big screen—hold keys to industry survival.' Even so, the fight against an 'epidemic of invisibility' for women, particularly those who aren't white, has yet to be won. A major Annenberg report on the 1,700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2023 shows some progress for some groups in some categories, but parity and proportionality are still elusive. IN THE FIVE WEEKS since Trump issued a pair of edicts against DEI in federal programs and contracts, the ripple effects have been felt across the country. Government agencies, universities, and many private-sector companies have been scrambling to end projects, scrap language, and fire or reassign people associated with DEI. In one of several lawsuits prompted by the two Trump orders, a federal judge in Maryland blocked them nationwide last Friday. The administration has made clear, the judge wrote, that 'the government wishes to punish and, apparently, attempt to extinguish' viewpoints and speech supportive of DEI, and that is likely unconstitutional. At their moral core, Trump's DEI bans are a denial of the systemic racism and other discrimination that America in its better-angel periods has tried to remedy. While they present obstacles, whatever the legal outcome, they won't succeed. Join now Diversity is inevitable in today's America, and a proven resource as well. It's a value rooted in both pluralism and profit, woven into our entertainment, food, and business cultures. Official DEI programs and employees may disappear, but hiring practices and lived experience, from Costco to the Super Bowl halftime show, will not. We are certain to hear about this at the Oscars. The only questions are how many times, and whether anyone will surpass the speech 87-year-old Jane Fonda gave last week in accepting the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. The guild, Fonda said, is different from other unions: 'We don't manufacture anything tangible. What we create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls.' That was her bridge to the current moment. 'Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke,' she said, and added a money quote that MAGA opponents should repeat on a loop right through 2028: 'Woke just means you give a damn about other people.' Fonda also summoned film history to impress upon Americans that we are living in our own 'documentary moment,' a moment that someday could inspire a documentary about heroes who rose to meet a challenge. 'This is a good time for a little Norma Rae or Karen Silkwood or Tom Joad,' she said. The word 'Trump' never came from her lips, and I don't expect to hear it from winners at the Academy Awards. But the Oscars pageant will be a celebratory (and no doubt over-long) reminder that our country contains multitudes. That's our strength and our brand, and eventually Trump and his twisted fraternity will realize that trying to stamp it out is futile. Take a moment to share this article with someone hosting an Oscars watch party. Share
New York Times
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Conan O'Brien Is Terrified of the Oscars. (He's Hosting Anyway.)
Conan O'Brien is not a cynic — at least not when it comes to the Oscars, which he is hosting for the first time on Sunday. The Emmy-winning comedian, podcaster, traveler and movie buff is genuinely excited — 'I get to do this!' he enthused — but also thoroughly worried. 'It's the thing I wake up and think about at night: What's the best way to tackle this? How? In a way that makes me creatively happy?' he said. Since he accepted the job late last year, O'Brien, 61, has had an emotionally taxing few months. In December, his parents, who were in their 90s, died three days apart, in his childhood home in Massachusetts. Not long after the double funeral, just as he was settling back in Los Angeles to work on the Oscars, the fires started there, and his home was evacuated. When his wife called to ask what to save, his only thought was of a 1980 letter from the author and essayist E.B. White. O'Brien had written to him, as a teenage fan, 'and he wrote me back a really sweet letter,' O'Brien said. 'So I said, just grab that. And if the rest goes, it goes.' He is still living in a hotel, where he has hung the letter on a wall, he said in a video interview from his office on Monday. The conversation was discursive — pensive and funny. Though he hosted the Emmys twice (most recently in 2006), he has never attended the Oscars. 'This was the only way I could get invited,' he joked. His preparation has included bringing in 10 of his own writers to work with Oscar-night stalwarts, running jokes by the crew, and dropping in at clubs in Los Angeles to try out material. 'I started seriously writing comedy around the time I was 18,' he said, 'and it's what I think about all the time.' Yet even for him, there is no formula. 'It's frustrating, but it's not math. You can't prove it. The only way to find out is to try it on people.' Still, with only days to go before the show, O'Brien had few confirmed plans: Would he do a musical number? An opening montage? 'Nothing's in stone,' he said. 'I'm leaving every possibility on the table. I have choices right now, and we'll see what happens.' Given the churning news cycle, the risk of creating until the last minute felt both necessary and worth it. 'There will be things that don't go the way I want them to go,' he said. 'But stay open to the possibility that that's a gift, and you can make something out of it.' Beyond that, he has a secret for staying grounded. 'I'm just going to read a lot of very dreary Russian novels,' he said. ''Crime and Punishment'; 'Brothers Karamazov'; 'Notes From Underground.' I'm going to finish reading them live onstage — aloud. This is an Oscars you don't want to miss!' Here are edited excerpts from the conversation. Hosting this show is tricky — notoriously kind of a thankless task, that a lot of people say no to. Why did you agree? I need the money. And when I say that, keep in mind, it pays very little. I said yes because I am nostalgic, particularly now, about my childhood. The biggest thrill I've had in my career is meeting the celebrities that were on my television when I was a little boy. So when I met Don Knotts, I lost my mind. When I met Tom Cruise, I was happy and he was very lovely to me. But it couldn't have the same impact [as Don Knotts]. And I remember watching Johnny Carson host the Oscars, and that being a big deal. And I intellectually understand — the entertainment landscape has changed a lot. I told Billy Crystal: 'You hit a note that I think you can't hit anymore.' Because when people tuned in to his Oscars, everyone had seen the movies he was parodying. It's not the communal campfire that it maybe once was. But I still think the Oscars has meaning. Really good cinema — especially when it's from different countries, different points of view — has an incredible amount of resonance and importance right now, and this is the night that celebrates that. To be a part of it is meaningful to me. I don't think of it as a thankless task — even if I just do it once, and no one's interested in me doing it again, it will have been a meaningful experience for me. My parents aren't here to see it, but I know it would have been a huge deal to them. I was able to tell my father, and he was impressed. [Chuckles]. He probably wondered, couldn't they find someone else? This has been such an intense few months for you, personally. It's a lot. And it just might be an Irish Catholic thing, but we're so good at pushing things down to push forward. It's a strength and a weakness. My one goal with the Oscars is, I would like to have fun onstage that night. I would like to enjoy it. Because I'm at a stage in my career where I don't know if one thing leads to another anymore. And I'm not saying that in a morbid or sad way. I'm content; I've been blessed. I've really enjoyed all the things that I've been able to make and the crazy adventures I've had, the highs and lows. I wouldn't change a thing, And if I'm having fun, I won't say everybody else will be having fun — because that's not how the internet works — but if I'm having a good time, I think that will translate. Did you get advice from other veteran hosts, like Billy Crystal or Jimmy Kimmel? Billy lost his house in the fire, and I didn't want to bother him because I can only imagine. Then I saw him at the 'S.N.L.' 50th, and we had a long talk, so I think I'm going to be texting him to maybe say, 'here are some jokes,' things like that. I got more into the weeds with Jimmy and Molly [Kimmel and McNearney, his head writer/producer who is also his wife]. We went out to dinner, and they have such an encyclopedic knowledge — things you wouldn't even think about. Like, if you're doing a bit about somebody in Act I, make sure they're in their seat, because sometimes five minutes into the monologue they're still loading people in. Jimmy said, just make sure you sit down when you can, in between acts, because you are standing the whole three hours and it does start to wear away at you. So I've had a pair of metal legs made that I'm going to paint a flesh color. You said, on your podcast, that you hate when critics single out something relatively minor in a movie. What did you love, among the nominees? We live in the era of nit-picking. Making a great film is next to impossible. I think it's kind of a miracle — every year I think of the thousands of films that are made and how they've been being made for 100 years. And still the truly great, perfect movies are very few and far between. So to me, it's a celebration of the effort. [In 'A Complete Unknown'], there is a scene where Timothée Chalamet, as Bob Dylan, is trying to write a song — you see him struggling. I thought it was a great depiction of the creative process, which is usually misrepresented in film. I was blown away by Mikey Madison in 'Anora.' I loved 'Conclave.' I'd watch Ralph Fiennes read from an electrical manual. I think I've seen all the movies and I saw real merit in a lot of them. And then I'll be quiet about the ones that I wasn't as crazy about, because who cares? It's a celebration of all these people working really hard to attain something that's almost impossible. That's the part I get excited about. I'm excited for the A-listers when they win. But when I see these people that have come from, you know, Latvia, get up onstage, if they get up for [the animated film] 'Flow,' that's thrilling to me. You're seeing someone have the greatest moment of their life. It can be transformative. How will you thread the needle of hosting in an era of political upheaval? It is all about threading the needle. I'm there, really, to talk about these films, to talk about the industry. And yes, there's going to be political jokes here and there; there have to be. But if it's a screed, I'm doing a disservice to everybody. I'm actually doing a disservice to the people who might agree with the screed, in my opinion. However anyone voted should not be a prerequisite for whether you enjoy the show. I feel very strongly about that. Is there an aspect of the show that you're most nervous about? Getting the tone right. The tone has been shifting a lot in Los Angeles. And people love to project their agenda onto a big show. The thing I think about the most is how the ground can shift between when I'm talking to you and when the show happens. Moods can change, currents can change. I want to make sure that I have my antenna up for everything. And I'm going to be doing that right up until they tap me on the shoulder to go out. So I just hope that I'm able to ride it like a wave, because there's so much about it that I can't manifest now. It's just going to happen. It sounds like that's what excites you about it. It's what excites me and worries me. And that is, in a nutshell, my life. I am drawn to the things that scare me. They excite me and they scare me. I love them and I dread them, and it just keeps flipping. And they haven't made a medication yet that will fix it. I think if I solely loved it, I wouldn't be me. And if I was solely terrified by it, you'd never have heard my name. I'm old enough to tell young people now, that doesn't change. I got some bad news for you: There's always just got to be both. And hopefully more of that joy — which I think I've had. Is there anything else you can share about what's in store? I'm going to look amazing. That's what you can look forward to. I'm in shape. I'm going to be wearing an incredible array of tuxedos. I've had various surgeries to look my best. Unfortunately, I waited till kind of late, so I'm still healing. I hope they use a soft lens. I think the surprise for America is, people are going to look at this and say, that's one of the most attractive men alive. There'll be a whole AI controversy, because they'll say Conan looked a little too good.
