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Watch how your favorite pop hits get made. Meet the artists, songwriters and producers as Joe Coscarelli investigates the modern music industry.Watch how your favorite pop hits get made. Meet the artists, songwriters and producers as Joe Coscarelli investigates the modern music industry. More
“The Power of the Dog” led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, but plenty of other high-profile contenders fell short. Here, the Projectionist muses on the morning’s most startling surprises and omissions.Kristen Stewart gets the royal treatment.Kristen Stewart’s role as Princess Diana in “Spencer” is the sort of thing Oscar voters usually rush to crown: It’s a juicy, transformative lead in a biopic, performed by a famous actress who has successfully leapt from blockbusters to prestige films. Then came a shocking snub from the Screen Actors Guild, followed by another shutout from BAFTA, and pundits worried whether she’d get nominated at all. Still, Stewart was game, continuing to do press and awards-season round tables, and the 31-year-old actress was rewarded Tuesday morning with her very first Oscar nomination.Lady Gaga and Jared Leto are shut out.“House of Gucci” was stripped to its studs Tuesday, as former winners Lady Gaga and Jared Leto were both snubbed by the academy. Few performances this year were talked about more — both by audiences and by the two actors themselves — and the red carpet will be a little lesser for their absence. (Hey, nobody said the Oscars were particularly ethical … but they are fair.)‘Drive My Car’ overperforms.Coming out of last summer’s Cannes Film Festival, no one had tagged Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” as a major Oscar spoiler: Instead, films like Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero” and Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” had all the buzz. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Dolby Theater: A year-end surge from critics’ groups put Hamaguchi’s contemplative three-hour drama in the thick of the awards conversation, thanks to high-profile best-film wins from the critics in New York and Los Angeles. Off that momentum, “Drive My Car” managed an astounding four Oscar nominations, with citations in picture, director, adapted screenplay and international film.‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is snubbed.There was no bigger film last year than “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — in fact, with a domestic gross of more than $748 million so far, there are only three other films that have ever been bigger. As the superhero movie kept raking in cash, the drumbeat grew louder that if the Oscars really wanted to reflect the year in film, they should honor one of the few movies that kept theaters open at all. And the academy did … but only with a nomination in visual effects. A best-picture nomination proved well outside the web-slinger’s reach.The director of ‘Dune’ goes missing.The academy’s directing branch is often dazzled by technical achievement, and a filmmaker who can wield blockbuster scale in the service of a soulful story usually has a leg up over more intimate fare. That’s why it’s startling that this year’s best-director race didn’t make room for Denis Villeneuve, especially since his sci-fi film “Dune” did score 10 nominations in a host of categories. But history was made elsewhere in that category, as Jane Campion became the first woman to earn two directing nominations (for “The Power of the Dog” and 1993’s “The Piano”) and the “West Side Story” filmmaker Steven Spielberg became the first person to be nominated in that category in six different decades.Two couples were nominated.Not only did the real-life partners Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons score their first Oscar nominations this year for “The Power of the Dog,” so did Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”) and Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), the rare married couple to have already won before. Even better: It’s a four-category split, as Cruz and Bardem were nominated in the lead races while Dunst and Plemons continued the spread in the supporting categories. Talk about a double date!Kenneth Branagh makes history.Even before “Belfast,” Branagh was an Oscar favorite, collecting five nominations over the course for his career in categories as varied as director, actor, supporting actor, adapted screenplay and live-action short film. But Tuesday morning’s collection of nods for the black-and-white film “Belfast” vaulted Branagh to a surprising Oscar record: He is now the first person to be nominated in seven different categories, having added citations for best picture and original screenplay to his haul. (Hopefully that makes up for a few surprising “Belfast” snubs in editing and cinematography.)‘Flee’ scores the hat trick.Look, it’s hard enough to earn just one Oscar nomination, as so many of the morning’s snubbed artists can attest. That makes what “Flee” just accomplished all the more remarkable: This animated documentary about an Afghan refugee is now the first film ever to receive Oscar nominations for documentary, animated film and international film all in the same year. A win in any of those categories seems unlikely, but at least when the makers of “Flee” claim it’s an honor just to be nominated, you’ll know that they mean it. More
Dennis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic and Jane Campion’s western secured the most nominations in a lineup notable for its diversity.Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Power of the Dog,” which was nominated for eight BAFTA awards on Thursday.Kirsty Griffin/Netflix, via Associated PressLONDON — The unpredictability of this year’s award season continued on Thursday when the nominees were announced for this year’s EE British Academy Film Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars.Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune” was nominated for best film at the awards, commonly known as the BAFTAs, as was “Don’t Look Up,” the climate change satire starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jane Campion’s tense western “The Power of the Dog.”Those films will compete against “Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh’s black and white movie based on his childhood in Northern Ireland, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ’70s coming-of-age romance “Licorice Pizza.” But of those movies’ directors, only Campion and Anderson were also nominated for the best director prize. They will compete in that category against several directors lesser known in the United States: Aleem Khan, the director of the British movie “After Love”; the French director Julia Ducournau for her Cannes-winning horror movie “Titane”; Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Japanese director of “Drive My Car”; and Audrey Diwan, the French director of the abortion drama “Happening,” which was the unexpected winner of the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival.The BAFTA nominations, which were announced in a YouTube broadcast, are often seen as a bellwether for the Oscars, because of an overlap between the voting constituencies for both awards.Learn More About ‘Don’t Look Up’In Netflix’s doomsday flick, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are two astronomers who discover a comet headed straight for Earth.Review: It’s the end of the world, and you should not feel fine, writes the film critic Manohla Dargis.A Metaphor for Climate Change: With his apocalyptic satire, the director Adam McKay hopes to prompt the audience to action. Meryl Streep’s Presidential Turn: How the actor prepared to play a self-centered scoundrel at the helm of the United States.A Real-Life ‘Don’t Look Up’ Moment: The film revives memories of a nail-biting night in the Times newsroom two decades ago.“Dune” secured 11 BAFTA nominations, the most overall, although many are in technical categories like costume and production design. “The Power of the Dog” secured eight nominations, the second highest, with three of those in the acting categories.This year’s list also includes some acting nominees that may not be to be on the Oscars’ radar. The nominees for best actor, for instance, include Stephen Graham for “Boiling Point,” a British movie set behind the scenes in a restaurant, and Adeel Akhtar for the British romance “Ali & Ava,” as well as big names like Will Smith (“King Richard”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”) and Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”).The nominees for best actress similarly include the British actress Joanna Scanlan for her role in “After Love,” about a white Muslim convert who uncovers her husband’s secret past, as well as Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”), Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza”), Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”) and Tessa Thompson (“Passing”).Amanda Berry, the chief executive of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which gives out the awards, said in an interview that the diversity of this year’s nominees was partly down to changes introduced in 2020 to encourage voters to watch more widely among the nominated movies. Before they cast their ballots, voters must now watch a random selection of 15 films via an online portal, to ensure they don’t just focus on the most-hyped movies, Berry explained. How much overlap there is between the BAFTAs and Oscars nominees will soon become clear. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science is scheduled to reveal the nominees for this year’s Oscars on Tuesday.The winners of the BAFTAs are set to be announced on March 13 at a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and Berry said she expected the event would return to its usual, pre-pandemic format. Last year, nominees attended via video link, but Berry said she expected the awards to be given out in person in March, and that the glamour of the red carpet would be back. More
Aim-for-the-fences performances from Lady Gaga, Ben Affleck and many others are making waves, and we’re here for the outrageous fun.There’s a great story Minnie Driver tells about the director Joel Schumacher, who responded dryly after a co-star complained that Driver’s performance in “The Phantom of the Opera” was too over the top.“Oh honey,” Schumacher replied, “no one ever paid to see under the top.”I’ve thought about that bon mot a lot during this movie season, where so many stars seem to be swinging for the fences. Think of Lady Gaga and Jared Leto, who go so daringly big in “House of Gucci,” or Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as televangelists in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” where they pitch their performances nearly as wide as Tammy Faye Bakker’s mascara-laden eyes.In “The Last Duel,” Ben Affleck has outrageous fun playing his costume-drama blowhard to the hilt, and the fact that he does it all in a blond wig and a nu-metal goatee makes the role even more over the top. And then there’s Kristen Stewart, who eschews her trademark minimalism for the awfully maximalist “Spencer,” where she is asked to wobble, shout, dance and heave, sometimes all within the same scene.Ben Affleck as a costume-drama blowhard in “The Last Duel.”Jessica Forde/20th Century StudiosAfter the last Oscar season celebrated the quiet, naturalistic “Nomadland,” it’s a kick to see so many of this year’s prestige dramas go in a different direction and embrace enormousness. In an era dominated by superhero movies, perhaps smaller films now need a performance that feels event-sized. Or maybe, after a period when so many of us have led circumscribed lives, it’s invigorating simply to watch actors shake off their shackles and go for broke.Whatever the case, it’s working. “Tick, Tick … Boom!” is animated by Garfield’s gusto as the composer Jonathan Larson, a man who operates at an 11 at all times. Watching him, I remembered the “30 Rock” joke where Jenna Maroney lobbied the Tonys to add a category for “living theatrically in normal life.” And this month brings a double dose of big Cate Blanchett performances in “Don’t Look Up,” which casts her as a terrifyingly “yassified” cable-news host, and “Nightmare Alley,” in which she treats the film’s eye-popping production design as if it were all custom-made for her femme fatale to slink on.I don’t mean to suggest that these outsize performances are a miscalculation. Quite the opposite: An actress like Blanchett is as tuned in to the tone of her movies as a singer who asks for the intended key and then begins belting. When a skilled performer is able to hit all those high notes, it’s more than just technically dazzling: It makes the softly played notes to come feel even more resonant.Cate Blanchett, center, with Bradley Cooper and Rooney Mara in “Nightmare Alley.”Kerry Hayes/Searchlight PicturesBut hey, there’s nothing wrong with simply being dazzled for the sake of it. It’s fun when Bradley Cooper shows up in “Licorice Pizza” to terrorize the young leads with wild, nervy electricity: Just when it feels like the film is coming to a close, Cooper adds enough of a jolt to power “Licorice Pizza” for 30 more minutes. Part of the thrill of watching such a big performance is that you know how much derision is at stake if the actor fails to nail it. Just think of poor Ben Platt in the film adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen”: His crying jags, so potent on the stage, proved unfortunately memeable in the movies.And sometimes, the most fascinating thing about a film is the frisson between a performer who goes big and co-stars who don’t. The first time I saw “The Power of the Dog,” I’ll admit I didn’t connect with Benedict Cumberbatch, whose performance as the sadistic cattle rancher Phil Burbank felt far too broad. After all, his primary scene partners are Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, a real-life couple who happen to be two of the best practitioners of American naturalism: They can do anything onscreen and not only will you believe it, you’ll hardly even catch them doing it. Up against them, I found Cumberbatch too mannered, like an actor determined to show his work.Benedict Cumberbatch opposite Kodi Smit-McPhee in “The Power of the Dog.”NetflixBut the second time I watched the film, I realized all of that artifice is perfect for Phil, who is concealing more than just his silver-spoon upbringing and degree from Yale. Put the pieces of his back story together and you’ll realize that Phil’s grime-covered cowboy act is all shtick, a performance of machismo so fraught that an interloper like Dunst threatens it because she doesn’t have to put on any sort of act at all. It took nerve for Jane Campion, the movie’s director, to assemble that sort of cast and trust that it would work, just as it took nerve for Cumberbatch to push things just a little further than some actors would deem comfortable.And hey, at least those bigger-than-average performances will make for some good Oscar clips. Many of the stars who’ve gone for broke have been earning awards attention, though I do want to go to bat for Affleck, who is delicious as the pompous count in “The Last Duel” and deserves serious supporting-actor consideration. The Golden Globes instead nominated him for his low-key work in “The Tender Bar” — a mistake, since the only thing Affleck has done this year that’s even comparable to “The Last Duel” is the contribution he made to pop culture as one half of Bennifer 2.0.Maybe that’s part of the fun of these supersized performances: They’re finally scaled to the level of celebrity that we count on someone like Affleck or Gaga to serve. So often, Hollywood has asked the stars who live largest to shrink themselves down for critical acclaim. But where’s the fun in that? They made that screen big for a reason. More
NBC debuts a sitcom about bumbling auto executives. And Tony Bennett sings with Lady Gaga on “MTV Unplugged.”Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Dec. 13-19. Details and times are subject to change.MondayAMERICAN AUTO 10 p.m. on NBC. In “Superstore,” the TV producer and creator Justin Spitzer lampooned a distinctly American workplace — a Costco-like big-box store — threatened by industry innovation. His new sitcom, “American Auto,” does the same for the automotive industry. It follows a group of bumbling executives at a fictional Detroit auto manufacturer as they try to keep up with an industry being transformed by self-driving cars and electric engines.SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017) 5 p.m. on FX. Tom Holland leaps back into theaters this week in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” his latest outing as that superhero, and the newest in a long line of attempts to capture the energy of comic book panels inside of film frames. This 2017 entry was the first time that Holland had a Spider-Man movie to himself. In her review for The New York Times Manohla Dargis called it a “likable, amusing” reboot. “What makes Spider-Man different and, ideally, work as a character, giving him an off-kilter charm, is he retains the uncertainties and vulnerabilities of adolescence,” Dargis wrote. “The team behind ‘Homecoming’ certainly gets that Spider-Man is a kid,” she said, “even if the movie plays the naïf angle too hard at times.”TuesdayAlan Cumming in “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”Andrew YoungTHE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The actor Alan Cumming teams up with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for this new take on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story of the same name. Conceived by the producer and conductor John Mauceri, who leads the performers here, this version combines live narration with music.ERNST LUBITSCH MOVIES 8 p.m. on TCM. On Tuesday night, TCM will show a string of early movies by the formative filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch. First up: THE DOLL (1919), a comedic fantasy about a young man who decides to marry a life-size doll. (The story was adapted from “La poupée,” an operetta by Edmond Audran, itself an adaptation of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story “Der Sandmann.”) Next: THE OYSTER PRINCESS (1919) at 9:15 p.m. and THREE WOMEN (1924) at 10:30 p.m., both also about relationship shenanigans. The Lubitsch continues into the early-morning hours for the hardiest among us.WednesdayTHE IHEARTRADIO JINGLE BALL 2021 8 p.m. on the CW. Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran, the Jonas Brothers and Saweetie are among the headliners of this year’s iHeartRadio holiday tour. This special will compile highlights from that tour, which included a stop at Madison Square Garden last week.ThursdayTony Bennett and Lady Gaga in “MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga.”Kevin Mazur/MTVMTV UNPLUGGED: TONY BENNETT & LADY GAGA 9 p.m. on MTV. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform songs from “Love for Sale,” their album of duets, in this special. The album was released in September, months after Bennett announced that he has been living with Alzheimer’s disease. It has been promoted as Bennett’s final record. That gives this old-school-jazz-club set a bittersweet flavor, but the sweetness prevails; the tone here is warm and celebratory.FridayLIVE FROM BRADLEY SYMPHONY CENTER: MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The conductor Ken-David Masur leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in classic works by Ellington, Gershwin and Stravinsky and a new piece by Eric Nathan in this concert, which celebrates the opening of the orchestra’s restored concert hall. The pianist Aaron Diehl joins as a guest.THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN (2021) 10 p.m. on Showtime. The filmmakers Peter Middleton and James Spinney use reams of archival footage; narration from the actress Pearl Mackie; and, perhaps most interestingly, dramatizations of audio interviews by lip-syncing actors to revisit the life and career of Charlie Chaplin in this documentary. It’s a rags-to-riches tale: The film follows Chaplin’s journey to Hollywood heights from a difficult childhood in Victorian London. The filmmakers “mostly run through the well-trodden timeline of Charlie Chaplin’s life and fame — from poverty to ubiquity to exile in Switzerland,” Nicolas Rapold wrote in his review for The Times, “but they keep up a wondering, questing approach.”SaturdayA scene from “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”Locksmith Animation/20th Century StudiosRON’S GONE WRONG (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. A kind of “Black Mirror” for the whole family, this computer-animated movie casts Zach Galifianakis as the voice of Bubble, a cute little robot who becomes the companion of boy named Ben (Jack Dylan Grazer). Bubble is the product of big tech company. Ben’s copy is defective, which may or may not be the reason this human-robot relationship is destined to be a bumpy one. Released after recent revelations from a Facebook whistle-blower have made the role of tech giants in the real-world more concerning than ever before, “Ron’s Gone Wrong” immerses viewers in “a world that suddenly looks more dystopian than it did before,” Ben Kenigsberg wrote in his review for The Times. But “as family entertainment,” he wrote, “it’s fine.”Sunday1883 9 p.m. on Paramount Network. Paramount has had a big hit with “Yellowstone,” its modern-day Western series that stars Kevin Costner as a headstrong rancher. As its title suggests, this new prequel spinoff series brings the action to the 19th century. It follows Costner’s ancestors on a journey through the Great Plains. Sam Elliott, the actor and veteran of westerns, stars alongside the singers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. More
Cameos by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and the K-pop group BTS mysteriously disappeared from the special when it aired on Chinese streaming sites. Online, fans suspected censorship.In China, the reunion episode of “Friends” was all about grudges.The problem wasn’t “Friends,” but the friends of “Friends.” More
The Mother Monster compares the making of her third studio album to ‘heart surgery,’ claiming she fell apart after completing the project because she was in so much pain.
Apr 14, 2021
AceShowbiz –
Lady GaGa has compared making her iconic album “ARTPOP” to “heart surgery.”
Fans have always loved the 2013 record and began campaigning for an “Act II” to the album on social media – causing the original album to climb charts worldwide.
And after #buyARTPOPoniTunes went viral on Twitter, Gaga took to her own Twitter page to respond to the campaign and the resulting push up the charts that ended up with Artpop coming in at number three on the U.S. chart, writing, “The petition to #buyARTPOPoniTunes for a volume II has inspired such a tremendous warmth in my heart. Making this album was like heart surgery, I was desperate, in pain, and poured my heart into electronic music that slammed harder than any drug I could find.”
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She continued, “I fell apart after I released this album. Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction. We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters. Paws up.”
After “ARTPOP”, GaGa went on to release “Cheek to Cheek”, a collaboration album with jazz icon Tony Bennett, a self-titled set “Joanne”, and her latest LP “Chromatica”.
She is currently filming hew new movie “House of Gucci”. Directed by Ridley Scott, it’s a true-story movie about the murder of fashion mogul Maurizio Gucci. She stars opposite Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, and Jeremy Irons among others.
The movie comes three years after the songstress’ critically-acclaimed movie “A Star Is Born” directed and led by Bradley Cooper. She won Best Original Song at the Oscar and Golden Globes, thanks to the soundtrack “Shallow”.
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The ‘A Star Is Born’ actress and the ‘Star Wars’ actor play Patrizia Reggiani and her husband Maurizio Gucci, the former head of the Gucci fashion house, respectively, in the Ridley Scott-directed crime film.
Mar 10, 2021
AceShowbiz – Lady GaGa and Adam Driver go high-fashion in their first official look from Ridley Scott’s upcoming film “House of Gucci”. The two stars look posh as they portray Patrizia Reggiani and her husband Maurizio Gucci, the former head of the Gucci fashion house, respectively, in the crime film.
GaGa made use of her social media account on Tuesday, March 9 to share the photo from the biopic. In the image, the “A Star Is Born” actress is dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants while accessorizing with a black belt, gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets as well as a white fur hat.
The Golden Globe-winning actress stands next to her co-star, Driver, who contrasts her look in a beige turtleneck sweater with white salopettes with the sleeves tied around his waist. He also wears wide-rimmed black glasses as he smiles with his arm around his on-screen leading lady.
“Signore e Signora Gucci #HouseOfGucci,” so GaGa captioned the image taken with the backdrop of the Italian Alps. It translates into “Mr. and Mrs. Gucci.”
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“House of Gucci” tells the real-life account of the tumultuous Gucci family fashion dynasty and the murder of Maurizio, the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci. Patrizia, the ex-wife of Maurizio, was tried and convicted of orchestrating her ex-husband’s assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years before being let out of jail in 2016.
The movie is scripted by Roberto Bentivegna, based on the Sara Gay Forden book “The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed”. Production on the film began in February, with Scott serving as director. He is also producing the pic with Giannina Scott.
The movie has additionally enlisted Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jack Huston, Reeve Carney and Jeremy Irons in the cast, with Camille Cottin being added in January. The movie is scheduled to be released in theaters across the U.S. on November 24.
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