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    ‘Emilia Pérez’ and the New Era of Online Oscar Scandals

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    As Karla Sofía Gascón’s resurfaced social media posts upend the campaign for the year’s most-nominated film, what happens now?Last August, when I first met and interviewed the “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, she told me that she was not the type of person to back down from a conflict.“I’m a great warrior,” Gascón said then. “I love to fight. If it was up to me, I would go to all the talk shows and fight with everybody all the time.”She shared this to illustrate how fraught her life had become in the years leading up to “Emilia Pérez,” when Gascón, previously known to Mexican audiences for her work in telenovelas, came out publicly as a trans woman. But that hint at her combative nature could also have been considered something of a sneak preview, now that the newly Oscar-nominated actress has become embroiled in a scandal — and embarked on a defiant media blitz — that has imperiled both her career and the formerly front-running awards campaign of “Emilia Pérez.”As recently as last week, the 52-year-old actress and the Spanish-language musical she stars in were riding high. With a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations, “Emilia Pérez” represented Netflix’s strongest shot at finally nabbing its first best-picture trophy, while Gascón had already made history as the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Gascón is the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Oscar.Pathé FilmsThen, last Wednesday, the journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed years-old posts Gascón had written on X that denigrated Muslims (saying Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured”), called George Floyd a “drug-addicted con artist,” and criticized the diverse winners of the 2021 Oscar telecast (“I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8-M”). In a statement issued by Netflix the next day, Gascón apologized for the posts. But instead of allowing the dust to settle, the star took matters into her own hands.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Karla Sofía Gascón, ‘Emilia Pérez’ Star, Apologizes for Posts on Muslims, George Floyd and China

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      The Oscar-nominated actress, who plays a cartel leader in “Emilia Pérez,” was criticized for derogatory comments about Muslims, George Floyd and China.Karla Sofía Gascón, the star of the movie musical “Emilia Pérez” and the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, apologized on Thursday after social media posts she wrote denigrating Muslims, George Floyd and China were resurfaced.“I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” Gascón, 52, said in a statement provided by Netflix, the distributor of “Emilia Pérez.” “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”In one of the posts on X, which were published in Spanish and shared in screenshots by the journalist Sarah Hagi, Gascón wrote that Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.” In another, she wrote that “the religion is INCOMPATIBLE with Western values.”Gascón also described Floyd as a “drug-addicted con artist” in a 2020 post criticizing people who were protesting his deadly arrest by police officers. Later that year, during the coronavirus pandemic, she wrote that “the Chinese vaccine, in addition to the mandatory chip, comes with two spring rolls.”She deleted her account on Friday.Gascón, who came out as a trans woman in 2016, was born in Spain and was a star of Mexican telenovelas before landing the title role in “Emilia Pérez,” in which she plays a cartel leader who goes into hiding after a gender transition. The movie leads the pack with 13 Oscar nominations, including for best picture. More

    • 125 Shares109 Views

      in Music

      The Year in Pop: Hits Without Stars, Stars Without Hits

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      This past spring, Tommy Richman got famous off a TikTok.Well, not famous exactly. Popular. Let’s say popular. Tommy Richman got popular off a TikTok.Or maybe that’s not quite right either. How about: This past spring, a snippet of a song used in a video on TikTok catapulted Richman, a young soul singer with some promising earlier releases, onto the path to fame.The snippet was of “Million Dollar Baby,” a deliciously saccharine pop-funk thumper, and the TikTok it soundtracked was a loose clip of Richman and his friends having a fantastic time in the studio one night — a warm little bolt of you-shoulda-been-there fun. This was in April, and before long, the clip had millions of views, and the audio was inescapable. Eventually, it appeared in over nine million videos on the app. Radio play followed quickly, leading to a No. 2 debut for the song on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by a few months in the Top 10.Stardom secured, right? Not quite. While “Million Dollar Baby” is one of this year’s defining singles, Richman remains largely a cipher. He hasn’t done many interviews; he had a needless social-media kerfuffle over how people taxonomize his sound; and his debut studio album, “Coyote” — which pointedly and stubbornly did not include “Million Dollar Baby” or its follow-up cousin, “Devil Is a Lie” — arrived with a whisper in September, and disappeared even more quietly.Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” blew up on TikTok and hit the Hot 100, but didn’t appear on his debut studio album.Craig Barritt/Getty ImagesThis isn’t to consign Richman to pop’s deep bin of one-hit wonders. If anything, the current pathway for breakout successes, especially via TikTok, is more insidious than that. Viral smashes like “Million Dollar Baby” often feel like hits without stars — potent for soundtracking and sticking to content made by others rather than attached to the artist who actually created it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 200 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      ‘The Interview’: K-Pop Trained Rosé to Be ‘a Perfect Girl.’ Now She’s Trying to Be Herself.

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      South Korean pop, known as K-pop, is not just a type of music — it’s a culture, where bold style, perfectly choreographed dance moves and ebullient earworms that draw from pop, hip-hop and traditional Korean music attract a huge and particularly devoted global fan base. The genre’s stars, known as idols, are trained, often for years, by entertainment companies that then place the most promising trainees in groups, write and produce their music and obsessively manage their public images. It’s a system that works for the idols who make it big, but it has also drawn criticism for its grueling methods, which some call exploitative.One of the biggest stars to come out of that system is Rosé. Born Roseanne Park, she trained for four years with one of K-pop’s largest agencies, YG Entertainment, eventually breaking through as part of the girl group Blackpink. Now at age 27, she is striking out on her own with her first full-length solo album, “Rosie,” which comes out on Dec. 6 from Atlantic Records. (The album’s first single, “APT.” a collaboration with Bruno Mars, is a true bop and has made history as the first track by a female K-pop artist to break into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.) She is still a member of Blackpink, and the group re-signed with YG in 2023. But after years of singing other people’s songs and performing as Rosé, which she described to me as “a character that I really worked hard on as a trainee,” writing her own songs for this solo album has made her think about where she came from and who she is, separate from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Listen to the Conversation With RoséThe Blackpink star talks about striking out on her own, away from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppYou’re about to release your first full-length solo album. Can you tell me what you’re feeling? Like I’ve been waiting to release this album for my whole life. I grew up listening to a lot of female artists. I used to relate to them, and they used to really get me through a lot of tough times. And so I would always dream of one day having an album myself. But I never really thought it would be realistic. I remember last year when I first began the whole process of it, I doubted myself a lot.It probably would be surprising to anyone who would look at Rosé, with all your success, with the enormous fan base that you have, to know that you doubted yourself so much. I don’t think I ever learned or trained myself to be vulnerable and open and honest. So that was the part I feared, because it was the opposite of what I was trained to do.You were born in New Zealand to South Korean immigrant parents and then you moved to Australia when you were 8. In 2012, when you were 15, you auditioned for a slot in YG Entertainment’s trainee program, which is basically a boarding school for becoming a K-pop star. It was your dad’s idea, right? Yes. More

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      in Music

      How One Man’s Tale of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Tapes Landed Him in Court

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      Courtney Burgess, a one-time music industry bit player, said he had videos showing encounters involving celebrities. Prosecutors recently subpoenaed him.In federal court, the music mogul Sean Combs is facing a sweeping indictment that accuses him of running a criminal enterprise that engaged in sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.Online, a cottage industry of amateur sleuths, speculators and self-described past associates have accused him, often with little grounding, of far worse.After Mr. Combs was charged in September, the social media theorizing about rampant celebrity debauchery and additional victims only grew more feverish and conspiratorial. Soon, a man began showing up on true crime podcasts claiming he had been given videos that showed sexual encounters involving Mr. Combs and a variety of other stars, including some he said looked to be inebriated and underage.Media outlets have received anonymous emails offering to negotiate deals to provide the supposed footage, but none have published any images and it remains unclear whether such videos even exist.Yet in a startling twist that brought the internet rumor mill into the U.S. court system, prosecutors recently subpoenaed Courtney Burgess, the man who said he had the explosive videos, to testify in front of a grand jury considering additional charges against Mr. Combs.The surfacing of Mr. Burgess, a one-time music industry bit player, has only amped up the circuslike frenzy surrounding the case. With much of the investigation shrouded in secrecy, it is unclear whether the prosecutors view Mr. Burgess as a possible new witness — the keeper of a smoking gun — or simply wanted to test the online bluster of someone seeking to be part of the action.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      How Will Popular Culture Change in Trump’s Second Term?

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicIn the months leading up to the election, Donald J. Trump appeared on several podcasts with young male audiences. Whether or not they tilted the outcome, they helped increase Trump’s visibility and appeal with a notoriously hard-to-reach demographic. And following his victory, Trump culture moved out of these comfort spaces and began seeping out in unexpected places: Trump danced in N.F.L. end zones, there were TikTok videos of people wearing MAGA hats in New York City.In many ways the cultural legacy of the first Trump administration was more visible in backlash and protest. But it’s possible the second time around, the impact will be an affirmative one.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the long tail of cultural response to political change, the de-monopolization of centrist broadcast and cable television and the different directions pop culture might take in Trump’s second term.Guest:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      How Did ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Become a Gen Z Hit? TikTok, Of Course.

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      After almost 20 years on air, the reality competition series made changes that brought a surge of younger viewers.The world has changed around “Dancing With the Stars” since the competition series became a hit after its 2005 premiere. Though producers have periodically experimented with casting, canned hosts and tweaked the elimination process, the heart of the show — pairs of professional dancers and celebrities performing weekly and facing elimination based on scores from judges and fan votes — has remained intact.That formula meant “D.W.T.S.” had an audience with a median age of 63.5 in 2022. But in the past two seasons — after almost 20 years and 500 episodes — the show has grabbed hold of Gen Z viewers through its canny use of TikTok, casting of younger dance pros and the chance virality of “wow moments” from routines.“We’ve kind of hit this tipping point where now we feed TikTok, TikTok feeds back to us,” said Conrad Green, the showrunner.Ahead of the Season 33 semifinals, Green and two of the show’s professional dancers, Rylee Arnold, 19, and Witney Carson, 31, explained their parts in making “Dancing With the Stars” a hit with Gen Z.Charli D’Amelio was an influencer contestant for the streaming era.In 2022, Disney execs removed “Dancing With the Stars” from network TV, making it available only via the Disney+ streaming app, a move aimed at drawing older viewers to the service, which predominantly catered to children from the ages 2 to 17.

      @officialdwts The countdown to #DisneyNight is on! Join us in ONE HOUR – 8/7c on ABC and Disney+. 🐭✨ #DWTS ♬ original sound – Dancing with the Stars #DWTS We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      ‘We Live in Time’ Inspires a Thousand Crying Selfies

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      After seeing “We Live in Time,” social media users filmed themselves sobbing, creating a loop of people seeking an emotional release and then sharing it with the world.When they came across videos on TikTok of people crying after they watched “We Live in Time,” a new romantic drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, Carmen Wells and her five roommates decided to watch the film.After the screening, “We were the last ones in the movie theater, sitting on the floor, sobbing,” said Ms. Wells, 19, a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.Thinking that their reactions were amusing, and wanting to encourage others to see the movie, Ms. Wells made her own video.“This is me before ‘We Live in Time,’” Ms. Well says in the video, looking composed and casual in a hoodie and glasses. A few seconds later, a shaky hand captures Ms. Wells walking on the street, sobbing as she cries out, “He loves her so much!” Another few seconds pass, and Ms. Wells is holding the camera again. She turns it toward herself. “This is me,” she says through tears.The video, which she posted last week, joined a wave of “crying selfies” that fans of “We Live in Time” have created in response to the film’s heart-wrenching story about love and loss. Crying selfies, which have gained traction in recent years thanks to posts by celebrities like Justin Bieber and Bella Hadid, are photos or videos usually shot in response to overwhelming stress or to an emotional crisis like a breakup. But in this new iteration, the videos are endorsing an experience: Go see this movie if you want a good cry.The TikTok call has been heard: Eighty-five percent of the people who saw “We Live in Time” were under 35 years old, according to Deadline. A24, the film’s production company, has leaned in, distributing branded tissue packs at select screenings on opening weekend.

      @_catman0 straight blubbering (everyone needs to see this movie) #weliveintime #andrewgarfield #sobbing @Maeve @brie @Mary Cooper @Danielle ♬ original sound – carmone

      @brianna.kearney We Live In Time is just wow. #weliveintime #florencepugh #andrewgarfield #movie #movies #moviestowatch ♬ QKThr – Aphex Twin

      @cameliacgarcia this is what happens when you don’t watch the trailer and go in blind @We Live In Time so good tho 🥹 #weliveintime #weliveintimemovie #andrewgarfield #florencepugh #paratii #fypシ ♬ Fine line – Instrumental – Kapa Boy We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Music

      Their Songs Blew Up on TikTok, So These Musicians Tweaked Their Sets

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      Social media platforms and streaming services are leading younger listeners to new (and old) music. Artists are making sure they feel at home at live shows.DJ Paul, a founder of the Oscar-winning Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, was enjoying some tequila at a pool party in the Hollywood Hills two years ago when a friend shoved a cellphone in front of him. The rapper was surprised to see TikTok videos uploaded by “young white girls” dancing and rhyming along to one of the coarser moments from “Half on a Sack,” a slightly menacing song the group released 17 years earlier. The lyrics described sex and drug use on a tour bus.“I’m like, ‘Whoa,’” he remembered in an interview, laughing. “And when I do my concerts, you see the same kind of girls out there singing that line. They go crazy.”Paul said that “Half on a Sack” had long been a staple of the group’s live set lists, but the crowd response has been more uproarious in the wake of its viral moment.The rapper Project Pat, who has been touring with Three 6 Mafia this year, said he regularly performed “Life We Live,” his 23-year-old song that’s been used in almost three million TikTok videos. It’s seen a 130 percent increase in Spotify streams, as well.Project Pat has seen “Life We Live,” a song he released in 2001, gain a new life on TikTok.Aaron J. Thornton/FilmMagic, via Getty Images“I always looked at the rap game as a business,” Pat said. “I didn’t never look at it like I’m putting my pain and all that” into the art. “If you gon’ pay for this, I’m gonna tell you what you want to hear,” he added in his distinctive Memphis accent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More