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AARP Movie Nominees Include “Fabelmans,” “Elvis,” “Top Gun” But No “Whale” or “Emancipation”

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Believe it or not the AARP Movie Awards are important. They reach a big audience. All their Best Picture nominations were similar to Critics Choice and AFI, even Golden Globes. But they eschewed “The Whale” and “Emancipation,” which should tell us everything. Good luck to everyone! (PS Some actors were excluded because they were too young, like Michelle Williams.)

The complete list of the annual Movies for Grownups Awards Nominees:

  • Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups: Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, The Woman King and Women Talking.
  • Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Tár), Viola Davis (The Woman King), Lesley Manville (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris), Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once).
  • Best Actor: Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Tom Hanks (A Man Called Otto), Bill Nighy (Living) and Adam Sandler (Hustle).
  • Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Patricia Clarkson (She Said), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Judith Ivey (Women Talking)and Gabrielle Union (The Inspection).
  • Best Supporting Actor: Andre Braugher (She Said), Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin), Woody Harrelson (Triangle of Sadness), Judd Hirsch(The Fabelmans) and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once).  
  • Best Director: James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water), Todd Field (Tár), Baz Luhrmann (Elvis), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) and Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans).
  • Best Screenwriter: Todd Field (Tár), Kazuo Ishiguro (Living), Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Rebecca Lenkiewicz (She Said) and Dana Stevens (The Woman King).
  • Best Actress (TV): Christina Applegate (Dead to Me), Toni Collette (The Staircase), Laura Linney (Ozark), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary) and Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul).  
  • Best Actor (TV): Jeff Bridges (The Old Man), Steve Carell (The Patient),Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses) and Wes Studi (Reservation Dogs). 
  • Best TV Series:Abbott Elementary, The Old Man, Only Murders in the Building, The White Lotus and Yellowstone.
  • Best TV Movie/Limited Series: Black Bird, The Dropout, Inventing Anna, The Staircase and The Watcher.
  • Best Ensemble: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Nope, She Said, The Woman King and Women Talking. 
  • Best Intergenerational Movie: Armageddon Time, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, A Man Called Otto and Till. 
  • Best Time Capsule: Armageddon Time, Babylon, Elvis, The Fabelmans and Till.
  • Best Grownup Love Story: Empire of Light; Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; A Love Song; and Ticket to Paradise.
  • Best Documentary: Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, Lucy and Desi, The Pez Outlaw, Sidney and Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off.
  • Best Foreign Film: Argentina, 1985 (Argentina), Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico), Broker (South Korea), One Fine Morning (France) and The Quiet Girl (Ireland).

Breaking: Henry Cavill OUT as Superman, James Gunn Writing New Movie Without Him

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There will be no “Man of Steel,” Part 2. And Henry Cavill’s cameo at the end of “Black Adam” was a one off.

All this news has broken tonight on Twitter as Cavill has announced that after meeting with Warner’s DC chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran the dream is dead.

And Gunn has announced that he’s writing a new Superman movie from earlier in the super hero’s life, “so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill.” This suggests that Cavill, now an elderly 39, has aged out of the role. (Yes, a spit take is good here.)

Gunn says: }But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we’re big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.”

This is code for Don’t call us, we’ll call you, or Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?

Cavill’s statement is below. He says he was told by Warner Bros, to announce his return back in October, which he did, “so this news isn’t the easiest…That’s life.”

Cavill will get over it, and so will the fans. Cavill made good money with Warner’s/DC but you’ve got to think he has bigger and better things coming. Maybe James Bond? As for Superman, it seems like Gunn is going back to reintroducing him yet again as he’s been tweeting references to the original Christopher Reeve movies. So it’s time to return to Krypton, wrap the baby up, crash in Smallville, meet Perry, Lois, and Jimmy. As we’ve learned with Spider Man, you can’t tell an origin story too many times!

Golden Globes 2023 Theme Emerges: Eddie Murphy Getting Lifetime Achievement Award, Jerrod Carmichael Hosting

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It’s starting to feel a lot like…a new Golden Globes.

Today the Hollywood Foreign Press announced that their lifetime achievement award is going to…ta da… Eddie Murphy. Eddie would be only the fourth POC to receive the award since they started giving it in 1952. (The others are Oprah, Denzel, and Morgan Freeman.)

Previously announced was the host of the show this year, Jerrod Carmichael, who’s Black and gay. So a theme is emerging for this year’s show. This is all in response to the scandal the group suffered over the last couple of years concerning diversity in its membership. They had no Black members.

The HFPA added 100 new voters this season (not actual members), most of them multicultural. Oddly, with all those new voters, it seems like no one liked “Till” or its much acclaimed star, Danielle Deadwyler. That’s an egregious omission. But they did otherwise nominate at least one Black actor in every acting category, so that’s something.

The Globes air January 10th on NBC.

Critics Choice Awards Go Strong for “Fabelmans,” “Banshees,” “Everything,” “Elvis”

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The Critics Choice Awards will be broadcast on the CW Network on Sunday, January 15th. Chelsea Handler is hosting. These nominations are excellent. What a night that will be! Around 500 very diverse journalists vote for these awards, they’re the real thing!

FILM NOMINATIONS FOR THE 28TH ANNUAL CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS

BEST PICTURE
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
RRR
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking

BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler – Elvis
Tom Cruise – Top Gun: Maverick
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Paul Mescal – Aftersun
Bill Nighy – Living

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Tár
Viola Davis – The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler – Till
Margot Robbie – Babylon
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Dano – The Fabelmans
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jessie Buckley – Women Talking
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Frankie Corio – Aftersun
Jalyn Hall – Till
Gabriel LaBelle – The Fabelmans
Bella Ramsey – Catherine Called Birdy
Banks Repeta – Armageddon Time
Sadie Sink – The Whale

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
The Woman King
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
Damien Chazelle – Babylon
Todd Field – Tár
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley – Women Talking
Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Woman King
S. S. Rajamouli – RRR
Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Todd Field – Tár
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner – The Fabelmans
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Samuel D. Hunter – The Whale
Kazuo Ishiguro – Living
Rian Johnson – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rebecca Lenkiewicz – She Said
Sarah Polley – Women Talking

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Russell Carpenter – Avatar: The Way of Water
Roger Deakins – Empire of Light
Florian Hoffmeister – Tár
Janusz Kaminski – The Fabelmans
Claudio Miranda – Top Gun: Maverick
Linus Sandgren – Babylon

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hannah Beachler, Lisa K. Sessions – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Rick Carter, Karen O’Hara – The Fabelmans
Dylan Cole, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole – Avatar: The Way of Water
Jason Kisvarday, Kelsi Ephraim – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn – Elvis
Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino – Babylon

BEST EDITING
Tom Cross – Babylon
Eddie Hamilton – Top Gun: Maverick
Stephen Rivkin, David Brenner, John Refoua, James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
Paul Rogers – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Matt Villa, Jonathan Redmond – Elvis
Monika Willi – Tár

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Ruth E. Carter – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jenny Eagan – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Shirley Kurata – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Catherine Martin – Elvis
Gersha Phillips – The Woman King
Mary Zophres – Babylon

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Whale

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Everything Everywhere All at Once
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST COMEDY
The Banshees of Inisherin
Bros
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Triangle of Sadness
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red
Wendell & Wild

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Close
Decision to Leave
RRR

BEST SONG
Carolina – Where the Crawdads Sing
Ciao Papa – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Hold My Hand – Top Gun: Maverick
Lift Me Up – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Naatu Naatu – RRR
New Body Rhumba – White Noise

BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Michael Giacchino – The Batman
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Tár
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Women Talking
Justin Hurwitz – Babylon
John Williams – The Fabelmans

Soccer Journalist Grant Wahl Was Not Murdered in Qatar, Wife Says Died from Aneurysm

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Soccer journalist Grant Wahl’s wife, Celine Gounder, has just announced her husband’s cause of death in Qatar. It was not murder. In a way, it was worse.

Gounder writes: “An autopsy was performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office. Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium. The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death.”

Many jumped to the conclusion that some kind of violence was involved. But Wahl had a time bomb ticking in his head the whole time. It’s tragic.

Read Gounder’s whole statement here

Review: Whitney Houston’s Complex Life, Stunning Highs and Lows, Captured in New Film, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

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It’s not easy to make a single movie about Whitney Houston. The late great singer had so many highs and lows before her death in 2012 at age 48, a soup to nuts biopic would seem daunting.

And yet, Kasi Lemmons has made a very triumphant film with a screenplay by Anthony McCarten. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” very deftly manages Houston’s skyrocketing career counterpointed by her difficult family life and eventual descent into drugs.

The film’s accomplishments are often surprising, starting with Naomi Ackie’s take on Houston’s turbulence. Ackie has a fine voice of her own, and she often uses it throughout the film. But the majority of the singing is from Whitney herself, Luckily Clive Davis — who’s a character in the film played kind of brilliantly by Stanley Tucci — is also a producer. So he’s brought all of Whitney’s sizzling live recordings to the film, which Ackie seamlessly lip syncs.

This shouldn’t work but it does, and it’s to Lemmons’ credit that she’s able to recreate most of Whitney’s classic videos and concert appearances. Many stand out, but Houston’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl is unforgettable as reenacted here.

Ackie and Tucci as Whitney and Clive have a very enjoyable rapport in the film thanks to McCarten’s excellent screenplay. The affection between them is genuine. They are not the only actors firing on all cylinders. Tamara Tunie and veteran actor Clarke Peters capture the essence of Whitney’s parents, Cissy and John Houston. I knew these people for a long time, and I was blown away how the actors were able to embody these complicated relationships.

“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” does not shy away from Whitney’s romantic relationship with Robyn Crawford, or her increasing dependence on drugs. Even though Bobby Brown seems like the villain of the piece, it’s clear that Whitney’s brothers introduced her to drugs in the first place. None of this swept under the rug. It’s all dealt with head on, and all of Whitney’s tribulations are woven into the two hour, twenty minute film.

The filmmakers could not make a miniseries. They were charged with making a film. So a lot of the unpleasant stuff that happened in the 2000s– Whitney and Bobby’s reality series, for example — is simply avoided. Believe me there’s enough material that every beat is played, I was happy not see some of Whitney’s worst episodes splashed onto the screen. The viewer gets the point without it being hammered over the head.

“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is no whitewash. It’s a balanced mix of dark and light. But in the end what propels it is The Voice, the best voice of her generation. Whitney Houston’s music is what survives the scandal and gossip, and that gorgeous shimmering sound is what remains.

The movie opens December 21st in 3,000 theaters– no streaming. You’ll want to see it on a big screen. Sadly, Sony missed deadlines for the Critics Choice and Golden Globes — they would have gotten nods in many categories.

More on the movie’s opening night later today…

O Solo Bono: U2 Leader Going On His Own for 8 “Surrender” Shows at NYC’s Beacon Theater in April

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O solo Bono:

The leader of U2, Bono, has booked 8 nights at the Beacon Theater in New York for April. He’s launching his solo tour, called “Songs of Surrender,” named for his current best selling book.

A few weeks ago, Bono tested this show out at the Beacon and then hit the road on a book tour to major markets.

I guess he liked it. In the show, he can be more intimate and personal, singing songs he likes, reading from his book, and taking it down a notch from the big U2 stadium shows. The set list first time around had 16 songs, all U2 hits, just pared way down. This time around, I’d love to hear one of his best songs, “Stay (Faraway So Close”) and a little known one, “Original of the Species.”

Let’s hope those shows return next summer, however. As much as we love Bono, there’s nothing like the whole band.

“Yellowstone” Sunday Ratings Rise a Little on Paramount Network, A LOT on CMT

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What is going on with “Yellowstone”?

Even though I see some grumbling on social media, fans are flocking to the show.

Sunday’s ratings were up slightly on Paramount Network– 7.9 million, up from 7.6 million the previous week. That’s good news.

But on CMT, Country Music Television, the faithful really tuned in. The show jumped from 833K the previous week to 1.8 million on Sunday.

That’s music to the ears at Viacom, where they love building up their secondary networks.

Meantime, “Yellowstone” did pick up one Golden Globe nomination — for Kevin Costner, Best Actor in a Drama. That’s more of a nod to Costner’s movie career, but at least it was something!

Bingo! “SNL” Jumps by Over a Million Viewers with Steve Martin-Martin Short-Brandi Carlile Show

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Nothing succeeds like success!

“Saturday Night Live” jumped to just over 5.1 million viewers this weekend. Beautiful! The combo of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Brandi Carlile did the trick.

The show was up over 1 million viewers from the previous week, and around 900,000 from the prior weeks.

Selena Gomez popped up as a cameo, and did Kieran Culkin.

This installment of “SNL” will win a bunch of Emmys. It was just terrific, like the old days, really well written and executed. Short told me when I saw him Sunday night at “Some Like it Hot” on Broadway that he and Steve really worked hard on it and contributed to all the writing. You could tell.

Congrats to Lorne Michaels, who I’m sure is happy to see his numbers go up! (And not on a cardio chart!) Michaels also has a huge hit on Broadway with “Leopoldstadt,” which just extended through June and will win a bunch of awards.

“White Lotus” Next Stop: The Maldives? Mike White Hints at Asia, Four Seasons Hotels Has Many Venues There

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So where does White Lotus go next? Remember, in the final episode on Sunday night, Daphne announces the next vacation will be in the Maldives.

Well, the Maldives are in Asia, and that’s where show creator Mike White has indicated in interviews he’d like to head to explore Eastern religion among his characters. He’s also suggested that Tanya’s murderous husband, Greg, could turn up there, perhaps pursued by Portia, Tanya’s assistant.

Indeed, the Four Seasons hotel chain has several venues in the Maldives that are expensive, romantic, and other worldly. So it’s possible that Daphne dropped a hint that no one picked up. And maybe they’ll find Tanya’s secret twin sister there, too. (Tanya’s father was a billionaire, a secret child is not to be ruled out.)

And where or what are the Maldives? Just in case: they’re a series of island southwest of Sri Lanka and India. It’s an archipelago, which means water, water, everywhere as well as a lot of beaches. There’s lot of locations for adventures. And since the White Lotus gang rarely leaves their hotel, there won’t be too much worry of having to leave the resort.

PS The only people we never want to see again on any vacation are Daphne and Cameron. I hope White isn’t planning on bringing them back!