LA’s Honor Fraser Gallery announced an artist residency with Nadya Tolokonnikova—a Siberian artist and a creator of the feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot, per a press release. According to the release, “During her residency, she will compose a series of artworks and performances that demonstrate her multifaceted approach to resisting systems of oppression and dehumanization.” It also stated, “The exhibition features sculptural installations created from objects related to sites of protest and imprisonment, displayed alongside large-scale Tolokonnikova’s self-portraits wearing a mask. Rather than recreating the literal confines of a prison cell, these works transmute Tolokonnikova’s experience of confinement into a symbolic vocabulary of resistance and renewal.” The residency—entitled Nadya Tolokonnikova-Pussy Riot: Punk’s Not Dead—will run Jan. 10-25, and will include a performance by Pussy Riot Siberia on opening night.
The British Academy revealed the results of the first round of voting across all 25 categories for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards—with the trans-centered movie Emilia Pérez (15 categories) and the production Conclave (14 categories) leading the pack, per Variety. The Substance, The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown are each on 11 lists. One of the snubs was Maria (about the late singer Maria Callas), which was shut out completely (and just days before Angelina Jolie attended the Golden Globes as a leading actress nominee); Pedro Almodovar’s Venice-winner The Room Next Door was also left out in the cold.
Nickel Boys—the Colson Whitehead adaptation from director RaMell Ross that co-stars LGBTQ+ actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor—won best film from the prestigious National Society of Film Critics, The Wrap noted. The drama of two young men incarcerated at an inhumane school for boys in Florida won the top award over runners-up Anora and All We Imagine as Light. Out actor Colman Domingo won best actor for his role in Sing Sing over Adrian Brody and Ralph Fiennes, while Marianne Jean-Baptiste won best actress for her role in Hard Truths.
The National Board of Review (NBR) hosted its annual awards gala on Jan. 7 at Cipriani 42nd Street, and Willie Geist hosted, per a press release. Wicked won for best film and director (Jon W. Chu), while Daniel Craig (Queer) and Nicole Kidman (Babygirl) won for best actor and actress, respectively. Also, the creative collaboration of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked earned the NBR Spotlight Award. Some of the presenters included Christine Baranski, Luca Gaudagnino, Carol Kane, Sofia Coppola, Robert Eggers, Jesse Eisenberg, Robert Pattinson, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Melvin, Michelle Yeoh and Drew Starkey (Craig’s co-star in Queer).
Jacques Audiard, who helmed the musical movie Emilia Pérez, was among those nominated for best film director of 2024 by the Directors Guild of America, The Wrap noted. The directors of Conclave, Anora, The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown were also nominated. The five nominees for the Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film were also named: Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light), Megan Park (My Old Ass), Ramell Ross (Nickel Boys), Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (Armand) and Sean Wang (Didi).Winners will be announced at the 77th annual DGA Awards on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Ahead of the 2025 Golden Globes, Laverne Cox announced she’s leaving her role as a host of E!’s live red-carpet coverage after three years, Page Six noted. “With an incredible amount of gratitude I’ve decided not to return as host of #LiveFromE’s red carpet coverage. I’m so incredibly proud of the work we did over my three-year tenure,” Cox wrote on Instagram. The Orange Is the New Black actress replaced Giuliana Rancic in 2021. This year, Access Hollywood’s Zuri Hall and comedian Heather McMahan were slated to conduct live interviews with nominees and attendees.
Queer activist ALOK‘s Biology! played to sold-out shows across the globe—and the comedy/poetry special is available to stream, according to GLAAD. “Oftentimes when people discuss biology, they act as if it’s fixed and forever,” ALOK told GLAAD’s Tony Morrison. “So when they see trans people, they’ll be like, you can’t change biology and one of the jokes in the show is anytime someone says that to me, I say, ‘Nice haircut.’ The truth is, we’re changing biology all the time.” In addition to Biology!, ALOK can be seen in the third season of the Max comedy Sex Lives of College Girls and can currently be seen in Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda comedy special on Netflix. They’re also the titular subject in the Sundance short doc ALOK that was executive-produced by Jodie Foster and directed by Alex Hedison.
With the song “Die With a Smile,” recorded with Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga has become the third-ever act to have multiple number-one songs across three different decades, according to euronews. In achieving this feat, she joins Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Previously, Gaga had number ones with “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” in 2009; “Born This Way” in 2011; “Shallow” in 2019; and “Rain on Me” in 2020. Gaga’s sixth No. 1 hit song on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart was released nearly five months ago and finally reached the top spot after being blocked by Shaboozey’s “Tipsy (A Bar Song).”
James Lee Williams, better known as drag queen The Vivienne, has died at age 32, the BBC reported. The Vivienne starred in musical theater and TV productions, and won the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019. On social media, show judge Michelle Visage called the news “heartbreaking”, adding, “My darling The Vivienne, we go back to when I started coming over here to the UK.” Rydal Penrhos school, where Williams was a former pupil, said it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the star’s death. According to A.V. Club, after winning Drag Race, Vivienne starred in a six-part BBC documentary series, The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood, about the making of her music video in Los Angeles; also, Vivienne hosted the web series I Like To Watch and was a contestant on The Great British Sewing Bee, The Weakest Link and Celebrity Mastermind.
And in connection with The Vivienne’s passing, Drag Race alum Tyra Sanchez was criticized for making a joke about the passing, according to Us Magazine. Sanchez had responded to a 2020 tweet from The Vivienne that discussed Sanchez; the original post read, “Bet Tyra was fuming when she realized Netflix Spoiled the win Too. Sorry gal. You tried, though,” to which Tyra replied on Jan. 5 with, “Yet it doesn’t compare to the fumes of the crematorium.” RuPaul and fellow drag queen Kandy Muse were among those chastising Sanchez, with Muse saying, “I’ve defended you for years but now you can absolutely go f— yourself and if our path were to ever cross it’s absolutely on sight bitch. It’s not a threat it’s a promise, you disgusting person.” But Sanchez doubled down, later posting, “She’s dead. Rotting. Sending me all the hate in the world won’t bring her back. But you do as you must.”
The search for Zelig Williams—a Broadway dancer and Columbia, South Carolina native—continues after three months, per Broadway World. Williams had recently returned to Columbia, where he was living with his mother, Kathy Williams, and working as a dance instructor. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has not ruled out foul play, although nothing has been publicly revealed. Williams’ disappearance captured national headlines in October, thanks in part to a social-media plea from actor Hugh Jackman; Williams had danced in Jackman’s “The Man. The Music. The Show.” tour in 2019.
Genderfluid performance artist Sushant Divgikr—who provided the Hindi voice of Squid Game season two’s trans character Cho Hyun-ju—reportedly used their Netflix check to financially support Dr. Ruth John Paul, the first transgender woman in India to be admitted to a postgraduate medical program, according to Out, citing Them. Divgikr, also known as her drag persona Rani KoHEnur, announced the donation on social media on Dec. 30. She added that she “worked with [Paul] in the past at the first transgender clinic in Hyderabad, where she was working tirelessly to help transgender people with healthcare and sustain basic health requirements.” Squid Game came under fire last year after it was announced that Hyung-ju would be played by cisgender male actor Park Sung-soon.
HBO has ended the superhero movie satire series The Franchise after one season, Deadline noted. The eight-episode season followed the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein and Isaac Powell starred in The Franchise, with Richard E. Grant and Daniel Brühl among the recurring cast.
The 17th Sin City Classic will take place in Las Vegas on Jan. 16-20, per the event’s website. More than 10,000 athletes and 500 teams are expected to participate in 24 disciplines, including basketball, dodgeball, pickleball, ice hockey and even bridge. There will also be social events, including the 2025 Compete Sports Diversity Awards, the Athlete’s Welcome Party, charity cornhole and darts tournaments, a RuPaul’s Drag Race viewing party, Gipsy Ultra Brunch and the Sin City Classic Closing Party Presented by Lexus, among other gatherings.
In the newly published memoir Hollywood on the Tiber (from Sticking Place Books), U.S. couple Hank Kaufman and Gene Lerner are seen in their collective role as unsung movers and shakers of the entertainment industry in the 1950s and 1960s, The Guardian noted. Among the incidents in the book is that Marlon Brando—who won an Oscar for his role in the film On the Waterfront—refused to watch it at the movie’s Italian premiere after discovering that his voice had been dubbed. They wrote Tiber in the late 1970s, but it was published only in Italian in 1982. (Brando was persuaded to visit a nearby bar and sneak back into the cinema five minutes before the end of the film, so nobody would know he left.) The agents remember Shelley Winters becoming “violently jealous” when she discovered her husband, Vittorio Gassman, was being intimate with another actor in his dressing room.
The long-running daytime chat show The View is set to expand to the weekends starting Jan. 11, Variety revealed. The Weekend View is a half-hour that will air on streaming platform ABC News Live and feature the show’s Friday panel, which includes moderator Joy Behar with co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro.The show will include an extended “Hot Topics” segment that will be taped on Friday after the regular The View broadcast; it will also include clips from the talker’s companion podcast, Behind the Table.
Olivia Rodrigo; Tyler, the Creator; Luke Combs; and Hozier are slated to headline the 2025 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, taking place June 12-15 on the Bonnaroo Farm, in Tennessee, per Variety. Other top-billed artists include Vampire Weekend, Justice, Queens of the Stone Age, John Summit, Dom Dolla and Avril Lavigne. The festival will feature performances around the clock across more than 10 stages, “with live music and much more through the night and into early morning with special sunrise sets.” The 2025 festival will offer some new features, such as the “Closer” RV and Primitive Camping accommodations that guarantee closer proximity to Centeroo, regardless of which day fans arrive; and an unprecedented three-dome, open-air design.
Jan. 1 was Public Domain Day, when copyrighted works from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924 entered the country’s public domain, according to Broadway World. Books that entered the public domain include William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms; films include Gold Diggers of Broadway and a dozen more Mickey Mouse animations; and musical compositions include “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “An American in Paris,” among others.
Jacob Elordi (Saltburn; Euphoria) is in early talks to lead The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller for 20th Century Studios, Deadline noted. Elordi would step in for Scott’s Gladiator II star, Paul Mescal, who had to depart due to scheduling conflicts after being tapped to star in Sam Mendes’ Beatles anthology, where he’s rumored to be playing Paul McCartney. Elordi is due to shoot Euphoria’s final season next year, along with Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights for Warner Bros; in the later, he stars opposite Margot Robbie.(Fennell also directed Saltburn.)
Out Desperate Housewives producer Marc Cherry is aware that Real Housewives may have been inspired by his iconic ABC show, but he isn’t upset about the Bravo franchise’s success, The Hollywood Reporter noted. “They didn’t crib my name, to be fair to them,” Cherry told People. “They just used the word. Our show came out, and they capitalized on that. And you know what? That’s the capitalistic system.” Cherry added that people—such as entertainer Tommy Tune—have confused the two.
Out actor Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls) released a campy re-creation of Kathie Lee Gifford’s “iconic” 1984 commercial for Carnival Cruise, Yahoo! noted. Bennett took to social media, posting a video featuring his shot-for-shot remake alongside Gifford’s original ad, which featured her singing the 1921 song “Ain’t We Got Fun.” Bennett’s update has him singing a very ’80s-inflected cover of the song in nearly identical scenarios. Gifford reposted Bennett’s video, commenting, “I suppose imitation is the best form of flattery, so thank you @jonathandbennett—although, I do look a whole lot better than you do in a bikini!”
Golden Globe-winning Emilia Pérez co-star Zoe Saldaña talked about her attraction to women to W Magazine, according to Out. Saldaña has been with her husband, Italian artist Marco Perego, since 2013—but in an interview with W, she opened up about also being attracted to women and revealed that her first kiss was actually with a girl. In part, she said, “I was already kissing a whole bunch of girls by the time I was 13, 14. Girls are such better kissers!” The actress also talked about celebrity crushes: “I did have a crush on Prince and Annie Lennox, I can’t believe I’m saying this! Because there was just something androgynous about them. I love a woman who’s masculine and a man who is feminine. I find that to be really sexy.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist Kameron Michaels said he is launching several creative projects, including an explicit OnlyFans account, per PinkNews. He also announced he is officially a “certified personal trainer” and is planning to launch Kameron Michaels Fitness as his latest venture. However, he clarified that the projects don’t mean he’s saying goodbye to drag, and that “you will still see me around.”
Accused murderer Luigi Mangione’s cultural impact has apparently inspired a viral drag performance that has generated online banter, according to TMZ. A performer named August Ryder shared video on X of his set from a “So You Think You Can Twink” pageant at the Precinct DTLA nightclub in Los Angeles—in which he dressed as the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer and lip-synced to the Wicked anthem “Defying Gravity.” Before Ryder even took to the stage, footage of Mangione’s high-profile arrest played for the crowd—to thunderous applause. Ryder’s number, unsurprisingly, has polarized users, with some calling it “art” and one person blasting it as “cringe as f***.”
Cooking-show host Rachael Ray recently talked on a podcast about trying to set up her now-husband, lawyer/musician John Cusimano, with another man before they started dating, according to LGBTQ Nation, citing Us Weekly. “The first time I saw my husband, I thought he was gay and I tried to set him up on a date with a male friend of mine—and he said, ‘But I am not gay,’” she said on an episode of the I’ve Never Said This Before podcast with host Tommy DiDario, the husband of ABC News journalist Gio Benitez. Ray also spoke about her assumption of her husband’s sexuality a few months ago on her own podcast, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, when she revealed that he told her what he once made for dinner, adding, “There’s no way a straight guy knows what tilapia is.”
Fans are invited to join the second annual celebration of Harold Ramis’ life and career with an official Groundhog Day celebration on Feb. 2 at Chicago’s Harry Caray’s Tavern Navy Pier, per a press release. To commemorate Chicago’s Harold Ramis Day, cast members from the celebrated 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, co-written and directed by Ramis, will participate in this special public event. When the alarm clock flips from 2:59 p.m. to 3 p.m. and “I Got You Babe” plays, cast members will share remarks about Harold and the film.
Arnie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name) is experiencing a career resurgence after nabbing the starring role in Uwe Boll’s latest film, The Dark Knight, Variety noted. The embattled actor, who saw his career come to a screeching halt in 2021 following allegations of sexual misconduct, recently returned to work in Travis Mills’ upcoming western Frontier Crucible, which also stars Thomas Jane and William H. Macy. The film is scheduled to begin principal photography in Croatia on Jan. 27. In a recent podcast interview, Hammer said that his acting career has picked up so much that he’s starting to turn jobs down.
Pamela Anderson—who’s experiencing her own career renaissance with the film The Last Showgirl—talked about a near-fatal confrontation she had with a political extremist on an airplane, per The New York Daily News. The actress, known for her iconic Baywatch role, revealed that she was angrily confronted by a man on an airplane who thought she was a member of The Chicks—the Grammy Award-winning country music trio previously known as the Dixie Chicks—adding, “This stewardess had to handcuff him to the chair because he was trying to attack me.” She shared the encounter after being asked if she has ever been mistaken for another celebrity during an interview this week on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.