Timothée Chalamet faces criticism for opera, ballet comments ahead of Oscars

Timothée Chalamet attends the 32nd annual Actor Awards, March 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

With less than a week to go before the 2026 Oscars, Timothée Chalamet is facing backlash for comments he made about opera and ballet in a recent interview.

The actor has specifically been criticized by some in the arts community for saying “no one cares” about ballet and opera, suggesting they are dying arts.

“I admire people — and I’ve done it myself — [who] go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive, you know, we gotta keep this genre alive,'” Chalamet said during a town hall with Matthew McConaughey in late February, presented by CNN and Variety. “And I don’t wanna be working in ballet or opera or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.”

Chalamet quickly added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” as the crowd laughed.

“I just lost 14 cents in viewership,” he said.

Megan Fairchild, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, responded to Chalamet’s comments on Instagram last week, sharing a video of herself alongside a caption that read in part, “Artists supporting artists matters. None of these paths are easy, and there’s no need to put ballet or opera down along the way.”

“Ballet and opera aren’t niche hobbies people opt out of for fame,” Fairchild said in the video. “They’re disciplines you can only enter if you have the rare ability for them in the first place.”

Conductor Alondra de la Parra also joined the chorus of pushback in a viral Instagram video in which she walks out of a prop coffin, saying jokingly, “I’m coming out of my coffin, because… we’re dead.”

The Seattle Opera, meanwhile, seized on Chalamet’s comments as an opportunity to promote its production of “Carmen,” giving operagoers 14% off tickets with the promo code “TIMOTHEE.”

“Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too,” the company wrote in the caption of an Instagram post Friday.

Chalamet has previously spoken about his family’s own history in the arts, particularly his mother’s, grandmother’s and sister’s ballet careers.

“I grew up backstage at the New York City Ballet. My grandmother danced in the New York City Ballet, my mother danced in the New York City Ballet, my sister danced in the New York City Ballet,” he said in an interview last December promoting Marty Supreme, which has since resurfaced online.

The pushback comes just days ahead of the 98th Academy Awards, which take place Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chalamet has been on a roll this award season, winning best actor statuettes at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and more.

Chalamet started off award season as the Oscar favorite for lead actor, though in recent weeks Sinners star Michael B. Jordan has emerged as another strong contender.

Kelley Carter, ABC News entertainment contributor, pointed to the timing of the backlash to Chalamet’s February town hall remarks, saying it is important to keep in mind that “awards season is a political campaign.”

“While you’re not going to see outright smear campaigns, you are going to see people resurfacing maybe unfavorable interviews at times,” she said.

ABC News has reached out to Chalamet’s representatives for comment.

March 9, 2026

Entertainment

Elijah Wood doesn’t want anyone else to play Frodo ‘as long as I’m alive and able’

Elijah Wood attends a screening of ‘Rabbit Trap’ at Brain Dead Studios on Sept. 9, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)

Elijah Wood doesn’t want anyone else to play Frodo.

The actor, who portrayed the hobbit Frodo Baggins in all three of The Lord of the Rings films, recently told The Sunday Times he does not want his iconic part to be recast in the future.

“I certainly wouldn’t want anybody else to play Frodo,” Wood said, continuing, “as long as I’m alive and able.”

While it is still unconfirmed if Wood will return as Frodo in the 2027 Lord of the Rings film The Hunt for Gollum, Ian McKellen has said he will come back to play the role of Gandalf.

When asked if he will appear in the upcoming Andy Serkis-directed movie, Wood played coy.

“It hasn’t been officially announced, but at a convention last August, Ian sort of let the cat out of the bag,” Wood said. “So there is a good chance. I’m not able to officially say anything until it’s announced, but I will say I’m thrilled with the prospect of another film.”

Wood continued, saying it is “always a little nerve-racking when people talk about new movies for a world like Middle-earth.”

“Everyone gets a little protective and hopes it retains its level of integrity, but this story is fun, thrilling,” Wood said. “There is a genuine feeling of getting the band back together.”

March 9, 2026

National

Suspects in NYC mayor’s home IED attack wanted it ‘even bigger’ than Boston Marathon bombing, officials say

A man is arrested after throwing a hand-made smoke grenade at a protest near Gracie Mansion, on March 7, 2026, in New York. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Two improvised explosive devices brought to a counterprotest outside Gracie Mansion in New York City Saturday are being investigated as “an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” and the two suspects arrested in connection with the incident are facing federal terrorism charges, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.

According to a federal criminal complaint released Monday, both suspects openly pledged allegiance to ISIS while in the presence of police, and one suspect allegedly told officers they “wanted to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing,” which the suspect noted “caused only ‘three deaths.’”

The explosive devices contained the volatile substance triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP, and were made to “injure, maim or worse,” Tisch said of Saturday’s incident.

“These were not hoax devices or smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices,” Tisch said during a news conference outside the Gracie Mansion mayor’s residence with New York City Mayor Zohran Mandami, the city’s first Muslim mayor.

One of the devices was ignited and deployed at protesters in a crosswalk on East End Avenue and East 87 Street, and the other device was detonated close by, Tisch said.

Tisch said a third suspected IED was found in the car of the two suspects, a black 2010 Honda with New Jersey license plates, parked on the Upper East Side of Manhattan near Gracie Mansion, prompting an immediate evacuation of homes in the area. She said the device did not test positive for explosives.

All of the devices are being sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for additional testing, Tisch said.

Two Pennsylvania men who are in custody are charged in a five-count federal complaint with attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.

The suspects were identified as Emir Balat of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and Ibrahim Kayumi of Newton, Pennsylvania, according to Tisch and the federal complaint.

The suspects were ordered to be held without bail after they made their initial appearances, both in shackles, in Manhattan federal court on Monday afternoon. They did not enter a plea to the charges.

“They’re suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism,” Mamdani said Monday. “Let me say this plainly: Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”

The explosives were deployed at an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion that was organized by far-right, anti-immigrant provocateur Jack Lang, officials said. The event was called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.”

The anti-Muslim protest drew counterprotesters who called their response “Run Nazis Out of New York City,” according to the criminal complaint.

“FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the matter with our partners at NYPD as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York,” the FBI said in a statement Sunday.

Balat and Kayumi are suspected of attending the event as part of the counterprotest to the anti-Muslim demonstration, authorities said Monday.

Neither Mamdani nor his wife, Rama Duwaji, were in Gracie Mansion when the incident occurred, the mayor said Monday.

Immediately following his arrest, Kayumi was asked by someone in the surrounding crowd why he allegedly attempted to bomb the protest, according to the complaint.

“Kayumi responded in part and as captured on NYPD body-worn camera footage, ‘ISIS,'” the complaint states.

Balat waived his Miranda rights to remain silent following his arrest, according to the complaint, and allegedly provided a written statement in which he “pledge[d] [] allegience [sic] to the Islamic State,” the complaint states.

Balat also allegedly told police that “they wanted to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing, which Balat noted caused only ‘three deaths,'” according to the complaint.

The April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing also left more than 500 people injured.

Kayumi, whom the complaint said also waived his Miranda rights, allegedly “stated, in substance and in part, that he was affiliated with ISIS; watched ISIS propaganda on his phone; and was partly inspired to carry out his actions that day by ISIS,” according to the complaint.

“Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the one million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home,” Mamdani said at Monday’s news conference.

“While I found this protest appalling. I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen. Ours is a free society, where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not only belong to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone,” Mandani added.

Many of the counterprotesters on Saturday confronted the “display of bigotry,” the mayor said. He also praised NYPD officers who swiftly responded to the incident and arrested the suspects, saying they were “faced with a chaotic situation that quickly could have become far more dangerous.”

The mayor specifically cited the “courageous and selfless” acts of two NYPD officers, Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro, who attended Monday’s news conference. Mamdani said the officers “ran towards the danger so that others could run safely.”

Tisch said the last incident in New York City in which an IED was deployed occurred in December 2017, when Akayed Ullah detonated a homemade bomb he had strapped to his torso in a pedestrian underpass connecting the Port Authority Bus Terminal to the Time Square subway station.

Ullah, a permanent resident of Bangladesh who was living in Brooklyn at the time, was the only person injured in the act, which federal prosecutors said was committed on behalf of ISIS of Iraq. Ullah was convicted in April 2021 by a federal jury on all six counts of the indictment and was sentenced to life in prison.

March 9, 2026

Entertainment

Road to the Oscars 2026: Where to watch the nominated films

Oscar statuettes are seen backstage during the 95th annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023, in Hollywood, California. (Al Seib/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)

It’s time to roll out the red carpet and butter the popcorn.

If you can believe it, the 2026 Oscars ceremony will be held Sunday. Perhaps the awards season has flown by and you’ve found yourself needing to catch up on this year’s Oscar-nominated films. With that in mind, here’s a guide to where you can watch the films nominated for best picture at the 98th annual Oscars.

Bugonia, the Emma Stone-starring black comedy thriller from director Yorgos Lanthimos, is available to stream on Peacock. Stone is also nominated for best actress, an award she has won two other times. Also streaming on Peacock is the Chloé Zhao-directed film adaption of Hamnet. The movie is up for eight awards at the ceremony, including best actress, best director and best adapted screenplay.

You can drive on to Apple TV to watch the Brad Pitt-starring film F1, while the Netflix original films Frankenstein and Train Dreams are available to screen on that streaming service.

Marty Supreme is still playing in select movie theaters, but it’s also available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video. The film, which follows a young man who dreams of becoming a table tennis champion, is up for nine nominations at the awards ceremony, including best actor for Timothée Chalamet.

The Secret Agent is currently streaming on Hulu, and while Sentimental Value is set to appear on that service on March 23, it is currently only available to rent or buy on Apple TV or Prime Video.

Finally, two of the biggest films of this year’s awards race are both available to watch on HBO Max. The Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another, which is up for 13 nods, is streaming on the service, as is Ryan Coogler’s action-horror film Sinners, which has more nominations than any other film this year with 16.

March 9, 2026

Business

Stocks tumble as oil climbs above $95 per barrel

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Stocks tumbled on Monday as oil prices climbed in response to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 460 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq inched down 0.2%.

The major indexes recovered some of their earlier losses on Monday, however, after oil price hikes cooled. Oil markets settled amid a meeting among Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers about a possible coordinated release from their respective strategic petroleum reserves.

The G7 announced on Monday its decision to forego a release of reserve oil at this time, but markets appeared to view the group as willing to take such action.

The Dow fell as much as 750 points on Monday morning, before paring some of its losses in the afternoon.

Indexes fell worldwide on Monday as the spike in oil prices rippled through global markets. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index plunged 5.2%, while pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.6%.

Oil prices climbed as traders feared a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global oil supply.

U.S. crude oil prices hovered at about $95 per barrel on Monday afternoon, which marked a nearly 5% hike. Since a month ago, oil prices have soared a staggering 50%.

Oil prices climbed as high as nearly $120 per barrel overnight, but retreated after the Financial Times reported G7 finance ministers would meet to discuss a possible coordinated release from their respective strategic petroleum reserves.

After the meeting, oil prices fell further but remained higher than where they stood a day prior.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. soared to $3.47 on Monday from $2.99 a week earlier, AAA said.

In a social media post on Sunday night, President Donald Trump downplayed the rise in oil prices.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump said.

Soon after the war with Iran began on Feb. 28, U.S.-Israeli forces killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen on Sunday to succeed him.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

March 9, 2026

Politics

Pentagon IDs 7th US service member killed in Iran war

The Defense Department has identified Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., who succumbed to his injuries following a March 1 attack on his base in Saudi Arabia. DoD

(WASHINGTON) — The Defense Department on Monday identified another U.S. service member who died following the opening wave of Iranian retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, marking the seventh U.S. service member to die in the war with Iran.

Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, died Sunday from injuries he sustained during a March 1 retaliation strike on U.S. troops at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia from Iran.

“He gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country he loved,” Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, the top officer for Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement. “That makes him nothing less than a hero, and he will always be remembered that way. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”

Pennington enlisted in the Army in 2017 as a supply specialist and was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. He is set to be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, the Army announced.

Pennington was working at a strategic radar installation responsible for early warning against incoming missile threats, a critical node in the U.S. military’s missile-defense architecture, according to a source familiar with the situation.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump attended the dignified transfer of the other six American service members killed in the war’s opening hours, after an Iranian drone struck in Kuwait. All six were killed in the same attack.

Even as the ceremony underscored the war’s early toll, the president and senior Pentagon officials have been preparing the public for the likelihood that more casualties are ahead.

“The president’s been right to say there will be casualties,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes” on Sunday. “Things like this don’t happen without casualties. There will be more casualties.”

Hegseth cast the losses as a grim but familiar feature of war for a country that has spent more than two decades fighting in the Middle East.

“Especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets,” he said. “But that doesn’t weaken us one bit. It stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish.”

ABC News’ Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.

March 9, 2026

Business

Anthropic sues Trump administration after clash over AI use

The Anthropic logo displayed on the stage during the company’s Builder Summit in Bengaluru, India, on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Artificial-intelligence firm Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday over the Pentagon’s choice to designate it a “supply-chain risk,” legal filings show.

A spokesperson for Anthropic said the legal action “does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners.”

A Department of Defense spokesperson told ABC News: “As a matter of Department of War policy, we do not comment on litigation.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

March 9, 2026

Entertainment

Miley Cyrus sings with Elmo on new episode of ‘Sesame Street’

Miley Cyrus on volume two of reimagined ‘Sesame Street.’ (Zach Hyman/Sesame Workshop)

Miley Cyrus knows how to get to Sesame Street.

The singer is the special guest for volume two of the reimagined Sesame Street, which drops Monday on Netflix and PBS KIDS.

She appears in the “Elmo’s Toy Swap” episode as Elmo learns there’s “no wrong way to play.” In a clip posted to Instagram, we see Miley singing a song about imagination with Elmo and friends.

“We can be whatever we can dream/ When we imagine, anything can happen,” they sing as they imagine themselves in a submarine underwater.

The scene then cuts back to the toy swap, where Miley holds up a sparkly high heel. “Let’s imagine what we can do with this!” she says.

“We loved imagining with you, @mileycyrus!” the show wrote on its Instagram account. “Thanks for stopping by Sesame Street to sing and dance with us. We love you!”

Season 56 of Sesame Street is airing in three volumes. The first volume debuted last November.

March 9, 2026

Entertainment

Lara Jean, Kitty reunite in ‘XO, Kitty’ season 3 trailer

Anna Cathcart as Kitty Song Covey and Lana Condor as Lara Jean Song Covey in ‘XO, Kitty’ season 3. (Netflix)

The Song Covey sisters are back together in the official trailer for season 3 of XO, Kitty.

Netflix has released the official trailer for the third season of the coming-of-age romance series.

Season 3 marks the first time that Lana Condor, the star of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film trilogy, has reprised her beloved character of Lara Jean Song Covey after the 2021 movie To All the Boys: Always and Forever.

XO, Kitty is a spinoff series inspired by the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film trilogy, which itself is based on Jenny Han’s bestselling books. Season 3 will consist of eight 30-minute episodes.

Season 3 of XO, Kitty finds Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) returning “for her final year at KISS with her perfect senior year mapped out.”

“And she’s going to define her relationship with Min Ho. For real this time,” the synopsis continues. “But when surprise revelations throw her plans, and relationships, off course, Kitty will have to learn to embrace the unexpected.”

Condor told Netflix in a press release that “it’s such a joy to be able to come back and see Anna. I think she did an amazing job creating the XO, Kitty world. It’s such a dream to be able to work with her again. I feel really excited and happy and honored I get to be back.”

The trailer finds Lara Jean arriving to Seoul, South Korea, after Kitty experiences some heartbreak.

“Whatever happens with Min Ho, we can’t just stop living our lives,” Lara Jean tells Kitty. “We have to follow our hearts and trust that it will lead us to our next great adventure.”

XO, Kitty season 3 arrives to Netflix on April 2.

March 9, 2026

National

Explosives thrown outside NYC mayor’s residence probed as ‘act of ISIS-inspired terrorism’: Officials

A man is arrested after throwing a hand-made smoke grenade at a protest near Gracie Mansion, on March 7, 2026, in New York. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Two improvised explosive devices brought to a counterprotest outside Gracie Mansion in New York City are being investigated as “an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” and the two suspects arrested in connection with the incident are facing federal terrorism charges, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.

The devices contained the volatile substance TATP and were made to “injure, maim or worse,” Tisch said of Saturday’s incident.

“These were not hoax devices or smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices,” Tisch said during a news conference outside Gracie Mansion with New York City Mayor Zohran Mandami, the city’s first Muslim mayor.

Tisch said a third suspected IED was found in the car of the two suspects parked on the East Side of Manhattan, prompting an immediate evacuation of homes in the area. She said the device did not test positive for explosives.

All of the devices are being sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for additional testing, Tisch said.

Two Pennsylvania men who are in custody in connection with the devices will be charged with federal crimes, Tisch said. The complaint has not yet been unsealed.

The suspects were identified as Emir Balat of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and Ibrahim Kayumi of Newton, Pennsylvania, Tisch said.

“They’re suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism,” Mamdani said. “Anyone who comes to NYC to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

The explosives were deployed at an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence, that was organized by far-right, anti-immigrant provocateur Jack Lang, officials said. The event was called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.”

March 9, 2026

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