Category: Entertainment

Actor Oscar Isaac wasn’t sure if Timothée Chalamet could pull off playing Bob Dylan — that is until he heard him sing one of Dylan’s songs.

While presenting Chalamet and director James Mangold with the Visionary Tribute award at the 2024 Gotham Awards on Monday, Isaac recalled working with Chalamet on Dune: Part One. While hanging out with fellow actors Josh Brolin and Stephen McKinley Harrison, Chalamet mentioned his upcoming project, A Complete Unknown.

“He starts telling us about his next project he was working on. A movie with the wonderful director James Mangold about a young Bob Dylan coming to New York in 1961,” Isaac. “And my first thought, ‘It sounds like a really bad idea.’ I mean, it’s Dylan. It’s the holy of holies for me. It just didn’t sound right.”

But Isaac’s opinion changed after he heard Chalamet sing.

“Then Timmy takes out his guitar — not a good sign — and starts playing ‘Girl from the North Country,'” Isaac said. “Now, this is a song I know deeply, to my core, and Josh, Stephen and I, we’re not your average Timmy Chalamet groupies. We’re grizzled movie vets. We’ve seen some s***.”

Isaac finished his speech with kind words for Chalamet and Mangold.

“James and Timothée have approached this work with a mix of humility and irreverence, just like Dylan approached the Great American Songbook, probing familiar forms to rediscover the truth of the present moment,” Isaac said.

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Something bad is happening in Oz.

Mattel is being sued for printing the URL for a pornographic website on the packaging of its limited-edition fashion dolls based on the new film Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

A South Carolina woman is launching a class action lawsuit after she purchased the toy for her daughter, who then visited the X-rated site.

“To her absolute shock the website, ‘Wicked.com,’ had nothing to do with the Wicked Doll. Rather Wicked.com pasted scenes of pornographic advertisements across her phone screen,” the lawsuit’s documents read. “Plaintiff’s minor daughter immediately showed her mother the photographs and both were horrified by what they say [sic].”

Mattel has pulled the toy from retailers like Target, Amazon and Kohl’s, and also issued a statement that it was aware of the misprint on the packaging of the box, “which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page.” They advised customers who already purchased the doll to discard the packaging and/or obscure the wrong URL.

The plaintiff alleges Mattel did not offer a refund, and that she and her daughter suffered emotional distress over the misprint.

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The official trailer for Disney’s Snow White live-action adaptation is here.

West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler stars as the titular Disney Princess opposite Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot‘s Evil Queen.

“This was my father’s kingdom. A place of fairness. But the queen changed everything,” Zegler’s Snow White says in the trailer before telling the Evil Queen that “the people need some kindness.”

“You know, I really don’t remember you being this … opinionated,” Gadot’s Evil Queen retorts.

Snow White is informed that her life is in danger from the queen’s quest to be “the fairest of them all” and that she must flee into the woods.

“My parents always said this forest was a magical place,” Snow White says as woodland creatures lead her to a picturesque cottage where Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy reside.

Snow White’s new friends tell her she is safe with them, but eventually she tells them she needs their help to save the kingdom.

The trailer, which gives a look at Zegler singing the power ballad “Waiting on a Wish,” a new song for the film, ends with the Evil Queen — now in disguise as an old woman — offering Snow White the fateful poisoned apple.

A teaser trailer for the film, which is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson, featuring original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, debuted at D23 in August.

Snow White, a musical reimagining of Disney’s classic 1937 film, releases in theaters on March 21, 2025.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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The 2024 Gotham Awards took place in New York City Monday night. A Different Man, starring Sebastian Stan, took home Best Feature, while Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin won the acting awards for Sing Sing.

Among the other honors handed out: Zendaya received the Spotlight Tribute for her role in Challengers, Timothée Chalamet and James Mangold received the Visionary Tribute for their collaboration on the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Angelina Jolie received the Performer Tribute for her role in Maria and the cast of The Piano Lesson received the Ensemble Tribute.

Here’s the list of winners:
Best Feature — A Different Man
Best International Feature — All We Imagine as Light
Best Documentary Feature — No Other Land
Best Director — RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys
Best Screenplay — Azazel Jacobs for His Three Daughters
Breakthrough Director — Vera Drew for The People’s Joker
Outstanding Lead Performance — Colman Domingo in Sing Sing
Outstanding Supporting Performance — Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing
Breakthrough Performer — Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys

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Ted Danson has been named the Carol Burnett Award honoree for 2025, the Golden Globes announced on Monday. The actor will be recognized during this year’s Golden Globes, which will air Jan. 5 on CBS. The Carol Burnett Award goes to someone who has made “outstanding contributions to television on or off screen” and is selected based on the impact of their career achievements …

Anya Taylor-Joy has been tapped to star in the new limited series Lucky for Apple TV+. The actress will also executive produce the show, along with Reese Witherspoon, according to Variety. The series will be based off of Marissa Stapley‘s novel of the same name and will follow a woman who left behind a life of crime “but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past,” according to its logline …

Timothée Chalamet will be honored at the Palm Springs International Film Awards, the organization announced on Monday. The actor is being recognized with the Chairman’s Award for his role portraying Bob Dylan in the upcoming film A Complete Unknown. The event will take place on Jan. 3, with the entire festival running Jan. 2-13 …

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Emma Corrin got up close and personal with rats for the film Nosferatu.

The actor, who uses they/them pronouns, told Deadline they filmed a scene for the upcoming horror film where many rats swarmed them.

“30 of them were on my bare chest,” Corrin said. “Honestly, I was being very brave about it. I was very much stoic, being very British about it, really. And then we were in the scene, and I had no top on, and it was just horrible.”

Corrin went on to say how awful the smell of the rats was.

“The smell is something that you can’t imagine. And the incontinence was a thing that I really didn’t expect, but was terrible. … It was grim,” Corrin said. “They loved my hair, so they would go and sit in the wig and get all up in my face. Do you watch I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!? You know when they had to put their hand in the box with the tarantulas? It was a bit like that, I won’t lie.”

The film’s director, Robert Eggers, estimates that 5,000 live rats were used in the making of the movie.

“The big thing that makes it difficult is that we had to contain them for their safety with plexiglass that you don’t see on camera,” Eggers said. “But what was more challenging was for Emma Corrin, who has live rats placed on their body, and they’re incontinent or defecating and urinating on Emma take, after take, after take. That’s difficult.”

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Wicked is defying sales records left and right.

The soundtrack for the film debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart, making it the all-time highest debut for a film adaptation of a stage musical.

It was blocked from the top spot by Kendrick Lamar‘s surprise album, GNX, which earned the singer his fifth consecutive #1 album.

The Wicked soundtrack also scored the top spot on Billboard‘s Top Album Sales, Soundtracks and Vinyl Albums charts.

Wicked released in theaters on Nov. 22 and became the highest-grossing movie based on a Broadway musical at the domestic box office over the Thanksgiving weekend. It stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. By Sunday, Dec. 1, the movie had earned a total of $263.1 million.

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Two Saturday Night Live alums will host the final 2024 episodes of the sketch comedy series.

Chris Rock and Martin Short are set to host the Dec. 14 and Dec. 21 episodes of the show, respectively. This marks Rock’s fourth time hosting SNL, while it will be Short’s third time hosting individually. He previously also co-hosted alongside friend Steve Martin in December 2022. The pair also co-hosted along with Chevy Chase in December 1986.

Gracie Abrams will make her SNL debut as the musical guest for the Dec. 14 show, while Hozier returns to Studio 8H to be the musical guest for the show on Dec. 21.

SNL returns Dec. 7 after a three-week hiatus. Paul Mescal is hosting the episode, which will feature musical guest Shaboozey.

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Nikki Garcia is speaking out after a whirlwind few months that ended with her divorce from Artem Chigvintsev.

“I’m going to try my best not to get too emotional in this episode,” Nikki said at the top of the Dec. 2 episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, her podcast with her twin sister, Brie Garcia.

Nikki went on to thank those around her — including her family, friends and fans — for “all the love and support, for the respect of privacy and space” they had shown her and her 4-year-old son, Matteo, whom she shares with Artem.

Nikki went on to say that she had “disconnected from social media, from the world” the past few months, because “I’m a mom, and my son’s protection and privacy is the most important.”

“So, I was gonna do whatever it took for that, most importantly,” she said. “So it’s been tough. It’s been really tough. I’ve been heartbroken, sad.”

The WWE Hall of Famer’s podcast return comes just over three months after Artem was arrested following an alleged domestic violence incident on Aug. 29. Nearly a month later, the Napa County District Attorney’s Office announced that he would not face criminal charges related to his arrest.

Nikki filed for divorce on Sept. 11. A representative for Nikki confirmed to ABC News in a statement on Nov. 20 that the couple had “settled their divorce and will not be going to court.”

In her podcast return Monday, Nikki spoke about the pain attached to the breakdown of her relationship. “You dream of having this family, and you have this incredible love, and it just goes the other way,” she said. “And you go from having a great love story to having a terrible one … never saw any of it coming, you know, as far as what the ending would be.”

Nikki said protecting Matteo during it all has been “the hardest part,” adding, “I didn’t know that your heart can break that many times in such a short period of time.”

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It seems many Americans paired popcorn with their turkey this year.

AMC Theatres broke records during its five-day Thanksgiving holiday period, claiming its busiest Thanksgiving Day in the company’s 104-year history, based on attendance and admissions revenue.

The company also saw its busiest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday, busiest Black Friday and busiest five-day Thanksgiving holiday period of all time. The figures are based on attendance, admissions revenue, and food and beverage revenue. It surpassed the previous Thanksgiving records, which were set in 2018.

Worldwide, 8.8 million moviegoers pilgrimaged to their local AMC to watch a movie over the long holiday weekend.

Going further, Friday, Nov. 29, was the second-highest total revenue day in all of AMC Theatres history, based on admissions revenue, and food and beverage revenue. The only thing surpassing it is the weekend of April 27, 2019, which saw the opening of Avengers: Endgame.

This year, business was drawn by the opening of Disney Animation’s Moana 2, along with the holdovers of Wicked and Gladiator II.

“This 5-day Thanksgiving period in 2024 was one for the ages. At AMC theatres in the United States and abroad, AMC welcomed more than 8 million moviegoers from Wednesday through Sunday,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said. “Apparently, movie fans decided in droves that Thanksgiving dinner is made all the better when accompanied by some delicious AMC popcorn, an ice-cold Coca-Cola, and a great film to watch as showcased on AMC’s huge silver screens.”

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