Tom Hanks returned to “Saturday Night Live” on Halloween night to revive his lounge-y David S. Pumpkins character in a cold open that skewered President Trump’s increasingly bizarre comments on the stump and his fixation with men’s physiques. The segment also featured Saidah Belo-Osagie as Nicki Minaj in a spoof of the star’s vocal support […]
Following a Trump-centric cold open that featured the return of Tom Hanks’ David S. Pumpkins, “Saturday Night Live” host Inde Navarrette took the stage at Studio 8H for her first opening monologue. It was a fitting choice to have the star of the year’s breakout horror hit “Obsession” (and the internet’s apparent obsession) make her […]
Is it really Halloween without Heidi Klum? The supermodel, who has become known for her over-the-top costumes, has returned for another year of her annual Halloween party, this year opting to dress as a severed human hand. At last year’s party, Klum dressed as the mythological monster Medusa, which featured a headpiece decorated with writhing […]
Chinese painter and filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong began shaping his new film during the pandemic. With the world suddenly forced to pause, he tells Variety, people felt an urgent desire to return to everyday life and to gather around a table. That idea became the starting point for “Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting,” which is competing […]
So, in talking about the marvel that was Phoebe Bridgers’ opening night at L.A.’s Intuit Dome Friday night, which part of the show do you talk about first? Would it the emotionally riveting middle section of the show, in which Bridgers used the no-phones setting to elaborately explore, in song and in monologue, her complicated […]
A federal judge has once again dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation claims against the Wall Street Journal over a 2025 report by the paper that a 2003 birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was purportedly written by Trump. Trump’s lawsuit “falls short of pleading actual malice,” wrote U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles […]
Indonesian filmmaker Ariani Darmawan stepped away from directing for years to raise a family. Her first feature, “Jani Be Good,” which is playing in the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Asian Future competition, turns that experience into a portrait of four women across three generations. “I stopped making films for over 10 years because I was […]
“Green Room” writer and director Jeremy Saulnier paid tribute to late actor Patrick Stewart, who starred in the film and whom he credits with saving the day when they were “close to shutting down,” during a 10th-anniversary screening of the 2015 film in Los Angeles on Friday. Stewart died one day earlier, on Thursday, at […]
Comic book writer and screenwriter Frank Miller – whose work includes “300,” “Sin City” and “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” – returned this week to Lucca Comics and Games, an event that spans the gamut of geek culture and pop entertainment. As well as speaking at the event, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of […]
Milcho Manchevski, the North Macedonian director whose 1994 debut “Before the Rain” won Venice’s Golden Lion and earned an Oscar nomination, is back in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival with “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” a project stalled for years after he accused his country’s film agency of corruption. The dark comedy centers on […]
Taika Waititi has taken to social media to defend “Klara and the Sun” amid poor reviews and bleak box office numbers, sharing an Instagram post featuring the film’s poster and its Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 78%. (In contrast, the critic score is 28% — the “Jojo Rabbit” director’s lowest yet). “I haven’t read a […]
Paul Bettany might play Marvel superhero Vision, but an on-screen acting choice while filming “VisionQuest” nearly cost him that very sense when the “Iron Man” actor accidentally popped 10 blood vessels in his eyes. “I was pretending to have a device on my head that is doing something to my brain, and I was just […]
