Everything Everywhere All At Once leads Oscar nominations
Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the Oscar nominations, as blockbuster films triumph in the best picture category.
The sci-fi fantasy, which has been a word-of-mouth hit around the world, landed 11 nominations, closely followed by The Banshees Of Inisherin and All Quiet On The Western Front with nine nods each.
Somewhat unusually, the prestigious best picture category included films that performed brilliantly at the box office as well as pleasing the critics, with Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way Of Water and Elvis all making the cut.
Tom Cruise is back in Top Gun: Maverick. Pic: Paramount Pictures
All about the sequels
In another first for the category, two sequels were nominated – Top Gun and Avatar. Only eight sequels have ever made the cut in Oscar history, and never before have two been chosen in a single year.
Last year, in a bid to open it up to genres that might not be typically thought of as Oscars-material, the best picture category was expanded to 10 films.
The other films up for best picture are The Fabelmans, Tar, Women Talking and Triangle Of Sadness.
Which actors got a nod?
The best actor category saw five first time nominees, with British star Bill Nighy getting his first nod for his portrayal of a buttoned-up businessman learning to enjoy life.
Irish stars Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal also made the cut, nominated for The Banshees Of Inisherin and Aftersun respectively. They will go up against US stars Brendan Fraser, for The Whale, and Austin Butler, for Elvis.
In the best actress race, four-time nominee Michelle Williams will be hoping this year is her time, and goes up against Cate Blanchett for Tar, Michelle Yeo for Everything Everywhere, Ana de Armas for Blonde and Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie.
Andrea Riseborough
Riseborough’s nomination is a shock to many, with her film – about an alcoholic seeking redemption after squandering her lottery winnings and abandoning her son – made on a modest budget and filmed in just 19 days.
Endorsed by a host of Hollywood stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston and Amy Adams in recent weeks – the last minute push has clearly done the trick.
Banshees continues to impress
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees – a comedy about a man left bewildered after his best friend kicks him to the curb – continued its success in the supporting actor categories, with Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon all gaining nods.
Barry Keoghan also stars in the film. Pic: 20th Century Studios
Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Pic: A24
In the best supporting actor category Glesson and Keoghan will be up against former child-star Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere, Brian Tyree Henry in Causeway and Judd Hirsch in The Fabelmans.
In the best supporting actress category, Condon will be up against Angela Bassett – whose nod for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks the first acting nomination for a Marvel film, aside from Chadwick Boseman’s posthumous 2021 nod.
The other best supporting actress nominations are Hong Chau for The Whale, and Jamie Lee Curtis and and Stephanie Hsu for Everything Everywhere.
Female directors snubbed
An all-male best director list means that despite women winning the category two years running (Chloe Zhao in 2021 and Jane Campion 2022) it will not be a woman taking home the gong this year.
Spielberg and McDonagh will continue their rivalry for best director accolades, both having received nominations in the parallel categories at other award shows.
The other men up for the best director Oscar are Todd Field for Tar, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as “The Daniels”) for Everything Everywhere and Ruben Ostlund for Triangle Of Sadness.
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Nominations across 23 categories were announced by Oscar-winner actor and producer Riz Ahmed and Girls star Allison Williams.
When and where can I watch the actual Oscars?
Three hundred and one films were eligible for this year’s awards, which will take place in March, in a star-studded ceremony hosted by US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel.
All nominated movies must have opened in a commercial motion picture theatre in at least one of six US metropolitan areas between 1 January and 31 December, last year.
They must also have completed a minimum of seven consecutive days in the same venue and must have a running time of more than 40 minutes.
You can watch the Oscars exclusively on Sky Showcase on Sunday 12 March from midnight.
Sky News will be live on the red carpet at the ceremony in Hollywood on Sunday 12 and live with the winners at the Vanity Fair party on Breakfast with Kay Burley, Monday 13 March.
Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway has described a “gross” past audition where she had to “make out” with 10 men.
The 41-year-old star described the experience which she said happened in the early 2000s as “a very different time”.
She told V Magazine: “Back in the 2000s – and this did happen to me – it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it.
“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.
“And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled ‘difficult’, so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it. It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me.
“It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
Hathaway did not specify which film the audition was for or who any of the male actors were.
She compared the casting process with that of her upcoming romantic comedy The Idea Of You, in which she plays a 40-year-old single mum who becomes involved with a 24-year-old boy band singer.
“We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little [improvisation]”, Hathaway said.
Describing the casting with 29-year-old British actor Nicholas Galitzine – who won the role – she said he chose a song by Alabama Shakes and the audition was “just easy”.
(R-L) Nicholas Galitzine and Hathaway in The Idea Of You. Pic: PA
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She explained: “I heard [the lead singer of Alabama Shakes] Brittany’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing.
“Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”
Galitzine has previously starred in Sky Atlantic’s Mary & George opposite Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Prime Video comedy Red, White & Royal Blue playing Prince Henry.
Read more on Sky News:
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(R-L) Ella Rubin and Hathaway in The Idea Of You. Pic: PA
Hathaway first made her name in 2001 after the release of the original The Princess Diaries film opposite Dame Julie Andrews. In the interview, she addressed rumours of a third film in the franchise.
“We’re in a good place…That’s all I can say. There’s nothing to announce yet. But we’re in a good place,” she said.
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March: Anne Hathaway on her ‘worst fear’
The sequel to the original – The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – came out three years after the first in 2004.
Hathaway also said “there’s no hiding” the fact that she would love to appear on Broadway during her career.
“[Being on Broadway] was my first dream, you know? And so many amazing, extraordinary things have happened to me but not that one yet. It’s a goal that is very, very much alive inside of me,” she added.
The Idea Of You is streaming from Thursday 2 May on Prime Video.
Entertainment
Fashion designer Nancy Gonzalez jailed for smuggling crocodile handbags into US for New York Fashion Week
A celebrity handbag designer whose products have been used by Britney Spears and on Sex And The City has been jailed for smuggling crocodile handbags into the US for fashion shows.
Nancy Gonzalez, 71, admitted recruiting couriers to carry as many as four products each on commercial flights from her native Colombia to the US for New York Fashion Week, among other high-profile events.
Gonzalez, who was arrested in 2022 in Cali, and later extradited to the US, was sentenced to 18 months in a federal court in Miami on Monday for breaking US wildlife laws.
The handbags, made from the hides of caiman and pythons bred in captivity, were worth as much as $2m (£1.6m), prosecutors said, but the designer’s lawyers said each skin cost only around $140 (£113).
Sometimes she failed to obtain the proper import permits from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, something backed by a widely ratified international treaty governing the trade in endangered and threatened species, the court heard.
Holding back tears, Gonzalez told the court before sentencing that she deeply regretted not fully complying with US laws.
She said: “From the bottom of my heart, I apologise to the United States of America. I never intended to offend a country to which I owe immense gratitude. Under pressure, I made poor decisions.”
Salma Hayek, Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham are among celebrities who bought Gonzalez’s carefully crafted handbags.
Her work was also included in a 2008 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
In court, her lawyers played a 2019 video of top buyers from Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and others praising the designer’s creativity, productivity and humanity.
But prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald said the retailers “must be regretting they were ever put up to that and if they heard it was presented in court they would cringe”.
“They have their own brand to protect,” he added.
Mr Watts-Fitzgerald, who compared Gonzalez’s behaviour to that of drug traffickers, said her activities were “all driven by the money”.
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Her lawyers pleaded for leniency for the woman, who, they said, created “the very first luxury, high-end fashion company from a third world country,” which later competed with industry giants like Dior, Prada and Gucci.
They also argued that only 1% of the merchandise she imported into the US lacked proper papers and were samples for New York Fashion Week and other events.
Prosecutors had been seeking a stiffer sentence of 30 to 37 months. But the judge said he was taking into account the nearly 14 months she spent in a Colombian prison awaiting extradition.
She was ordered to begin her sentence on 6 June.
Dominic West has revealed that pictures of him kissing actress Lily James being published in the press “informed” how he portrayed Prince Charles in The Crown.
In October 2020, co-stars James and West were photographed embracing while they were in Rome.
West, 54, who is married, now says the ensuing tabloid imbroglio helped him play the role of Charles, while he was Prince of Wales, in The Crown.
The actor told The Times: “I’d had a very acute understanding of what it’s like to feel the horror of your name or your photo in the newspapers.
“There is that dreadful, freezing moment when something is revealed about you. I think anyone can understand how that feels.
“But I’d been through it, and it must have informed how I approached it. That gut feeling of horror isn’t something you get inured to.”
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The Crown – ‘a drama for entertainment’
During his stint as Charles, he played some of the most controversial moments of his life, including his divorce from Princess Diana, her death and his relationship with now Queen, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Following the pictures being published, West and his wife Catherine Fitzgerald released a statement about their marriage, describing themselves as “very much still together”.
Read more:
I found The Crown’s final series harrowing
Tony Blair and Kate’s sheer dress: The controversial moments
Fitzgerald was also said at the time to have banned West from speaking with the actress, who first shot to fame for her role in Downton Abbey.
Lily James Pic: AP
James, 35, and West were together in the Italian capital amid the filming of an adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.
West played the now King in two seasons of The Crown opposite Elizabeth Debicki’s Princess Diana and Olivia Williams Camilla Parker Bowles.
He has been nominated for a Best Leading Actor TV BAFTA for his portrayal, with the ceremony set to go ahead on 28 April.
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