Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are set to perform at this year’s Oscars.
The duo, who starred as Glinda and Elphaba in the film adaptation of the musical last year, have been confirmed as performers at the biggest awards night of the year, having previously denied speculation when quizzed about it.
Also confirmed to be performing at the ceremony, which is taking place in Los Angeles on 2 March, are Doja Cat, Queen Latifah, British singer-songwriter Rayeand Lisa of Blackpink – who is currently starring in season three of White Lotus.
There will also be a “special appearance” from the professional choir, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Academy announced on Tuesday.
Image: Raye will also perform at the Oscars in LA. Pic: PA
Image: Lisa of Blackpink will also take to the stage. Pic: AP
In a slight break from tradition, this year’s ceremony will not include live performances of the best original song nominees, which include: El Mal from Emilia Perez, The Journey from The Six Triple Eight, Like a Bird from Sing Sing, Mi Camino from Emilia Perez and Never Too Late from Elton John: Never Too Late.
What each performer will sing or when is unknown, but it is expected that Erivo and Grande will perform at least one song from Wicked.
Defying Gravity spent four weeks in the Top 10 of the UK’s official chart and became a viral sensation.
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This year’s ceremony could prove to be even bigger for the two actresses, as they are both nominated for awards.
Erivo is nominated for best actress and Grande for best supporting actress, both for their roles in part one of Wicked, which landed the largest opening weekend for a stage musical adaptation.
The second part of the film, Wicked: For Good, will be released in November this year.
Wicked is up against tough competition at this year’s Oscars, with a mixture of films and actors already having claimed prizes at the BAFTAs, Golden Globes and SAG Awards.
It heads into the Oscars with 10 nominations, the same as period drama The Brutalist, while Emilia Perez, a Netflix film starring Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascon, has broken the recordfor the most nominated non-English language film in Oscars history with 13 nods.
Watch and follow live coverage of the 97th Oscars on Sky News on Sunday 2 March.
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.