Bette Midler To Receive Costume Designers Guild’s Distinguished Collaborator Award

Carla Renata Ingmar Bergman had Liv Ullmann. Woody Allen had Diane Keaton and Christopher Guest had Catherine O’Hara — that’s how actor John Michael Higgins summed up the stature of O’Hara’s work on screen with Guest and other top directors during a wide-ranging Q&A held Saturday as part of the sixth annual USC Comedy Festival. The Emmy-winning O’Hara was honored with the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Masters of Comedy Award at the festival, in recognition of her long, and often underrated, career in film, TV, stage and sketch comedy. The Okie Foundation honors the lives and work of two comedy legends, Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie. Jack Okie won a supporting actor Oscar for Charlie Chaplins’ 1940 satire “The Great Dictator.” Victoria Okie was a comedy trouper who had supporting roles (as Victoria Horne) in numerous films, most memorably opposite Jimmy Stewart in 1950’s “Harvey.”

Mindy Kaling was awarded with the PGA Norman Lear Achievement Award Saturday night.

BreAnna Bell The show continued on at the 54th Annual NAACP Image Awards despite an emergency flash flood warning and a torrential downpour effectively stopping the awards show red carpet. Attendees made the trip through the pouring rain to make the show, carefully treading through the rain-soaked pink carpet to find their seats at the L.A. Live Event Deck in Los Angeles, Calif. where they were treated to performances from gospel artist Tye Tribett and Too $hort as well as appearances from celebrities like Tichina Arnold, Katori Hall, the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s “Harlem,” and an impromptu wedding proposal. After Major gave the convocation, Tribett opened the show with his lively rendition of “Get Up,” which quickly pushed guests out of their seats and onto their feet to dance. The dinner’s host Bresha Webb announced her recent nuptials in her welcoming address and proceeded to poke fun at Ariana Debose with her own version of the Oscar winner’s now-viral BAFTA’s rap when honoring the night’s nominees.

Producers Guild Awards have revealed its presenters list for the 34th annual awards show, which will take place Saturday at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.Kate Hudson, Angela Bassett, Austin Butler, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Ron Howard and Sandra Oh lead the notable star-studded list who will take the stage to present at the PGA Awards.Additionally, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Billy Eichner, Bob Odenkirk, Danielle Deadwyler, Dave Burd, Diego Luna, Eugenio Derbez, Hannah Einbinder, Hong Chau, Jay Ellis, Kerry Condon, Leslie Odom, Jr., Mo Amer, Monica Barbaro, Nicole Byer, Paul Dano, Robert Rodriguez, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sherry Lansing and Stephanie Hsu will also present throughout the evening.The PGA Awards honors producers, industry leaders and their producing teams to celebrate the art and craft of producing by honoring the producers behind the top films, TV shows and new media projects of the past year. Previously announced honorees at this year's ceremony include Tom Cruise (David O. Selznick Award); Mindy Kaling (Norman Lear Award); Warner Bros.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has revealed the presenters lineup for the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards, to be held on Saturday, February 25, at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz will be this year’s recipient of the WGA West’s Paul Selvin Award in recognition of her adapted screenplay for She Said, the Universal film about the New York Times reporters who broke the story that exposed disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. The guild said Thursday that she will be honored at the WGA Awards’ Los Angeles ceremony March 5 at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

Just For Variety podcast. "Can you believe that? How off the wall is that? How crazy is that? Jeffrey Katzenberg called me every day, 'Please, please.' I stood my ground because I really was afraid of the costume. Isn't that amazing? I can wear anything but a nun's habit?"In the end, the iconic role went to Whoopi Goldberg, and "Sister Act" became a massive hit that also spawned sequels. "Whoopi wore [the outfit] all the way to the bank, so God bless her.

Bette Midler is looking back at her career.

The debut of Prime Video’s upcoming “Daisy Jones & The Six” is right around the corner, and in advance of the highly anticipated musical miniseries, based on the bestseller by Taylor Jenkins Reid, costume designer Denise Wingate spoke with People about the significance of the characters’ clothing choices.

Helen Mirren is a classic beauty on the red carpet for the premiere of her upcoming movie, Golda, during the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival in Germany on Monday (February 20).

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Bette Midler had her first professional wardrobe fitting when she made her Broadway debut in 1967 playing Tzeitel in “Fiddler on the Roof.” “I remember the clothes had layers and layers so that they had weight and so they moved when you danced,” the two-time Oscar nominee recalls on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “They would curl themselves around your feet. It was so beautiful.” Since then, Midler has been transformed on stage and screen by countless costumes. “I’ve worn them all,” she says. “I have been an old lady, a young lady, a witch, a mermaid, a showgirl, a stripper, a bad lounge singer. I’ve run the gamut. And I have to say, it’s been a blast.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the esteemed Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.   The Johnny Mercer Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer. Tim Rice was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.  

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Golda,” Helen Mirren, acting with deft skill and control beneath one of those startling transformative prosthetic makeup jobs, portrays Golda Meir during the three-week cataclysm of the Yom Kippur War, which shook Israel to its bones in the fall of 1973. As the actor stands (or, more often, stoops) before us, we can believe our eyes that this is the Iron Lady of Israel. For here is that frown, those beetle brows, that coarse wavy hair tied into a bun like challah bread, that pugnacious nose, that stare of implacability designed to bore a hole in its beholder. Here, as well, is the woman who lit a thousand cigarettes, chain-smoking her way through the war-room anxiety and through the secret medical treatments she was undergoing at the time for lymphoma.

War is coming in Guy Nattiv’s Golda, onscreen and off. But despite the media’s best efforts to turn the casting of British, non-Jewish actor Helen Mirren as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir into an explosive example of cultural appropriation, both Nattiv’s direction and Mirren’s performance are low-key and careful enough to rise above the controversy. In retrospect, it does seem a little strange that no other candidate was deemed suitable, and the movie won’t do much extra business on account of Mirren’s star power, but those anticipating a tone-deaf disaster will be sorely disappointed.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Oscar-winning actor Helen Mirren refused to address the controversy around her casting as Israel’s iconic Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv’s biopic during the movie’s press conference at the Berlinale. When asked to comment on the backlash and the issue of authentic casting, Mirren left it to Nattiv and her co-star Lior Ashkenazi (“Footnote”) to stand up for her while she smiled shyly. Mirren is neither Israeli nor Jewish, and critics have argued that she shouldn’t have been cast as Israel’s most important female figure. Nattiv said that when he met Mirren, he instantly felt like he was in the presence of a “family member” — an “aunt” who had the “Jewish chops to portray Golda.”

Israeli director Guy Nattiv has defended his casting of non-Jewish actress Helen Mirren as iconic Israeli Prime minister Golda Meir in his biopic Golda, which world premieres at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday.

K.J. Yossman Skin is a subject Israeli-American director Guy Nattiv touches on frequently in his work. He has directed no fewer than two (unrelated) films titled “Skin,” one feature-length, one short. The former, which premiered in Toronto in 2018, saw Jamie Bell win rave reviews as a white supremacist who tortuously has his tattoos lasered off after managing to break away from the Neo-Nazi cult that raised him. The latter, which Nattiv produced alongside his wife, Jaime Ray Newman, won the Oscar for live action short in 2019. Now Nattiv returns with “Golda,” his first feature since Toronto and another character study, this time of Israel’s fourth prime minister, Golda Meir, who is played by Helen Mirren. The film, which also stars Liev Schreiber and Camille Cottin, is set during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when a coalition of Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

William Earl Variety will present Diego Luna with the inaugural Variety Virtuoso Award at the Miami Film Festival on Saturday, March 4. The award is will be presented to celebrate Luna’s excellence in acting, directing and producing over the years. “Emerging as a major force in Latin American cinema back at the dawn of our current century, Diego Luna has consistently proven the promise of his breakthrough role in Alfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed film ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ not only with awards-nominated work as an actor but also a growing reputation as a director of the first order,” said Steve Gaydos, Variety EVP of Global Content and Executive Editor. “Currently starring in the hit ‘Star Wars’ prequel series ‘Andor,’ Luna’s leading man credentials are vividly on display.”

Queen Charlotte's time in the spotlight has come. Netflix released the first teaser trailer for  on Tuesday (also Valentine's Day!), during a virtual event with cast and producers, and revealed the premiere date for the anticipated six-episode prequel series: Thursday, May 4.The minute-long teaser opens with sparks flying as young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) meets young King George (Corey Mylchreest) for the first time, after she's brought into town by carriage as the adoring public celebrates her arrival with glee. Of course, Charlotte and George's union isn't the typical love story as it's made abundantly clear that theirs is a business transaction for the sake of the country and its people.