Peter Bart: In Hollywood Award Season, Voters Have Learned To Distrust The Buzz

was an emotional reunion with Ford, Quan’s co-star in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” — and the origin of that friendship can be seen in newly released photos, shot by Eva Sereny, as they hung out while filming.“Temple of Doom,” in which Quan played Indy’s chatty kid sidekick Short Round, was his first film as an actor. He was just 12, and superstar Ford was 40.

The 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival will open with a restoration of “Rio Bravo” (1959) and appearance by Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg in celebration of Warner Bros.’ 100th anniversary.Running from April 13-16 in Hollywood, the program will open with a conversation between TCM host Ben Mankiewicz and “Rio Bravo” star Angie Dickinson, who starred alongside John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. The screening will mark the world premiere of the 4k restoration of the Warner Bros.

Ke Huy Quan was on a mission. He’d just been named best supporting actor for his performance as Waymond Wang, the goofy husband of a laundromat owner in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and he wanted to experience the moment with Steven Spielberg. Spielberg, you see, was the filmmaker who cast him in his breakout role in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” when Quan was 12 years old. So during a commercial break in the Academy Awards telecast, Quan, 51, went over to where Spielberg was sitting with his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, whom Quan hadn’t seen since they co-starred in “Temple of Doom” four decades earlier. After hugs all around, Spielberg put his hands on Quan’s shoulders and said, “You are now an Oscar-winning actor.”

Naman Ramachandran Emile Hirsch (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and Inbar Levi (“Fauda”) lead the cast of WWII-set drama “Bau, Artist at War,” which is now in production. The film is based on the true story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau whose wedding in the Plaszow concentration camp was depicted in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” It follows Joseph’s journey as an artist and prisoner in the Plaszow camp and his fight for justice years later. Using his skills to forge IDs, Joseph manages to stay alive while helping hundreds of prisoners escape from the camp, with his creativity and humor providing hope in a place of hopelessness. Rebecca, also a Resistance worker, serves as a spy in Kommandant Goeth’s (Josh Blacker) office. After the liquidation of the Plaszow camp, Rebecca is sent to Auschwitz, while Joseph is sent to Oskar Schindler’s (Edward Foy) factory in Brunnlitz.

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief At 11:30 p.m., Daniel Kwan was ready for a late dinner. The movie that he co-directed — “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — had swept the 95th annual Academy Awards, winning a historic seven statues, including best picture and best director. But he hadn’t had a bite to eat in hours. So at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party, he grabbed an In-N-Out burger from a tray to refuel. But before he could dig in, he was greeted by one of his many fans — named Steven Spielberg. The man who saw his cinematic memoir, “The Fabelmans,” get crushed by the Daniels (as Kwan and his collaborator Daniel Scheinert are called) didn’t seem the least bit upset.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ke Huy Quan ended an emotional Oscars night by reuniting with his “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” co-star Harrison Ford on stage. Ford presented the final award of the 2023 ceremony, which went to “Everything Everywhere All at Once” for best picture. As Quan and Ford came face to face as the “Everything Everywhere” cast took the stage to accept the prize, the two actors and former co-stars shared an emotional hug. Quan won the Oscar for best supporting actor earlier in the ceremony. Ford championed Quan’s performance in “Everything Everywhere” all awards season long. Quan got his start in Hollywood as a child actor, making his feature film debut opposite Ford in Steven Spielberg’s 1984 adventure “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

Academy Awards brought out the biggest names in Hollywood for a night of fun and celebration.Coming together at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, this year's Oscars was a musical performance-filled gala that also served as a celebration of cinema greatness and delivered some truly unexpected surprises and category upsets.Hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel — serving as emcee for the third time -- this year's show expertly navigated the potentially choppy waters of the first show since the infamous slap heard 'round the world.From some long-awaited wins to some truly touching acceptance speeches, here are all the best, biggest and most memorable highlights from Sunday's 95th Oscars ceremony!After parachuting into the Dolby Theatre (literally dropping down from the rafters), Kimmel delivered a monologue that was gently playful, poking fun at some of the nominees but with a loving and considerate tone — for the most part.After ribbing Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Tom Cruise, he addressed last year's infamous slap toward the end of his monologue, explaining, «We want you to have fun, feel safe, and most importantly, we want me to feel safe. So, we have strict policies in place.

Michelle Williams is ready for the big night!

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Patty Jenkins says she was more than disappointed that no women were nominated for best director this year. “I give up, I give up,” the “Wonder Woman” director told me Saturday at the Charles Finch and Chanel pre-Oscars dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge. “I say that even with all of their push to have diversity. The numbers are just hugely imbalanced of who votes for these things. I sort of just stopped paying attention to it. It’s still going to take a long ways to go. It’s going to take a lot more to really see truly more diverse awards. I really appreciate the efforts that they’re making but we have a long way to go.”

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Tom Cruise got a hero’s welcome in Hollywood over the last week of February. The best actor Oscar nominee for “Top Gun: Maverick” had been largely absent from Los Angeles during prime awards campaigning season, held up filming his latest “Mission: Impossible” epic, and the town was more than compensated for his absence when he finally touched down. On Sunday Feb. 26, “Top Gun: Maverick” producer Jerry Bruckheimer opened his Beverly Hills home to power players and stars (many of them voters for the annual Academy Awards) where Cruise was guest of honor. Days later, former Paramount chief and show business stateswoman Shery Lansing gave an equally well-attended cocktail party to fete Cruise. It’s not surprising that the industry would want to celebrate the man who Steven Spielberg said “saved Hollywood’s ass” by getting moviegoers back in theaters. But were the events legit in the eyes of the film academy, which enforces how and when Oscar hopefuls get to woo the figures that hand them golden trophies? The Academy’s bylaws say that after Oscar nominations are released, campaigns cannot “invite members to attend any parties, dinners, lunches, or other non-screening events that promote nominated films.”

The verdict seems clear: Mel Brooks continues to thrive as the auteur of disorder. Further, his blasphemies on Hulu this week serve as a welcome distraction from the numbing debates that usually dominate Oscar Week.

Cell Block Tango. The Hollywood actress, 77, is blasting the jailed producer, saying he swindled her out of a movie role in the late 1980s. Hawn, 77, told Variety on Wednesday that she and Madonna were set to star in a screen adaptation of “Chicago” produced by Weinstein before he suddenly rejigged the project.

Pedro Pascal had a curt response to a member of the paparazzi questioning him about The Last of Us’LGBT+ storylines. *Warning – spoilers ahead for The Last of Us*The HBO TV adaptation of the popular video game has featured two queer love stories in its first season.

Tim Gray Senior Vice President This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert), Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner). This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.  The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms. So here’s Film History 101. In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.

Recognition from his peers! Tom Cruise has had a long and storied career in Hollywood — but the awards season recognition for Top Gun: Maverick is a new high.

With today’s “urgent reminder” directed to its membership, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences again is doing its damnedest to get out the vote. The Oscar event is still a battlefield of “gold, sweat and tears” as portrayed in Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman’s new book, despite the ominous industry challenges.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Pedro Pascal have proven to have very supportive fans, with the Chilean actor quickly becoming the ‘daddy of the internet’ after his undeniable success in the HBO series ‘The Last of Us,’ and the 90s icon being named ‘Mother’ by the LGBTQ community following her incredible career in Hollywood.And while many have focused on their popularity separately, we can not forget about the time they shared the screen on season four of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ The actress decided to look back at the moment they worked together, making fans go crazy.“When Mother met Father,” she wrote on Instagram, posting a photo of one of the episodes. Viewers of the show remember that Pedro played Edward, a friend of Buffy.

Whitney Friedlander The term “passion project” is thrown around a lot in Hollywood; usually as a reference to a personal story that means a ton to its writer, director or star.  But what kind of pressure does that put on the rest of the cast and crew? This Oscar season, there are a lot of so-called passion projects that have received accolades. Among them: “The Fabelmans,” a family story that was inspired by director and co-writer Steven Spielberg’s own parents; “The Banshees of Inisherin,” a script that writer-director Martin McDonagh spent years perfecting set in an era in Irish history that few outsiders might know about; and the Marvel movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” for which director and co-writer Ryan Coogler had to follow the success of the film’s predecessor, 2018’s “Black Panther” while doing justice to its late star, Chadwick Boseman. 

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios is developing Assume Nothing, a limited series based on Tanya Selvaratnam’s memoir of the same name, from Joanna Coles, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ Purple Pebble Pictures, with Chopra Jonas also in talks to star, and ABC Signature.

Harvey Weinstein for the first time, which allegedly happened when she was 19.Hilton alleged that the incident took place at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, where Weinstein approached Hilton after he heard that she wanted to go into acting.“I was at lunch with my girlfriend and he came up to the table and was like, ‘Oh, you want to be an actress?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I really want to be in a movie,’” Hilton told Glamour UK.“I was a teenager, so I was impressed by him. I was like, ‘Oh my god, Harvey Weinstein is so cool!’ and he said, ‘Well, we should have a meeting. You can come up to my room and read scripts,’” she said.