County Clayton Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual gala recognizing some of the year’s finest achievements in cinema Thursday evening saw several honorees let their guards down, allowing the tearducts to flow. Mary Hart returned as host for the starry awards gala held at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Billie Eilish and Finneas became the first songwriters ever to receive the Chairman’s Award for their chart-topper “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie.” Before paying tribute to their parents and recalling their journey as aspiring actors, Eilish got candid about the emotional song’s personal meaning.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, has become a crucial indicator on which films and performances could garner support for the Academy Awards due to the huge overlap of voting members. Over the years, its influence on the Oscars has been undeniable, with many of its winners often helping to shape a narrative. After getting ignored by all the major guilds, last year’s German-language film “All Quiet on the Western Front” made a big showing before going on to nab nine Oscar nominations and winning four.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Legendary filmmaker Michael Mann is “worried about the future” of movies. But, he also declares, “Cinema is not dying.” A luminary auteur with a distinctive visual style and gripping storytelling, Mann calls this time following the end of the historic Hollywood strikes “a real watershed moment.” “The companies are split in ways they haven’t been before between streamers and legacy studios,” he tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Those interests don’t sometimes align.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Holt McCallany is the quintessential “that guy” actor, with more than 80 film and TV credits to his name. Now he’s stepping into the spotlight as the legendary wrestling family patriarch Fritz Von Erich in Sean Durkin’s harrowing sports drama “The Iron Claw.” McCallany’s first acting attempt came at 14, after he ran away from his New York home and headed to Hollywood with no contacts or strategy. He wound up working at a screwdriver factory in Gardena before his parents — Tony Award-winning producer Michael McAloney and actress and singer Julie Wilson — tracked him down and shipped him to a boarding school in Ireland.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor After a wild year that brought us an atomic bomb creator, a toy doll coming to life and an Indigenous woman’s fight for survival against her white husband, 2024 promises to be another exhilarating one with a slew of highly anticipated films and performances set to grace the silver screen. (See Variety’s most anticipated movies of 2024 for further proof) We’re going to have performers from long-awaited sequels (Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker: Folie à Deux”) and prequels (Anya Taylor-Joy in “Furiosa”), to anticipated biopics (Angelina Jolie in “Maria”) and original stories and characters (André Holland in “The Actor”). There are also performers from long-awaited adaptations (Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in “Wicked: Part One”) and ones from movies that have been finished shooting for quite some time (Mark Rylance in “The Way of the Wind”).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Greta Gerwig‘s blockbuster comedy “Barbie” has been deemed an adapted screenplay by the Writers Branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, despite campaigning for original screenplay, Variety has exclusively learned. When official Oscar nomination voting opens Thursday, Jan. 11, eligible voting members of the branch will only be able to cast votes for the script written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach in adapted screenplay.

The Full Monty, and was nominated for two Oscars, for In the Bedroom (2001) and Michael Clayton (2007). He also appeared in films including Shakespeare in Love (1998), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Batman Begins (2005) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He died suddenly at home on Saturday (December 30) with his wife and family, they said in a statement.

Actor Tom Wilkinson has "suddenly" died at the age of 75, his family have announced. The British actor was best known for his role as former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the comedy movie The Full Monty. He also starred in Shakespeare in Love and Batman Begins.

Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson has died aged 75, his family has announced.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Tom Wilkinson, the British actor who appeared in films including “The Full Monty,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” died Saturday in the U.K., the BBC reported. He was 75.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has made some changes in her life. We’ve all grown to know her as the two-time Emmy nominated actress from “When They See Us” and “Lovecraft Country” and her Oscar-nominated performance in “King Richard,” all of which came under her initial professional name: Aunjanue Ellis. When the first promotional materials were released for her new film “Origin” from writer and director Ava DuVernay, a natural question began circulating regarding the hyphenated addition of “Taylor” to her professional name.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Who says you can’t laugh and win Oscars, too? In a stunning year for cinema, the candidates for the coveted best picture category are overflowing with prime comedic endeavors that surpass their dramatic counterparts. From a toy doll to an author with a triumphant “Black book” to a reverse Frankenstein tale that shows a whole lot of sex, the Academy has an opportunity to invite the softer side of cinema to its ceremony.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar voters tend to be big-screen enthusiasts. But the reality is that not every awards contender will be seen in the cinema — and that’s especially true during the holiday season, when all the family commitments, shopping and big meals can turn even a movie theater evangelist like Christopher Nolan into a couch potato. The allure of a theater’s dim, cool ambience and sharing the experience with strangers is what many filmmakers envision for their creations.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Get in, loser. We’re riding with Rachel McAdams because she’s still Queen Bee. Since she’s become a mother, life has changed.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Oscars shortlist voting period has closed as of 5:00 p.m. PT. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the finalists in 10 categories — documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (15), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), sound (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (15), live action short film (15), and visual effects (10) — on Thursday, Dec.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences branches began voting today to determine the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Academy Awards. These categories, along with the number of films to be named, are: documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (10), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), sound (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (10), live action short film (10), and visual effects (10). The shortlist voting period runs from Dec.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Danielle Brooks is having one of the most significant moments in her career, playing Sofia in “The Color Purple.” It’s a role that she portrayed on Broadway and received her first Tony nomination — but it wasn’t easy for the critically-acclaimed performer to get here. As the spirited and no-nonsense wife to Harpo (Corey Hawkins), Brooks’ Sofia is positioned as the hopeful and joyous anchor in a narrative that, at times, carries a thematic weight, craving moments of levity.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It didn’t take long for America Ferrera to find the personal connection in the speech she delivers as Gloria in the box-office smash “Barbie.” “I think when we’re not historically meant to be in a room, it’s very difficult to show up in those spaces as your whole self,” she says on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Because you are taught to be grateful, you’re in the room.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Awards Circuit Column: It’s not just about “Barbenheimer” and biographical dramas. Awards voters need to look beyond the shiniest Oscar contenders to find under-heralded gems. From documentaries about musical greats to coming-of-age stories that brilliantly tap into the tribulations of being a tween, several movies deserve to be in the conversation for top prizes.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The top 20 finalists for the visual effects Oscar have been notified they have made it to the next round of voting. With Oscars shortlist voting opening in eight categories on Thursday, Dec. 14, Variety has learned exclusively that the visual effects finalists include Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” and the lone animated feature contender, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles. Variety‘s senior awards editor Clayton Davis, Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay and Senior Entertainment & Media Writer Matt Donnelly moderated several panels throughout the event.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy has revealed the list of eligible films for consideration in best animated, documentary and international feature of the year, encompassing a broad range of blockbusters and critically acclaimed titles. GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron,” Pixar’s “Elemental,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” are among the 33 animated films in the running.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The “Barbenheimer” craze continues with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” being named among AFI Awards 2023 top 10 best films of the year. Netflix led studios with two movies making the list — Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” and Todd Haynes’ black comedy “May December.” With an eclectic mix of critically acclaimed and consumer friendly titles, the list of top movies also includes films by newcomers (Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” and Celine Song’s “Past Lives”), veterans (Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers”) and stylish visionaries (Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events While the LGTBQ rights movement has made tremendous strides since that first rock was thrown at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969, there are still many areas of the U.S. where the queer community doesn’t feel safe. In the new Hulu documentary, “We Live Here: The Midwest,” director Melina Maerker and producer David Clayton Miller chronicle queer families living in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Killers of the Flower Moon” has been named best picture by the National Board of Review, the organization announced on Wednesday. Co-distributed by Apple Original Films and Paramount Pictures, the crime epic also nabbed prizes for director Martin Scorsese and actress Lily Gladstone.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Netflix’s “May December” In Netflix’s “May December,” one of the most memorable scenes features Joe Yoo (played by Charles Melton) arriving at the hotel to deliver a letter from his wife Gracie (Julianne Moore) to actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman). Their encounter leads to a brief yet intense sexual liaison on the floor, culminating in a conspicuous silhouette shot of Joe’s penis. Amid Samy Burch’s narrative brilliance and Todd Haynes’ tantalizing direction, one might imagine Melton — known for his role in The CW’s “Riverdale” — felt immense pressure acting opposite Oscar winner Portman, who also produced the film.

In the wake of a Donald Trump presidency of 2016, in addition to the rise of anti-Gay legislation which poised a threat to the marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, filmmaker Melinda Maerker and producer David Clayton Miller took the time to check in on the LGBTQIA+ community in the Midwest.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, a day before the National Board of Review will weigh in on its selections for the best films and performances of 2023. They’ll be following the New York Film Critics Circle who kicked off the season last week by crowning Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” as its top choice. Its West Coast counterpart, Los Angeles Film Critics, will drop their choices on Sunday.

William Earl This awards season’s premier contending filmmakers, talent and artisans will gather for exclusive panels at Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles from 9 a.m.