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Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn a career that stretches back 40 years, Sean Penn has had many great roles, from Jeff Spicoli to Harvey Milk, from the surly teen sociopath of “Bad Boys” to the soulful death-row sociopath of “Dead Man Walking.” Yet there’s a role Penn is now playing that he has embraced with fierce commitment and skill, but it still doesn’t look very good on him. That’s the role of The American Civilian Who Cares About the War in Ukraine More Than You Do.You’ve seen him play the role at press conferences and in interviews with cable-TV news hosts.

Clayton Davis Will Smith, Chris Rock and the Academy may feel they can turn the page on this dramatic chapter following the announcement that Smith would be banned from the ceremony for 10 years. But there’s too much reliance on written statements and not enough acknowledgment that multiple apologies are missing from all parties.   For Smith, who won best actor for his performance as Serena and Venus Williams’ father in “King Richard,” an Instagram post saying he “accepts and respect the Academy’s decision” is not the type of penance the general public, the industry, your colleagues and co-stars are expecting.

Harry Lennix The Motion Picture Academy’s decision to ban Will Smith from Oscar ceremonies and events for 10 years as discipline for slapping Chris Rock is little more than an extended time out for a playground bully. It’s a toothless penalty that lays bare the shallowness of Hollywood morals.At this point, the only person who can redeem the integrity of the Oscars is Smith himself.

Oscars, it was easy to miss when three actors identified as Disney princesses presented the best animated feature award by reading, “Animated films make up some of our most formative movie experiences as kids. So many kids watch these movies over and over… and over and over and over and over… I think some parents out there know exactly what we’re talking about.”Framing the five Academy Award nominees for best animated feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure could be dismissed as simply careless.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticA great frustration for me as a critic of television, and a viewer of television, has been the ongoing dominance of “The Bachelor” franchise — a series that requires herculean endurance on the part of the viewer to find moments of genuine oddity. Over the course of punishingly long episodes, “The Bachelor” tends toward the most rote sorts of provocation, placing contestants who have been cast for their ability to approximate normalcy into extreme situations.After all, “The Bachelor” runs on happy endings, and so we must be rooting for its leads (the Bachelor or Bachelorette, and the credible options for them to pick at the end) to really find love.

Mark I. Pinsky If the increasingly bare-knuckle battle between Florida’s conservative Republican Gov.

Jay Ruderman There were several beautiful, gratifying moments at the 94th Academy Awards. But you would not necessarily know that by watching the viral videos circulating social media that emerged in the immediate aftermath of the ceremony, which focus on one particular distasteful incident.Today, it is time to let the dust settle on the so-called “slap heard around the world” and shift the conversation to “CODA,” enabling this year’s Best Picture winner to receive the attention and accolades it deserves.The narrative surrounding the success of “CODA” — which also took home Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Troy Kotsur) and Best Adapted Screenplay — encompasses much more than initially meets the eye.

Nick Jarjour As we head into Grammy weekend, Harvey Mason Jr, the CEO of the Recording Academy, deserves to be commended for restructuring the organization to credit and support songwriters like never before. Among the positive changes under his watch: establishing a songwriter wing and including writer credits on albums.

Mitch Glazier Guest ColumnistNon-fungible tokens (or NFTs) have exploded in popularity, with everything from digital artwork to basketball highlights being minted to the blockchain. It’s exciting and full of promise and opportunity — but unfortunately also a fast-moving vector for new forms of fraud and misuse.An NFT is a unit of data recorded on an infinite digital ledger — a blockchain.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticSometimes, it comes down to one very simple thing — and by it, I don’t just mean the best picture race. I mean that thing we call movies.At the movies, people want to be moved. They also want to be thrilled, staggered, transfixed, seduced, immersed, mystified, mesmerized, drawn outside of themselves.

Chris Willman Music WriterWhen Dua Lipa played a two-night stand at L.A.’s Forum this past week, with her U.S. tour just a few dates away from coming to a close, there was a sheet-cake bearing her image backstage in the VIP Forum Club area, a custom that’s de rigueur for headliners coming through the storied arena.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFrom the moment it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” has been a divisive film. Yet the divisiveness has had an element of being foggy and vague, hard to get a fix on. In part, that’s because those who command the media megaphone, and are loudest in the debate, have mostly showered the movie with acclaim.

Yes, folks, dinosaurs do still roam the Earth.Come Sunday night, an increasingly irrelevant Hollywood elite — look, kids, Dame Judi Dench got another nomination! — will gather for their annual fete to an astonishing lack of self-awareness, a.k.a.

Editor’s note: Mooky Greidinger is CEO of the world’s second-largest exhibitor, Cineworld, which also owns Regal in the U.S. A staunch supporter of the theatrical experience, Greidinger grew up in the industry and is avowedly passionate about the movie business. But as Oscars weekend arrives, he is confounded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as, in his words, “many of the largest and most influential films of today remain unrecognized.” Greidinger penned the guest column below in which he calls for the Academy Board to convene an “industry emergency committee… to brainstorm and identify a more sustainable solution.”

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIn a scene in the first season of the Ukrainian sitcom “Servant of the People,” the newly-elected president of Ukraine is attempting to get the attention of his parliament, which has devolved from bickering into a physical brawl. Gently clearing his throat and murmuring for some peace and quiet won’t do, and this head of state is too green to command much respect from those serving alongside him in government.

Editors note: Todd Lieberman is the Oscar-nominated producer of The Fighter with credits including Beauty and the Beast, Wonder and The Muppets. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he contributes occasional guest columns for Deadline.

Editors note: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had tragic consequences for the Ukrainian people, and the wider ramifications of the conflict are only beginning to be understood. As the West imposes economic sanctions on Russia, the country is facing a period of isolation unseen since the Cold War. Here, acclaimed Russian novelist and journalist Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the sci-fi novel series Metro 2033, writes about how Russian propaganda has taken hold of his fellow countrymen. He is based in Europe. The column is translated from Russian by Marian Schwartz.

Donna Kaz Donna Kaz is a multi-genre writer and the author of “Un/Masked, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour,” which covers her relationship with the late William Hurt and her path to becoming an activist fighting domestic violence. Kaz writes about her emotional response to the news of his death.   I will never forget the first time I saw him, standing by the front door of Jimmy Day’s bar in Greenwich Village where I waited tables. The sun behind him made him appear almost godly.

Editors note: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had tragic consequences for the Ukrainian people, and the wider ramifications of the conflict are only beginning to be understood. As the West imposes economic sanctions on Russia, the country is facing a period of isolation unseen since the Cold War. Deadline invited one high-profile Russian producer to pen a column discussing their perspective on the situation. At their request they are being kept anonymous for fear of reprisal from Putin’s government as it cracks down on free speech.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor years I’ve said that “The Dark Knight” is the one great comic-book movie. The films you might consider to be runners-up — “Spider-Man 2,” “Superman II,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” — are splendid entertainments, but none of them earn the G-word. Not really.

Pete Ganbarg Pete Ganbarg is a two-time Grammy-winner, president of A&R for Atlantic Records and also president of Atco Records. His most recent signing is Gayle, a 17-year-old pop artist from Dallas via Nashville whose debut Atlantic single, “abcdefu,” topped the singles charts in several countries.  His “Rock & Roll High School” podcast, a series of interviews with legends of contemporary music, is available on all DSPs.I recently asked my A&R department at Atlantic Records to create playlists of the songs that best define them. It was an exercise as much for me as it was for them.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe Oscar campaign for “CODA” has touted the film as “history-making.” If you wanted to be a literal-minded curmudgeon about it, you could say that the history it’s talking about was already made — when Marlee Matlin, in 1986, became the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award for best actress, for her great, ardent, wounded performance in “Children of a Lesser God.” Matlin deserved to win (the other nominated actresses that year were Jane Fonda for “The Morning After,” Sissy Spacek for “Crimes of the Heart,” Kathleen Turner for “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and Sigourney Weaver for “Aliens,” which is the only one I’d put in Matlin’s league).Nevertheless, history works in waves. Sidney Poitier made history by becoming the first Black actor to be a Hollywood star, as well as the first to win an Academy Award for best actor (in 1963, for “Lilies of the Field”).

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticLet’s start with something most of us can agree on: Jimmy Kimmel, who I’m a fan of, is probably not the ideal messenger for how to fix the Oscars, if indeed they need fixing. Kimmel hosted the Academy Awards in 2017, and did a lively enough job of it that he was asked back to host again the following year.

Kay Hanley Guest ColumnistKay Hanley, best known as the frontperson for Letters to Cleo and co-founder of the activist group Songwriters of North America (SONA), felt gratified when Spotify was put in the spotlight by some musicians who hadn’t weighed in before in the wake of the Joe Rogan controversy. She writes a guest column for Variety amplifying these thoughts: “COME FOR THE ANTI-SCIENCE SMACKDOWN, STICK AROUND FOR THE WORKERS’ REVOLT.” — @DAYNAKURTZThank you for your assistance, Mr.

Editors note: When we think of Robert De Niro and Italy, it’s easiest to focus on the Sicilian town of Corleone, because of his Oscar-winning turn in The Godfather: Part II. But De Niro wanted to focus on Naples, which director Paolo Sorrentino brought to life in The Hand of God. De Niro was so moved, he wrote a guest column for Deadline on why the film touched him so dearly.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJohn Stankey and Brian Roberts are wrestling with different sides of the same problems.For Big Media, the fourth-quarter earnings revelations so far have reinforced predictions that 2022 is the year the honeymoon ends for the promise of new streaming ventures. Now it’s entrenching time.

Carl Kurlander, who went from being director Joel Schumacher’s assistant to writing St. Elmo’s fire with him, wrote a look back on that film for Deadline as well as a tribute when the director passed away., Kurlander today shares memories about Louie Anderson, the comic and actor who died last Friday in Las Vegas at age 68. Kurlander co-authored The F Word: How to Survive Your Family with Louie Anderson and was a consultant on his The Louie Show on CBS. His other credits include St Elmo’s Fire, he has been a senior lecturer at the U of Pittsburgh and producer of Chasing Covid and other titles. Here he discusses the empathy Anderson showed to most everyone around him, and many career breaks he provided, actions informed by the slights and hardships he faced in his own life.  

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticBy the time New York Magazine published its thorough and extremely damning new piece on how Joss Whedon and his entertainment empire fell apart, I couldn’t summon much more than an exhausted sigh. After years of loving his work, followed by years of reconsidering everything I knew about it within the context of the serious allegations against him, Whedon’s downfall in my own world was so swift and complete that I couldn’t stomach the idea of reopening that door at all.Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is the reason I first started thinking critically about television.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe year “The Matrix” came out — 1999 — already had a sci-fi ring to it. It was the year Prince had imagined as the run-up to the apocalypse, a premonition that would be echoed in the Y2K jitters.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe sale of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog to Sony Music Publishing — part of a deal that also includes his master recordings, estimated to have cost Sony around $500 million overall — could mean his body of work will be exploited for considerably more commercial licensing.