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One of the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood, Charlize Theron often finds herself at the center of relationship rumors. While the actress is reportedly dating Alex Dimitrijevic, there were once whispers of a past connection with Marvel star Jeremy Renner.

Charlize Theron | Credit: Gage Skidmore/Cca By-sa 2.0/Wikimedia Commons

The two were reportedly spotted together on several occasions leading up to the 2010 Oscars Vanity Fair party, sparking speculation about a secret affair, with sources commending their undeniable chemistry.

Charlize Theron and Jeremy Renner Sparked Secret Romance Rumors

At the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010 Jeremy Renner won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Hurt Locker. The film, which earned nine nominations at the ceremony, won six Oscars, including for Best Picture and Best Director.

The Hurt Locker | Credit: Warner Bros.

However, ahead of the awards ceremony, the actor made headlines for his rumored romance with Charlize Theron. As per Daily Mail,...

Whether you’re cheering from the sidelines or hurling tomatoes from the bleachers, it’s all too easy to think you know every inch of a celebrity’s life. Thanks to their ever-present spotlight! Yet, these stars do juggle private milestones and struggles. Take Amber Heard, for example.

Love her or leave her, many fans (and haters) assume they know every little detail about the actress just because of her shining roles in box office hits like Aquaman and Pineapple Express, not to mention her high-profile romances. But let’s be real: her life isn’t always a glamorous reel of adventures or tabloid fodder.

Amber Heard in In the Fire (2023) | Credit: Saban Films

Getting her foot in the door of the demanding entertainment industry was no small feat. Especially after her tumultuous divorce from Johnny Depp. Fans argue she doesn’t get to cherry-pick her roles, and it’s...

Throughout their first decade of record-making, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed, they’d joke, as “a two person band they called Gillian Welch.” There was a spine-tingling profundity and a solemn intensity to the universe of sound created when Rawlings and Welch stood around a single microphone and sang songs like “Acony Bell” (from 1996’s Revival) or “Caleb Mayer” (from 1998’s Hell Among the Yearlings) or just about anything from their 2001 masterpiece Time (The Revelator).

Then, beginning with 2009’s Friend of a Friend, the duo shook up the formula,...

Charlize Theron returned to the Oscar race in 2020 with a Best Actress nomination for “Bombshell.” The Academy Award winner earned raves for her eerie embodiment of former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, but where does the role fall into the rest of her filmography? Tour through our photo gallery of Theron’s 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Success came pretty quickly for the South African born actress. After one uncredited role in a horror film, Theron burst onto movie screens in the film “2 Days in the Valley.” That film launched her into a series of roles usually as the wife or girlfriend and ones that capitalized on her stunning beauty. That all changed in 2003 when she took on the role of Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute who became a serial killer and was put to death for her crimes. The film won Theron the Oscar as Best Actress...

Free-spirited mom. Strict mother. Abused wife. Boozing adulteress. Mousy governess. Strong-willed nomad. With her talent for deadpan delivery and with one of the most expressive faces in the industry, Frances McDormand has created a treasure trove of complex and diverse characters over the past 40 years, earning numerous accolades along the way.

McDormand was born Cynthia Ann Smith on June 23, 1957, and was adopted when she was a year-and-a-half old and renamed Frances Louise McDormand. After studying theater, including receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale School of Drama, she quickly made a name for herself on stage, as well as in film and television.

In 1984, McDormand made her film debut in “Blood Simple,” the first film made by her new husband Joel Coen and his brother Ethan Coen. She has collaborated with the brothers in seven other films, including her first Oscar-winning performance in “Fargo” (1996). In addition to her film work,...

Tom Bower, the busy character actor who portrayed Dr. Curtis Willard on The Waltons and the janitor, Marvin, who helps John McClane foil the terrorists at the airport in Die Hard 2, has died. He was 86.

Bower died last week of an unknown cause at his home in Los Angeles, his brother, Robert Bower, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Bower worked on John Cassavetes’ directorial debut, Shadows (1957), and played one of the translators that make a mess of things in the acclaimed Western The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982), starring Edward James Olmos.

He portrayed the father of the 37th U.S. president in Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995), starring Anthony Hopkins, and the father of Nicolas Cage’s Terence McDonagh in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009).

And, he appeared for director Scott Cooper in Crazy Heart (2009) — as the agent of Jeff Bridges’ Bad Blake — and Out of the Furnace...

Richard Jenkins has been cast in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming series adaptation of the “Criminal” graphic novels, Variety has learned.

The series was originally ordered at Amazon back in January. Jenkins is the first confirmed cast member. The show is described as “an interlocking universe of crime stories” based on the graphic novels by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Jenkins will play Ivan. The character is described as “Leo’s dad’s best friend, and has always been an uncle figure to him. He used to be a robber and criminal, but is now currently suffering from dementia. Leo is trying to care for him but realizes he’s more work than he can handle.”

Jenkins is a highly-respected actor with the rare ability to do comedy and drama in seemingly equal measure. He received Oscar nominations for his performances in the films “The Shape of Water” and “The Visitor...

Two-time Oscar nominated and Emmy-winning actor Richard Jenkins has joined the cast of Criminal, Prime Video’s upcoming drama series based on Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips’ multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series.

Criminal is an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the graphic novels.

Jenkins will play Ivan, Leo’s dad’s best friend, who has always been an uncle figure to him. He used to be a robber and criminal, but is now currently suffering from dementia. Leo is trying to care for him but realizes he’s more work than he can handle.

Brubaker, who penned the pilot script, will co-showrun the TV series with crime fiction author Jordan Harper (Hightown). Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden will direct the first four episodes.

Criminal is produced by Amazon MGM Studios. The series is executive produced by Brubaker and Harper, alongside Sean Phillips, Sarah Carbiener, and Phillip Barnett.

HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country” is the most haunting and eerie season of “True Detective” yet, a result of showrunner and director Issa López‘s willingness to explore harrowing questions and her ability to find the precise visual corollaries for her characters’ isolated, traumatized inner states. Although “Night Country” shares DNA with Nic Pizzolatto and Cary Joji Fununaga’s first season in its core idea — which López described to IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast as “the sense that something very rotten is coming to the surface” — López was determined to approach the series’ pitiless tone in a fresh way.

So instead of making the series hot and masculine like the first season’s Louisiana-set story of two male police detectives, López went cold and feminine, following cops Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as they try to solve a mystery in arctic Alaska. That meant taking a deep dive into the region since,...

Upon securing a spot in the 2024 Best Supporting Actress Oscar lineup, Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) officially shattered the Academy Awards record for longest span between fourth and fifth acting nominations. Following her two Best Actress wins for “The Accused” (1989) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1992), she had last been recognized in that category for “Nell” (1995), making for a general nomination gap of 29 years. Coincidentally, she took this particular distinction from fellow “Silence of the Lambs” winner Anthony Hopkins, who waited 22 years between his supporting bids for “Amistad” (1998) and “The Two Popes” (2020).

Previously, the female record for longest wait for a fifth nomination was 12 years, as shared by Julianne Moore and Frances McDormand. Considering gaps between any two consecutive acting nominations, Foster ranks well behind overall record holder Judd Hirsch, whose first and second career notices for “Ordinary People” (1981) and “The Fabelmans” (2023) came 42 years apart. His female counterpart is Helen Hayes (39 years...

Apple Studios has emerged victorious in a bidding war for “Two For The Money,” a hot package that has attached Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and ex-007 Daniel Craig. Justin Lin, who oversaw several “Fast & Furious” films, is set to direct and produce. Love and larceny is in the air; Theron and Craig will play career thieves whose relationship spans the course of three big jobs.

The film is based on an original idea by Lin and Dan Mazeau (“Fast X”) and will be developed and produced by Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment, Theron’s Denver & Delilah banner, and Jeff Kirschebaum and Joe Roth’s Rk Films, with Apple Studios serving as the studio.

Theron worked with Lin on “Fast X.” Her credits include her Oscar-winning turn in “Monster,” as well as her Academy Award-nominated roles in “Bombshell” and “North Country.” She also starred in “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Atomic Blonde.

Editors note: Michael Seitzman is a veteran film and TV writer and showrunner. He created the series Code Black and Intelligence and penned the Charlize Theron-starring movie North Country. In a guest column titled “Because Jews,” he shares his impassioned take on the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and its reverberations around Hollywood.

I’ve worked in Hollywood for the better part of three decades. Everyone here has rules about the stories they tell. A big one for me is, don’t ask what you need to tell the audience, ask what you can get away with not telling the audience. This is part of a process we like to call information management. Allow me to illustrate.

Last week, a letter was making the rounds in Hollywood, demanding that organizations like the Writers Guild of America not bend to “pressure campaigns to force them to align with Israel as it lays siege on Gaza.

Actress Charlize Theron poses for the "Breitling" 'Navitimer 36' and '32' watches, photographed by Matthew Brookes:

Theron played the female lead in the features "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), "Mighty Joe Young". 

She won an 'Oscar' playing the lead in "Monster" (2003), for which she won the Silver Bear and Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first South African to win an acting Oscar. She received another Oscar nomination for the drama "North Country" (2005). 

Theron also starred in action films "The Italian Job" (2003), "Hancock" (2008), "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012), "Prometheus" (2012), "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), "The Fate of the Furious" (2017), "Atomic Blonde" (2017), "The Old Guard" (2020), "F9" (2021) and "Fast X" (2023). 

She portrayed 'Megyn Kelly' in the drama "Bombshell" (2019), receiving her third 'Academy Award' nomination. 

She played 'Clea' in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", 'Lady Lesso' in "The School for Good and Evil" (2022) and has a cameo in Season...

Actor Charlize Theron ended up feeling harassed while immersing herself in her Oscar-nominated role for North Country. To help relieve her own stress with some of the film’s scenes, she quipped that she acted out against the film crew.

Charlize Theron ‘grabbed asses’ while filming ‘North Country’ after feeling harassed Charlize Theron | Marilla Sicilia/Getty Images

North Country was a 2005 drama directed by Niki Caro and starring Charlize Theron. In the film, Theron played miner Josey Aimes, who upset many of her male colleagues for working the same profession as them. As a result, Josey and many other female miners experienced sexual harassment at the hands of their male co-workers. This resulted in a historic sexual harassment lawsuit, which is based on true events.

To prepare for the role, the blockbuster superstar met the actual miners who North Country was based on. Doing so made the movie all too real for the actor.

Casting director Russell Boast, producer Annabelle K. Frost, producer Nana Greenwald, writer-director Tamar Halpern, animator David Kuhn, producer-director Sheldon Larry and broadcast journalist May Lee have been hired as full-time faculty at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

The new faculty members have worked on some of the most prominent film and television projects of the past 30 years, including the Harrison Ford starrer The Fugitive, David Fincher’s Seven and Disney’s Pocahontas. They will assume their new roles on Monday, Aug. 28, at the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

“This is an awe-inspiring group of teachers, whose range of experience adds a wealth of valuable knowledge to our already-impressive faculty,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College. “I can only wish I’d had professors like this when I was in film school.”

Russell Boast, CSA, head of casting and co-head of the Screen Acting program at Dodge College,...

This post contains spoilers for "The Mother."

New Zealand filmmaker Niki Caro has been making hard-hitting, critically acclaimed motion pictures for decades. Her second feature, "Whale Rider," made Keisha Castle-Hughes the youngest Best Actress nominee in Academy Awards history at the time (although Quvenzhané Wallis eventually set a new record ten years later), and her harrowing sexual harassment drama "North Country" earned nominations for Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand for their roles as miners who embarked on a historic legal battle.

In recent years, Caro's films have become even more explosive. Her live-action remake of Disney's "Mulan" was expected to be one of the bigger hits of 2020, but its release was scuttled at the last minute due to the Covid-19 pandemic before eventually debuting on Disney+ with a premium surcharge. Now she's back with an action movie that was always intended for streaming: "The Mother," starring Jennifer Lopez as an...

Charlize Theron is an Academy Award-winning South African actress and producer who has made a name for herself in Hollywood with her impressive performances and undeniable talent. She has starred in numerous critically acclaimed films including Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Devil’s Advocate, and Atomic Blonde.

Charlize Theron. Depositphotos

Theron was born on August 7th, 1975 in Benoni, South Africa. She grew up on the farm of her parents Charles and Gerda Theron. She attended the National School of Arts in Johannesburg before moving to the United States at 18 to pursue a dance career. After a short while working as a dancer she switched gears and began studying acting at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City.

In 1995 Theron got her first big break when she was cast in 2 Days In The Valley alongside James Spader and Danny Aiello. This role put her on Hollywood’s radar, leading...

John Aylward, the veteran character actor best known for his long stint on the hit medical drama ER, has died at the age of 75.

Aylward’s agent Mitchell Stubbs confirmed Aylward’s death to Deadline; while the cause of death was not revealed, Aylward died Monday in his native Seattle after a period of declining health.

“I was shocked. He was a wonderful actor and a phenomenal human being,” Stubbs told Deadline. “He was a dream client, a friend and a dream person.”

Aylward spent 12 seasons at ER’s County General hospital,...

Exclusive: Lili Simmons (Power Book IV: Force), Kim Coates (The White Houe Plumbers), Igby Rigney (Midnight Mass), Tom Bower (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) and Justin Marcel McManus (Power Book II: Ghost) will topline Southern Gothic (working title), an upcoming indie drama from writer-director Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society), which has wrapped production.

The story is set in the dangerous and shady world of illegal, high-stakes keno gambling, in a run-down plantation house owned by Nick (Coates) in the rural South, at the turn of the 21st century. Nick is enamored with the smart, tough and charming Keno ace Diana’s (Simmons) intent to win big and is determined to stake her. Little Nick (Rigney), a one-time prodigy keno hustler, now reduced to servicing pool tables, strikes up a friendship with Diana and coaches her to win against the odds. Diana must then prove herself in a man’s...

“It’s a pleasure that we have so many to choose from!” exclaims David Buchanan of the 13 new musicals and musical revivals competing for the 2022 Tony Awards. After the pandemic decimated Broadway and resulted in only a handful of eligible tuners at the last ceremony, it’s a joy to be able to discuss a genuinely competitive lineup of musicals from the 2021-2022 Broadway season. David and I sat down six weeks before nominations are announced – on May 3 – to dish which productions, actors, and creatives will make the cut. Watch the full video above.

David and I are both in agreement that “Six” and “A Strange Loop” are leaders of the pack when it comes to the Best Musical race. The former casts the six wives of Henry VIII as pop divas while the later is a transfer of an Off-Broadway smash about a black, gay writer trying to navigate the theater world.

Girl From The North Country, Conor McPherson’s acclaimed musical that reimagines the songs of Bob Dylan, will return to Broadway from its three-month Covid hiatus, with a return date set for April 29. The production will conclude its 50-performance limited engagement on June 11.

“We are so thrilled to bring this incredible production back to Broadway and to return to our home at the Belasco Theatre,” said producers Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons. “As Broadway’s recovery continues, we are so grateful to be a part of this exciting season and to give more audiences a chance to visit us in the North Country and experience the magic of Bob Dylan’s songs and Conor McPherson’s remarkable storytelling.”

Girl From The North Country originally opened on Broadway on March 5, 2020, but closed just a week later due to New York’s Covid shutdown. The production re-opened on Broadway last October but...

The Oscars returned to a hard slate of 10 Best Picture nominees this year, but ironically, for the first time in the preferential ballot era, none of the Best Actress Oscar nominees are in a Best Picture nominee.

Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) made the final five on Tuesday, but none of their films are in the top 10. The Best Picture nominees were “Belfast,” “Coda,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Drive My Car,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story.”

The last time none of the Best Actress nominees were in a Best Picture nominee was 16 years ago, when the main category was still a field of five. Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress for “Walk the Line” over Judi Dench (“Mrs. Henderson Presents”), Felicity Huffman...

Almost thirty years after Robin Williams played “Mrs. Doubtfire” on the big screen, a musical adaptation has bowed on Broadway. The farcical plot follows divorced father Daniel, who dresses as a female housekeeper in order to spend time with his children. The film is best remembered for Williams’ singular performance and won the Oscar for Best Makeup. The material has been modernized, however slightly, for the stage and stars Tony-nominee Rob McClure in Williams’ role. “Mrs. Doubtfire” opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Dec. 5.

The new musical features a score by Tony-nominated songwriters Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick of “Something Rotten!,” a book by Karey and Tony-nominee John O’Farrell, and direction by the prolific Jerry Zaks, who has four Tony Awards for his direction of plays and musicals.

See ‘Diana, The Musical’ reviews: ‘Cold and crass’ new show fails to live up to its beloved subject

“Doubtfire” earned mixed reviews from critics.

Diana, Princess of Wales has been portrayed in no shortage of high profile works of fiction this past year, from her introduction on the fourth season of Netflix’s “The Crown” to Pablo Larraín’s new film “Spencer,” and now a new Broadway musical. After beginning previews last March just before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered New York theaters, “Diana: The Musical” returned to the Longacre Theatre on Nov. 17 with Jeanna de Waal in the title role.

“Diana” chronicles nearly two decades in the life of its title character as she enters the public eye and becomes internationally recognizable. Joe Dipietro and David Bryan, the Tony-winning team behind the Best Musical winner “Memphis” (2010), reunited for “Diana” with Dipietro contributing book and lyrics and Bryan the score. Tony-winner Christopher Ashley directs and also reunites with a fellow “Come From Away” alum, the Tony-nominated choreographer Kelly Devine. Broadway stalwarts Erin Davie and two-time...

Back in March 2020, the Bob Dylan songbook musical “Girl From the North Country” opened on Broadway on March 5, just one week before theaters shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now more than 19 months later, the show returned to the Belasco Theatre and reopened on Oct. 13.

Even though the musical officially opened last year, it did not run long enough for many of the approximately 800 Tony Awards voters to attend and was therefore deemed ineligible for consideration at this past ceremony. Since it has returned to Broadway, though, “North Country” will compete at the 2022 ceremony, over two years after its original opening date.

Three-time Tony nominee Conor McPherson wrote the libretto and directed this original musical, which uses more than 20 songs from Nobel-laureate Dylan’s catalogue to tell a Depression-era story of a family-run boarding house on the brink of foreclosure, which is set in Duluth, Minnesota, the city of Dylan’s birth.

Frances McDormand‘s Best Actress Oscar win for “Nomadland” was so surprising (she ranked fourth in our racetrack odds), that it almost escapes notice just how historic it was. McDormand has now won three Best Actress Oscars, a feat only ever achieved by one other woman: Katharine Hepburn.

McDormand’s win was baffling but made perfect sense at the same time. On one hand, it should be obvious that the star of the Best Picture front-runner should be the front-runner for acting as well. But on the other hand, “Nomadland’s” status in the Best Picture race seemed completely divorced from McDormand’s performance for most of the year. The Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards gave the film Best Picture without giving McDormand Best Actress. And while the film also won top honors at the Producers Guild and Directors Guild Awards, McDormand lost the film’s only nomination at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

After 16 years, Best Picture and Best Actress has gone to the same film: “Nomadland” took the top prize and acting honors for Frances McDormand at Sunday’s Oscars.

The last film to score those two awards was “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), which won Best Actress for Hilary Swank, who earned her second statuette in that category. “Nomadland” is the 12th film total to win Best Picture and Best Actress, with three of those films also winning Best Actor. In comparison, there have been 27 films that have won Best Picture and Best Actor, the most recent being “The Artist” (2011), with star Jean Dujardin also in the winner’s circle.

There have been some close calls in recent years for a Best Picture and Best Actress match. “The Shape of Water” (2017) won Best Picture without star Sally Hawkins, who lost Best Actress to McDormand, who won for Best Picture nominee “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,...

Frances McDormand won best actress at Sunday’s Academy Awards for portraying Fern, a woman who takes to the road after the plant in her small-town closes down, in “Nomadland.” It’s McDormand’s third win in the category, tying her with Meryl Streep and Ingrid Bergman, who each have three victories and within striking distance of the current record-holder, Katharine Hepburn, who has four statues.

In her acceptance speech, McDormand suggested that there should have been a karaoke bar at the ceremony, and quoted the Shakespeare play “Macbeth.”

“I have no words: my voice is in my sword,” McDormand said, quoting Macduff as he fights Macbeth. She then continued in her own words: “We know the sword is our work, and I like work. Thank you for knowing that, and thanks for this.”

In an unusual turn of events, McDormand’s award for best actress was handed out after...

The 2021 Oscar nominees for Best Actress are Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”), Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”), and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”). Our current odds indicate that Mulligan (69/20) will take the prize, followed in order by Davis (4/1), Day (4/1), McDormand (4/1), and Kirby (9/2).

McDormand is already one of 14 actresses to score multiple lead wins, having bagged a pair of trophies for “Fargo” (1997) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2018). This year, she could follow Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and Meryl Streep into the record books as the fourth woman to win three or more Oscars for acting. McDormand has three supporting bids to her name for “Mississippi Burning” (1989), “Almost Famous” (2001), and “North Country” (2006).

Davis is also a past winner for her supporting role in “Fences” (2017). A victory this year would make her the 22nd woman to earn multiple acting...

With “Nomadland,” Frances McDormand reaped her sixth Oscar nomination for acting and her first for producing this Best Picture contender. She is the first woman to pull off this double act. Considering the dominance of “Nomadland” thus far at the precursors, it is possible that McDormand, already a two-time Oscar winner, could walk away with not only her third but fourth Oscar on April 25.

For Best Actress, McDormand faces off against Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”). Joining McDormand as returning nominees are Davis, with three previous nominations and a win, and Mulligan, with one earlier bid. These are Day and Kirby’s first dates with Oscar.

McDormand’s two previous Oscar wins were both in Best Actress: “Fargo” (1996) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017). She lost her three Best...

Exclusive: Warner Bros studio veteran Ravi Mehta has been named Head of Physical Production, Post-Production, VFX at 20th Century Studios. He will oversee all aspects of physical production for the Disney-owned 20th Century studios film division.

Mehta spent 24 years at Warner Bros where he became EVP Physical Production for the studio in the spring of 2015. He served as the executive on a slate of movies including American Sniper and The Accountant. With the announcement of the Warner Max film label, Mehta went on to oversee all features for the new streaming platform including Stephen Soderbergh’s forthcoming No Sudden Move.

Prior to the aforementioned positions, Mehta oversaw physical production at Warner Independent Productions, whose prrojects included Everything is Illuminated, Infamous and The Astronaut Farmer. In 2002, he was upped to production executive, being assigned the more budget-challenging of films such as North Country and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Free-spirited mom. Strict mother. Abused wife. Boozing adulteress. Mousy governess. Strong-willed nomad. With her talent for deadpan delivery and with one of the most expressive faces in the industry, Frances McDormand has created a treasure trove of complex and diverse characters over the past 40 years, earning numerous accolades along the way.

McDormand was born Cynthia Ann Smith on June 23, 1957, and was adopted when she was a year-and-a-half old and renamed Frances Louise McDormand. After studying theater, including receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale School of Drama, she quickly made a name for herself on stage, as well as in film and television.

SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

In 1984, McDormand made her film debut in “Blood Simple,” the first film made by her new husband Joel Coen and his brother Ethan Coen. She has collaborated with the brothers in seven other films, including...

Frances McDormand netted her eighth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination this year for her star turn in “Nomadland” as Fern, a woman who adopts a nomadic lifestyle following the death of her husband. While she did not win the Golden Globe for the performance, the respect she has from her fellow actors could cement a victory at the guild on her way to a third Oscar.

McDormand isn’t the only person nominated for Best Actress this year with a winning way with SAG. Both Amy Adams (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) are now up to 10 total SAG nominations apiece, with one win for the former and a whopping five for the latter. Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) has two past SAG nominations as part of the ensemble of “The Crown” and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) has three other nominations.

From McDormand’s seven previous bids,...

Frances McDormand has always carved out her own path, not unlike her character, Fern, in “Nomadland.” Fern is just the latest of her roles that few other mainstream actors could play and it earned her a seventh Golden Globe bid. “Nomadland” is far and away the leader in Best Picture wins from critics’ groups and McDormand has won over a dozen Best Actress prizes. All this love could result in McDormand winning her second Golden Globe (and her third Oscar).

McDormand’s competition in Best Drama Actress at the Golden Globes is Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) and Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”). Davis is the only other actress who comes close to McDormand’s success at the Globes, with five previous bids. Mulligan was nominated for “An Education,” Day has a concurrent nomination this...

Exclusive: We can tell you first that Jennifer Lopez is reteaming with Netflix again, this time she will star and produce the action feature The Mother which Mulan director Niki Caro is in talks to direct.

Lopez will play a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men. I’m told that the project is in the spirit of the Luc Besson classic The Professional.

Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green penned the original screenplay with revisions by Straight Outta Compton‘s Andrea Berloff.

Lopez is producing with Elaine Goldsmith Thomas for Nuyorican Productions; Benny Medina; Roy Lee and Miri Yoon for Vertigo Entertainment; as well as Green. Catherine Hagedorn will serve as EP with Courtney Baxter as Associate Producer.

As previously announced, Lopez is starring in and producing the Netflix adaptation of the Isabella Maldonado novel The Cipher.

Exclusive: Blumhouse has made a first-look deal for television with writer/producer Michael Seitzman and his Maniac Productions company.

The pact formalizes Seitzman’s existing collaboration with Blumhouse, the company of his longtime friend, producer Jason Blum. Under the deal, Seitzman will write and produce projects for Blumhouse’s TV division, led by Chris McCumber.

“Michael is a tremendous partner and has an unrivaled ability to steer projects to success. He has a discerning eye and that rare gift for discovering the most compelling material and talent,” said Blumhouse Television McCumber, Blumhouse Television president. “We are very fortunate and proud to be in business with Michael.”

As announced in October, Seitzman is currently working on both a scripted and unscripted series based on the Detroit Youth Choir, one of the breakout acts from Season 14 of America’s Got Talent, which they finished as runners-up.

Queen Sugar‘s Anthony Sparks...

Frances McDormand has won two individual SAG Awards for her leading roles in the films “Fargo” (1997) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2018). She is a strong contender again in Best Actress this year for her powerful performance in the Searchlight Pictures release “Nomadland.” Should she prevail, she’ll be tied with Daniel Day-Lewis for the most individual wins by a film star with three apiece.

Day-Lewis won Best Actor for “Gangs of New York” (2003), “There Will Be Blood” (2008) and “Lincoln” (2013). He repeated at the Oscars for the latter two performances. He’d won the first of his three Oscars for “My Left Foot” in 1990, five years before the Screen Actors Guild Awards were launched.

McDormand picked up Oscar bookends to go with her SAG Awards. Unlike Day-Lewis, she also shared in a Best Ensemble prize from the guild for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The English actor was part of...

Two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand currently ranks second in Gold Derby’s odds in the race for Best Actress. Should the actress triumph this year for her performance in Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland,” she would become only the second person in history to win three Best Actress Oscars. This would put McDormand within striking distance of Katharine Hepburn, the record holder among all lead acting winners, who won four times in the Best Actress category.

McDormand is a strong contender this year for her performance as Fern, a woman who travels the country in search of work. The film, directed by Chloe Zhao, has already won Best Picture awards from the Chicago Film Critics and the Gotham Awards, as well as the Golden Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. It was also the People’s Choice Winner at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival. In recent years, the winner in Toronto frequently earned...

“Queen’s Gambit” co-creator, director and showrunner Scott Frank is writing every episode of FX’s adaptation of the visionary modern classic, “The Sparrow.” Emmy Award-winning director Johan Renck has been tapped to direct the sci-fi project.

Frank and Renck, along with “Better Call Saul” producer Mark Johnson, will executive produce the limited series based on Mary Doria Russell’s acclaimed magnum opus. “The Sparrow” is being produced by FX Productions.

“The Sparrow,” published in 1996 by Random House’s imprint Villard, won numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis and the British Science Fiction Association Award, among others. The book, categorized as a work of speculative fiction, grapples with the potential ethical, philosophical and spiritual issues of humans intermingling with extraterrestrial life, raising questions about humanity itself.

The series mostly follows the novel’s events faithfully, following a crew of Jesuit priests and scientists, led...

Michael Apted, the award-winning British filmmaker behind the groundbreaking 7 Up documentaries and such feature films as Coal Miner’s Daughter, The World Is Not Enough, Gorillas in the Mist and Gorky Park, has died. He was 79. The Gersh Agency confirmed the news but did not immediately provide details of Apted’s death.

Apted served as DGA president for three terms from 2003-09, the longest consecutive presidential service since the 1960s.

“Our hearts are heavy today as we mourn the passing of esteemed director, longtime DGA leader and my friend Michael Apted,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “His legacy will be forever woven into the fabric of cinema and our Guild. A fearless visionary as a director and unparalleled Guild leader, Michael saw the trajectory of things when others didn’t, and we were all the beneficiaries of his wisdom and lifelong dedication.”

Apted had dozens of film and TV credits during...

Michael Apted, British director of the “Up” series of documentaries, as well as “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Gorillas in the Mist” (1988), James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) and “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (2010), has died, his agency Gersh confirmed. He was 79.

Apted directed three actors in performances that drew Academy Award nominations: Sissy Spacek in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Sigourney Weaver in “Gorillas in the Mist” and Jodie Foster in “Nell,” with Spacek going on to win the Oscar.

His “Up” series of documentaries for Granada Television, in which he profiled a varied group of young Britons and revisited them every seven years to what changes time had wrought, topped the list in the 2005 Channel 4 Program “The 50 Greatest Documentaries.”

Apted also served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 2003-09 and helped negotiate its contracts with producers.

DGA President Thomas Schlamme said in a statement,...

Michael Apted, the acclaimed British director behind the revolutionary series of decades-spanning Seven Up documentaries and features including Coal Miner’s Daughter, Nell and The World Is Not Enough, has died. He was 79.

Roy Ashton at the Gersh Agency confirmed Apted’s death to The Hollywood Reporter. A spokesperson for the DGA said he died Thursday night in Los Angeles. No cause of death was immediately available.

Apted made his feature directorial debut with the war saga The Triple Echo (1972), starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed, and his résumé also included Continental Divide (1981), featuring John Belushi as a romantic lead; the crime drama Class Action (1991), starring Gene Hackman; and ...

Michael Apted, the acclaimed British director behind the revolutionary series of decades-spanning Seven Up documentaries and features including Coal Miner’s Daughter, Nell and The World Is Not Enough, has died. He was 79.

Roy Ashton at the Gersh Agency confirmed Apted’s death to The Hollywood Reporter. No details of his passing were immediately available.

Apted made his feature directorial debut with the war saga The Triple Echo (1972), starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed, and his résumé also included Continental Divide (1981), featuring John Belushi as a romantic lead; the crime drama Class Action (1991), starring Gene Hackman; and the thrillers Gorky Park (1983), featuring William Hurt; Thunderheart (1992), with Val Kilmer; Blink (1993), starring ...

Blame the coronavirus for this year’s drastically reduced roster of eligible Tony Award nominees, and Tony nominators for overlooking at least a few possibilities. Even with only 18 Broadway productions in the running for a 2020 award, feelings were bound to be hurt.

Let’s start with the good news: The list of nominees for the 74th Annual Tony Awards is a solid one, with no noticeable contenders – at least to my eye – sneaking in due to the decreased competition. Good luck to voters parsing their choices for one castmate over another – Sea Wall/A Life‘s Jake Gyllenhaal or Tom Sturridge? Slave Play‘s Ato Blankson-Wood or James Cusati-Moyer, and Chalia La Tour or Annie McNamara? Jagged Little Pill‘s Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding or Lauren Patten?

Of course we’ll never know how the list would be different if Six, West Side Story...

Elisabeth Moss is attached to play former Congresswoman Katie Hill in an adaptation of her memoir from Blumhouse Television.

The Handmaid’s Tale star will play Hill in the project, which is being developed as a movie for a streaming service. She will also produce via her production company Love & Squalor Pictures.

Code Black creator Michael Seitzman, who wrote the feature film North Country, will write the screenplay.

It comes after The Loudest Voice producer Blumhouse Television optioned the rights to She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality, which was published earlier this summer.

The book tells of Hill’s experience as a young woman with no prior political experience whose charm, and common sense won over the people in her district and thrust her into the halls of power in Washington. While her brash confidence won her powerful allies and infuriated her enemies,...

Elisabeth Moss has found her next role, and it’s one which is sure to cause a stir.

The “Handmaid’s Tale” star has signed on to play former Congresswoman Katie Hill in a streaming film adaptation of her forthcoming book “She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality.”

Blumhouse TV has preemptively optioned the book, which was released in August, and will produce alongside Michael Seitzman and his banner Maniac Productions, and Moss and her production company Love & Squalor Pictures.

In the book, Hill recounts her experience as a young woman with no prior political experience whose charm, and common sense won over the people in her district and thrust her into the halls of power in Washington. While her brash confidence won her powerful allies and infuriated her enemies, it was privately concealing a cycle of domestic abuse she was trapped in at home,...

The Supporting Actress Smackdown series picks an Oscar vintage -- 2005 this time -- and explores. 

The Nominees 

A pregnant meercat obsessive, a gaslit housewife, a reckless activist, a tough union rep, and the perceptive companion to a famous writer.  For the Best Supporting Actress slate of 2005, the Academy went with two then fresh faces, and one mid-career actress stepping up her game (Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener). They filled out the remainder of the field with familiar players, an Oscar regular (Frances McDormand in North Country) and a previous nominee (Catherine Keener in Capote)

The Panel  

Here to discuss these actresses and films of 2005 are from left to right: cinephile and actress obsessive Ali Benzekri, Los Angeles Times' Justin Chang, Awards Daily's Joey Moser, the actress Kerry O'Malley and your host at the The Film Experience, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

2005

Supporting Actress Smackdown + Podcast  

The companion podcast can be...

Charlize Theron occupies a rare space in Hollywood because not only is she widely recognized as one of the finest actresses of her generation, having won an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award for her transformative performance in Monster and scored further nominations from the same bodies for her work in North Country and Bombshell, but the 45 year-old is also regarded as one of cinema’s premiere action stars.

Not a lot of talents can pull off the jump between critically-acclaimed dramas and action-packed blockbusters, but Theron made it look easy in the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, The Fate of the Furious and most recently, Netflix’s smash hit The Old Guard. You can fully understand why she was furious about being offered the role of Wonder Woman’s mother then when she could quite easily have played the title character herself.

That being said,...

This question is brought to you by a recent rescreening of North Country (2005). The movie is too didactic to dimensionalize its characters but there are lots of little things worth thinking about and discussing therein... especially the kind of topics that can only come when a movie is now an older if not an 'old' movie. Like... why didn't Michelle Monaghan (who really pops in a small role) become a bigger deal? And why hasn't Hollywood given Corey Stoll a shot as a romantic lead? There he was, 15 whole year ago, being bald and sexy and crushworthy six years before his breakthrough (Midnight in Paris). He plays one of the only redeemable guys in the mine where Charlize works. There's a lovely but sad moment when he asks her to dance at a local bar and as she relaxes into his arms, drunk, she asks him twice... "you're a nice guy,...

“Mulan” director Niki Caro has closed a deal to direct “Beautiful Ruins” for Amblin Partners, according to an individual with knowledge of the project.

In February, Amblin announced that they were re-teaming with Neal Street Productions to make the film, following their collaboration on “1917,” which won three Academy Awards and has so far earned $375 million at the worldwide box office. Neal Street’s Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes and Julie Pastor will produce “Beautiful Ruins.” Nicolas Brown is executive producing.

Based on the New York Times bestseller written by Jess Walter, the story centers on a charming young man in an Italian seaside village in 1962, who runs a hotel with no guests, until one day an American starlet, fresh from the set of “Cleopatra,” appears and captures his heart. Five decades later in Hollywood, a jaded assistant to a once-powerhouse producer gets caught up in the magic of the Italian’s story,...