Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala has been arrested in Iran and jailed in Tehran’s Evin prison for political prisoners, the Italian government announced on Friday. “Italy is working tirelessly to free her, pursuing every option,” Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on X, describing Sala’s arrest as “unacceptable.” Sala, who is 29 and works […]

Five years after its launch, Saudi Arabia’s recently-concluded Mdlbeast Soundstorm music festival has put the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh on the map in terms of live events in the Middle East. This year’s Dec. 12-14 edition of Soundstorm – which started out in 2019 as an electronic dance music festival – featured over 200 international […]

Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” is reigning over the holiday box office. The family film, which is a prequel to “The Lion King” (both the 1994 animated classic and the less canonical 2019 photorealistic remake), earned $12 million on Thursday. That brings its domestic haul to $76.4 million. In a change of pace, Barry Jenkins, […]

Mark O’Meara, a Virginia-based movie theater owner, wonders and worries constantly about what exactly his customers will buy tickets to see on any given weekend. It’s not that people have fallen out of love with the big screen, he says, they’ve just gotten out of practice. In fact, in the 30-plus years O’Meara has worked in […]

“Gavin & Stacey” star Laura Aikman took her NDA so seriously she even kept her appearance in the 90-minute special a secret from her own family. Aikman, who plays the widely-disliked Sonia in the cult BBC series, posted a video of herself watching “Gavin & Stacey: The Finale” on Christmas Day with her family, who […]

On the face of it, Lucy does not seem like the kind of person who would go on a spiritual retreat. She’d probably agree with that herself. But she’d like to be, and so she struggles through the enforced silences and the sharing sessions, hoping to attain a kind of enlightenment she doesn’t really believe […]

Manmohan Singh, India’s 13th Prime Minister and a pivotal figure in the country’s economic transformation, died in a New Delhi hospital on Dec. 26 of age-related medical conditions. He was 92. Singh served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, leading a coalition government under the banner of the Indian National Congress. Known for his […]

The woman accusing Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 can proceed anonymously (“at least for now”) in her lawsuit against the rappers, a judge ruled Thursday. New York Judge Analisa Torres also condemned the legal team representing Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) for the “relentless filing of combative […]

A downtown Los Angeles building made famous as the setting of an album cover photo for the legendary rock band the Doors was heavily damaged after fire broke out Thursday morning. The building that was once home to a transient hotel known as the Morrison Hotel was the setting for cover photo for the band’s […]

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from “Squid Game” Season 2 finale, now streaming on Netflix. Game over — for now. “Squid Game” Season 2 concluded its seventh and final episode with the brutal murder of Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) right before his eyes. Jung-bae is shot dead by Squid Game […]

Fans of “Downton Abbey” were devastated when Maggie Smith, aka the Dowager Countess, died in September. Smith had starred in both the TV series and in both movies, with the Countess character dying at the end of “Downton Abbey: A New Era.” Now, executive producer Gareth Neame promises that the third film, due Sept. 12, […]

As it turns out, more than just Americans were curious to check out live football games and a Beyoncé peformance on Netflix. The streamer’s big “NFL Christmas Gameday Live” stunt drew a broadcast network-level audience in the U.S., and it prompted subscribers in more than 200 countries to check out some part of the nearly […]

After months of speculation about Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his critical and box office hit “Oppenheimer,” which won him the Best Director Oscar, Universal Pictures unveiled before the holidays on X that he will be bringing Homer’s “The Odyssey” to the big screen. “The Odyssey” is a classic piece of literature by Homer that is […]

Before Mike Schur helped create beloved comedy series like “The Good Place,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Parks and Recreation,” he won Emmys as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Office.” The two series collided in May 2008 when “The Office” star Steve Carell hosted “SNL” and participated in a viral digital short titled “The […]

Denis Villeneuve recently spoke to the Los Angeles Times and shared his discomfort over how “human beings are ruled by algorithms right now.” He explained: “We behave like AI circuits. The ways we see the world are narrow-minded binaries. We’re disconnecting from each other, and society is crumbling in some ways. It’s frightening.” The Times […]

Cynthia Erivo knows how to do this. Erivo has already dazzled audiences with her powerhouse performances on stage and screen. Still, her turn as Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” has cemented her place as one of her generation’s most versatile and captivating artists. The first half of the two-part Wicked saga is already a […]

Richard D. Parsons, a pioneering Black business executive who led Time Warner after its disastrous merger with AOL and had a hand in untangling some of the media industry’s knottiest dilemmas, died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 76.  His friend Ronald S. Lauder told the New York Times the cause was bone cancer.  Parsons had […]

I’ve been seeing variations on the question above on comment boards and social media, and the answer is inevitably a resounding “No. Fucking. Way.” But let’s be clear about what the question really is, since it’s actually two questions at once. The fundamental thing that’s being asked is: Could “Babygirl,” an enthralling high-kink corporate drama, […]

The broadcast bounce is real. As 2024 ends, CBS led the pack in total viewers for the year thanks, of course, to Super Bowl LVIII. No surprise, live sports continues to work its magic for the traditional networks, as NBC was also up year vs. year and even took the adults 18-49 crown for 2024 […]