is tom cruise at the oscars

Why Tom Cruise Wasn't At the Oscars

The Top Gun: Maverick star didn't turn up for the big awards night, despite the film's multiple nominations.

The long-awaited sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun , Top Gun: Maverick , became a must-watch film in 2022. But while the blockbuster garnered five Academy Award nominations, including a nod for Best Picture, along with Best Adapted Screenplay, sound and film editing, visual effects and Best Original Song, one major player was missing from the festivities tonight: the franchise's star, Tom Cruise.

Despite starring in both the original film, as well as the long-anticipated sequel, Cruise did not make an appearance on the red carpet at the 2023 Oscars tonight. Though the film became an awards show darling, Cruise himself did not receive any Academy Award nominations for his performance. Nonetheless, it was expected by many that the star would turn up for any potential wins for the film.

On Sunday, however, a representative for Cruise told People that Cruise would not be in attendance on the big night due to scheduling obligations for Cruise's currently in the works sequel known as Mission Impossible 8 . According to the publication, producer Jerry Bruckheimer is slated to accept the award if Top Gun: Maverick recieves the Best Picture Nomination

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} Best Movies @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

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Tom Cruise missed Best Actor, but still got his first Oscar nomination in 23 years for Top Gun: Maverick

The global superstar landed major recognition for his work in the action sequel.

The Academy didn't recognize Tom Cruise with a Best Actor nod, but the global superstar still landed a major Oscar nomination for Top Gun: Maverick anyway.

For his work as a producer on the blockbuster sequel that has grossed nearly $1.5 billion to date , the 60-year-old scored his fourth career Oscar nomination as the film appeared Tuesday morning among the Academy's 10 Best Picture nominees.

Tuesday's nomination marks the fourth time the Academy has recognized Cruise throughout his lengthy career. He was previously nominated for his work as an actor for 1989's Born on the Fourth of July , 1996's Jerry Maguire , and 1999's Magnolia .

Top Gun: Maverick , which follows Cruise as the returning Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a U.S. Navy captain and test pilot who faces his conflicting past as he leads a new team of Top Gun graduates into the air, also earned 2023 Oscar nominations for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Original Song (Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand"), Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.

Cruise made the Joseph Kosinski -directed movie — Paramount's long-awaited continuation of the original 1986 Top Gun film — alongside veteran Hollywood producers Jerry Bruckheimer , David Ellison, and Christopher McQuarrie, who also co-wrote the movie with Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer.

The 95th Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC. See the full list of 2023 Oscar nominations here .

Check out more from EW's The Awardis t , featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

Related content:

• Tracking the top 2023 Oscar contenders
• Academy promises 'great legacy surprises' in 2023 Oscars preview
• See where 15 Academy Award winners keep their Oscars
• Awards season calendar 2022-2023: See dates for Emmys, Oscars, Golden Globes, and more

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Tom Cruise Will Not Attend Oscars 2023 After Previously Appearing at Nominees Luncheon

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Monica Schipper/WireImage Tom Cruise at the 95th Annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon on February 13, 2023

Tom Cruise will not be attending the Oscars 2023 ceremony.

The Top Gun: Maverick star, 60, is skipping the annual awards show , being held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, despite his film being up for six honors, including Best Picture.

A rep for Cruise confirms to PEOPLE that his absence is because he is currently filming Mission: Impossible 8 overseas. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer will accept the award for Best Picture should Maverick emerge victorious, Entertainment Tonight reports.

The follow-up to 1986's Top Gun is also nominated in the categories of Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound.

Additionally, Lady Gaga is set to perform the nominated song, "Hold My Hand."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett

RELATED: Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest Take Flight in Top Gun Spoof for Live After Oscar Show — Watch

Cruise's absence comes as a bit of a surprise, considering his attendance the  Oscars nominees luncheon  at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles last month.

In a video that circulated on social media at the time, Steven Spielberg could be seen telling Cruise he "saved Hollywood's ass"  with  Top Gun: Maverick , which claimed the spot as the highest-grossing movie of 2022 in the United States.

The legendary director, 76, added that Cruise "might have saved theatrical distribution" entirely with the long-awaited sequel to his hit '80s action flick.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Tuesday that Cruise would be at Sunday's ceremony , and he was asked whether he would joke about the actor as hosts of other awards shows this season have.

"No, I mean, listen, the reason that Tom Cruise is being embraced by the movie industry is that, I don't know if he saved [movies], but he definitely gave them the Heimlich maneuver," said Kimmel, 55.

RELATED VIDEO: Top Gun: Maverick Stars Tom Cruise, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller and More on Filming the "Love Letter to Aviation"

Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible 8 writer-director Christopher McQuarrie announced the exciting news on Friday that Hannah Waddingham had joined the cast of the upcoming franchise film.

In the photo shared by McQuarrie, 54, Waddingham appeared to be in character as she sternly looked into the distance, wearing a tan cap in front of what looked like a communication center.

Waddingham, 48, is best known for her role as Rebecca Welton in  Ted Lasso , for which she  won the Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series  in 2021. She also starred in the 2022 sequel  Hocus Pocus 2 .

Mission Impossible: 8  — also known as the second part of  Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning  — has been filming since July 2022, long before the seventh  Mission: Impossible  movie's upcoming July 2023 release date.

The Oscars air live on ABC on Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET.

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Where is Tom Cruise? Why the 'Top Gun' star skipped the 2023 Oscars

Despite "Top Gun: Maverick" being nominated for six honors, including best picture, the film's star Tom Cruise was not in attendance for the Academy Awards on March 12 in Hollywood.

His absence from the iconic Dolby Theatre on Sunday did not go unnoticed by host Jimmy Kimmel, who called out both Cruise and "Avatar" director James Cameron for skipping the event during his lengthy monologue at the beginning of the broadcast.

After quipping that Cameron might have skipped the ceremony after not being nominated for best director, Kimmel then launched into Cruise.

"Everyone loved 'Top Gun' I mean, everyone." Kimmel said. "Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene? ... Hubba hubba!"

"Tom Cruise and James Cameron didn't show up tonight. The two guys who insisted we go to the theater didn't come to the theater."

Kimmel went on to joke that Cruise might actually be in the theater dressed as actor Judd Hirsch in a "Mission Impossible" mask. As the camera panned to Hirsch, the "Fabelmans" star pantomimed pulling his face off like a mask.

A spokesperson for Cruise confirmed to People that the actor had to miss the awards ceremony because he is filming "Mission: Impossible 8" overseas. Entertainment Tonight reports that if "Top Gun" wins best picture, producer Jerry Bruckheimer will accept the award.

The film, which is a sequel to the original "Top Gun" released in 1986, was also nominated for best adapted screenplay, best film editing, best original song, best visual effects and best sound.

Hosted by  Jimmy Kimmel for the third time , the  2023 Oscars  are broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, with the  red carpet starting earlier . The 2023 Oscars are  available to watch on ABC  and various streaming platforms. 

Leading the list of nominees  include “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin.” The  list of performers and presenters  includes Rihanna, following her  Super Bowl halftime show , and the viral  Telegu-language hit “Naatu Naatu .”

Follow  TODAY.com  for complete Oscars coverage,  including this year’s winners  and unexpected moments.

Sam Kubota is a senior digital editor and journalist for TODAY Digital based in Los Angeles. She joined NBC News in 2019.

Why Tom Cruise Is Not at the 2023 Oscars

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Tom Cruise  will not be at the 95th Academy Awards.

ET has confirmed the  Top Gun: Maverick  star's absence is due to him already being back on set overseas for Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part II  in the United Kingdom. Top Gun: Maverick  is nominated for six Oscars. Should the film win the night's biggest category (Best Picture), producer Jerry Bruckheimer will accept the award. 

Besides Best Picture, the film is also nominated for Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Film Editing, Sound, Music (Original Song) and Visual Effects.

News that Cruise will not be in Hollywood for the event comes just hours after it was revealed Lady Gaga will, in fact, perform her Oscar-nominated Top Gun: Maverick single, "Hold My Hand." It had previously been reported she would not be able to make the event, but plans changed and she'll now not only attend but also perform her hit song.

Initially, Oscars producer Glen Weiss said Gaga was invited to perform but was unable to make the commitment at the time. 

Because she's in the middle of shooting a new movie, Weiss said Gaga didn't feel like she could deliver a performance at the caliber that she's used to doing at the annual awards show.  

That movie, of course, is  Joker: Folie à Deux , a sequel to  2019's  Joker , which started production at the end of 2022. 

Earlier this year,  Jay Ellis  spoke with ET and reflected on the film's massive success at the box office and the opportunity to work with Hollywood royalty.

"It's wild, man. It's wild," Ellis said at the premiere of his new film,  Somebody I Used to Know , explaining that when they all first started working on the sequel four years ago, "We just wanted people to go see it. We just wanted to work with Tom Cruise. We just wanted to work with [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer and [director] Joe Kosinski." 

He added, "This is a dream." 

The  2023 Academy Awards  hosted by Jimmy Kimmel will air live on Sunday, March 12 starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC. In the meantime, keep checking back into  ETonline.com  for complete  Oscars coverage .

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Oscars 2023: The 95th Academy Awards

By Tori B. Powell, Mike Hayes, Matt Meyer and Seán Federico O'Murchú, CNN

Why Tom Cruise and James Cameron aren't at the Oscars

From CNN"s Lisa Respers France

Two of the people being credited with getting audiences back in the theater apparently have skipped the biggest night that celebrates movies.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned in his opening monologue that both Tom Cruise and James Cameron were not in attendance, though he joked that perhaps Cruise was there, dressed as nominee Judd Hirsch.

While Cruise's blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" is nominated for best film, Deadline reported the star was skipping the show because of work.

Meanwhile, Kimmel mentioned there was some speculation that Cameron sat this one out because he had not been nominated in the directing category for "Avatar: The Way of Water," which is also nominated for best film.

"Avatar" producer Jon Landau said on the red carpet (which was really champagne-colored ) that Cameron was not coming for “personal reasons."

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" wins the award for best animated feature

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" took home the Academy Award for best animated feature. It was the first award announced of the night.

"Animation is ready to be taken to the next step," Del Toro said while accepting the award. "We are all ready for it. Please help us. Keep animation in the conversation."

The filmmaker, who used stop-motion animation to create the latest "Pinocchio" adaptation, went on to thank his family and Netflix.

Jimmy Kimmel jokes he's protecting himself this year after last year's slap

From CNN's Marianne Garvey

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel jokes that if any audience member wants to incite violence or "get jiggy with it," in a reference to Will Smith's song, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," he's got backup.

Kimmel joked that they would have to get through Michelle Yeoh, Michael B. Jordan, Steven Spielberg and many others to get to him on stage.

Background: During 2022’s ceremony, Smith walked on stage at the Oscars and slapped Chris Rock, who was presenting at the time, after he made a joke about Smith’s wife’s shaved head.

Smith  later apologized , but The Academy sanctioned the actor by  banning him from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years.

Jimmy Kimmel says this year "the world finally got out of the house" to see movies in the theater

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show by declaring this the year "when the world finally got out of the house" to see the nominated films the way they were intended to be seen: in a theater.

The host entered the stage for his opening monologue via parachute, in a reference to his opening "Top Gun" skit , cracked a joke about adjusting his "danger zone" and teased Nicole Kidman for her viral AMC Theatres campaign .

Kimmel noted there are 16 first-time nominees at this year's Oscars.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel's "Top Gun" call sign is Meatball

Jimmy Kimmel first appeared at the 95th Oscars ceremony in a skit where he pretended to be in the "Top Gun" movie franchise.

Sitting behind Tom Cruise in a fighter jet, he pulls off a helmet labeled with the call sign "Meatball." Cruise advised him to eject from the plane, then Kimmel dropped on to the stage via parachute.

"Top Gun: Maverick" is nominated in several categories this evening.

The 2023 Oscars are underway

The 95th Academy Awards have begun at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Jimmy Kimmel returns to host the event for a third time.

It's time to see which of Hollywood's biggest stars take home the honors.

Photos: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on the red carpet

From CNN Style’s Stephy Chung

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads the Oscars with 11 nominations. And the genre-defying movie’s cast turned up in style.

Michelle Yeoh was among the night’s best-dressed celebrities in a white-feathered Dior gown, while James Hong arrived on the champagne-colored carpet wearing one of the night’s boldest accessory: a blue bowtie adorned with — in a nod to the film — a pair of googly eyes.

See the pictures below, and more of our red carpet coverage here .

Here's who's nominated for Academy Awards

The 95th Academy Awards is set to take place at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre tonight. Here's a look at the nominees:

Best picture

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”
• “Avatar: The Way of Water”
• “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
• “The Fabelmans”
• “Top Gun: Maverick”
• “Triangle of Sadness”
• “Women Talking”

Actress in a supporting role

• Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
• Hong Chau, “The Whale”
• Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
• Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Actor in a supporting role

• Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway”
• Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans”
• Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Actor in a leading role

• Austin Butler, “Elvis”
• Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
• Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
• Bill Nighy, “Living”

Actress in a leading role

• Cate Blanchett, “Tár”
• Ana de Armas, “Blonde”
• Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie”
• Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”
• Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

See the full list of nominees here .

A-listers arrive on the red carpet in white

Stars are arriving dressed-to-the-nines at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 95th Academy Awards. One of the trends to emerge this year is the color white — with stars like Michelle Yeoh and Halle Berry embracing the trend.

The Oscars are one of the most anticipated nights of fashion. Check out our red carpet coverage here . 

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Why Wasn't Tom Cruise At the 2023 Oscars?

I'll give Hollywood an impossible mission: get Tom Cruise to show up at your awards show.

It turns out that Cruise is too busy filming Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning, Part II in the UK , Entertainment Tonight reports . He's doing what he loves, folks—making movies for us. Cruise previously teased his upcoming Mission Impossible stunt where he jumps a motorcycle off of a cliff . Here's hoping he tries to blast into space next. Next time the man is up for more trophies, I'll give Hollywood an impossible mission: get Tom Cruise to show up at your awards show.

Still, that doesn't mean the Cruise jokes stopped at the 95th Academy Awards. "Everyone loved Top Gun , everyone," Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked at the beginning of the show. "Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene? L. Ron Hubba Hubba!” Scientology bits! A classic Hollywood gag. "Tom (Cruise) and James Cameron didn’t show up tonight," Kimmel continued, after parachuting into the venue as part of a Top Gun skit. "The two guys who insisted we go to the theater, did not show up at the theater." I'm sure some folks at home were wondering if jokes like these were the real reason Cruise didn't show up tonight. Either way, Cruise certainly isn't feeling down. Top Gun: Maverick received six nominations at the Oscars tonight, including Best Original Song, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.

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Academy Awards, USA

• Best Motion Picture of the Year
• Top Gun: Maverick

• Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Best Actor in a Leading Role
• Jerry Maguire

• Born on the Fourth of July

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA

• Mission: Impossible - Fallout

• Edge of Tomorrow

• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Bambi Awards

Blockbuster entertainment awards.

• Favorite Actor - Action
• Mission: Impossible II

• Favorite Actor - Drama/Romance
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Favorite Supporting Actor - Drama
• Favorite Actor - Comedy/Romance

• Favorite Actor - Mystery/Thriller, On Video
• Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

BAFTA Awards

Critics choice awards.

• Best Actor in an Action Movie
• Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Cannes Film Festival

Chicago film critics association awards.

• Best Supporting Actor

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards

David di donatello awards.

• Best Foreign Actor (Migliore Attore Straniero)

Family Film Awards

• Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film

Florida Film Critics Circle Awards

• Best Ensemble Cast

Golden Globes, USA

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
• Tropic Thunder

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
• The Last Samurai
• Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical

• A Few Good Men

Satellite Awards

• Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Drama
• Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

Hasty Pudding Theatricals, USA

Irish film and television awards.

• Best International Actor

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Oscar nominees luncheon: tom cruise the center of attention, malala supports short film and ‘everything everywhere’ cheered.

THR's executive editor of awards coverage was in the room for the 41st gathering of its kind.

By Scott Feinberg

Scott Feinberg

Executive Editor of Awards

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If there was any doubt that Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in Hollywood, that was eradicated on Monday afternoon at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Oscar Nominees Luncheon , where the producing nominee for Top Gun: Maverick — making his first appearance of the season on the awards circuit — was swarmed by virtually everyone else in the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom.

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As Academy president Janet Yang said in her remarks welcoming the 186 nominees (or, in the case of four individuals, directors of Oscar-nominated international features) who were in attendance, “You are all winners” — which, she politely refrained from adding, will not be the case on March 12, when the 95th Oscars ceremony takes place across town at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and only a fraction of the nominees leave with a golden statuette. (The ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.)

The first-term Academy president also delivered an implicit rebuke of last year’s controversial decision to not air live the presentation of all 23 awards on the Oscars telecast. “Our focus for the upcoming Oscars will, in fact, be on unity, partnership and the collaborative nature of cinema,” she stated. “We shall celebrate the power of entire film crews and the behind-the-scenes magic that makes movies possible and powerful.” And, she added to even louder applause, “We have worked really hard to present all awards live on the show this year — so we need to be sensitive to our running time. You’ve got to work with us. This is live television, after all. Translation: keep it [acceptance speeches] short, sweet and to the point, please.” (She noted that winners will have 45 seconds, tops to deliver a speech before they are cut off.)

Following a montage of clips sourced from social media posts in which a handful of this year’s nominees reacted in real-time to the announcement of their nominations back on Jan. 24, Academy governor DeVon Franklin called up the nominees, one by one, to take their places on bleachers that were set up for the annual “class photo.”

Does any of this reflect the tastes of the Academy overall? We’ll find out in just 27 days!

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Jennifer hudson and orville peck to receive honorary glaad media awards at nyc ceremony, ‘top gun: maverick’ lands best picture nom & five others; no tom cruise acting nom but a nod for bringing moviegoing back from pandemic.

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Arriving 36 years after the Tony Scott-directed original, the film was delayed by the tragic suicide of that filmmaker, and then sat on the shelf in the pandemic. Cruise, along with fellow producers Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison and Christopher McQuarrie, stood tall when many other languishing films were moved to streaming bows by studios which did not want to wait for moviegoers to feel safe enough to return to theaters. Cruise has said that no way was he going to watch that happen to a film that was directed by Joseph Kosinski to be seen in theaters. Not when he’d put in so much time implementing lessons learned from the first film, when he was the only castmember who didn’t vomit during scenes shot in the jet fighter planes. Cruise set up a boot camp for the Top Gun: Maverick ensemble, to get them better acclimated for the dialogue scenes that were shot in unprecedented fashion in the aircrafts.

Oscar Nominations 2023: Deadline’s Complete Coverage

The film became the top grossing film of Cruise’s career, despite no revenue from China or Russia.

Cruise has been thrice-nominated for Oscar performances — Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire & Magnolia — and he was part of the Best Picture-winning Rain Man . Top Gun: Maverick might seem a dark horse, but the sequel is at a robust 96% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a solid storyline that featured a touching end for Val Kilmer’s Iceman nemesis from the original film, and Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of Goose (Anthony Edwards), Maverick’s flying partner in the original film.

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It marks the first Oscar nomination for Jerry Bruckheimer, who has a shelf full of Emmys for The Amazing Race , but hasn’t taken home movie gold despite his long list of blockbusters. This one has a real shot to win, because of all of the variables in raising the movie business out of its pandemic crisis moment.

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Why Tom Cruise Was A No-Show At The 2023 Oscars

"Top Gun: Maverick" soared into the Oscars with six nominations, but Tom Cruise wasn't in attendance to see how well the film fared on the biggest night of the year for movies.

Deadline  was the first to confirm that Cruise would not be attending the 95th Academy Awards event because the actor returned to work. The report also stated that he had been working in Sicily and the United Kingdom and that his commitments to his craft and career forced him to miss the prestigious affair. Cruise has taken on the arduous endeavor of completing his work on "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two," the follow-up to the expected upcoming 2023 summer, a film which many hope will have the same effect on the box office that the Oscar-nominated "Top: Gun Maverick" had when it grossed over $1 billion in 2022. And its exceptional run didn't end there, as the film also earned high-flying scores on Rotten Tomatoes . In addition to its successful flight in theaters, the critically acclaimed blockbuster was nominated for Best Picture, as well as several other honors, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, Best Film editing, and Best Visual effects. Cruise himself even recieved an Oscar nod as one of the film's producers. 

While Cruise may not have in the audience to see how well the "Top Gun" sequel did, the Oscars were obsessed with the superstar skipping the event. 

Jimmy Kimmel called out Tom Cruise for skipping the ceremony

While Tom Cruise is hard at work delivering his next big screen spectacle, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel couldn't help but point out how the superstar skipped the ceremony. During his opening monologue, Kimmel called out the "Top Gun: Maverick" actor and "Avatar: The Way of Water" director James Cameron for not showing up to the year's biggest celebration of cinema, despite being the two most vocal supporters of the theatrical experience. "The two guys who insisted we come to the theatre, didn't come to the [Dolby Theatre]," Kimmel said to applause and laughter.

Kimmel continued his monologue by jokingly suggesting that Cruise disguised himself as "The Fabelmans" nominee Judd Hirsch, à la "Mission: Impossible." The host wrapped up his time by pointing out Cruise's athletic body in "Top Gun: Maverick"... and tying it into his belief of Scientology. "Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene? L. Ron Hubba Hubba!" Kimmel said. 

Cruise may not have been at the Oscars but Lady Gaga certainly was, delivering a mighty and powerful rendition of her Oscar-nominated track "Hold My Hand" from the "Maverick" soundtrack.

Lady Gaga performed 'Hold My Hand' at the Oscars

It was previously reported that Lady Gaga would be skipping the event due to her commitments to producing the Joker sequel "Joker: Folie à Deux." Hours before the 2023 Oscars,  Variety confirmed that the pop sensation would on the stage, ready to sing "Holy My Hand."  

Like the film, the song received significant amounts of critical acclaim, with Variety calling it an Oscar front-runner early on, and it was well received by fans, especially considering the music video for the song has over 155 million views on YouTube . And as far as honors go, the song has already received some awards attention with a nomination from the Grammy  Awards for Best Song Written for Media, and the soundtrack for the film itself was also nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. While it didn't win either of those accolades, it did have a chance to win at the Oscars, and there is no denying having Lady Gaga perform the track in person will add to the enjoyable experience viewers are in for when they tune in to see the big winners.

"Top Gun: Maverick" fans will likely agree that not having Tom Cruise in the mix is a bit of a bummer, but many viewers will agree Lady Gaga is a solid backup to represent the sequel at the 95th Academy Awards.

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Tom Cruise Really Could Finally Win an Oscar for Top Gun: Maverick

By Katey Rich

Let’s start here: It’s entirely likely that Top Gun: Maverick will win multiple Oscars. With her ubiquitous power ballad and an Oscar already in hand, Lady Gaga is perfectly poised to steamroll the best-original-song category with “Hold My Hand.” And though there are blockbusters yet to come, including Black Panther 2 and Avatar 2, the best-sound category basically exists for the zooms and crashes of Top Gun ’s aerial spectaculars.

There’s one more honor that’s a little bit more out of reach, but irresistible to imagine for fans of both the movie and one of the oldest Oscar narratives: the overdue reward. Tom Cruise has already been celebrated as the sole savior of moviegoing, thanks to Maverick ’s incredible returns. But what if he also got a best-actor statue for his effort?

The idea was floated back when Maverick first opened, and at the time, it seemed a little fanciful. But as Maverick has continued its box office dominance, to a degree that seemed impossible for any movie about non-superpowered human beings, Cruise and his Herculean efforts to entertain the world remain difficult to ignore. Would an Oscar really be so outlandish at this point?

Hear more about this not-so-wild idea on this week’s Little Gold Men podcast.  

Yes, this is a narrative that, with a few details changed, seems to resurface every year. There was the quixotic campaign for Spider-Man: No Way Home to get a best-picture nomination, largely on the strength of its own box office success. There are the summer hits that hold out hope of being remembered when the Oscars roll around six months later, from tiny triumphs like The Farewell to the notorious case of The Dark Knight . There’s the whole mess of the #OscarsCheerMoment for the Snyder Cut , which we just cannot get into right now. But pretty much as long as there have been Oscars, there have been pushes from various corners to reward populist hits, with the somewhat persuasive argument that millions of fans can’t be all wrong.

And every once in a while, it works. Following its splashy premiere at Cannes in May, Top Gun: Maverick was compared fairly favorably to Mad Max: Fury Road, which began its own unlikely road to Oscar dominance at the same festival. Black Panther won three Oscars. Get Out, a horror movie released a full year before the ceremony, was nominated for four Oscars and won best original screenplay. When critics, audiences, and Oscar voters line up so completely, it can be genuinely thrilling—a throwback to the days when Tootsie and E.T. were the highest-grossing films of 1982 by the time they lost best picture to Gandhi.

But the Mad Max: Fury Road comparisons only went so far, even at Cannes. Top Gun: Maverick is an achievement on many levels, but not quite the same as George Miller ’s wild directorial vision, or even Fury Road ’s metaphorical resonance. ( Maverick goes out of its way to avoid any connection to real global politics, which, fair enough.) And even though Maverick is far and away the biggest box office hit of the year, cultural dominance now doesn’t mean quite the same thing that it did for E.T. The urgency to celebrate a hit, even one this big, is not likely to mean as much to the globally spread, future-minded Academy voters of the moment.

But that brings us back to Tom Cruise, the man without whom Maverick would not exist for many reasons. Nominated for three career Oscars—two for definitive leading-man roles in Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, one for transformative supporting work in Magnolia —he’s been on quite a journey since his last nomination in 2000. On the brink of irrelevance by the time Jeremy Renner was tapped as his fresh, young colead in 2011’s Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, Cruise instead wrested that franchise back into his control, building up box office clout so strong that even a long-gestating, seemingly implausible Top Gun sequel suddenly became real. His non– Mission: Impossible work—two Jack Reacher movies that barely exist, an attempt to reboot The Mummy, whatever American Made turned out to be—has been almost uniformly irrelevant, but every Ethan Hunt movie has reset the clock. Watch Tom Cruise in his element, and it is impossible not to be in awe. There is still truly no other movie star like him.

By Julie Miller

By Richard Lawson

And though the physical challenges of the Mission: Impossible franchise are not the stuff Oscar nominations are made of, there’s more going on in Maverick. Cruise gets to play the lingering anguish over Goose’s death that informs Maverick’s relationship with Goose’s son ( Miles Teller ); his continuing struggle to follow orders, barely containing a smirk in the face of Jon Hamm ’s imposing admiral; even a surprisingly robust romantic subplot with Jennifer Connelly, whose chemistry with Cruise feels genuinely well-earned. The spectacle of Maverick ’s flying sequences may be the big selling point, but it’s not hard to imagine audiences returning again and again to see the bracingly emotional reunion between Cruise and Val Kilmer ’s Iceman, an almost 40-year-old, famously homoerotic tension transformed into a deep—and sad—understanding.

Maverick is not Cruise’s best performance, sure. But as a distillation of everything that has made Cruise a generation-defining star, Maverick is pretty much perfect. If the Academy wants to finally award Cruise a statue, it’s not likely there will be a better opportunity to do so.

The question, of course, is how much the Academy really wants that—and how hard Cruise is willing to work for it. Long protected by his tower of mega-fame and Scientology, Cruise would need to embark on some kind of authenticity tour for an awards campaign, different from the exhaustive work he already did to promote Maverick. It’s one thing for Cruise to fly onto an aircraft carrier or hold court in front of a crowd in Cannes, and another entirely to open up for the kind of profiles or roundtable conversations that are ever-present in modern Oscar campaigns. There’s a very, very recent precedent for this: Will Smith was more visible, and vulnerable, than he has been in years in his promotional duties for King Richard, and his carefully calibrated campaign worked beautifully (until, of course, it didn’t). The path megastars must walk in the Oscar circuit is different from the path for fresh-faced newcomers or even previous winners, but Cruise could make it all look as natural as clinging to the side of an airplane.

Many, many factors—including the slew of films that will premiere at the early fall festivals in Toronto, Telluride, and Venice—will determine Cruise’s Oscar chances, far more than the quality of his work; that, unfortunately, is always the way. And it’s possible that there’s a much easier path for him, parlaying the success of Maverick —and maybe some outrage over an Oscar snub—into a win for a juicy, more Oscar-friendly supporting role in the next year or two.

But in this period before we really know what’s on the horizon, it’s worth just floating the idea of Cruise as a serious contender. As The Hollywood Reporter ’s Scott Feinberg pointed out back in June , if Paul Newman could win for The Color of Money and John Wayne for True Grit, why not this? The reward for making a giant blockbuster is the money and the cultural impact, but every once in a while, the stars align to merit something more.

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Frank Bruni

Tom cruise and the insanity of the oscars.

By Frank Bruni

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer who was on the staff of The Times for more than 25 years.

Did Tom Cruise give an honest-to-goodness performance — one that involved disappearing into a character versus reveling in his own ageless and sinewy glory — in “Top Gun: Maverick”? I missed it. Maybe I was blinded by his toothy gleam.

I write that as someone who enjoyed the movie, appreciates a cocky fighter pilot as much as the next guy and believes fully in Cruise’s talent, which is among the reasons I’ve seen “Jerry Maguire” a half-dozen times. In that movie, he shows range. In “Maverick,” he shows off.

And yet there’s apparently an outside chance that he’ll land a best actor nod when Academy Award nominations are announced on Tuesday. Whether that happens is one of the more intriguing bits of Oscar suspense. Another is whether an unusual and impassioned grass-roots campaign to get Andrea Riseborough a best actress mention for the independent movie “To Leslie,” which you’ve probably never heard of, will pay off.

Together, those story lines illustrate how nonsensical the Oscars are — and why it’s nutty that I and many other people get so worked up about them.

“Maverick” grossed more than $700 million in theaters in the United States on its way to a worldwide total of nearly $1.5 billion. Its proponents cite or allude to that box office bonanza as an argument for accolades. Isn’t commercial success a legitimate metric of achievement? Evidence that a project has resonated — and for reasons that surely include craftsmanship?

If you read between the lines delivered by the Cruise boosters, you detect the suggestion that he’s sometimes disregarded artistically because of his sheer profitability, along with the assertion that he represents an endangered species — the true-blue, old-fashioned movie star — that must be protected, like a Tapanuli orangutan .

“ To Leslie ” grossed less than $30,000 worldwide. It’s now streaming. It’s not about a bad-boy hunk swaggering back to his cockpit. It’s about a sad-sack drunk staggering toward dignity.

Riseborough’s performance in that role — not nominated for a Golden Globe, not nominated by the Screen Actors Guild — has recently become a cause célèbre among her fellow actors. As Chris Gardner wrote in The Hollywood Reporter last week, “Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Sarah Paulson and Edward Norton have hosted screenings, with more recent showings booked by Gwyneth Paltrow and Courteney Cox.” Paltrow said on Instagram that Riseborough “should win every award there is and all the ones that haven’t been invented yet.”

Dozens of additional celebrities have expressed similar adoration , in a sort of chain reaction powered by the conviction that Oscar voters shouldn’t overlook great artistry just because it’s not staring down at them from the bright lights of a multiplex marquee.

But Oscar voters routinely overlook such artistry. When movie critics’ lists of favorite movies and performances diverge almost completely from the Oscar nominees, it’s not simply because those critics are flaunting their refinement (though there’s some of that). It’s because they’ve sampled and considered all that’s out there, while many Oscar voters have assessed only what readily caught their eyes.

Those voters can never quite decide how much heed to pay to a movie’s popularity or accessibility. That’s how you wind up with absurd best picture races like the one in 2010 between “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar.” (“The Hurt Locker” won.)

“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” — call them the colon movies — are strong contenders for best picture nods next week, but then so are “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Tár,” which have no colons, limited commercial appeal and deliberately challenging narratives and tones. Putting all four movies in the same contest is like contriving some athletic competition that pits football players against a water polo team. They ply different elements.

But then the Oscars are a paradoxical amalgam of mercantilism and vanity, protection of the status quo and virtue signaling, pageantry and quirk. They take into consideration so many different things that they wind up meaning almost nothing.

I bet that neither Cruise nor Riseborough receives the recognition that they’re hoping for. They lie at opposite ends of the blockbuster-to-boutique spectrum. Oscar is comfiest in the mushy middle.

Words Worth Sidelining

My storehouse of valuable advice is finite. I’ll run out before long. But from a top shelf I pluck this: When somebody says “long story short,” make a bowl of popcorn, settle into a comfortable chair and brace for an epic. A very long story is about to unspool, or an already-long story is about to grow longer.

“Long story short” exists at the oxymoronic intersection of self-awareness and self-deception. Its utterers know enough to acknowledge their tale’s length but pledge an abbreviation that they’re incapable of. That “long” and that “short” are in unresolved tension. If the phrase were a lyric, it would be scored by the musician Fatboy Slim .

“Forgive the interminable story.” “I know I should stop talking but I can’t.” “I’ve taken you hostage and the ransom is listening to me for another 15 minutes.” These are honest alternatives to the fiction of “long story short.” And I’ll stop there, to keep a short item short.

“Words Worth Sidelining” appears every month or so. Thanks to Sandra Dirks of Egg Harbor, Wis., and Bruce Monastersky of Williamstown, N.J., for suggesting “long story short.”

For the Love of Sentences

In an article in the North Carolina magazine Our State, Mark Powell described a church famous for its frescoes: “St. Mary’s is a tiny thing, a toy box of white clapboard and green trim, a leftover scrap of true faith and right angles that sits on a country road just past an Ingles and a Dollar General. When a truck rumbles past, the chestnut boards creak like a ship at sea.” (Thanks to Steve Welker of Mount Airy, N.C., for nominating this.)

In The Guardian, Stuart Heritage took particular issue with the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama series. Bob Odenkirk, the star of “Better Call Saul,” lost to the “Yellowstone” patriarch Kevin Costner, “whose performance was so one-note that you suspect the man needed a team of technicians laden with ropes and pulleys just to change his facial expression.” (Carrie Costello, Aberdeen, Wash.)

In an essay in Esquire that’s perhaps the most thoughtful of many reflections on the announced closing of the revered Copenhagen restaurant Noma, Jeff Gordinier recalled his surprise years ago when he met its affable and voluble creator, René Redzepi: “I guess I was expecting to chat with someone scolding and morose in the Scandinavian mode, sort of like the figure of Death in Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’.” (That nomination comes from me.)

In The New Yorker, Helen Shaw reviewed a new London stage production based on — and named for — a classic Virginia Woolf novel whose protagonist is treated as male at the start but female in the end: “I had been particularly eager to see ‘Orlando,’ which slots into the current gender discourse with a nearly audible click.” (John Todd, Northampton, Mass.)

Reflecting on the House Republican leaders’ maneuvers so far, the Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank noted : “As Business Insider pointed out, there will be more guys named ‘Mike’ running committees — six — than there are women in charge of them (just three of the 21 chairs). The old boys of the House Republican caucus might benefit from a Mike drop.” (Theresa Vinic, Norfolk, Mass.)

Focusing on Kevin McCarthy’s serial moral surrenders, Nick Welsh wrote in The Santa Barbara Independent: “As we all saw, McCarthy sold his soul to the devil so many times that the devil sued to get his money back. It turns out it’s only a small claims case.” (Laurel Allen, Carpinteria, Calif.)

In The Times, Maureen Dowd pondered a prince’s overexposed overshares: “Harry thought he’d find closure in disclosure. He will never feel the crown’s heaviness, but was his burden so unbearable that it needed multimedia unburdening?” (Barbara Sloan, Conway, S.C.)

Bret Stephens also took Harry’s measure : “He embodies the worst characteristics of his former and current home countries: the unmerited entitlement of a secondary British royal and the self-pitying exhibitionism of a grifting California arriviste.” (Constance Nathanson, Manhattan, and Cindy Kissin, New Haven, Conn., among others)

Also in The Times, Issie Lapowsky asked whether a certain tech behemoth was ever going to follow through with a plan to help alleviate Bay Area traffic: “Even before Facebook became Meta in 2021 and started ‌downsizing late last year, this was a company best known for moving fast and breaking things, not moving slowly and building them.” (Julie Rolland, Quincy-sous-Sénart, France)

To nominate favorite bits of recent writing from The Times or other publications to be mentioned in “For the Love of Sentences,” please email me here , put “Sentences” in the subject line and include your name and place of residence.

What I’m Reading

My feelings about the blockbuster new novel “Age of Vice,” by Deepti Kapoor, fall somewhere between the rapture that Ron Charles described in his review in The Washington Post and the strongly tempered regard that Dwight Garner expressed in The Times. A tale of brutal poverty and organized crime and doomed romance and violent retribution in modern (and modernizing) India, it’s richly imagined, suspenseful and, in key passages, poignant. But it often spins its wheels: I grew weary of the inventory of alcohol and cigarettes consumed by the playboy Sunny and the journalist Neda and feared for these lovers’ livers and lungs.

One of the publishing sensations of last year, “Lessons in Chemistry,” by Bonnie Garmus, maintains a more consistently fleet pace and has an irresistible buoyancy, along with a deliberately sharp bite. Garmus’s novel focuses on a female scientist whose ambitions are impeded — and then rerouted — by a world not yet ready for her, and its potent appeal was captured perfectly by Elisabeth Egan’s assessment in The Times.

I’m eager to read the just published memoir “ Life on Delay ,” by the Atlantic writer and editor John Hendrickson, about the ways in which he and others have been shaped by their stuttering. Hendrickson is the one who got Joe Biden to talk about his stutter for a moving, memorable magazine story in 2020.

On a Personal Note

I love my North Carolina neighborhood, which is a very lucky thing, because I moved here during the real-estate craziness of mid-2021 and bought my house in a panicked state, based on an iPad tour, a friend’s drive-by and satellite imagery. I treasure the abundance of trees; the mix of manicured yards and wilder ones; the nearness of woodland trails that Regan and I can (and do) follow in any number of directions.

But I don’t love the neighborhood’s name. I don’t understand why it has to have one. “The Highlands”? We are not in Scotland. We are not near Scotland. And, having once visited the Scottish Highlands , I can say that we bear none of its traces — not the mountains, not the sea, not the sheep. In place of Loch Ness, we have a slender creek with a menagerie of creatures that no one would call monsters. But “The Highlands” is indeed etched into a stone wall at one of the two entrances to our modest lattice of about 10 blocks. What loopy fantasy and ludicrous pretension.

We’re not alone. A half mile away are a bunch of attached townhouses identified by a nearby sign as “Vineyard Square.” The townhouses occupy Cabernet Drive, Chateau Place, Napa Valley Way and Sonoma Way. They are not in California. They are not in or near any wine country. They are not proximal to a chateau. And while I try never to underestimate the gullibility of people, I doubt that any inhabitants of Vineyard Square are under the delusion that pinot noir is being made just a grape’s throw away.

Aspirational labels are of course a big part of marketing, but I don’t understand the point of them when they wander this far from the truth, and that journey is especially comical when residential developments and streets are being named. Elsewhere within about a five-mile radius of my house: Silver Creek and Sunset Creek (when you lack rivers, you romanticize rivulets). Bayview Drive (nowhere near a proper bay). Mimosa Drive (known for its boozy brunches?). Orchard Lane (you probably won’t be picking apples there anytime soon).

And near you? If there are amusingly and discordantly named enclaves and byways, please share those appellations, along with some remarks about why they’re so discordant, by emailing me here . (Please put “Neighborhood Names” in the subject line and, at the end of the email, your full name and city or town of residence.) If I gather enough good examples, I’ll publish them in a future newsletter.

Meantime, in the spirit of a fitter, healthier 2023, I’ll commit to more runs through my neighborhood, from Inverness Way toward Lochlaven Lane and then over to Skye Drive. I’ll do a full tour of the Highlands! Perhaps, in place of my running shorts, I should wear a running kilt.

Frank Bruni is a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University, the author of the book “The Beauty of Dusk” and a contributing Opinion writer. He writes a weekly email newsletter.   Instagram   • @ FrankBruni • Facebook

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Tom Cruise goes maverick and Riseborough goes awol at the Oscars nominees luncheon

Dominating the situation with starry generosity, Cruise took the Academy Award for best hugger – while Andrea Riseborough was nowhere to be seen

T wenty-three years have ticked by since Tom Cruise last attended the annual Oscars nominees luncheon, in support of his performance as the manipulative sex guru Frank TJ Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. He lost – his third defeat in a decade, following Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July – and shortly afterwards set aside his Academy Award ambitions to prove his value as a daredevil action star.

But this year’s best picture nod for Top Gun: Maverick , in which Cruise not only starred, but also produced, meant he was back in the ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hilton where he held focus with an exuberant physical display. Cruise bear-hugged Guillermo del Toro so enthusiastically that the great director nearly disappeared underneath him. He pulled Austin Butler in for a backslap that anointed the Elvis star as a member of the leading men’s club, cracked a quip to Everything Everywhere All at Once ’s Michelle Yeoh that made her hide a giggle behind her clutch handbag, and closed his eyes to dramatically kiss her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis on the knuckles, then cradle her hands to his chest.

As a capper, Cruise embraced Steven Spielberg as onlookers pressed forward to capture the moment on their phones. You might remember that it was during the promotion of their last film together, War of the Worlds in 2005, that Cruise made his infamous visit to The Oprah Winfrey Show, triggering gossip about the demise of their partnership, as well as of Cruise’s career. (In truth, Worlds marked Cruise’s biggest opening weekend box office at the time.) With that tension publicly defused among an awards crowd that likes him – really likes him – it’s might now be time for Cruise to resume his quest for an acting prize.

The Academy began to host its annual luncheon in 1982. That year, only 42 of the 105 nominees bothered to attend. “Those who aren’t here are getting facelifts,” one joked to the Los Angeles Times. None of the journalists in attendance made note of what was served, but it likely wasn’t vegan risotto with mushrooms carved to resemble scallops. A guest with a self-admitted “child’s palate” confessed they planned to pull over for a hamburger on the way home. Still, it’s tricky to feed a room of the fastidious and fashionable, especially when Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron and EO director Jerzy Skolimowski have spoken candidly about how their alien- and animal-loving movies prodded them toward plant-based diets.

Cameron wasn’t there, though his producer Jon Landau was, and wore a blue and teal shirt that rippled through the room like the oceans of Pandora. Other notable no-shows included Lady Gaga (nominated for the song Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick) and Rihanna (nominated for Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever); at least the latter had the excuse of performing the half-time extravaganza at the Super Bowl just 17 hours before.

Also missing was Andrea Riseborough, a shock best actress nominee for the little-seen To Leslie. Few people at the luncheon seemed to have managed to catch the film. Still, as Riseborough is a genuine talent – and a chameleon – there’s always a chance she was wandering incognito through the crowd. Wasn’t that Riseborough who just passed Michelle Williams as she sidled shoulder-to-shoulder with the director Sarah Polley? Or was that Riseborough right behind Brendan Fraser, who entered with his The Whale co-star Hong Chau and then pivoted with delight to greet activist Malala Yousafzai?

The Riseborough rumours were put to rest when Academy governor DeVon Franklin began to summon the nominees one by one to take their position on the risers for the class photo. Since that tradition began in 1985, the portrait has grown exponentially from four rows of short, straight bleachers to a sprawling six-tier semi-circle that threatens to spill over on to the closest tables, risking a splash zone of white Bordeaux. The nominees used to be announced in alphabetical order, regularly ending with Hans Zimmer. More recently, they’re called up seemingly at random, which can lead to unexpected opportunities to mingle during the endless standing around and waiting. Irish veteran actor Brendan Gleeson stood next to this year’s ingenue, Austin Butler. Fraser squeezed into a spot between costume designer Ruth Carter and the writer-director Martin McDonagh. Jerry Bruckheimer scooted in just before the songwriter Diane Warren, who was then followed by Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) – one of the best-dressed men in the room in a three-piece lavender crepe suit – who fist-pumped as he moved into position. Sprinting in his wake was former child performer and best supporting actor favourite Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once), who had already charmed the room by holding up his orange phone for selfies, including with his Temple of Doom director Spielberg.

The first time Diane Warren took part in the portrait – in 1988, for the song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from Mannequin – she wore silver heels. Now, 14 nominations later, she’d chosen glittery silver sneakers. Warren has lost every time, though she did finally pick up an honorary Oscar last year. Undaunted, she predicted that even if she loses this year (for Applause from Tell It Like a Woman), odds are she might return in 2024 with the song Gonna Be You from 80 For Brady .

If the photo stretch of the luncheon had the feel of a high school graduation ceremony, Jamie Lee Curtis was head cheerleader. She was the first person ushered to stand at the very centre of the back rung and clapped until every one of the 182 nominees was in place. The honour – and the duty – suited the first-time nominee, not only because her frosty suit and matching cropped haircut gave Curtis the aura of a silver-dipped statuette, but because her parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh also received nods in 1959 and 1961 respectively.

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Finally, del Toro took his spot next to Bill Nighy and the nominees were able to rest their wrists and relax. A few snuck sips of the pink champagne they’d been practical enough to bring over. With everyone there, the gravity of the ballroom tilted toward the stage and seemed to pull all the lights and chandeliers with it. Franklin told the nominees that the photographer would take five photos. Colin Farrell heckled back that he didn’t have five facial expressions. He favoured two: smile and smoulder. “I call this pose ‘the video game character,’” Rian Johnson, writer and director of Knives Out: Glass Onion , had said in preparation, holding his hands at his hips.

Another nominee having an out-of-body experience was Shane Boris, the producer of the documentaries Navalny and Fire of Love, who has found himself competing against himself. “It feels a bit like a blackout,” Boris said, taking in the star-studded room. As for which Boris might take home the award, he laughed. “I wish them both luck.”

The vibe was so cosy that new Academy president Janet Yang didn’t dampen the mood even when she had to address the elephant absent from the room. “I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars ,” Yang said, alluding to last year’s slap without mentioning Will Smith by name. “What happened onstage was wholly unacceptable and the response from our organisation was inadequate.” Yang was elected in August, six months after that public relations crisis and the earlier burst of outrage that occurred when it was announced that ABC would not broadcast eight of the technical and short subject categories. This year, all awards will be televised – and in return, Yang, urged everyone to keep their acceptance speeches to 45 seconds.

“You gotta work with us,” Yang said, asking them to repeat the time limit. “Forty-five seconds,” the nominees chanted. Yang beamed. “You’re all winners,” she said. And in the moment, they all were.

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David & Victoria Beckham were so ‘starstruck’ they kept a Tom Cruise photo display: sources

D avid and Victoria Beckham have always been “charmed” by Tom Cruise — and even displayed photos of themselves with the “Top Gun” star at home, according to sources.

So Cruise was, naturally, a VIP guest at Victoria’s 50th birthday celebrations Saturday, where he wowed the crowd with his dance-floor moves.

The “Mission: Impossible” star joined guests including the Spice Girls, Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria and Salma Hayek Saturday night at London’s exclusive Oswald’s private members club.

The “Mission: Impossible” actor showed off his breakdancing skills and even did the splits for the “absolutely dumbfounded” crowd, according to the Daily Mail.

But his close friendship with the Beckhams goes back decades.

An industry source told Page Six, “The Beckhams were super close with Tom [for years] — they went to loads of parties at his house in LA.

“He is very, very charming. They were starstruck by him.”

The couple actually met Cruise years before their move to Los Angeles in 2007, and another source who knows the couple said they were big fans.

According to Jenny Frankfurt , former manager to Victoria’s Spice Girls bandmate Geri Halliwell, the Beckhams had an array of photos of themselves with the star at their country home, dubbed Beckingham Palace.

Frankfurt wrote that, upon arriving at the estate in Hertfordshire, “There was a huge Christmas tree in the hall and several tables of photographs, one devoted completely to about 30 pictures of Victoria and David with Tom Cruise.”

Some industry sources said that devout Scientologist Cruise tried to talk to the couple about his church and they politely told him they were uninterested.

In his 2022 book, “ A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology ,” former high-ranking Scientology officer Mike Rinder claimed the church went to great expense trying to woo the Beckhams through Cruise.

“A professional-grade soccer pitch was constructed on the property at Gold [Base, church headquarters in San Jacinto, Calif.]. The ground was leveled, irrigation installed, perfect turf, goals raised,” Rinder wrote. “A full-time caretaker was appointed from the Gold staff … It was built for one purpose only: so Tom Cruise could woo his friend David to come to Gold. It never happened.”

A source who knows the couple denied they ever discussed Scientology with Cruise.

Victoria famously attended Cruise’s star-studded wedding to Katie Holmes — mother of his estranged daughter Suri Cruise — in Italy in 2006..

Cruise is a soccer fan and has been seen at many of David’s games.

And David once revealed that he turned to the Oscar nominee for advice on whether to leave Real Madrid and join LA Galaxy in a series of late-night phone calls.

“Obviously, I’d asked him for his advice as well because he’s a very wise man; he’s a very good friend of mine,” Beckham said at the time.

Cruise threw the Beckhams a lavish “Welcome to LA” party when they moved to the US.

Speaking in his Netflix documentary, “BECKHAM”, David reminisced, “The funny thing was, I was friends with Tom Cruise. I remember Tom turning round and saying, ‘me and Will are gonna throw you a party’. I was like ‘Will?’ and he said ‘Will Smith’.”

The party was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, with Cruise clearing the dance floor to recreate the choreography from his 1983 film “Risky Business.”

Despite rumors over the past few years, “There was never any falling out between them, not at all,” said the source of Cruise and the Beckhams. “They have always remained close and in contact.”

Another source who knows the couple said the friendship quieted down when the Beckhams left LA and David went to play in France, but they have grown closer now that they are all living mostly in the UK.

Tom Cruise’s Star Power Shines Bright at Oscars Luncheon, With Largest Turnout of Nominees in Event History

By Clayton Davis

Clayton Davis

Senior Awards Editor

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Tom Cruise stole the show at the 95th Oscars luncheon, the annual gathering celebrating the nominees for the year’s Academy Awards . At the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the in-person event had opening remarks from Academy president Janet Yang. The roll call of this year’s 182 attendees was read by Devon Franklin, a member of the Board of Governors, who began with Jamie Lee Curtis and ended with Guillermo del Toro.

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Tom Cruise owns the room.

Nominated as a producer for “Top Gun: Maverick,” along with Jerry Bruckheimer, Christopher McQuarrie and David Ellison, Cruise walked the red carpet, greeted his fellow colleagues and spoke briefly with journalists, doing his first significant awards campaign event of the season.

Cruise could hardly take a few steps without being approached by an industry person, including Steven Spielberg, Brendan Gleeson, Paul Mescal, Baz Luhrmann and Bonnie Arnold. He even scored a seat at one of the stellar tables with nominated talent like cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Empire of Light”), Daniel Kwan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”).

The film, nominated for six Oscars including best picture, is a viable threat to take home the gold. I spoke with Cruise in the room, praising his work in the film and his previous nominated performances for “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989) and “Magnolia” (1998).

“I really appreciate it,” he said. I followed by asking if he was enjoying himself. He responded, “I’m having a great time.”

The Academy has all 23 categories back on the telecast, so keep the speeches short.

Yang addressed the room of attendees, asking them to abide by the rules of keeping their speeches to 45 seconds in total. “You’ve got to work with us,” she said. “This is live television after all. Translation: keep it short, sweet and to the point, please.”

We’ll see how many of them listen on March 12.

3. No one knows what’s going to win best picture.

Having conversations with multiple Academy members, publicists and nominees, there’s a sense of an unknown heading into the final stretch of the awards season.

One voter was undecided on their decision on whether they would be casting their ballot for Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) or Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”). Another thinks Todd Field (“Tár”) is the real threat for best director, while another shares hesitation on how far “Everything Everywhere” can go in the top category.

No press sat with nominees. Why?

Traditionally, attending press from various outlets would pull a random number that would assign them to a table where nominees would be sitting. A fair (and fun) process would place a journalist at one of the tables. However, multiple sources tell Variety some nominated attendees didn’t feel comfortable with a press member at their table.

Be as happy about life as Ke Huy Quan is happy to be in the room.

As DeVon Franklin read the names of all 182 nominated attendees, Ke Huy Quan’s name brought the room to erupt in joy. Quan’s arms were waving as he nearly skipped all the way to the platform for the annual class photo. Unofficially, as I can’t declare myself a reliable “applause-o-meter,” the nominee that received the loudest reaction in the room might have been Quan’s co-star, Stephanie Hsu. Could that mean anything?

Other huge noisemakers included Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), Guillermo del Toro (“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”), Rick Carter (“The Fabelmans”) and Dede Gardner (“Women Talking”).

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Celebrity Life

Tom cruise ‘absolutely dumbfounds’ guests at victoria beckham’s birthday.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise left guests at Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday bash ‘absolutely dumbfounded’ thanks to his wild antics.

Don't miss out on the headlines from Celebrity Life. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Tom Cruise brought down the house at Victoria Beckham’s star-studded 50th birthday party.

The Top Gun: Maverick star, 61, “absolutely dumbfounded” guests Saturday night by breakdancing and doing splits, a fellow partygoer told the Daily Mail on Monday.

Cruise, who has known Victoria and her husband, David Beckham, for nearly two decades, has been living in the UK while filming Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two , which is expected to hit theatres next year, Page Six reports.

The Risky Business star was dressed to the nines for the occasion in a classic black tuxedo with a bow tie and shiny black shoes.

Cruise was far from the only A-lister who attended Victoria’s grand fete in London.

All of the fashion designer’s fellow Spice Girls — Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie “Mel B” Brown — also showed up for the festivities.

The girl group even staged an impromptu reunion to perform their 1997 hit song Stop for the attendees.

Victoria had her party at the private members’ club Oswald’s and stunned in a celestial sheer mint gown featuring ruffled details along the hem.

The guest of honour arrived on crutches after breaking her foot during a workout earlier this year, but she did not let the injury stop her from going all out for her milestone birthday.

She was joined by her athlete husband, who was dressed in a tux, as well as their four children: sons Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, and Cruz, 19, and daughter Harper, 12.

Other stars at the soiree included Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria.

Notably absent from the momentous occasion was Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz, who instead spent time with her grandmother.

The Bates Motel actress, 29, shared a photo with her grandma on her Instagram Story but also made sure to send her mother-in-law some birthday love.

“Happy Birthday to my beautiful MIL [Victoria Beckham],” she wrote in another Instagram Story.

“I’m so sad I’m not there to celebrate you and hug you! Sending all my love from me and Naunni.”

Peltz and Victoria were rumoured to have feuded during the former’s 2022 wedding to Brooklyn.

They allegedly butted heads over wedding planning, and tensions were also high after the bride decided to wear a wedding gown not made by Victoria’s fashion house.

However, Peltz denied she had any beef with the former pop star and explained that she could not wear a dress by Victoria’s eponymous brand due to timing issues.

“I was going to and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realised that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress,” she told Variety at the time.

“She didn’t say ‘you can’t wear it;’ I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it. That’s where it started, and then they ran with that.”

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Brooklyn also denied there was any bad blood between his wife and mum.

Victoria and Peltz appear to have mended their relationship, as they have posted sweet messages about each other on social media numerous times since.

This story was published by Page Six and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Tom Cruise ‘absolutely dumbfounds’ guests at Victoria Beckham’s birthday

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Oscars 2023: The 95th Academy Awards

By Tori B. Powell, Mike Hayes, Matt Meyer and Seán Federico O'Murchú, CNN

Why Tom Cruise and James Cameron aren't at the Oscars

From CNN"s Lisa Respers France

Two of the people being credited with getting audiences back in the theater apparently have skipped the biggest night that celebrates movies.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned in his opening monologue that both Tom Cruise and James Cameron were not in attendance, though he joked that perhaps Cruise was there, dressed as nominee Judd Hirsch.

While Cruise's blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" is nominated for best film, Deadline reported the star was skipping the show because of work.

Meanwhile, Kimmel mentioned there was some speculation that Cameron sat this one out because he had not been nominated in the directing category for "Avatar: The Way of Water," which is also nominated for best film.

"Avatar" producer Jon Landau said on the red carpet (which was really champagne-colored ) that Cameron was not coming for “personal reasons."

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" wins the award for best animated feature

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" took home the Academy Award for best animated feature. It was the first award announced of the night.

"Animation is ready to be taken to the next step," Del Toro said while accepting the award. "We are all ready for it. Please help us. Keep animation in the conversation."

The filmmaker, who used stop-motion animation to create the latest "Pinocchio" adaptation, went on to thank his family and Netflix.

Jimmy Kimmel jokes he's protecting himself this year after last year's slap

From CNN's Marianne Garvey

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel jokes that if any audience member wants to incite violence or "get jiggy with it," in a reference to Will Smith's song, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," he's got backup.

Kimmel joked that they would have to get through Michelle Yeoh, Michael B. Jordan, Steven Spielberg and many others to get to him on stage.

Background: During 2022’s ceremony, Smith walked on stage at the Oscars and slapped Chris Rock, who was presenting at the time, after he made a joke about Smith’s wife’s shaved head.

Smith  later apologized , but The Academy sanctioned the actor by  banning him from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years.

Jimmy Kimmel says this year "the world finally got out of the house" to see movies in the theater

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show by declaring this the year "when the world finally got out of the house" to see the nominated films the way they were intended to be seen: in a theater.

The host entered the stage for his opening monologue via parachute, in a reference to his opening "Top Gun" skit , cracked a joke about adjusting his "danger zone" and teased Nicole Kidman for her viral AMC Theatres campaign .

Kimmel noted there are 16 first-time nominees at this year's Oscars.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel's "Top Gun" call sign is Meatball

Jimmy Kimmel first appeared at the 95th Oscars ceremony in a skit where he pretended to be in the "Top Gun" movie franchise.

Sitting behind Tom Cruise in a fighter jet, he pulls off a helmet labeled with the call sign "Meatball." Cruise advised him to eject from the plane, then Kimmel dropped on to the stage via parachute.

"Top Gun: Maverick" is nominated in several categories this evening.

The 2023 Oscars are underway

The 95th Academy Awards have begun at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Jimmy Kimmel returns to host the event for a third time.

It's time to see which of Hollywood's biggest stars take home the honors.

Photos: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on the red carpet

From CNN Style’s Stephy Chung

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads the Oscars with 11 nominations. And the genre-defying movie’s cast turned up in style.

Michelle Yeoh was among the night’s best-dressed celebrities in a white-feathered Dior gown, while James Hong arrived on the champagne-colored carpet wearing one of the night’s boldest accessory: a blue bowtie adorned with — in a nod to the film — a pair of googly eyes.

See the pictures below, and more of our red carpet coverage here .

Here's who's nominated for Academy Awards

The 95th Academy Awards is set to take place at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre tonight. Here's a look at the nominees:

Best picture

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”
• “Avatar: The Way of Water”
• “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
• “The Fabelmans”
• “Top Gun: Maverick”
• “Triangle of Sadness”
• “Women Talking”

Actress in a supporting role

• Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
• Hong Chau, “The Whale”
• Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
• Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Actor in a supporting role

• Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway”
• Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans”
• Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Actor in a leading role

• Austin Butler, “Elvis”
• Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
• Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
• Bill Nighy, “Living”

Actress in a leading role

• Cate Blanchett, “Tár”
• Ana de Armas, “Blonde”
• Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie”
• Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”
• Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

See the full list of nominees here .

A-listers arrive on the red carpet in white

Stars are arriving dressed-to-the-nines at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 95th Academy Awards. One of the trends to emerge this year is the color white — with stars like Michelle Yeoh and Halle Berry embracing the trend.

The Oscars are one of the most anticipated nights of fashion. Check out our red carpet coverage here . 

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David Beckham Knows a Tuxedo Always Looks Best at the End of the Night

By Fedora Abu

Saturday was a pretty big one for the Beckhams . In celebration of matriarch Victoria’s 50th birthday, David Beckham and the clan descended on Oswald’s, a London members-only club, to ring in the occasion. And, like most 50th birthdays with an open bar, it appears a pretty wild time was had by all. Romeo, Cruz, et al. mingled with Gordon Ramsay, Marc Anthony, and Jason Statham. Tom Cruise leapt to the rescue of a fallen photographer. And the entire Spice Girls lineup blessed guests with a rendition of “Stop”, complete with choreo. It was a very good night by all accounts.

And it was David Beckham back to his truest form in black tie . Though he's spent the last few years in farmer bro civvies, there's a long tradition of the guy in mega tailoring. At the 2018 royal wedding, he showed up in a custom Dior three-piece morning suit. And then there was his eldest son’s wedding, where he went for a black-tie get-up so sharp—again by Dior—that made classic menswearheads very happy. And for this occasion, it seems Beckham recycled that look once more with a classic black single-breasted peak-lapel tux paired with a pleated white shirt , silk bow tie, and patent black Derbies .

But it's the candid post-party shots where the suit came to life. The jacket was lost. The party was pumping. The wife was on his back. And while black tie is best recommended in its most traditional form, nothing says after-party like a broken down tux that, arguably, looks even better when it's slightly disheveled. It's quite ‘90s Oscars golden age , when the champagne never stopped and the cigs were smoked indoors and the drivers were pre-booked. In the tightly curated social media age, such candor doesn't happen very often. But now and again, for a huge event, we get a whisper of what the after-party will look like—and Beckham's tux gets a queue jump.

This story originally appeared on British GQ with the title 'David Beckham's tux is booking an Uber for the after-party'

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7 best comeback movies ever, ranked

Hollywood loves a good comeback. The industry that transforms actors and directors into giant stars will also facilitate their downfall. One mistake, and it’s back to the bottom of the heap. J.J. Abrams, a massively talented writer and director, has not directed a film since the reviled Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker . Taylor Kitsch has not had top billing in a movie since a pair of massive flops from 2012: John Carter and Battleship . The film industry can be ruthless and cutthroat.

7. Birdman (Michael Keaton)

6. john wick (keanu reeves), 5. jackie brown (pam grier), 4. gone baby gone (ben affleck).

• 3. Pulp Fiction (John Travolta)

2. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Ke Huy Quan)

1. the whale (brendan fraser).

Hollywood rarely offers second chances. However, there are some notable examples of success stories for the actors and directors who receive the opportunity to make a comeback. Several resurgences led to Oscar wins, while others revitalized actors’ status as top stars. We’ve ranked the seven best comeback movies for actors and directors.

Who doesn’t like Michael Keaton? The actor won over audiencesthanks to his charm and comedic timing in the 1980s with roles in Night Shift, Mr. Mom, and Beetlejuice.  Keaton’s career reached new heights in 1989 when he starred as Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton’s Batman . Keaton’s stoic interpretation of the titular superhero in Batman  and  Batman Returns  is considered one of the best portrayals of the caped crusader.

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Keaton remained active for the next 20-plus years as he transitioned to supporting roles in the 2000s. Ironically, Keaton experienced a career resurgence in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)   as Riggan Thomson, a declining actor who once played a popular superhero and who is hoping for a shot at redemption as the star of a Broadway play. It’s a plot that shares many similarities with Keaton’s career. Unsurprisingly, Keaton gives a career-best performance as Riggan that resulted in an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Rent or buy Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) on Prime Video , YouTube , Google , and Apple .

Keanu Reeves is one of the unlikeliest action stars to come out of the 1990s. At a time when Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Steven Seagal relied on their physicality, Reeves leaned into a quieter, more vulnerable presence. This everyman persona ignited Reeves’s action career in Point Break  and  Speed before he became an international superstar in The Matrix . Yet, Reeves’s luster wore off post-Matrix trilogy, culminating in 2013’s 47 Ronin, a critical failure and box office bomb.

In 2014, Reeves starred in John Wick   as the titular assassin, who returns to the criminal underworld to seek revenge on the thugs who stole his car and killed his dog. Backed by magnificent stunt work, John Wick  was instantly beloved by action fans. The character was a return to form for Reeves, who thrives as a no-nonsense protagonist. Three John Wick movies later, Reeves is back on top of the action world, just like he was in 1999.

Stream  John Wick  on Peacock .

In the 1970s, Pam Grier became a household name for her work in blaxploitation films, including Coffy  and Foxy Brown . Grier was relegated to supporting roles in the 1980s, with her biggest hit part coming in 1988’s Above the Law  starring Steven Seagal. It was not until 1997’s  Jackie Brown  that Grier returned to top billing for the first time in over 20 years.

Quentin Tarantino knew Grier was a star; she only needed the right part, similar to how Tarantino felt about John Travolta when casting for Pulp Fiction . Tarantino persuaded Grier to play the title character in Jackie Brown , his homage to blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Grier lights up the screen as the confident and charismatic Jackie Brown. For her excellent work, Grier received a nomination for Best Actress at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.

Stream Jackie Brown on Tubi and Peacock .

Ben Affleck was destined for stardom from a young age. After winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting , Affleck became one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood, with leading roles in  Armageddon ,  Pearl Harbor , and The Sum of All Fears . Because of his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, Affleck became a tabloid sensation with constant attention from the paparazzi. Unfortunately, the increased attention hurt Affleck’s mental well-being and career, with 2003’s  Gigli  being the movie that sank his status as Hollywood royalty.

With nowhere to go but up, Affleck stepped behind the camera, making a decision that would shape the rest of his career. In 2007, Affleck directed and co-wrote Gone Baby Gone , a Boston crime thriller about a private detective’s (Casey Affleck) search for a missing girl. The film   was lauded by critics, who were impressed with Affleck’s terrific direction. Gone Baby Gone  became step one of a three-part comeback. Step two was The Town , which proved Affleck could be a commercial director. The third and final step was Argo , the dramatic thriller that won the 2013 Oscar for Best Picture, the cherry on top of Affleck’s remarkable resurgence.

Stream Gone Baby Gone on Pluto TV .

3. Pulp Fiction ( John Travolta)

In the late 1970s, John Travolta was arguably the biggest star on the planet. Travolta starred in  Saturday Night Fever  and  Grease,  two gigantic hits that were the two highest-grossing films domestically over the eight-month span in which they were released, a rare feat that no actor matched for over 40 years until Timothée Chalamet accomplished it with Wonka   and  Dune: Part Two .

Yet, the 1980s were unkind to Travolta because of several critical misfires, including Two of a Kind, Perfect, and Staying Alive. After the success of Look Who’s Talking  in the late 1980s, Travolta won the role of Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s hit Pulp Fiction . Despite his career downturn, Tarantino knew that Travolta was still a superstar. “It’s only stupid Hollywood that doesn’t realize it,” Tarantino said about casting Travolta on the podcast 2 Bears, 1 Cave . Tarantino was right, as Travolta earned some of the best reviews of his career in  Pulp Fiction . Travolta received a Best Actor nomination at the 1995 Oscars, catapulting him to a Hollywood upturn for the rest of the decade.

Stream Pulp Fiction on Max .

Does any child actor have a better start to their career than Ke Huy Quan? At age 12, Quan starred as Short Round in 1984’s  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . The following year, Quan played the memorable role of Richard “Data” Wang in  The Goonies . Yet, over the next 15 years, Quan struggled to book roles, with his most significant appearance coming in 1992’s Encino Man . Quan eventually quit acting in the early 2000s and worked behind the scenes as a stunt choreographer and assistant director for the next two decades.

In 2022, Quan returned triumphantly to acting in Everything Everywhere All at Once , the sci-fi multiversal adventure that changed his life. Quan plays Waymond Wang, the meek, kind husband to Evelyn (Michele Yeoh). Quan’s sympathetic and spirited portrayal of Waymond received universal praise. Quan won nearly every major supporting acting award from critics, highlighted by an emotional victory for Best Supporting Actor at the 2023 Oscars.

Stream Everything Everywhere All at Once on Netflix .

Brendan Fraser became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable leading men in the 1990s and early 2000s. After his breakthrough roles in 1992’s  Encino Man and  School Ties, Fraser transformed into a global action star with his role as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy trilogy. After 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor failed with critics and audiences, Fraser’s career began to decline, leading to a hiatus in the mid-2010s due to a variety of issues.

After appearing in several supporting roles on television, Fraser received his big break in 2022’s The Whale . Directed by Darren Aronofsky,  The Whale  stars Fraser as Charlie, a morbidly obese English teacher on his deathbed who attempts to reconcile with his young daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink). Fraser told Digital Trends he hoped The Whale would ” change some hearts and minds.” It did that and more, with Fraser garnering some of the best reviews of his career, culminating with his win for Best Actor at the 2023 Oscars.

Stream The Whale on Paramount+ .

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If you're looking to have a quiet, chill New Year's Day (maybe to recover from an abundance of joy on New Year's Eve), there are worse ways to spend the day than by catching up on a movie or two. If you're looking for some movies to check out, though, Prime Video may have exactly what you need.

There are plenty of titles worth checking out on the service, but we've selected three that are particularly great. From a recent Oscar juggernaut to one of the funniest heist movies ever made, these are three movies you should definitely watch on New Year's Day.

Christmas is a wonderful time for people of all ages, but let's face it, kids bring an entirely new level of joy to the occasion. It's in children that the magic of the holiday is most alive, so if you're looking for ways to get into the holiday season, there's often nothing better than finding a great kids Christmas movie to enjoy.

Some of these movies may also be some of the funniest Christmas movies, but what these movies really do well is capture the spirit of a holiday that kids around the world love to celebrate. 7. The Polar Express (2004) The Polar Express (2004) Official Trailer - Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis Movie HD

The best sci-fi movies often push the boundaries of what's possible to depict on the big screen by taking on complex fictional concepts that are often rooted in reality. Recent films in the category embrace the intersection between science, philosophy, and humanity, and use mind-blowing visuals and cutting-edge cinematography to bolster filmmakers' ambitious efforts.

From the visually stunning and otherworldly story told in Dune to the mind-bending mix of existentialism and the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once, the greatest science fiction movies from the past five years represent the best that the genre has to offer. With so much to explore in the genre, these are the few standouts that should be considered essential viewing for fans. Ad Astra (2019)

Un joven destinado al estrellato, 40 mesas de billar prestadas y una tragedia griega de 14 millones de dólares

Dirigida por martin scorsese, el color del dinero tuvo un presupuesto escaso, pero una recaudación millonaria; le dio a tom cruise la posibilidad de medirse con un gigante.

Todo comenzó con una carta. Mientras estaba en Londres, recién terminado el rodaje de Después de hora (1985), Martin Scorsese recibió una carta de Paul Newman en la que le ofrecía convertirse en el director de su próximo proyecto: El color del dinero . ¿La razón? Newman había quedado fascinado con las imágenes de Toro salvaje (1980) y Scorsese le parecía el director indicado para asumir la secuela de una de las películas que había marcado su carrera, El audaz (1961) , dirigida por Robert Rossen y basada en la novela de Walter Tevis.

La idea rondaba en la mente de Newman desde hacía tiempo, por un lado como una estrategia para resucitar, ya en su etapa madura, un personaje emblemático de su pasado, y por el otro, porque era una buena ocasión para conseguir un éxito económico. El audaz había marcado su despegue como uno de los actores claves de su generación, una especie de sucesor del trágico James Dean, y había definido su personalidad actoral, seductora y algo desafiante, mucho más que una cara bonita.

La primera adaptación del relato de Tevis -autor también de la recientemente famosa Gambito de dama - había circulado por varias manos desde hacía cinco años y dos grandes estudios como la Columbia Pictures y la 20th Century Fox se disputaban la posibilidad de concretarlo. Sin embargo, temían que el público de comienzos de los 80 no conociera la película de Rossen, con lo cual la continuidad de la historia del personaje perdía sentido. Finalmente, el agente de Paul Newman, Mike Ovitz -luego representante de Scorsese- consiguió entusiasmar a la Touchtone Pictures, rama de Disney destinada a la producción de películas por fuera del público infantil, y contactó a dos ejecutivos que en su momento habían intentado trabajar con Scorsese: Michael Eisner y Jeffrey Katzenberg. Ambos vieron en el proyecto la oportunidad de entusiasmar al director, quien luego tendría que lidiar con la recepción tibia del estreno de Después de hora y buscaría una revancha económica. Además, el 8 de febrero de 1985, Martin Scorsese se casaba con la productora Barbara de Fina y ella sería la encargada de convencerlo de aceptar la oferta de Disney.

A De Fina se sumó Irving Axerold, abogado de Scorsese, como productor asociado de la película y como el encargado de solicitar una nueva versión del guion, que no había conformado al director de Taxi Driver . El guionista elegido fue Daryl Ponicsan y la premisa que lo guió consistía en continuar la historia de Eddie Felson, un jugador exquisito de billar, especialista en ganarse la vida con apuestas en los bares de distintos pueblos . En El audaz , lo conocíamos junto a su socio Charlie (Maryon McCormick), lo veíamos actuar como un borracho y fanfarrón, y engañar a los parroquianos en un juego de apuestas en el que siempre salía ganando. El desafío le llegaba en Nueva York con una partida de billar frente al legendario Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) y el encuentro con Bert Gordon (George C. Scott), un sádico apostador. La versión de Ponicsan seguía a Eddie 25 años después, perseguido por sus fantasmas, e incluso recuperaba varios minutos de la película de Rossen a modo de flashback . Cuando Scorsese leyó el material, lo rechazó nuevamente y le exigió a Newman la posibilidad de ofrecer su propia continuación de aquella aventura. El actor aceptó.

El convocado fue el novelista Richard Price ( The Wanderers , The Breaks , Clockers ), quien comenzó a trabajar en una nueva adaptación de la novela de Tevis (muerto en agosto de 1984), mientras el estudio buscaba a un actor joven para interpretar a Vincent, el aprendiz del juego de Eddie. El elegido fue Tom Cruise, estrella en ascenso que había aparecido en Los marginados (1983), de Francis Ford Coppola; en Negocios riesgosos (1983), primer mojón de su popularidad, y ya había filmado Top Gun (1986), la película que finalmente lo consagraría . Para el personaje de Carmen, la novia de Vincent, fue elegida Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, por pedido del propio Scorsese que la había visto en Scarface (1983) de su amigo Brian De Palma y la había convocado para El rey de la comedia en un personaje que finalmente no se incluyó en el montaje final. La negociación que siguió entre Newman y Scorsese, por un lado, y la Touchtone, por el otro, estuvo concentrada en el presupuesto final para la película, que quedó fijado en 14 millones de dólares, para lo cual el actor y el director tuvieron que condicionar sus ganancias a la recaudación. Además, el estudio exigió a Scorsese que no se filmara en blanco y negro para no perder espectadores más jóvenes, detalle que el director defendía luego de la satisfactoria experiencia de Toro salvaje .

El rodaje comenzó en enero de 1986 y Scorsese sorprendió a todos al concluir en 49 jornadas (de las 50 previstas) y ahorrar un millón del dinero de Touchtone. La clave estuvo en el trabajo conjunto con Michael Ballhaus -director de fotografía alemán que debutó en Después de hora -, y en la limitación del trabajo de improvisación, algo que había definido a la dirección de Scorsese en los 70, sobre todo junto a Harvey Keitel y Robert De Niro.

Tanto Newman como Cruise fueron entrenados en la práctica del juego de billar por un experto, Michael Sigel; asistieron a exhibiciones de jugadores profesionales durante varias semanas y todo el equipo recorrió los salones de billar más importantes de la ciudad de Chicago, tal como cita José Enrique Monterde en su libro Martin Scorsese : St. Paul’s Billiard, Chicago’s Finest, Chris’s Billiards, The North Center Bowl. “Además se transformaron dos bares convencionales, The Fitzgerald’s y The Ginger Man, en salas de american pool , mientras la Navy Pier de Chicago fue convertida en la sala central del Nine-Ball Classic de Atlantic City, gracias a los 40 billares cedidos por la famosa casa Murray’s”. Esa imagen deslumbrante que aparece en la película fue mérito del director de arte Boris Leven, quien murió al poco tiempo de concluir el rodaje.

Así como unos años después Cabo de miedo (1991) expandía los contornos de una remake en la versión ofrecida por Scorsese sobre el clásico de J. Lee Thompson con Gregory Peck y Robert Mitchum, El color del dinero desatendía las servidumbres de una secuela y se proponía como una nueva historia sobre el personaje de Eddie Felson y su aura de perdedor 25 años después de la película de Rossen. Sin ser un éxito económico, El audaz había sido una película clave para la juventud de los 50 y comienzos de los 60, un salto en la popularidad de Newman y también de su prestigio como actor emergente del Actor’s Studio. La pregunta que se imponía era “¿Qué había sido de Eddie en estos 25 años?”. Como cita Monterde, lo que más entusiasmó al director sobre esa posible respuesta tenía que ver con el carácter autodestructivo del personaje y con la condición trágica de su predecesora, a la que definió como “una tragedia griega en un salón de billar”. Pero también el desdoblamiento de la figura de Eddie en Vincent, quien comienza como un discípulo para luego convertirse en su sustituto, no solo en el mundo de la ficción sino como estrella de la película cuando la fama de Cruise desplazara a la de Newman.

Monterde cita la opinión del director sobre ese personaje al que intenta seguirle la pista en el crepúsculo de su vida: “Hay una forma de sobrevivir que consiste en convertirse en aquello que se detesta y eso es lo que realiza Eddie al convertirse en un hombre tan oscuro como el Bert Gordon de George C. Scott. Y cuando lo pone en acción ya es demasiado viejo para arrepentirse”. Lo que cambia esa decisión es la aparición de un joven discípulo, alguien que lo saca del letargo de la supervivencia en el que persistió a lo largo de tantos años. “Para Eddie, el abandono forzado del mundo del billar [anunciado en el final de El audaz luego de la golpiza de los matones de Gordon durante la cual le quiebran los dedos], de su auténtica y única vida, representa lo más profundo de su caída”, explica Monterde. “Y Scorsese nos cuenta en su película el tránsito hacia su segunda oportunidad: ‘Hey, I’m back!’ serán las últimas dos palabras de El color del dinero ”. Y esa convicción de que Vincent puede ser su heredero se resume en el legado del taco, un elemento simbólico que describe el traspaso del reinado a un nuevo heredero.

Scorsese utilizó varios primeros planos para representar la mirada de Newman sobre el joven que lo encandila desde la mesa de billar, su manejo del taco, su alegría en el juego, su inocencia en la vida. Un rostro iluminado desde una nueva perspectiva, ambigua entre la conquista de su revancha y la posibilidad de su redención. “La historia muestra a Eddie enseñándole al chico cómo devenir en un cretino, haciéndole perder su pureza, pues esta pureza es una amenaza para él”, explicaba el guionista Richard Price en una entrevista con la revista Sight & Sound . En esa lógica, Scorsese filma el duelo entre ambos personajes, y las estrellas que los representan, no solo como una disputa respecto de quién triunfa con su lógica -quién es capaz de engañar al otro-, sino como desafío para que esa dependencia inicial se transforme en emancipación. “Cuando Vincent esté formado en los trucos, engaños y mezquindades, la separación será inevitable”, confirma Monterde. “Tanto lo será como la inevitable confrontación con el maestro, ya que solo ésta podrá legitimar definitivamente su independencia”.

Para muchos, la eficiencia de Scorsese en el respeto del presupuesto y el calendario daba cuenta de la condición “de encargo” del proyecto, ajeno a la propia iniciativa del director. Sin embargo, el interés por modelar un guion con el que se sintiera cómodo, de desmarcarse de la lógica de una previsible secuela y concentrar la representación en la batalla de dos personajes especulares como Eddie y Vincent, casi ecos de otros dúos trágicos de su pasado -Charlie y Johnny Boy en Calles salvajes (1973), Jake La Motta y su hermano Joey en Toro salvaje , Rupert Pumpkin y Jerry Langford en El rey de la comedia - demuestran que la película terminó ingresando en la órbita de su autoría. “¿Estamos ante la historia de un padre que prepara y envía a su hijo predilecto al sacrificio redentor por las faltas que había cometido en el pasado?”, se pregunta Monterde imaginando una premonición de la historia de la crucifixión en la polémica La última tentación de Cristo (1988), que llegaría después. ¿Película de Scorsese o de la dupla Newman-Cruise y el traspaso subterráneo del cetro de estrella de Hollywood?

Lo que sí resultó El color del dinero fue un gran éxito de taquilla con un total de 52 millones de dólares de recaudación, el más importante en la carrera de Scorsese desde Taxi Driver . Y además le valió el Oscar al Mejor Actor para Paul Newman, como corolario de un reverdecer de su carrera en los 80 con películas como Ausencia de malicia (1981), de Sydney Pollack o la excelente Será justicia (1982), de Sídney Lumet. Lo original de la puesta en escena respecto al billar recuerda la estrategia del director con relación al boxeo planteada en Toro salvaje : una síntesis de tomas que esquivan el contexto para acceder a la esencia. En este caso, la planificación de cada plano fue precisa para crear una danza de imágenes de bolas y tacos, paños y golpes que suenan junto a los acordes de canciones como “One More Night”, de Phil Collins o “My Baby’s In Love With Another Guy”, de Robert Palmer, pero grabada por Little Willie John. Una exuberancia única que demuestra esa herencia de un cine clásico que siempre gravitó en la memoria de Martin Scorsese y que nunca insistió tanto en recuperar como en esta ocasión, al igual que Eddie Felson esperaba recobrar su magia perdida.

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