Los Angeles, March 13 (IANS) Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston has shared that she always brings her A-game to the table when it comes to self-care.
The Morning Show actress is 57 now but has always taken the time to look after her skin and ensure she is eating well, and now her focus is on how she can be at her healthiest in her "later years", reports ‘Female First UK’.
She told E! News, “I’ve always been really good about self-care. I’ve always been really good about taking good care of my skin. That was one of my many gifts my moms gave me,. Taking care of my skin, washing my face, putting my creams on. It's sort of consistent. I just take good care of my skin and my diet, all of it”.
“I look at aging now as, 'How can I maintain my health inside, outside, mental health to the best of my ability', so that I can grow into my later years as gracefully as possible”, she added.
As per ‘Female First UK’, Jennifer starts her day with a workout followed by a meditation session and she thinks the latter has been particularly important for her wellbeing.
She said, “Boy, when you do meditate consistently, there's such a difference. And it's not like something you can put your finger on and go, ‘It’s because of this’. I don't know what it is that takes place, but something does”.“It feels like it's not so much a workout for physical sculpting, even though that is the end result. It just feels like for daily life. Functioning through the world. Especially as we get older and things we forget about, all the little areas, the little muscles that keep hiding over the years that think they'll never be found”, she added. Jennifer Aniston ensures she always has time for self-care | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Film critics – myself included – love to bemoan the death of high-quality cinema in the age of streaming, pointing to mediocre Best Picture Oscar nominees as evidence that the production of great (or even good) films is on the wane.
But perhaps things are changing. Are people sick of being inundated with short videos on TikTok and Youtube, and once again hankering for a cinematic experience? The quality of this year’s nominees suggests they are.
For the first time in a while, most of the nominated films are excellent – and nearly all of them are watchable.
My top pick: Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is my pick for the Best Picture Oscar. It’s the kind of meticulously crafted film in which the naturalism seems effortless.
The narrative follows acclaimed filmmaker Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård), a quintessential Euro-auteur, who comes back into the lives of his estranged daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) following their mother’s death.
Gustav is making a new film, and wants his daughter Nora – an acclaimed theatre actress who has her own demons to battle (stage fright among them) – to star in it.
Nora assumes it’s a cynical manoeuvre for funding on her father’s part and refuses. So Gustav casts American star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) instead, who is immediately out of her depth.
The drama unfolds around the family home in Oslo, interweaving narratives of the home’s history across generations with the tensions plaguing its current inhabitants.
Sentimental Value has a strikingly lyrical quality. Some may say it’s overdone, but every element is so perfectly executed that it doesn’t come across as pretentious or laboured. It is, in many respects, thoroughly sentimental – yet never feels like it’s performing this as some kind of effect.
Despite its considerable formal and narrative complexity, it plays in a starkly simple fashion, thanks to the light touch of Trier, coupled with stunning cinematography by Kasper Tuxen Andersen.
The lead performances by Reinsve, Lilleaas and Skarsgård are extraordinarily convincing and, perhaps more surprisingly, Fanning is awesome as the uncomfortable American trying to please the European artiste.
Sentimental Value brilliantly weaves a sense of European social and cultural history with carefully observed character moments, becoming, by the end, a kind of treatise on the affirmative potential of art to transcend and transform interpersonal barriers.
Despite the difficulties of life, the detritus of broken promises and hearts, and the disappointments minor and not so minor, we can still come together – beautifully and wholeheartedly – through the practice of that abstract dream that is called art.
Other excellent contenders
There are a few other strong contenders – films which, any other year, would have stood out above the pack.
Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the past decade, and yet his films have been hit and miss. After his last great film, the 2015 black comedy The Lobster, Bugonia marks a return to form.
The film follows bumbling paranoiac conspiracy nut Teddy (Jesse Plemons) as he and his half-witted cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of pharmaceutical company Auxolith.
Fuller is the kind of ruthless business leader who appears on the cover of Forbes magazine with the caption “Breaking Barriers” and who spouts endless nonsense about diversity while her company wreaks havoc on the planet and the people around them.
According to Teddy, she is also an “Andromedon” alien sent to Earth to enslave and exploit the human population, bringing death to humans as it has been brought to the bees.
The brilliance of the film largely revolves around its manipulation of our identification with the two leads. At times Teddy seems like a lunatic serial killer, and Fuller a heroic victim. At times we empathise with Teddy, while Fuller looks like a manipulative, cold-hearted sociopath.
The whole thing builds up to an immensely satisfying resolution, suitably nihilistic and absurd in equal measure.
As is often the case with Lanthimos’ films, the figures are caricaturish, but the comedic timing – and the oscillation between humour and discomfort for the viewer – is spot on, so it works.
Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a great yarn: a well-executed rock ‘n’ roll fable slash vampire siege, full of electrifying music.
It’s 1932. Twin gangster brothers Smoke and Stack (a dual role played by Michael B. Jordan) return from working for Al Capone in Chicago to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to open up a juke joint.
Their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a cotton picker and bluesman – with Charley Patton’s guitar – steals the show at the hugely successful opening night, fulfilling the legend of a musician who can play so well the barriers between the living and the dead come down. Everything seems to be going well – until some redneck vampires decide to assail the venue.
The whole thing is rather gaudy and silly. But like its forebear From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) – it’s so energetically (and pleasurably) handled that it doesn’t matter.
Michael B. Jordan is brilliant in the two roles, and the end result is a muscular, satisfying film that feels like a good pulp novel or comic book – capped off with a Buddy Guy jam session in the final moments.
Sinners is a delicious dream. It’s unlikely to win Best Picture; there was a time, not so long ago, when this kind of genre film wouldn’t have made it into the mix. But it’s well worth its more than two-hour runtime.
Marty Supreme
It would be hard to think of a stupider premise for a movie. In the 1950s, fast-talking entrepreneurial New York hustler Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) has to raise money so he can make it to Japan to beat world number one Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) in the table tennis showdown of the century.
Yet, director/co-writer Josh Safdie treats the premise with enough seriousness that we end up with a high octane sports film to rival Rocky IV. This is helped by the stunning cinematography by Darius Khondji. Shot on 35mm film, the images have a rich colour and texture rarely matched in digital cinematography.
There’s also a dynamite score from Daniel Lopatin, and an anachronistic soundtrack featuring several stellar 1980s pop tunes from the likes of Public Image Limited, New Order and Tears for Fears, to name a few.
Despite Marty’s arrogance, sweet-talking, womanising, con-artistry and generally bad behaviour, Chalamet invests the character with enough pathos and humour that he comes across as a thoroughly loveable – or at least likeable – rogue.
He is a crackpot whose self-belief and willingness to do anything to achieve his dream tricks the viewer into becoming equally invested in his absurd quest as he (and the film) bounce around New York and the world like a bright ping pong ball.
Marty Supreme is an odd – and oddly arresting – film capturing something of the madness at the heart of the American dream. Mauser does whatever he can to make it to Japan. And after several escapades – and some downright brutal scenes featuring cult director Abel Ferrara as an ageing gangster – he does make it.
The rest
Unusually for the Oscars, the pack of 2026 nominees is rounded out by several other good films.
Although not as good as some of his other films, such as Neighbouring Sounds (2012) and Bacurau (2019), Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent is a rollicking political thriller. Set in the 1970s, it features a standout performance by Wagner Moura as a dissident academic evading persecution from a brutal dictatorship.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a wacky comedy occasionally masquerading as a serious political action thriller. It follows the burnt out leftist Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) as, with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti), he evades capture by police and a militia led by the moronic Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). The whole thing is pretty silly, but like its inspiration – Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland – it is fun nonetheless.
F1 is likewise good. This finely wrought racing flick follows all of the delightfully dumb cliches of the genre. Hard-boiled and burnt-out old timer Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) makes it to Formula One for the first time, and contends with a new era of racing epitomised by his nemesis, the brash young gun Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).
It’s hard to imagine such a film being nominated for Best Picture in any other era; Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder (1990) is equally stupid, but better made, and has been universally lampooned by critics. But people seem to be craving (and appreciating) big screen popcorn films in an era where streaming and second-screen viewing has all but destroyed commercial narrative cinema.
Only three nominees stick out as dreary
Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is an earnest but visually unappealing Netflix film, following a ho-hum period love story about class, racism and the American Dream. Joel Edgerton is solid as usual, and the film is watchable enough, but the whole thing seems rather tired. And the digital video look really doesn’t work with the kinds of exterior, panoramic images that dominate the film.
In Frankenstein, director Guillermo del Toro takes one of the duller, more proselytising novels in the Gothic canon and gives it a suitably ponderous treatment. Oscar Isaac hams it up in full actor mode as Dr Frankenstein. Jacob Elordi is ridiculous as the monster. And Christoph Waltz as Harlander delivers such humdingers as “Can you contain your fire, Prometheus, or are you going to burn your hands before delivering it?” (in case you didn’t know, the novel’s subtitle is The Modern Prometheus).
Made for Netflix, Frankenstein tries hard to look sumptuous with period décor, but it can’t mask the sterility of its digital images. While the novel, at least, has a simple elegance to it, del Toro’s version is meandering, gaudy and cheap-looking.
It is difficult to treat Hamnet – the unbearably pretentious latest film from director Chloe Zhao – seriously, because the filmmakers do it for you. Though there are some things to like – Paul Mescal, for instance, is nice to watch, the cast are generally proficient, and the score is fine – this self-satisfied nonsense plays more like an Instagram video performing its own seriousness than a genuinely engaging feature film.
7 hits out of 10
As usual, the best films of 2025 haven’t been nominated for Best Picture (where’s Sirât, Redux Redux, or Harvest?). Nonetheless, most of this year’s nominees are films that warrant watching more than once for a variety of reasons: pleasure, complexity, nuance.
Perhaps Hollywood is starting to make good films again after decades of superhero trash. Or, at least, the Academy has started to recognise them.
Los Angeles, (IANS) Hollywood actress Elle Fanning was taken by surprise when she was nominated for the Oscars for ‘Sentimental Value’.
The 27-year-old star is up for Best Supporting Actress at next month's Academy Awards ceremony but has confessed that she went on a night out with her sister Dakota Fanning before the nominations were announced in January, reports ‘Female First UK’.
Elle told The Hollywood Reporter, "I was not watching it. Dakota and I had gone out the night before. We had quite a late night. I couldn't compute. I go out bleary-eyed, and I'm like, 'Mom! Dakota! Wake up. I think I got it. I think I got it. I looked like a crazed zombie who was walking in circles saying, 'Is this real?'".
‘Sentimental Value’ received nine Oscar nominations and Fanning says that the most exciting nod for the Norwegian picture was Olivier Bugge Coutte's recognition in the Best Film Editing category.
The Maleficent actress said, "What Olivier has done with the film, and the way that it is edited and constructed, I'm so happy that he wasn't overlooked because it's so particular and he has such a keen eye and was so essential to the film. Editors, I've come to learn now in the producing process, too, hold the key to your performance in a lot of ways”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, Elle said that close bonds have been forged between Sentimental Value's cast and crew since the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
She said, "The fact that the family was held together and that no one was left out and that we get to continue the celebration with each other is really meaningful. I've been quite emotional about this whole experience. I'm still a little glassy-eyed and in shock over it all”.
The nod is the first Oscar nomination of Elle's career and she admits that the recognition feels particularly special because she has been acting since the age of two.
The actress said, "I've been acting since I was two. I've never gotten to have this experience before. (It's) my first time being nominated (for an Oscar). It does really mean something to me, to be recognised by my peers. I don't think you realise how special that feels until it happens”.
The Oscar nomination comes after a varied year for Elle, which also saw her star in the sci-fi action flick ‘Predator: Badlands’, and she explained how she never wants to be typecast.
She said, "You don't know what projects are going to come to you or what's being written at the time, but I have been very fortunate to be able to have these varied projects”.
Gene Hackman, an acting titan of 1970s and ‘80s Hollywood with more than 80 screen credits to his name, has died at 95. He was found dead in his home with his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and his dog.
Hackman had a rugged, dominating and commanding presence on screen, known for his emotionally honest, raw and fierce performances. Always the tough guy, never the romantic lead, off camera he was shy and enjoyed the quiet life.
I first saw Hackman as a child in The Poseidon Adventure (1972). My dad put the film on for the upside-down ocean liner disaster sequences, but it was Hackman who left a lasting impression. I vividly remember being so moved by his final speech berating God for deserting the ship’s passengers and crew while he hangs from a pressure valve door over flames.
There is no actor who comes close to conveying authority with such humanity and reserve.
He was often referred to as the actor’s actor and mentioned by Hollywood A-listers such as Kevin Costner as the best actor they’ve ever worked with. Clint Eastwood, once Hackman retired, described him as “too good not to be performing”.
Hackman will leave a legacy to be studied and appreciated for years to come.
Finding a foot in show business
Born in San Bernardino, California, on January 30 1930, Hackman’s family moved to Danville, Illinois, when he was three. Hackman’s father left when he was 13, which he described to James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio as his father “driving by with a casual wave goodbye”.
Hackman joked to Lipton the departure of his father at an early age made him a better actor.
Hackman left Danville at the age of 16 to join the marines, where he spent roughly four years. He was a rebellious child, but as Peter Shelley detailed in his biography of Hackman, the marine corps was the first time he gave in to authority.
After the marine corps, Hackman moved to New York wanting to become an actor, telling people he was inspired by tough guy James “Jimmy” Cagney.
In New York, Hackman struggled making a living as an artist while waiting for his breakthrough (his uncle told him to give up and get an honest job). Moving to California, he became friends early on with Dustin Hoffman (they finally appeared opposite each other in Hackman’s penultimate film, 2003’s Runaway Jury).
After struggling for years, Hackman landed his first credited screen role in 1964’s Lilith at the age of 34. He played a small part opposite upcoming star Warren Beatty.
As Hackman recounted to Lipton, Beatty told director Arthur Penn how great Hackman was in a scene they did together. That landed Hackman his breakthrough role playing Buck Barrow opposite Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the 1967 hit Bonnie and Clyde, earning him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Breaking through in the 1970s
It wasn’t until the 1970s that Hackman began his leading role career, starring in The French Connection (1971) as the unforgettable hard-boiled New York detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. This role earned him his first Academy Award, for best actor.
He was to wait more than 20 years for his second and final Academy Award, for playing the ruthless Little Bill Daggett opposite Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (1992).
Throughout the 1970s, Hackman was gaining huge popularity on screen, sharing records with the likes of Robert Redford and Harrison Ford as the highest grossing stars at the box office.
There are too many great Hackman performances to mention, but my favourites are Unforgiven, The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure, The Conversation (1974), Hoosiers (1986), Mississippi Burning (1988) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
The French Connection’s director, William Friedkin, said in an interview Hackman was anti-authority and anti-racism because of his upbringing in an area known for its large Ku Klux Klan presence, and his absent father.
Hackman almost pulled out of The French Connection one week into shooting because he didn’t like “beating on people” for a four-month shoot. He told Friedkin “I don’t think I can do this,” but Friedkin refused to let him go.
Hackman recalled he was eternally grateful Friedkin didn’t, as it was “the start of [his] career”.
Hackman said his character Popeye Doyle was a “bigot, an antisemitic, and whatever else you wanted to call him”, and he famously struggled to say the N-word in one key scene. He initially protested the line but eventually went with it, believing “that’s who the guy is […] you couldn’t really whitewash him”.
Hackman often played the character who had the greatest authority on the surface but slipped up, whether he was playing the hero or the villain. Even for a role such as Reverend Scott in The Poseidon Adventure, in which Hackman played a self-righteous preacher onboard the capsized SS Poseidon, he questions his religion as he leads the entire band of escapees to safety.
A life after acting
Hackman retired from acting in 2004 at age 74.
There are many stories about why he retired, like, as Shelley writes, not wanting to play Hollywood “grandfathers” and his “heart wasn’t in shape”, but his life after acting gives a strong hint: he had other interests.
Over the past 20 years, Hackman wrote three historical fiction novels, was a keen painter, and enjoyed exercise such as cycling. Married to classical pianist Arakawa from 1991 until their death, they lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he designed his own home (yes, he also loved architecture!).
A man of many talents who played a kaleidoscopic range of authoritative roles, Hackman will almost certainly be remembered mainly for his tough-guy performance in The French Connection – though many will also remember him as the Hollywood actor’s actor.
Los Angeles, (IANS) Hollywood actress Rachel McAdams did not anticipate the hate for her role of Regina George in ‘Mean Girls’.
The actress has shared that she "didn't know how hated she would be" for playing school bully in the show, reports ‘Female First UK’.
The 47-year-old actress starred alongside Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Tina Fey and Tim Meadows in director Mark Waters' 2004 teen comedy.
As per ‘Female First UK’, in the film, Lindsay Lohan plays Cady Heron, a 16-year-old girl who transfers to a public high school after being homeschooled her whole life in Africa who carries out a plan to destroy the clique of popular girls The Plastics; Regina (played by Rachel McAdams), Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith.
Rachel said that she wasn't prepared for Mean Girls to become a pop culture phenomenon nor the level of hatred film fans felt towards Queen Bee Regina.
Appearing on ‘The Graham Norton Show’, she said, "I didn’t know how hated she would be and for how long. The first time I saw the film with an audience I was with my best friend. Everyone cheered when Regina was hit by a bus, but my friend stood up and screamed, ‘Nooooo’”.
Her latest movie is ‘Send Help’, directed by horror master Sam Raimi, the film follows the struggle for survival for financial strategist and survival enthusiast Linda Liddle, played by Rachel, who ends up stranded on a deserted island with her boss Bradley Preston (played by Dylan O'Brien) after a plane crash.Discussing working with Raimi, who she previously teamed up with on 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe film ‘Doctor Strange’ in the ‘Multiverse of Madness’, Rachel said, "He is so wonderful and such a kind and lovely man who makes dark demented films so I knew it would be a big reach”. Rachel McAdams didn’t expect hate for her ‘Mean Girls’ role | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS) Hollywood actress Margot Robbie is opening up on the special gesture for actor Jacob Elordi. The actress has shared that she gave "flowers on Valentine's Day" to Jacob.
The 35-year-old actress and her Wuthering Heights co-star formed a close bond on the set of the new big screen adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic, and they recently revealed how he filled her room with roses on February 14 last year, reports ‘Female First UK’.
She told Extra, "Jacob's getting a lot of credit. I actually got him presents, too. I would like that to be known. Yes, I gave him many things throughout shooting. I gave him flowers on Valentine's Day”.
Margot, who has been married to producer Tom Ackerley sine 2016, added, "I gave him a book of poetry. I have him a lamp once”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, she also had matching custom signet rings made for them both to commemorate the end of filming.
Each of the rings feature two skeletons in an intimate embrace, with a Bronte quote, "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”.
The hand-enamelled gold rings were created by UK designer Cece Fein-Hughes, who has opened up about the project on Instagram.
She wrote, "What an honour it was to create matching pieces for Margot Robbie Jacob Elordi, celebrating their time filming together as Catherine and Heathcliff in the new Wuthering Heights”.
She wanted each detail to reflect "a story of passion, devotion and wild romance". The rings are engraved with the initials of the characters, as well as '1847-2026', which reference the year Bronte's classic novel was first published, and the release of the new film.
Cece shared, "Gifted to Jacob by Margot, the piece features two entwined skeletons in the exact pose of the iconic film poster, a quiet reminder that love never truly dies. As time passes and everything else withers away, what remains is the enduring bond between two souls”.Margot revealed Jacob's sweet Valentine's Day gesture and admitted it "made her day". Margot Robbie reveals her sweet Valentine's Day gift for Jacob Elordi | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS): Hollywood star Timothee Chalamet has scored his third best actor nomination at the Oscars. His latest nom is for his turn as table tennis protege Marty Mauser in Josh Safdie’s sports dramedy ‘Marty Supreme’.
The actor has become the youngest male actor to earn three acting nominations at 30, reports ‘Variety’.
His previous bids were for ‘Call Me by Your Name’ (which made him the third-youngest nominee ever in the category at 22 years old) and ‘A Complete Unknown’.
As per ‘Variety’, in this year’s best actor race, Timothee Chalamet is nominated alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan and Wagner Moura. ‘Marty Supreme’ also picked up nominations for best picture and best original screenplay, among other categories.
In addition to his best actor nomination, Timothee Chalamet is also nominated for best picture as a producer alongside Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie and Anthony Katagas. At 30 years and 26 days old, he became the youngest person ever to be double-nominated for producing and acting in the same year, surpassing Warren Beatty, who held the record for 58 years. Beatty was 30 years, 10 months and 20 days old when he received his nominations for “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967).
Notably, he was also nominated for directing and screenplay. Timothee Chalamet won the Golden Globe for best actor (comedy or musical) on January 11 for his performance in ‘Marty Supreme’, making history as the youngest winner ever in that category. Last year, he won the best actor prize at The Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards) for his turn as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s ‘A Complete Unknown’. At 29, he is the youngest ever to be awarded that SAG prize.If Timothee Chalamet were to win the Oscar, he would be the second youngest winner in best actor history behind Adrien Brody, who was 29 when he won for ‘The Pianist’. He would be the sixth youngest male acting winner in any category behind Brody, Timothy Hutton, George Chakiris and Heath Ledger. Timothee Chalamet makes Oscars history as youngest man with 3 acting nominations | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS): Hollywood actress Kaley Cuoco has shared that she was "really scared" to leave her daughter for work.
‘The Big Bang Theory’ star, who has two-year-old daughter Matilda with her fiance Tom Pelphrey, was away from home for two months last year as she filmed new mystery thriller series ‘Vanished’, and she has praised her partner for making it easier, reports ‘Female First UK’.
She told Extra, "I have to say I was really scared. Like, I had a 2-year-old and I was like, ‘Should I be, like, leaving for two months?’. I just didn’t know if that was the right decision. My fiance was just like, ‘You've got to go. I think this is going to be amazing for you’. So, he really encouraged me to go, and he took care of everything and we kind of swapped places for a minute and I couldn't have done it without him”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, Kaley added that she has "much gratitude" for the way he "relieved her of the worry", while she also wanted to encourage her daughter to "follow your dreams".
She said, "I also want to show my child, like, that I love to work and you got to, you know, go do your thing and follow your dreams and still come home and have your home base. "But I think it's important to show her that. So also, she didn't give a s*** that I was gone, let me to tell you”.
Kaley was also supported by her "amazing friends" and the way they handle their own parenthood journey.She added, "I have some amazing friends who have kids who I’ve become friends with and we have an amazing mom group and they're all lovely and I've learned so much from my friends and their kids. "I will not ever judge another parent for what they do with their kid. Only you know your kid. Only I know my kid”. Kaley Cuoco opens up on her fears of leaving daughter alone to shoot a film | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
File Photo: Cannes: U.S. actress Jennifer Lawrence poses during a photocall for the film "Die, My Love" at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 18, 2025. (Photo: Xinhua via IANS)
Los Angeles, Actress Jennifer Lawrence, who has a son, Cy, and a second baby born last year with husband Cooke Maroney, said she is only busy during the hectic press tours for her movies, and for the rest of her time, she enjoys a quiet life.
Speaking on the Smartless podcast, Lawrence said: "That's me. I identify as a stay-at-home mom. But I am obviously working.
"I'm not used to being busy like this. I normally have a busy like three months while I'm filming, but even in that sense, it's calm because there is nothing else to do. I just go to work, I do that, I come home, I sleep, and then I do it again. And then, like, two weeks while you promote – it is hectic.”
However, the actress said that she won’t do interviews after 9 PM because she is ready for bed, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She said: "Oh. I'm in bed. Kindle is lit until like 9:15. And then I don't even have, like, Kindle light on normally by 9:15.”
And over the Christmas period, Jennifer turned down an invitation to a party because it started at late and she had no desire to be hungover around her children.
She said: "You can't be hungover with a nine-month-old. Even a three-year-old is just not an option.”
The 35-year-old actress revealed she and Cooke have found the secret to keeping their marriage “alive”.
Lawrence told how she and Cooke are total “opposites”, but she has learned to adapt since having children.
She said: “I married somebody who is the opposite of me. He is so organised. He's an anchor.
“Everything is ordered. I have to keep the closet doors closed, and I have the little jobs that I work really hard to do… I get it now, I get it. [The kids are] on a very strict schedule. You know, it's like breakfast: 7:30.
“He's good at keeping it. But we've learned to keep our marriage alive, I have a 15-minute wiggle room.”
Los Angeles, (IANS) Actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas is set to present an award at the upcoming edition of the Golden Globe Awards.
The awards have announced its lineup of presenters for this weekend’s awards ceremony, reports ‘Variety’.
The list also includes George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Charli xcx, Snoop Dogg and “Heated Rivalry” stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. Also presenting are Amanda Seyfried, Ana de Armas, Ayo Edebiri, Chris Pine, Colman Domingo, Dakota Fanning, Dave Franco, Diane Lane, George Clooney, Hailee Steinfeld, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Joe Keery, Judd Apatow, Julia Roberts, Justin Hartley, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Hart, Kyra Sedgwick, Lalisa Manobal, Luke Grimes, Macaulay Culkin, Marlon Wayans, Melissa McCarthy, Mila Kunis, Miley Cyrus, Minnie Driver, Orlando Bloom, Pamela Anderson, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Sean Hayes, Snoop Dogg, Wanda Sykes, Will Arnett and Zoe Kravitz.
As per ‘Variety’, the presenters will take the stage throughout the show alongside returning host Nikki Glaser. Glaser said she aims to do plenty of roasting of execs like Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and billionaires in general. “They shouldn’t get their panties in a bunch over these jokes”, she said. “They’re on top. I never worry about offending them”.
The 83rd annual Golden Globes, produced by Dick Clark Productions, will air live on Sunday at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. Variety‘s awards editor Clayton Davis predicts big wins for Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’, ‘Hamnet’ and Timothee Chalamet for ‘Marty Supreme’.The Golden Globe Awards are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), a group of international journalists based in Los Angeles. The awards cover both domestic and international productions. Awards are divided across film and television categories, with separate recognition for drama and musical or comedy genres. Priyanka Chopra Jonas to present awards at Golden Globes 2026, with George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Mila Kunis | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS): Hollywood star Nicole Kidman is putting the year 2025, in which she split with her country singer Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage , and said that she is "looking forward" to 2026.
She feels optimistic heading into the new year as a single woman. Kidman took to her Instagram Stories and shared a photo of herself cosying up to their daughters, Sunday, 17, and Faith, 15, as they looked out to the water in Sydney, Australia, as a firework burst in front of them.
The Babygirl star penned across the shot: "Looking forward into 2026 xx (sic)."
Kidman was "excited" to spend the holidays Down Under with her children, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
In December 2025, a source told People: "Nicole and the girls are in Australia for Christmas. This is all she wanted after a tumultuous fall. She just wanted to celebrate Christmas at home. She's very excited."
On September 29, 2025, it was confirmed that Kidman and Urban, who, according to E! News, have been living separately "since the beginning of summer", had separated after 19 years of marriage. The following day, it was reported that she had filed for a divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences".
Last November, she admitted to Wicked: For Good actress Ariana Grande, 32, in a chat for Interview magazine that she was "hanging in there" amid her split from the Somebody Like You hitmaker.
Also, that month, a source claimed that Sunday and Faith split their time amicably.
The insider said: "Their daughters live with Nicole, but spend as much time with Keith as they want. There is no drama."
A separate source claimed the following month that the Big Little Lies actress and the You'll Think of Me singer "continue to co-parent" and their focus is on creating a "stable and supportive environment" for their daughters.
It comes after it was reported in October 2025 that their parenting plan - which Nicole signed on September 6 and Urban on August 29 last year - states that the actress is the "primary residential parent, spending 306 days with the girls" while Keith "will have them for 59 days annually".It also outlined that the former couple would "encourage each child to continue to love the other parent and be comfortable in both families". Nicole Kidman says she’s ‘looking forward’ to 2026 | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS): Hollywood actress Amanda Seyfried, who stars alongside Sydney in mystery-thriller film The Housemaid, says that she actually has a lot in common with her co-star and that the “similarity” between them is “uncanny”.
"There's a similarity between us that is uncanny, and it's really fun to work with people (who) are doing life in a similar way, have similar ideals about the job and life," Seyfried said to the BBC.
Seyfried plays a housewife who struggles with mental health issues in the movie, and she said that it was a challenging role to take on, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Discussing her approach to the role, Seyfried shared: "You have to play it as realistic as possible because it needs to reflect real life."
Earlier this month, Seyfried heaped praise on Sweeney, describing her co-star as a "sweetheart".
She praised Sweeney for how she's coped with the pressures of fame and success.
The Hollywood star told Vanity Fair: "I don’t envy anything she’s going through. I’ve spent a lot of time with her; we just hit it off immediately. She’s a sweetheart. She’s a very generous, kind person at her core. I have to be honest: I did not have a moment like she’s having ever.
"(My Mean Girls co-star) Lindsay Lohan, we’re buddies, and it’s really, really, really harmful to people to have that kind of overnight spotlight. Because any press, good or bad, is still a blinding spotlight, and you have to maneuver and negotiate your way around it and outside of it. It’s acrobatics that I don’t think most people are capable of figuring it out at that age."
The actress thinks a sudden rise to stardom can actually be "dangerous". However, the actress praised Sydney for how she's coped with the extra attention.
She said: "It’s just dangerous, because when you have people … on you—or idolising you and following you around—it can’t be good for your psyche. It can’t make you feel safe in the world.“But I actually admire the way Syd shows up for work. She always has a smile on her face, even if she’s miserable. I hope it doesn’t change. I hope she doesn’t harden. I just want to keep watching her work. I have really great women in my life, great actors that I’ve gotten to work with and who have championed me.” Amanda Seyfried says there's ‘uncanny similarity’ between her, Sydney Sweeney | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS): Singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus is pretty confident in her hustling skills. The singer, 33, ended up writing credits song ‘Dream As One’ for the new ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ by mentioning to director James Cameron that she was game.
Cyrus recalled meeting the Avatar filmmaker at the 2024 D23 Expo, where she and Cameron were honored as Disney Legends, reports ‘People’ magazine.
She told ‘People’, “I kind of throw it out there as I always do. I already knew the answer to, ‘So what have you been up to?’ I know he's been up to Avatar for a very long time”.
She also has a special message for him, as she said, “Just lemme know if you ever need any music”.
As per ‘People’, she recalled came at just the right time in the development of the third of five planned Avatar films. She said, “It just kind of organically happened. James actually calls us ‘Legends in law’”.
It turns out Cyrus’ other songwriting coup, writing the Golden Globe-nominated “Beautiful That Way” for Gia Coppola’s Pamela Anderson-starring The Last Showgirl last year, came about with a similar technique.
She further mentioned, “I did the same thing to (Last Showgirl star) Jamie Lee Curtis. That's how I ended up doing ‘Last Showgirl’ and now being a part of ‘Avatar’”.
Is offering original music to filmmakers her tried and true method of getting involved in films? “No, literally”, she said, “that's why I went to the Oscars this year. Everybody that came up and introduced themselves, I said, ‘Well, if you need any music, I'm around’”.That went for the creators of Netflix’s Emmy-winning Baby Reindeer, as she said, “I don't know what I would write for Baby Reindeer season two, but I threw that out there”. Miley Cyrus went to the 2025 Oscars to pitch her songwriting skills to filmmakers | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS) Actress Kate Winslet has shared the story behind taking up direction. The actress has said that she never planned to become a director. However, she changed her mind after reading her son's first script.
The acclaimed actress never had any ambitions to direct, but Kate had a change of heart when she read Goodbye June, her son Joe Anders' first script, reports ‘Female First UK’.
Kate, 50, who had Joe with Sir Sam Mendes, her ex-husband, told Sky News, "I'm incredibly impressed by him and really proud of him, not least because he wrote this screenplay and started writing it when he was 19. But he had to adapt and learn very, very quickly that when you're developing something, you take notes, you take feedback”.
She further mentioned, “Netflix became involved at some stage that they were also giving notes to, and then I was sort of playing the role of kind of protecting the project and also protecting him at the same time from things that, you know, may necessarily not have been useful, things that actually were great ideas”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, the new film stars the likes of Dame Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn.
And Kate found that her acting experience really helped her in her role behind the camera. She said, "We know what works for us as actors from a director. We know what does not work, and we also know what's actively destructive and sometimes that can mean the environment, the working environment. Film sets are very busy places. It can often be frantic, sometimes it's hard to kind of follow what's going on or what you're doing next, and it mattered to me enormously that everybody always felt extremely safe, completely informed, and very free”.
Meanwhile, Kate previously revealed that she finds the continued fascination with Titanic to be "curious". The actress starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 romantic-disaster film, and Kate finds it odd that her comments about Titanic remain the "take-home" from some of her interviews.
Asked if she gets annoyed by questions about the record-breaking movie, Kate told 60 Minutes, "No. I tell you what I do sometimes find just curious, I suppose, is whatever I say about Titanic will often be the take-home”.Kate finds that her comments about Titanic continue to overshadow what she has to say about her newer projects. Kate Winslet reveals what convinced her to direct | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Mumbai, (IANS): Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson has expressed heartfelt gratitude to actor Brendan Fraser, recalling how the Hollywood star played a pivotal role in the launch of his career in 2001 with “The Mummy Returns.”
Sharing a post on Instagram, Johnson wrote about Fraser’s unwavering support.
“This man helped launch my acting career. Believed in me, and took a risk. I’ll love and respect him for life and I’ll always be in his corner rooting him on,” Johnson wrote.
The Mummy Returns marked Johnson’s transition from wrestling to mainstream acting. Directed by Stephen Sommers. It is the sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy, and the second in The Mummy film series.
It also stars Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, and Patricia Velásquez reprise their roles from the previous film.
The film follows a cult resurrecting the mummified body of Imhotep, an evil Egyptian high priest, to use his power to trounce the Scorpion King and his supernatural army, an Egyptologist caught in the crossfire.
The film was followed by a 2002 prequel film, The Scorpion King and a 2008 sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
After The Mummy Returns, he played his first leading role in the action fantasy film The Scorpion King. He has since starred in family films The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain, Tooth Fairy, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level, and Jungle Cruise, and the action films Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Hercules, Skyscraper, San Andreas and Rampage.
Los Angeles, May 10 (IANS) After declining to step down Hollywood actress Mikey Madison has signed her first movie after winning an Oscar for ‘Anora’. The 26-year-old actress will co-star with Kirsten Dunst in upcoming thriller ‘Reptilia’.
The film will be directed by Alejandro Landes Echavarria, reports ‘Female First UK’.
As per, ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, the movie tells the story of a dental hygienist seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade.
Pastel, Imperative Entertainment and AF Films will produce, alongside Landes Echavarrea’s via his A STELA CINE banner.
As per ‘Female First UK’, principal photography will commence later this year. In addition to her Best Actress Oscar for ‘Anora’, Madison also won a BAFTA for best leading actress and the Independent Spirit Award for best lead performance.
She also earned nominations for a Golden Globe, SAG Award and Critics Choice Award. Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Mikey was offered a role in the new and untitled ‘Star Wars’ movie directed by ‘Deadpool Wolverine’ filmmaker Shawn Levy, but she declined.
The movie is said to be a standalone project that isn’t connected with the Skywalker Saga, which concluded with 2019’s ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. It will star Ryan Gosling and Levy has reportedly been developing the project since late 2022.
The actress has exited her first project after picking up the best actress Oscar. She was offered a role in the new and untitled ‘Star Wars’ movie directed by ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ director Shawn Levy, but conversations have since ended with the ‘Anora’ star passing on the part, reports ‘Variety’.
The movie is said to be a standalone project that isn’t connected with the Skywalker Saga, which concluded with 2019’s ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’.All other plot details are encased in carbonite for the foreseeable future. The untitled film would follow ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’, the only ‘Star Wars’ film to date to get a greenlight in more than five years; that film, which recently completed principal photography, is slated to debut on May 22, 2026. As for Madison, the 26-year-old actress is known for her roles in the FX series ‘Better Things’, as well as the films ‘Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood’ and ‘Scream 5’. Mikey Madison signs up for first movie after winning Oscar | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS) Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio says he has approached his career like a “marathon, not a sprint”.
Speaking to deadline.com, the 51-year-old actor, who has enjoyed success in movies such as Catch Me If You Can, The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street said: "The thing that I could say more than anything is that if you love this profession, if you love being an actor, you have to realise that it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.“
“And that’s not to say, 'Oh, these are all pivotal choices. Don’t try something commercial. Don’t do this too early.' It’s about the idea of looking at your career 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, and putting those building blocks together to last. And maybe overexposure could be damaging,” he added.
The star went on to share: "I think, if anything, I had somewhat of an instinct early on about overexposure. Granted, it was a different time. It was a time where I watched actors that kind of disappeared their personal life, and you didn’t know much about them. It’s much different now with social media. But I didn’t get to know much about them except what I saw on screen."
DiCaprio said that he was "very lucky, very early on" in his career. However, the actor appeared in "a lot of independent movies" before making his big breakthrough, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
He said: "I got to see them build a body of great work over time, I wasn’t inundated with a massive explosion of too many films by them in one or two years. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t take the work when it’s given to you, but it’s the idea of doling it out, or maybe just taking those films that have great supporting characters that are interesting and making your mark in the industry.”“I was very fortunate and very lucky, very early on. And like I said with Titanic, that was the real changing point, when I got to choose my own films. But until then, I did a lot of independent movies. I just went for the character that I thought was most interesting, and something that I could sink my teeth into.” Leonardo DiCaprio on being an actor: It’s a marathon, not a sprint | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
US actor Tom Cruise received an honorary Oscar on Sunday evening, the first golden statue of his decades-long career, to a standing ovation from Hollywood's elite, AFP reported.
To the sound of the "Mission Impossible" theme tune, a hallmark of the 63-year-old actor's career, Cruise took to the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to applause from peers including Colin Farrell and Emilio Estevez, with whom he has shared the screen, and the renowned Steven Spielberg, who directed him in "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds."
Cruise, a four-time Oscar nominee, has never won the award and spoke of his love for cinema in a heartfelt speech.
He praised the big screen as a place that sparks "a hunger for adventure, a hunger for knowledge, a hunger to understand humanity, to create characters, to tell a story, to see the world."
The honorary Oscars, awarded annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, celebrate cinema legends for their careers and contributions to the film industry.
Cruise's award was presented by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who directed him in the upcoming film "Judy."
"Writing a four-minute speech to celebrate Tom Cruise's 45-year career is what is known, in this town, as a mission impossible," Inarritu joked.
"Tonight, we celebrate. We celebrate not just a filmography, we celebrate a lifetime of work," Inarritu said, adding that working with Cruise, he saw the actor perform his most dangerous stunt yet: "This man ate more chili than any Mexican."The Academy also presented honorary Oscars that evening to actor Debbie Allen who starred in "Fame," production designer Wynn Thomas, and country singer Dolly Parton, honored for her humanitarian work. Source: https://www.panorama.am/
Los Angeles, (IANS) The sky is set to fall as the English singer-songwriter Adele is making her acting debut. The Grammy-winning artiste will be seen showing her acting chops in Tom Ford‘s new film ‘Cry to Heaven’.
The fashion mogul and filmmaker will direct, produce and write the adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1982 novel, reports ‘Variety’.
The film is set in 18th century Italy, the fictional story follows two men, a Venetian noble and a castrated Opera singer, whose lives become unexpectedly intertwined.
As per ‘Variety’, Adele will star in the film alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Owen Cooper, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Hunter Schafer, Josephine Thiesen, Thandiwe Newton, Theodore Pellerin, Daryl McCormack, Cassian Bilton, Hauk Hannenmann and Lux Pascal.
‘Cry to Heaven’ is currently in pre-production in London and Rome, with principal photography set to commence in January. The movie is expected to release in the fall of 2026. Ford is self-financing the film and plans to find a buyer after production is complete, according to Deadline, which broke the news of the project.
Ford, who launched his eponymous fashion brand after serving as creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, made his directorial debut with 2009’s Oscar-nominated ‘A Single Man’. His second film was 2016’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’, which won the grand jury prize at Venice and earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for Michael Shannon.‘Cry to Heaven’ reunites Ford with Taylor-Johnson, who appeared in the sprawling ensemble of ‘Nocturnal Animals,’, as well as Firth, who starred in ‘A Single Man’, Adele, whose biggest hits include ‘Hello’, ‘Chasing Pavements’, ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and the Oscar-winning ‘Skyfall’, announced that she planned to temporarily step back from music following the conclusion of her Las Vegas residency. Adele ventures into acting with Tom Ford’s ‘Cry to Heaven’ | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
Los Angeles, (IANS) Hollywood actress Eva Longoria is getting liberal with her failures. The actress shared that she loves her "failures".
The former Desperate Housewives star has recalled the "struggle" of her early days, where she struggled to make ends meet before making it big as an actress and insisted she doesn't regret going through hardship because it has made her more grateful for the life she has now, reports ‘Female First UK’.
She told The Sun newspaper, “I loved my struggle, I loved when I moved to Hollywood and had six dollars in my bank account. I love my failures, that’s where you grow and learn. I was in the rat race and I was in auditions, and I was in corporate America and I was in many jobs at one time, and I struggled to pay my rent and I had a student loan and I went through that, and I would never change my experience of hardship or touching every rung of the ladder. I like that because it makes me appreciate this position I am in more now”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, the 50-year-old actress, who was previously married to Tyler Christopher and Tony Parker and has seven-year-old son Santiago with husband Jose wouldn't change anything about her past.
She said, “I wouldn’t give my younger self advice. I wouldn’t say, ‘Don’t marry that guy’ or, ‘Watch that left turn’. I don’t want to correct my mistakes. I love the path I was on, holes and all. Eva grew up on a ranch in Texas and while her father was keen for them all to live off their land, her mother used to sneak a regular treat for her four daughters.She recalled, “I loved my childhood, I grew up on a ranch, with chickens, pigs and cows. My dad made us eat off the land, we could only eat what we grew. My mum would get paid once a month, she was a teacher, and on her pay day she would get Domino’s pizza and we would eat it and hide the pizza box in the neighbour’s trash so my dad wouldn’t know we ate out. That’s how I grew up. My dad was like, ‘The land will give us what we need’”. Eva Longoria says she 'loves' her failures | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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