Sorry, Oscar-hungry auteurs – the Netflix ‘passion project’ party is over
This was all partly in service of harpooning one particularly tantalising white whale: the first Best Picture Oscar for a film released by a streaming service. And…
The problem with prizes: are arts awards broken?
Are prizes in crisis? Forget the distraction of that Oscars slap; something bigger is amiss. In recent years, the same complaints have been growing louder: that prizes…
Cinema Paradiso, the Maestro and me: who was the ‘real’ Ennio Morricone?
Even if you don’t know Ennio Morricone’s name, you’ll know his music, which has scored nearly 500 films. From the heavenly choral uplift of Roland Joffé’s The…
Will Smith’s resignation is a gift to the Academy – but it could be just the beginning of his troubles
“We’re not going to take that Oscar from him,” she said on her chat show The View. “There will be consequences I’m sure, but I don’t think…
The dark, violent film that has come back to haunt Will Smith
Plenty of commentators this week have remarked on all the efforts Smith has made, over the 30 years since, to present an aspirational, clean, unthreatening image, and…
The cult of Jared Leto, Hollywood’s oddest, most irritating star
The cult-like component of 30 Seconds To Mars fandom has actually been acknowledged by the group. Since 2015, Leto has staged 30 Seconds To Mars “Summer Camps”…
Banned from the Academy: what happened to the first actor to suffer Will Smith’s possible fate?
Unfortunately for Caridi, his tendency for screener-sharing resulted in him crossing paths with a piracy legend. For at least three years in the early Noughties, Caridi gave…
The cult of Jared Leto: is he Hollywood’s oddest, most irritating star?
The cult-like component of 30 Seconds To Mars fandom has actually been acknowledged by the group. Since 2015, Leto has staged 30 Seconds To Mars “Summer Camps”…
Can the Oscars ever recover from the Will Smith scandal?
On the bright side, at least everyone is talking about the Oscars again. Since 2014, the audience for Hollywood’s annual awards show have been steadily dwindling, and…
Chris Rock mocking Will Smith’s wife was cruel – but let’s not ban jokes about the way people look
There are times, though, when jokes about a public figure’s appearance are valid, and even useful. For 10 years I was The Telegraph’s parliamentary sketchwriter. And a…
Like Jada Pinkett Smith, I know the pain of alopecia
Perhaps I am overly sensitive to jokes about hair because, like Pinkett Smith, I suffer from alopecia. When I was 18, I found a bald patch the…
Richard Williams says he doesn’t ‘condone’ violence after Will Smith’s Oscars slap
The altercation left the star-studded audience in shock and Rock appeared flustered as he tried to resume presenting the ceremony. Less than an hour later, Smith was…
The Will Smith slap conspiracy theories are here – and they’re insane
“[It’s a] distraction… something big is about to drop,” argued one Telegram user in a popular QAnon channel. Another wrote that it was “staged… to boost ratings…
The Will Smith debacle proves Hollywood has forgotten how to take a joke
Two years later, he was asked to host the Oscars, and brought the same no-holds-barred sensibility to that gig. He used his pre-show interviews to skewer the…
Why Will Smith snapped
Will Smith has a therapist, and she has a name for his nice-guy persona: Uncle Fluffy. “He signed every autograph, shook every hand, kissed every baby. Fluffy…
Academy Awards launches ‘formal investigation’ into Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars
Will Smith has been condemned by the body that hands out the Oscars as it launched a formal review into the actor for slapping comedian Chris Rock…
How the midlifers won on the Oscars red carpet and five other things you may have missed
The first proper, in-person Oscars since the ‘p’-word proved that, when it comes to doing glamour, even the stars are struggling. All bets were off, all rules…
Will Smith’s Oscars slap: what really happened
Given their overlapping social circles, it seems unlikely that Rock would have been unaware of Pinkett Smith’s struggles with alopecia – she first spoke publicly about it…
When celebrity fights go public
Ricky Gervais’s hosting of the Golden Globes, in which he cheerily lambasted some of Hollywood’s most prominent figures, turned it into must-see, viral television. And it is…
The slap that divided the world: Why wouldn’t you jump to the defence of your wife?
In a way, Will Smith warned us that the 2022 Oscars wasn’t going to be just another awards ceremony. He even announced on Instagram that he and…
Oscars 2022, review: a snoozy, inessential ceremony – then a talking point for the ages
Until Will Smith threw the punch heard around the world, the 2022 Oscars was shaping up to be cliché-packed, thrill-deficient snooze. An awkward three-way opening monologue by…
Will Smith’s slap was the most shameful – and unforgivable – Oscar moment ever
What happened in the aftermath of the slap? Actors and publicists flocked to console Smith, not Rock. Rather than being escorted from the building, he took his…
This year’s Oscars were an embarrassment from first to last
Elsewhere, though, it paid to have put in the hours. Kenneth Branagh, a semi-regular nominee since 1990, won Best Original Screenplay for his Belfast script. The film…
The 28 biggest Oscars disasters
15. Goldie Hawn perks up slavery Did Goldie Hawn really have to announce the title of the grim, gruelling Best Picture with such peppy enthusiasm in 2014?…
Oscars 2022 winners: Will Smith wins Best Actor, while CODA scoops Best Picture
Best Production Design WINNER: Dune: Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos Nightmare Alley: Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau The Power of the…