More from Julian Sancton
Rambling Roundup: Ridley Scott’s Very Expensive Roman Holiday
Ridley Scott’s Very Expensive Roman Holiday With accidents on the set, complaints about animal abuse and now reports that the production went wildly over budget, sources tell Rambling Reporter that Ridley Scott’s long-anticipated Gladiator sequel is leaving Paramount execs feeling a bit like Joaquin Phoenix’s Emperor Commodus — “terribly vexed.” Initially budgeted at $165 million, sources […]
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Hollywood Flashback: Costa-Gavras’ ‘Z’ Ventured Into New Oscar Territory
“Any resemblance to real events and dead or living people is not a coincidence. It is INTENTIONAL.” So reads a title card at the beginning of Costa-Gavras’ Z, set in an unnamed Mediterranean country that could stand in for any number of police states torn between Russian and American influence at the height of the […]
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Jeremy Renner on His New Superpower (After “Dying and Coming Back” to Life)
Just over a year after suffering a horrific snowplow accident on New Year’s Day that shattered 38 bones and left his life in limbo, Jeremy Renner will show off his miraculous recovery to an estimated audience of 113 million. This Sunday, viewers will see his first Super Bowl ad, for Silk Protein, a product the […]
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Oscar Nominee Cord Jefferson on His Two Nods for ‘American Fiction’: “I Might Have Had a Heart Attack if I Was Watching It Live”
American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson wanted to make absolutely sure he’d be asleep when the Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning. “I think that I might have had a heart attack if I was watching it live — it would have been too intense an experience for me,” he says when reached by phone following the […]
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In Sports Media, Athletes Now Run the Show — and Bring Upheaval
By 2018, Will Compton, a 28-year-old backup linebacker on a one-year contract with the Tennessee Titans, knew his playing days were numbered. Contemplating a career after football, he considered going into real estate or coaching but couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for either. Driving home after a game one evening, he called Taylor Lewan, an offensive […]
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Louise Linton Welcomes Baby Girl With Husband Steve Mnuchin — and a New Rom-Com
With the birth of her daughter on Tuesday, Louise Linton has premiered the first part of what she calls her “double feature.” “I’m just really delighted,” says the Scottish actress (Cabin Fever), who is married to producer and former Trump administration treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. The news comes just over a month before the Dec. 12 release […]
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SBF Ties to Hollywood Super-Connector and Taylor Swift’s Openness to FTX Money Revealed in New Book
Sam Bankman-Fried had a plan to save humanity, and he would need celebrities to pull it off. In Going Infinite, Michael Lewis’ newly released account of Bankman-Fried’s vertiginous rise and fall, The Big Short and Moneyball author explains how the disgraced crypto tycoon — now in jail awaiting trial on fraud charges — claims to have been motivated by […]
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How the Hammer Museum’s Diverse ‘Made in L.A.’ Biennial Expands the Artistic Canon
On a plaque at the Watts Towers Art Center, adjacent to the iconic spires built by Simon Rodia, is a quote by the institution’s late co-founder, the renowned artist Noah Purifoy: “Creativity can be an act of living, a way of life, and a formula for doing the right thing.” The phrase, as well as […]
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Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ Is a Hit, But Peyton Manning Has Had Trouble Finding Stars for a Second Season
When creators of the Netflix docuseries Quarterback selected three NFL playmakers to shadow for the 2022-23 season, they couldn’t possibly be certain that one, Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, would go on to win the Super Bowl; another, the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins, would have the season of his life; and the third, the Atlanta […]
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The Nonprofit That Keeps Stars’ Charities From Flaming Out
In the world of celebrity giving, the road to scandal is often paved with the best intentions. Consider the case of Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, which built homes for Hurricane Katrina survivors, only to face a class-action lawsuit over major structural defects. Or Sean Penn’s CORE, a disaster-relief nonprofit that has been lauded […]
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Men in Blazers, Hollywood’s Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Roger Bennett, the indefatigable co-founder of the soccer podcasting franchise Men in Blazers, has never played a second of competitive soccer. Since 2011, when he launched a lo-fi weekly(-ish) gab session with fellow bald British-expat soccer obsessive Michael Davies, a successful television executive and producer, Bennett has focused on the human stories behind the game […]
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If Hollywood’s a High School, Who’s in the Drama Club? The Chess Club? The Hellfire Club?
Drama Club The Don’t Worry Darling gang Much like the film itself, a psychological thriller set in a Mad Men-era utopia, the PR campaign for Don’t Worry Darling saw a web of cracks undermine a picture-perfect facade. The internet obsession of late summer consisted of a series of mysteries: Was original co-star Shia LaBeouf fired […]
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