Links: Eternals, First Ladies, and new Broadway Shows

• EW first photos from the miniseries The First Lady with Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford, Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt
• Awards Daily Kristen Stewart getting the Spotlight Best Actress treatment at Palm Springs this year
• Deadline Leonardo DiCaprio in final talks to play cult leader and mass murderer Jim Jones in a movie about the 1970s cult leader
• Variety Squid Game is getting a second season. Nobody will let any stories be!

Steve McQueen, Sutton Foster, Eternals and Spencer stuff, guns on set, and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Actors Turned Producers @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

We've already posted about many records broken with this year's Oscar nominations, but one particular achievement remained unmentioned. With her double nominations for Nomadland – for Best Picture and Best Actress – Frances McDormand became the first woman to earn an acting and a Best Picture nomination for the same project. This comes after a decade when this feat became incredibly common for male performers. Historically, ever since the 1950s, when AMPAs started to list producers with Best Picture nods, instead of merely the studios' name, actors have been producing their movies and earning added honors for those efforts. Still, it was only in the late 60s that someone scored the elusive double citation by the Academy…

Click to read more ...

Almost There: Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed"

by Cláudio Alves

Many actors have long-lasting creative partnerships with their directors, bringing out the best in both artists. Unfortunately, when it comes to Oscar, not everyone gets recognized for these joint efforts. Many thespians don't get that golden recognition for their best work either, adding a tinge of bitterness to their triumph. Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese's 21st-century muse, did get nominated for two of the director's pictures, 2004's The Aviator and 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street. However, I'd argue that the actor's best performance in a Scorsese flick got snubbed. In 2006, despite a lot of precursor attention, The Departed failed to secure an Oscar nod for its ill-fated protagonist…

Click to read more ...

Linkpack

• TFE reminder -- LAST DAY TO VOTE ON THE 1987 SMACKDOWN!
• Vanity Fair Dolly Parton might save us all again. She donated to a promising COVID vaccine
• People 80s star Andrew McCarthy is releasing a memoir called Brat. We are so reading this. That 80s run surely has so many stories: Class with Jacqueline Bisset, St Elmo's Fire with uh.... everyone, Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Mannequin. 
• Vulture Stacey Abrams has a theory on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's perfect boyfriend (no, really!)
• Hollywood Life Leo DiCaprio and Emile Hirsch (hadn't heard their names in a bit) hang out at the beach
• Out will reveal their annual Out100 List on Thursday but among the early honorees are Janelle Monae, Joe Mantello, Theo Germaine (The Politician), and the gay couple behind the divisive Antebelllum movie
• Variety the longlists for  a few categories in this year's British Independent Film Awards (nominations will come in December)
• Deadline Quentin Tarantino has a book deal the first part of which is Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood related
• Vox on the National Book Award finalists

The New Classics: The Wolf of Wall Street

By Michael Cusumano  

Scene: Quaaludes
It’s difficult not to lapse into hagiography when talking about Scorsese so I will simply say this and attempt to reign in the fawning as best I can: As much as anyone in the medium’s history he understands that the power of film isn’t in the text. It’s not in constructing an argument like an essay or a speech. It's in the images. 

Like all of Scorsese’s period pieces, The Wolf of Wall Street covers mountains of information in its headlong dash through the years, but what makes these films great are the moments when they distill all that material into a memorable frame. The technical gambling know-how makes you buy into the world of Casino, but it’s an overhead shot of a reckless Sharon Stone making it rain chips at the craps table that leaves a mark on the audience...

Click to read more ...