Oscar

Piastri’s pole came despite a major oversteer moment on the entry to Turn Four, which he estimated had cost him about 0.2secs and he described as “pretty scary – turning left in a right-hand corner is never good, especially when you’re doing however many hundreds of kilometres an hour you’re doing there”.

Underlying Verstappen’s troubles, the Dutchman was beaten by his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying for the first time this season, the Japanese faster by 0.009secs.

Verstappen was complaining, with added swear words, through the session over the radio about the car bouncing.

Despite that, he was fastest in the first session, and within 0.1secs of the McLaren drivers in the second. But he damaged his floor with an off at Turn Four on his first flying lap in the final session, compromising his car’s performance.

It was the first time he had been out-qualified by a team-mate since the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Verstappen said: “Not good. From the first lap just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would switch into oversteer in high speed. Just not what you want. We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked.

“With this balance, in the sprint it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive and then make some changes going into qualifying.”

Although overshadowed by the title fight, arguably the star of sprint qualifying was Fernando Alonso, who put the Aston Martin fourth on the grid – an outstanding performance for a team that lies eighth in the constructors’ championship.

“One of the best results of the year,” he said. “Tough circuit, high-speed sections and the car seemed in the window already in first practice. A bit of stress in Q2 because of traffic but we made it into Q3 and then we put a lap together.

“Twenty-four years’ experience, 44 years old, it has some disadvantages. I get a bit more tired with the jet lag.

“But I know the tracks, the tyres, and know how to extract everything on Fridays, and then on Saturdays it’s true we open parc ferme and make some small changes to the cars and everyone seems to get on top of the circuit.”

Behind him, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was seventh, with the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sandwiching Leclerc.

Hamilton said almost nothing in his sole media interview after the session.

Asked how tricky the car was, he said: “Same as always.”

Michael B. Jordan, 38, has given awards-worthy performances since he was a teenager. He now appears poised for his first Oscar nomination for playing twin bootleggers in frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”

15

Age when Jordan delivered an indelible performance as the softhearted, conflicted teen drug dealer Wallace on HBO’s “The Wire.”

2

Despite being considered one of the finest television shows of all time, “The Wire” received only two Emmy nominations — both for writing — and won neither.

20+

“Breakthrough” awards and other mentions poured in for Jordan’s nuanced portrayal of Oscar Grant, a real-life Bay Area man killed by transit police, in Coogler’s 2013 debut feature “Fruitvale Station.”

1

Although none of the top awards bodies recognized his “Fruitvale Station” performance, Jordan received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best male lead.

2016

The prestigious National Society of Film Critics named Jordan best actor for his portrayal of boxer Adonis Creed in “Creed,” Coogler’s expansion of the “Rocky” franchise.

0

Despite the NSFC signaling his arrival as a bona fide movie star, Jordan was left off the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations lists.

2018

Jordan’s performance as complex antagonist Erik Killmonger in Coogler’s “Black Panther” drew widespread awards attention from critics groups, and the film’s cast won the SAG ensemble prize — Jordan’s highest acting honor to date.

4 (ish)

Although the data is shaky, it appears Jordan would be the fourth lead actor nominated for playing multiple characters in a movie if he gets the nod for “Sinners,” after Peter Sellers (“Dr. Strangelove”), Lee Marvin (“Cat Ballou”) and Nicolas Cage (“Adaptation”).

1

Only Marvin won, in 1966, for playing two gunmen — one far more broadly than the other.

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was “not here not to take risks” as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen.

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman’s attack on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner.

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also lost second place to Russell.

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race.

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out.

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10.

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres.

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34.

Norris asked his engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or attack.

He was told to “go and get Max” but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris’ attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined.

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver’s sixth win of the season – only one behind both McLaren drivers – was taken in emphatic style and and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him.

“It’s still a big gap, we always try and maximise everything we’ve got,” Verstappen said.

“In upcoming weekends we will try and win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I’m very proud of everyone.”

The conditions were treacherous, the session starting after heavy rain on a track wet enough for the extreme wet tyres, which nearly all drivers used throughout the first two sessions.

Norris was not especially fast on the extreme wet tyres, but once on to the intermediate tyres in the final session was consistently the fastest driver on track.

Verstappen, usually so strong in wet conditions, was not quite on the Briton’s level but his second place on the grid makes him a serious threat for the lead into the first corner of the race given his usually aggressive start to races.

Norris survived a wobble on his final lap when he hit the kerb through the Turns 14, 15, 16 chicane but was still fast enough for pole as others behind him were affected by a yellow flag caused by Piastri as he tried to negotiate Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar on his inside, which forced him to run wide.

“That was stressful, stressful as hell,” Norris said. “I didn’t know no-one else would get a lap after me. The first two sectors were good. As soon as you hit the kerb a little bit wrong it’s tricky, it snapped one way and then the other but good enough for pole.

“No-one’s driven here in the wet before. After Q1, every corner you felt like you could crash every corner. One lap at a time. It was a tricky one.”

Piastri told Sky Sports: “There was more out there that we didn’t get to use. We’ve got a good car underneath us that seems to be working well in all conditions so we can have a strong race tomorrow and hopefully make up some spots.”

Do you like your “Wicked” sweet or sour?

How you answer may be the key in how much you enjoy the sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” which opens today and is on track to sell more tickets in its first weekend than its predecessor.

Will the new movie once again cast a spell at the Oscars? The answer, for the moment, is confusifying.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and someone hoping to see a movie at the Village before the Olympics land in L.A. in 2028. Which film should they book to kick off its revival?

‘Wicked’ can’t defy gravity this time

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform at the 97th Academy Awards in March.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Who wasn’t charmed by the first “Wicked” movie last year? Film critics gave it more than a pass, with reviews scoring a respectable 73 grade on aggregator site Metacritic. Audiences loved it, powering the film to a $758 million worldwide box office haul. And Oscar voters fell in line, rewarding “Wicked” with 10 nominations and wins for production design and costumes. Gratitution abounded.

Repeating success is a taller order, our beloved Dodgers notwithstanding. As noted, multiplexes should be full this first weekend and, you’d expect, the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend as well. But the reviews haven’t been as kind this time around. “Wicked: For Good” sits at a 60 on Metacritic. Empire magazine’s review sums up the sentiment: “‘Wicked: For Good,’ sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.”

Sequels rarely land as well as the original film, so the drop-off isn’t surprising. And, if you’ve seen the Broadway musical, you already knew this was coming. All the best songs are packed into the show’s first act, culminating in the soaring, sustaining final notes of “Defying Gravity.” But you can only beat that gravitational force for so long before you fall flat on the ground.

That splat you hear is “Wicked: For Good.”

Not everyone feels that way. The Vulture review sports the grabby headline: “‘Wicked: For Good’ is actually better than the first.” Times film critic Amy Nicholson agrees in her write-up titled: “The first one was a candy-colored slog, but ‘Wicked: For Good’ is pleasantly sour.”

Which brings me back to the question I first asked you: What are you looking for in a “Wicked” movie? I enjoyed all the spirited dancing and singing and, yes, the bright, candy colors of the first movie. You want a slog? The sequel takes almost an hour to bring together the two characters you truly care about — Elphaba and Glinda.

To get to that moment, you have endure a lot of filler, as if the musical doesn’t have enough material to sustain two movies totaling nearly five hours. (It doesn’t.)

The so-so critical reaction shouldn’t keep “Wicked: For Good” from picking up a best picture nomination, provided the movie’s fans keep showing up at theaters through the end of the year. With so many high-profile festival films — “The Smashing Machine,” “After the Hunt,” “Die My Love” among them — failing to connect with audiences and critics, there’s room at the inn. Academy voters will likely keep the light on.

Equaling the first film’s 10 nominations will be difficult. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the Oscars ceremony last year in spectacular fashion, but a reunion might not be in the cards. The pair were arguably co-leads in the first movie. “For Good” belongs more to Glinda than Elphaba, charting the Good Witch’s journey from complacency and compliance to … less complacency and compliance. Maybe Glinda’s going to learn from all this and take principled stands moving forward, though the movie doesn’t do enough to convince me. Grande’s dimple has more depth.

Still, Grande figures to score another supporting actress nomination and, who knows, she may well win. Voters love big theater-kid energy in this category, giving Oscars to Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) in recent years.

Erivo, placed in the more competitive lead class, might not be as fortunate, as she no longer centers the movie. She still masterfully conveys Elphaba’s vulnerability and sadness, but she’s also saddled with a chemistry-free love story with Capt. Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). I won’t count her out. But Erivo could well lead the “snubs” and surprises list come nominations morning.

Repeat nominations in production design and costume design, the two Oscars the first movie won, seem safe bets. Hair and makeup does too, as does sound since voters love movies heavy on music. “Wicked: For Good” might pick up another nomination in the newly created casting category, as it won’t be a spot where voters feel like they’re repeating themselves. And while the first movie didn’t have any new songs, “For Good” sports two. Look for “The Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Grande, to pop.

Eight nominations? That’d be a win. The loss would be if “Wicked: For Good” followed the path of the two “Black Panther” movies. The first, a critical, commercial and cultural sensation, earned seven nominations, including best picture, and won three Oscars. The less-regarded sequel picked up five nods, winning one. It was not nominated for best picture.

Sometimes being popular isn’t enough.

Read more coverage of ‘Wicked’

If you agree with filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu that Tom Cruise “doesn’t just make movies — he is movies,” then the Oscar that Cruise received at the motion picture academy’s annual Governors Awards wasn’t just long overdue. It was a restoration of balance, a necessary correction, not to mention a nod to the sheer weight of Cruise’s body of work in the collective imagination.

When multi-hyphenate Debbie Allen, herself an honoree, worked in a reference to the “tighty-whities” Cruise wore sliding across the floor in “Risky Business” into her own acceptance speech, you could understand why he received the night’s longest ovation. He really is movies. In one way or another, he completes us.

Cruise, 63, was still shaking hands and posing for pictures long after the ceremony ended Sunday night. He may in fact still be in the Ray Dolby Ballroom, listening to people tell him giddy and sometimes teary stories of when they first saw him in a movie. After Iñárritu introduced him, Cruise delivered a gracious, cinema-booster speech, at one point asking everyone in the room who had worked with him to stand.

“I carry you with me, each of you, and you are part of every frame of every film I have ever made or ever will make,” Cruise said. And yes, he was in alignment with Iñárritu. “Making films is not what I do. It’s who I am.”

Trailblazer Wynn Thomas, widely recognized as the first Black production designer in film, and Dolly Parton also received Oscars at the Governors Awards ceremony. These honorary Oscars, once part of the televised Academy Awards, were spun off into their own event in 2009.

Parton, 79, was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Health issues, which led to a postponement of her December Las Vegas residency, prevented Parton from attending in person. But she thanked the academy by video, saying, “We didn’t have too much to share, but my mama and daddy showed me that the more you give, the more blessings come your way. And I have been blessed more than I ever dreamed possible, like with this award tonight.”

Lily Tomlin, Parton’s “9 to 5” co-star, gave a delightful, digressive introduction. Capping the presentation, Andra Day sang a spine-tingling cover of Parton’s classic “Jolene.”

The Governors Awards are not televised and, as Will Arnett, introducing the evening, noted, “There are no commercial breaks. The orchestra is not waiting to play anybody off. There is nothing stopping us from doing this until the sun comes up.” The relaxed nature of the show gives honorees room to roam with their speeches and also offers current Oscar contenders a chance to schmooze with voters.

In one corner of the ballroom, you might find filmmakers Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach and Joachim Trier engaged in a debate over who is better, Jean-Luc Godard or Francois Truffaut, a French New Wave throwdown inspired by Linklater’s sly homage “Nouvelle Vague.” Across the room, Sydney Sweeney, meeting Cruise for the first time, compared notes on broken bones. Outside, Iñárritu told director Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”) about his upcoming movie, starring Cruise. (“It sounds crazy,” Coogler said.)

Cruise was on everyone’s mind, except perhaps Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe, director of the superb thriller “Sirāt,” who did not know the actor was receiving an honorary Oscar. People offered me their favorite Cruise movies. Director Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”) went with “Edge of Tomorrow.” Shih-Ching Tsou (“Left-Handed Girl”) chose “Top Gun.” (“I fell in love,” she says.) And Coogler went with a wild card, picking the compulsively rewatchable 1988 comedy “Cocktail.”

“It was my parents’ favorite movie, so I saw it all the time,” Coogler says. “I know it’s nonsensical.”

Ethan Hawke, who made “The Last Movie Stars,” a six-part documentary on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, recalled how Newman didn’t want his honorary Oscar in 1986. He hoped to win one outright. A year later, he took the lead actor trophy for “The Color of Money,” which, yes, co-starred Cruise.

“Cruise should have won for ‘Magnolia,’ one of the best performances of my lifetime,” Hawke told me. “My suspicion is that this will be the first of many Oscars for Tom Cruise. He’ll get this honorary one and then four more in the next 20 years.”

Thomas, it could be argued, should have won a competitive Oscar years ago for any number of movies, including his striking work creating the single block setting in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” Relating his journey to becoming a visual storyteller, Thomas recalled growing up in “one of the worst slums of Philadelphia,” sitting on his front stoop reading Shakespeare, James Baldwin and Tennessee Williams, immersed and transported.

“The local gangs looked down on me and called me sissy,” Thomas said. “But that sissy grew up to work with some great filmmakers.”

Presenting Allen with her Oscar, “Wicked’s” Cynthia Erivo said “to know Miss Debbie is to know that she refuses to let dreams fade and has a determination to make them happen.”

“I myself am fortunate enough to consider her my auntie,” Erivo added.

Allen’s five-decade career includes choreographing the Oscars seven times, as well as films including “Forget Paris” and “A Jazzman’s Blues.” Her producing credits include Steven Spielberg’s 1997 historical drama “Amistad.” She’s probably best known as an actor on the ’80s television series “Fame,” for which she also served as a choreographer. Her nonprofit dance academy is a Los Angeles institution.

Allen namechecked the Dodgers, her husband (the Los Angeles Lakers legend Norm Nixon) and, of course, Oscar.

“It’s like I got married … sorry, Norm,” she said, cradling the statue. “I’m definitely taking him to work with me and keeping him close to remind me, not of what I’ve done, but what I get, need and have to do.”

The Palestinian experience has been a mainstay of global cinema for decades. Despite countless obstacles, the Palestinian Ministry of Culture has submitted 18 titles for the international feature Oscar since 2003, earning nominations in 2006 and 2014. But this year, at a pivotal moment in its history, three films from acclaimed female filmmakers, each set in war-torn Gaza, are up for Oscar consideration: Annemarie Jacir’s Palestinian entry, “Palestine 36,” Cherien Dabis’ “All That’s Left of You,” representing Jordan, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” selected by Tunisia. It’s a remarkable field, one that Jacir believes is more a coincidence than a reflection of the political climate.

“I think that there’s so many Palestinian filmmakers and people have been doing a lot of work for a long time,” Jacir says. “I remember when I made my last film, there were three films shooting at the same time.”

From the outbreak of the Arab revolt in 1936 to the generational trauma of the capture of Jaffa during the Arab-Israeli 1948 war to the current Israel-Hamas war, each film has a distinct and important story to tell. Notably, both “Palestine 36” and “All That’s Left of You” were scheduled to begin production in Palestine just days after Israel began an aerial assault in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-led attack Oct. 7.

After struggling just to get the movie off the ground, Jacir says the real-time events made it difficult to “keep going emotionally, mentally, financially.”

“Nothing was clear,” she says. “We just didn’t know if we would really be able to shoot, if we would be able to start something, if we would be able to finish … We were just making it up as we went along and hoping for the best. It’s sort of a mix of, I would say, stubbornness and perhaps stupidity.”

Saleh Bakri and Cherien Dabis in “All That’s Left of You.”

(Watermelon Pictures)

Concurrently, Dabis had been prepping with a Palestinian crew for five months with the intention of shooting the entire project there, only to be forced to make the “devastating” decision to shift production to Jordan, Greece and Cyprus. (Hopes of eventually returning were dashed.)

“In a way, the movie lived what most Palestinians live: war, exile, fleeing,” she says. “All of the uncertainty, the financial and logistical crisis of it all. I think that what really grounded me during that time was just knowing that the movie was more relevant than ever, and that it had to get done.”

The stark reality of the civilians under constant fire, and in a much worse position than Jacir, motivated her team to continue with “Palestine 36.” She bluntly observes, “We had no right not to, you know what I mean? It’s like we are the privileged ones, actually. We’re not in Gaza. It didn’t feel like it was an option for any of us to stop because they weren’t stopping and it was like, ‘Well, we do it for them too.’”

Depicting the humanity of the Palestinian people, who have suffered mightily under the current occupation, is one reason why Ben Hania felt such urgency in bringing the harrowing final hours of 6-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab to the screen less than a year and a half after her death under Israeli fire.

Dhafer L’Abidine and Yasmine Al Massri in “Palestine 36.”

(Watermelon Pictures)

“There was something about silencing their voices [that] was completely abhorrent for me, and I know that cinema is the place for empathy and the place where you can put face and raise the voice,” Ben Hania says. “So, for me it was part of saying, ‘Stop this dehumanization of Palestinian victims.’ You see the pain in this movie, you can feel the sense of what is happening.”

Despite critical accolades and, in the case of “Voice,” a record standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, none of these submissions were able to secure major distributors in the U.S. “Voice of Hind Rajab” is being released by relatively new player Willa, while both “Palestine 36” and “All That’s Left of You” are set for release by Watermelon Pictures, traditionally a production entity. (Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” was self-released in cinemas and, last month, on streaming platforms.) Ben Hania says that is nothing new: Films about Palestine simply don’t reach U.S. audiences.

“I’m frustrated because as a filmmaker, when you do a movie, you want everybody to see it, especially this one,” Ben Hania says. “So, I mean, yeah, it’s a huge frustration, but I can’t put a gun [to a] distributor and tell them, ‘Distribute my movie.’ When you do movies, you have several obstacles, and this is one of them.”

Despite the hurdles, Jacir says she has never had so many people want to know the historical background behind one of her movies.

“People are curious,” Jacir says. “Before people used to say, ‘Oh, it’s very complicated and let’s leave it. I don’t want to know because it’s too complicated.’ I don’t think people are like that anymore. I don’t think the new generation is like that anymore. I think people really want to know, and they want to see these stories and they’ll make their own judgments and thoughts, and they’ll have their own feelings about it.”

Chris Eubank Jr’s rematch defeat to Conor Benn may be the time to retire, according to former boxers Carl Frampton and Barry Jones.

Eubank, 36, was beaten unanimously by Benn at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, seven months on from Eubank’s victory in the first meeting between the two.

All three judges scored the fight convincingly in favour of Benn with Eubank struggling to even challenge his rival, months after beating him.

“It was a great performance from Conor, but this might be the time to call it a day for Chris,” retired world champion Frampton told DAZN.

“I’m not trying to be harsh, I’m just being honest.”

Former WBO super-featherweight champion Jones echoed Frampton’s sentiment, pointing to Eubank’s struggles throughout fight.

“I do think it should be the end for Chris,” said Jones on DAZN.

“It was evidence from round one that he was flat. It could be weight or it could be wear and tear, I think it’s the latter.

“We should give all the credit to Conor Benn, but there were opportunities for Chris to pull the trigger.

“He didn’t throw his punches from round one. He was quite lethargic.”

Lightweight world champion Shakur Stevenson, who has won belts in multiple weights, said Eubank was clearly “weight drained”.

Eubank has fought most of his recent career at middleweight but was restricted by a rehydration clause on fight day that prevented him from putting more than 10lbs.

Boxing legend turned promoter Oscar De La Hoya also defended Eubank’s performance.

“Let me give you a little tutorial on boxing,” he said on X.

“Eubank never had a chance due weight drain.”

Coach and former boxer Paul Smith said before the fight he felt it was a step too far for Eubank but praised the Briton for a “great career”.

“People who always seemed to dislike or hate him ended up growing to love him in the end. Like his dad,” he added.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — Peru became the top global winner at the International Chocolate Awards with its “El Ganso 70%” bar, made with cacao from the Junín region in the central part of the country.

The recognition places Peru at the genetic and cultural epicenter of cacao worldwide.

Considered the “Chocolate Oscars,” the competition is organized by an international network of experts in cacao, gastronomy and sensory analysis. The contest is held in regional phases. The Latin American round was held in April, and the World Final was this week in Florence, Italy.

The winning bar, produced by the brand Cacaosuyo, received the Overall Winner award, the competition’s top honor. Its fruity, floral profile with deep cacao notes impressed an international jury of tasters, chefs and culinary experts.

The cacao used in “El Ganso 70%” comes from Junín, a region of exceptional biodiversity where native varieties with high genetic value are grown. According to Samir Giha, founder of Cacaosuyo, “Peru is the world’s genetic center of cacao, with more varieties than any other country.”

More than 3,500 chocolate samples from around the world were evaluated in the competition. Latin America had a strong showing, with products from at least 10 countries.

Colombia stood out with artisanal bars from regions known for their traceability and fruity, floral profiles. Mexico, meanwhile, presented bean-to-bar chocolates made with criollo cacao from Chiapas and Tabasco, which earned awards in the regional phase for their deep flavor and respect for tradition.

Ecuador reaffirmed its international reputation with chocolates made from its emblematic “Arriba Nacional” cacao, earning distinctions in the dark chocolate and single-origin categories.

Brazil surprised with innovative entries from the Amazon that combined sustainability with sensory creativity, while Venezuela competed with Chuao and Carenero beans, winning medals for the depth and elegance of its dark chocolates.

Peru’s victory comes at a pivotal moment. The international price of cocoa — the processed form of cacao beans — rose from about $2,500 a ton in 2023 to a record high of $12,931 per ton in December. But as of Wednesday, cocoa futures were at $5,625 per ton.

Still, the increase has restored profitability to the crop, improved conditions for small producers and opened new export opportunities.

The international recognition is boosting the bean-to-bar model, which promotes traceability, fair trade and sensory quality. Countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, China and Japan are the main destinations for Peruvian chocolate, strengthening its global presence.

The global chocolate market is expanding, driven by rising demand for artisanal, ethical and origin-specific products. Today’s consumers are seeking authentic sensory experiences, a trend that has benefited Latin American countries with fine and criollo cacaos.

Eddie Murphy has solidly been established as Hollywood royalty after a decades-long career stretching from “Saturday Night Live” to “The Nutty Professor” to “Dreamgirls” and beyond.

A key hallmark of Murphy’s status is his voluminous gallery of offbeat characters — an impeccably attired prison convict, a clumsy professor, a wisecracking donkey, an elderly Jewish man and even an obese, abusive wife.

In Netflix’s “Being Eddie,” now streaming, Murphy lifts the veil on the persona he feels the closest to — Eddie Murphy.

Directed by Angus Wall (an executive producer of “The Greatest Night in Pop”), the documentary traces the meteoric rise and triumphs of Murphy, who seldom grants interviews and is fiercely private about his creative process and personal life.

With his trademark humor and probing insight, the entertainer offers candid perspective of his trajectory from a kid in New Jersey performing stand-up to joining “Saturday Night Live” right out of high school, his string of hit films (“48 Hrs.,” “Trading Places,” “Eddie Murphy Raw”) and his transition from foul-mouthed provocateur to family-friendly films.

Eddie Murphy, left, with his brothers Vernon Lynch and Charlie Murphy.

(Photo from Eddie Murphy / Netflix)

He also addresses some of his misfires (“Vampire in Brooklyn”), and throws more than a little shade at “Saturday Night Live” and the Academy Awards (“I haven’t gotten an Oscar, and I’ve done everything”).

The film is largely set at Murphy’s castle-like estate, where he’s seen hanging out with his 10 children and second wife, Paige Butcher. (“My legacy is my children, not what I did at work,” he says. “My kids are the center of my life. It’s all about them… If you put your family first, you will never make a bad decision.”) Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart and Pete Davidson are among the numerous entertainers who comment on Murphy’s influence on popular culture.

The following are some of the more fascinating takeaways from “Being Eddie.”

Don’t expect to see Oscar Isaac reprise his role as hot-shot pilot Poe Dameron in the “Star Wars” franchise any time soon.

The “Frankenstein” star admitted in a GQ interview released Monday that he’s not interested in working for the media company given its acquiescence to the Trump administration.

“I’d be open to [returning to ‘Star Wars’], although right now I’m not so open to working with Disney,” Isaac said. “But if they can kinda figure it out and, you know, not succumb to fascism, that would be great.”

The interview, while released this week, was conducted in the days immediately following the shooting death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and Walt Disney Co.-owned broadcaster ABC saying it was pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely following sharp backlash over the host’s remarks about Kirk’s death. Kimmel’s program ultimately returned to ABC on Sept. 23, after nearly a full week off air.

“But if that happens, then yeah, I’d be open to having a conversation about a galaxy far away. Or any number of other things,” Isaac continued.

The 46-year-old actor was also the lead in the 2022 Disney+ original series “Moon Knight,” based on the Marvel superhero of the same name who first appeared in print in 1975.

In a 2020 interview with Deadline, Isaac voiced hesitation about returning to the “Star Wars” franchise following 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.”

“I enjoyed the challenge of those films and working with a very large group of incredible artists and actors, prop makers, set designers and all that was really fun,” he said five years ago. “It’s not really what I set out to do. What I set out to do was to make handmade movies, and to work with people that inspire me.”

When asked point blank if he would accept a “Star Wars” role again, Isaac blankly answered in 2020, “Probably, but who knows. If I need another house or something.”

Responding to the flippant nature of his previous response, Isaac noted how seemingly obnoxious that quote sounded.

“Yeah. That was a real likable quote. Jesus Christ,” the “Dune” actor said in the recent GQ interview. “Y’know, people ask you things, you say stuff, you don’t really think about it that much. I said a slightly d— thing.”

Hamilton also faces an investigation for failing to slow sufficiently for the yellow flags waved when Leclerc lost control.

Norris topped all three sessions in sprint qualifying and had a comfortable advantage over Piastri throughout.

He said: “It was a little bit tougher than I would have liked. But we did the job we needed to do, which was to be fastest today.

“Qualifying is always one of the best things here. It’s difficulty, it’s bumpy, it’s tricky, always a joy, always puts a smile on your face.

“But a long weekend, another qualifying and another couple of races to go but a good start.”

Rain is forecast for Saturday morning in Sao Paulo, when the sprint race is due to start at 14:00 GMT. Qualifying for the grand prix is at 18:00.

Norris’ result is the best possible start to the weekend and gives him the opportunity to build his championship lead – eight points are awarded to the winner of the sprint, seven for second and so on down to eighth place.

Antonelli impressed in second, his best time set on his first lap, while the surprise package of qualifying was Alonso, who set the fastest time in the second session and was just 0.253secs off pole in his midfield car in the final shootout.

His team-mate Lance Stroll was seventh fastest, ahead of Leclerc, Racing Bulls’ Iscak Hadjar and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

British actor Pauline Collins, who earned an Oscar nomination for her turn as the stuck-in-a-rut housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” has died. She was 85.

Collins’ family said in a statement Thursday that the actor died peacefully this week at her care home in north London after living with Parkinson’s disease for several years. In the statement, her family said Collins “was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life.”

“A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen,” the family described the versatile actor, whose career began in the 1960s.

Collins was well into her 40s when she starred in “Shirley Valentine,” a witty but disgruntled homemaker who accepts a girlfriend’s offer to travel to Greece to bring much-needed spice back to her life. “Sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea and sex for supper,” Shirley proudly declares in the 1989 film, directed by Lewis Gilbert.

For Collins, “Shirley Valentine” was more than just an ode to womanhood, self-love and self-discovery. It was also a chance to challenge the conventions of aging in entertainment, including by shooting a nude scene for the film.

“My only sorrow was that I wasn’t younger and thinner,” a 49-year-old Collins told The Times in 1989. “But if I were Jamie Lee Curtis, I wouldn’t have been right for the part.”

“Shirley Valentine,” which also starred Tom Conti as her on-screen Greek lover and Alison Steadman as her friend, led Collins to receive her sole Academy Award nomination, a nod in the leading actress category. The film also received an original song Oscar nomination for Patti Austin’s “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and husband-wife lyricist duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Two years before the film’s premiere, Collins originated the role of Shirley Valentine in London for Willy Russell’s one-woman play of the same name. That led to her Broadway debut in 1989 and a Tony Award for best actress in a play the same year. She also won accolades for the play at the Laurence Olivier Awards and a BAFTA for her work in the film adaptation.

Beyond “Shirley Valentine,” Collins was also known for appearing in dozens of TV series including “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Forever Green,” “The Ambassador,” “Mount Pleasant” and “Dickensian.” She also appeared in films including “City of Joy,” “Paradise Road” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” counting Patrick Swayze, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins among her co-stars.

Throughout her decades-long screen career, Collins also continued her work in theater, including productions of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Woman in Mind” and “Cinderella.”

Collins, born in 1940, was raised near Liverpool by a schoolteacher mother and a headmaster father. She told The Times in 1989 that her dad “was one of the early feminists.”

“He had three daughters and always offered us everything that a boy would have — education and stuff,” she said. “[My parents] had a completely shared domestic situation, they both worked, cooked, did the washing. He even washed nappies [diapers] by hand.”

Her marriage to “Upstairs, Downstairs” co-star John Alderton — they married in 1969 — was not too different. “He just spent five months holding down the fort at home while I was on Broadway,” she recalled.

Alderton, 84, said Thursday that Collins’ “greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”

While Collins was known for her scenic and romantic on-screen vacation to the Greek coast, she preferred a different kind of destination off-screen: St. Petersburg, Fla.

“It’s amazing, people think when you’re on your own you’re going off to have wonderful sexual adventures. Here I am, on my own, going off to Disney World,” she told The Times. “What does that say about me?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.