show biz

Are viewers ready to return to Gilead?

Less than a year after “The Handmaid’s Tale” concluded its startling and emotionally draining look at what can happen when unchecked power and totalitarianism become codified, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian saga expands on screen with “The Testaments” — and shifts focus to the simmering rebellion of teenage girls, led by actors Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday.

Based on Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name, the new series takes place three to four years after “The Handmaid’s Tale” finale, which kicked off the beginning of the end of Gilead. It is set at an elite preparatory school to groom future wives, made up of daughters of Commanders, many of whom have been taken away from their birth parents, and so-called Pearl Girls, recruited from outside of Gilead. It is named after and run by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), the profoundly complex antagonist from the original series.

Infiniti plays Agnes MacKenzie, the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, but her actual identity is Hannah, the kidnapped biological daughter of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss). Meanwhile, Halliday plays Daisy, a recent arrival to the Pearl Girl squad who is really there as an undercover spy for the Gilead’s resistance group, Mayday, under the guidance of June. In a departure from the book, Daisy is not June’s other daughter, Baby Nicole.

Bruce Miller, who developed “The Handmaid’s Tale” and served as showrunner for much of its run, returned to adapt the sequel. And much like how June summoned her power to fight against the world that confined her, Miller thinks the grit that Agnes, Daisy and their young peers possess to bring it all down is the reason “The Testaments” won’t feel like doomscrolling.

In “The Testaments,” Daisy (Lucy Halliday), left, is a recent arrival to the Pearl Girl squad who is paired with Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti), the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, by their school’s overlord, Aunt Lydia.

(Disney)

“The hope that it has is why viewers should be ready to come back,” Miller says. “What kind of women has Gilead built? They built the kind of women that could really bring down Gilead. All the things Gilead told them not to do — become friends, develop their own moral compass — they’ve done them all. If June knocked Gilead on its back, her daughter is gonna stand on their neck until it dies.”

The first three episodes of the series are now streaming on Hulu. In an early April video conversation, The Times caught up with Infiniti and Halliday to discuss their induction into “The Handmaid’s Tale” universe, observing Moss in action and the playlist that made an impression on set. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Tell me about your knowledge of Margaret Atwood’s universe. Had you read either book before this project? Did you watch “The Handmaid’s Tale?”

Infiniti: [Points to Halliday] You’ve got the Margaret Atwood No. 1 fan right here.

Halliday: I am the Margaret Atwood No. 1 fan — I hold my hands up. I’d read all of her books. I’d read “Handmaid’s” and “The Testaments” prior to this job and, obviously, I knew about the show.

Infiniti: My first exposure to the story was through the show. I was in high school when “The Handmaid’s Tale” first started airing, and so I remember it kind of taking over my school campus. Everybody was watching it, everybody was talking about it, and I just remember it being so, so massive. And then after that, I read the books.

Halliday: “The Testaments” book came out when I was in school, and my friend brought it in, and we spoke about it at lunchtime. It’s very serendipitous, it’s full circle.

What types of conversations were you having about it?

Halliday: It always feel timely regardless of what point you’re approaching the text at. I think, particularly at the time I read it, and now with this show, what appealed to me was that it was a younger perspective, and it was a new voice in Gilead. I had a level of interest that I hadn’t expected, just because I was a teenage girl at the time I was reading this book and [saw] another experience of a teenage girl that, in some ways, mirrored my own, despite, obviously, I don’t live in Gilead.

After starring in the Oscar-winning “One Battle After Another” as the daughter of revolutionaries, Chase Infiniti is poised to lead another revolution in “The Testaments.” “You feel an extra sense of responsibility playing somebody so young who is fighting for something that is bigger than them,” she says. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Chase, how do you see Agnes and how do you think her identity may shift when she is maybe living as Hannah? And Lucy, how do you see the Daisy in flashbacks versus the Daisy we meet in Gilead?

Infiniti: I haven’t thought about how Agnes will be when she is free as Hannah. I have concepts in my mind, but I don’t want to form anything too soon that will change the way that I personally could perform, if we’re lucky [enough] to have a Season 2 and beyond. But I think the growth that you see in Agnes, from even just Season 1, you really see her grow into herself and understand her place and understand her voice in the world.

Halliday: It’s an interesting juxtaposition because Daisy in Toronto is free and liberated and happy, but in a way, she’s not as open-minded as she could be. For example, when it comes to Gilead, she’s got these very strong, preconceived ideas of who these people are. She thinks they’re primitive, and she’s got no interest in befriending them. And then she comes to Gilead, and suddenly she’s lost access to a lot of the opportunities she had in Toronto, where she doesn’t have freedom, she can’t just do whatever she wants to, say what she wants and a there’s a great deal of oppression. But by experiencing these girls and by befriending these girls, she is actually now opening her mind to be more susceptible to friendship, and … understanding individuals who are different from who she is.

Let’s get into Agnes and Daisy’s relationship. They’re initially suspicious and distrusting of each other. What intrigued you about their dynamic?

Infiniti: Lucy has a great description about how she views Agnes and Daisy, which I think is very accurate.

Halliday: I see Agnes and Daisy as being two cats in a room sniffing each other out. And it’s because I think they immediately recognize the inherent similarities present in the other person, and that scares them because the other person, from both of their perspectives, is a foreigner, is not what they want to be associated with, yet there’s this innate kindred spirit present, and they can’t deny that. They’re the same language, just in different fonts. We see that throughout the season, and they really, like, rub off on each other and they have something to give to the other person.

There’s one big change from book to screen. Daisy is not Baby Nicole, the half-sister of Agnes. What did you make of that change, Lucy?

Infiniti: Wait a minute. I thought we were sisters this whole time. [laughs]

Halliday: It actually didn’t impact the story that much because in very many ways, Agnes and Daisy are sisters. Their relationship hasn’t altered because of this information. June is still an incredibly important figure in both of their lives. June adopts Daisy when her family is gone, so they still share all of these pieces of their history. They’ve had very similar life experiences, although unbeknownst to each of them, and the bond that they create for themselves is a sisterhood, and they have a love for each other by the end of the season. Although the lineage may be different, just about every single other aspect of Margaret Atwood’s original Daisy and Agnes remains.

An exterior shot of the elite preparatory school to groom future wives that is central to the story of “The Testaments.” It is named after and run by Aunt Lydia, the profoundly complex antagonist from the original series.

(Disney)

A girl’s menstrual cycle is a key character in this story — the power and promise it holds in the eyes of these teenage girls. What was it like to get back to that mindset of your younger self and your ideas of it then? Agnes is frustrated by the rigidness of being a girl, but she’s also curious about what’s to come, and getting her period is critical to that.

Infiniti: I feel like mine and Agnes’ experiences could not be more different. She was very excited to get it, and she was very eager, too, because of what it promises. And she was scared, but she knew that this was the hopeful step, if she was blessed by God, right, to become a wife — it would only benefit her to have it. Also, there’s so much secrecy around it, and a lot of things that these girls are just not taught about what it actually means to get your period, as opposed to the outside “next steps” that they go through. But I remember when I got mine, I was so scared. I remember I cried because I didn’t know what to do.

Were you home? I was at a sleepover and was mortified.

Infiniti: I was in math class at school — and that’s extra terrifying because I was really bad at math. I just remember being very scared. So, when Agnes gets it, I was a bit in awe of the way that she handles it and the way that she takes it and doesn’t let her fear hold her back in her tracks. That’s something that I found to be very intriguing. But you do feel bad because they don’t really know anything about what it means to have your period, what it means to become a woman and go through puberty like that, and all the changes that are going to happen.

Halliday: Periods are not talked about, really, in a mainstream manner. Whereas in Gilead, it’s not a liberated place, it’s not a really progressive society, but periods are spoken about quite freely. I don’t necessarily have anything to say about it, but I do think it’s an interesting idea that even though we, in society, would like to think of ourselves as not being in Gilead, we’re not as freely speaking about periods and menstruation the way that they do there.

Infiniti: I remember in Episode 2, when Agnes goes through that ceremony and she’s literally telling everybody. She’s like, “I was blessed by God. Yo, I’m on my period.” It was crazy. She said it exactly like that, by the way [laughs]. There’s a whole system to announce that this thing has happened because it’s so uncommon in Gilead.

Halliday: On the set, I remember Mike Barker [who directed the first three episodes] called “menarche playlist” and it was just a bit of a laugh.

Infiniti: Guess what one of the songs was?

Please tell me. I’m thinking Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love.”

Infiniti: One of them was totally “… Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears.

Halliday: But I just remember that we’re on set in 2025 and people would be like, “What’s menarche?”

Infiniti: The period aspect is something that I really love that you get to see in the show; you see how openly they all talk about it with each other. Because with your friends, you have very open dialogue, and those are the people who teach you how to use a pad, those people teach you to use a tampon, how to properly take care of yourself in that way. That’s something that I really love about the show is that we get to highlight that, and that’s one of the bonds that it brings between people. Or in the case of our show, the bond that it brings, but also the amount of chaos that it can bring, too, since fertility is so low in Gilead.

In “The Testaments,” Lucy Halliday stars as Daisy, a new Pearl Girl who is really an undercover spy for Mayday. “I hope people watch the show and it only further ignites their disgust for these things and their shock, because we should never be comfortable,” she says. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

We talked earlier about the flashback and what we learn about how Daisy found herself in Gilead. But we didn’t dig into Elisabeth Moss — she’s an executive producer, but also we get to see her as June. It starts as a brief glimpse, and more in Episode 3, getting the backstory on how she agrees to let Daisy be a spy at the school and help in Mayday’s mission to bring down Gilead. What was it like having Elisabeth on set?

Infiniti: I snuck onto set when she was working with Lucy, don’t worry. She just showered us with so much love and support. That was the biggest gift that we could have gotten since, in a way, she is “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She is the handmaid in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Halliday: Getting to watch her was truly a privilege because she is so knowledgeable, she is an encyclopedia when it comes to this world and when it comes to Gilead and these characters. And I wanted to leech off of that. I wanted to take that home with me because it really further enforced to me the importance of being prepared as an actor, and it’s something that I know we both took seriously in terms of our work ethic when approaching this job. But it definitely was daunting — I think that was actually my first day on set, was a scene with her.

Actors often talk about how their costumes inform their performances. The red garments in “The Handmaid’s Tale” became such a symbol of resistance in real life. Here, you’ve got the plum and green garments that are in accordance with a narrow view of what is acceptable for women to wear. How did the costumes inform your work?

Infiniti: The first thing it really taught me was that my posture is not as good as I thought it was because those costumes really force you to take over perfect posture. I remember when we first started to wear them every single day, for at least 12 to 14 hours [a day], your back is hurting because of how perfectly straight you’re standing. Even though the costumes are made to fit you exactly, they are restrictive and so you feel immediately like you’re thrown into Gilead and thrown into these girls’ shoes. You have to be almost like a doll, in a sense.

Halliday: I physically was a different character when I was in the scenes in Toronto versus when I was in Gilead because I was inhabiting the space in a very different way. It felt like a full transformation, and it was so helpful in terms of understanding how Daisy would feel in that environment because she’s not getting to present herself in any way that she would feel comfortable or would normally do it.

Infiniti: And you had your little pearl [in your ear].

Halliday: I would check if it was there for maybe a month after we finished filming. I was walking around looking like a Secret Service agent.

Infiniti: I was like, “Is that how the Pearl Girls communicate with each other?”

Halliday: It was like the Starship Enterprise.

Lucy Halliday, right, and Chase Infiniti of “The Testaments.” (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Many people speak of the timeliness of the themes of this show. When you’re actively playing these characters, are you thinking about the politics of the story or does that element come later when you’re reflecting on it or watching it?

Halliday: I don’t think it’d be possible to tell a story without being conscious of any sort of parallels because we all watch the news, we’re all aware of the world we live in. But it’s also worth remembering that none of it was ever intended to be a documentary. Margaret Atwood wrote it based on history, and so everything was always factual, but it was historically factual, and it’s just so happened to be that, unfortunately, we’re seeing events repeat themselves or being emulated in reality.

Chase, you’re coming off “One Battle After Another,” which spoke of modern political division and extremism. How was it to go from that to something like this?

Infiniti: One of the cool things that I really loved about both of those projects is the fact that both Willa [her character in the film] and Agnes are revolutionary characters. You feel an extra sense of responsibility playing somebody so young who is fighting for something that is bigger than them. We’re privileged to be part of something that’s saying something about the world and has the ability to enact change in the world. We really wanted to make sure that we were doing justice by the story, by the writing, by Margaret Atwood’s work and telling the story as authentically as we can from our characters, so that in the most perfect situation, we can transcend the screen and continue to touch people and hopefully enact change in viewers’ own personal lives.

Halliday: We hope people enjoy it because it is a source of entertainment. We hope people feel hope because there’s friendship and there’s a beautiful storyline inherent to it. But I think also what would be great is if people watch it and they do feel shocked. People should feel shocked or taken aback or disgusted by these scenes because we have such an overabundance of exposure to scenes of these nature — whether it be on the news or whether it be on a fictional TV show — but we hear about these events all the time nowadays, and I think we run the risk of becoming desensitized to them. I hope people watch the show and it only further ignites their disgust for these things and their shock, because we should never be comfortable. We should never be able to sit with it and feel OK. We should always have that fire burning.

To laugh or to cry? It’s a question that feels a little too familiar of late — one confronted often while watching “Maddie’s Secret,” the debut as writer-director from comedian and performer John Early.

Playing the title role with an unnerving sincerity and startling sense of vulnerability, Early stars as Maddie Ralph, a young woman climbing the ranks as a Los Angeles food influencer while secretly hiding her struggle with bulimia.

Early’s performance is a truly remarkable highwire act, all the more so for the wig, padding and prosthetics he wears to play the character. Made in the earnest style of a disease-of-the-week television movie without ever tipping over into winking irony, the film is both funny and tender.

“That, to me, is Maddie’s true secret,” says Early, 38, on a recent video interview from the apartment he is renting in New York City while appearing onstage in Wallace Shawn’s new off-Broadway play “What We Did Before Our Moth Days.”

“The secret of the movie — the real twist of the movie — is not any kind of trope-y reveal,” Early says. “The twist is actually a tonal twist. What I hope is then that becomes funny: the sheer commitment to the stakes of it.

“At any given moment, you can experience it as totally sincere, you can absorb it genuinely and be moved by it,” Early continues, “or you can take a little break and step out of it and find it uproariously funny that we’re even doing this to begin with.”

John Early, front, and Eric Rahill in the movie “Maddie’s Secret.”

(Magnolia Pictures)

Early’s skillfully wrought psychodrama, which had its world premiere at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, is now the opening-night selection for this year’s Los Angeles Festival of Movies, playing Thursday at Eagle Rock’s Vidiots with members of the cast present for a Q&A, and then again on Friday at 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown.

“Maddie’s Secret,” which opens in theaters June 12, makes for a fitting kickoff for this year’s event. Though the programming includes movies from all over the world, organizers ended up leaning heavily into films made in Los Angeles.

“This year it really does feel like a homegrown festival,” said Sarah Winshall, LAFM’s co-founder and festival director. “What it ended up doing is making us think about L.A. as a small town as a result.”

“I think the movie is an incredible accomplishment,” said Micah Gottlieb, LAFM co-founder and artistic director. “It’s made by somebody who’s not just a great comedian but also is a cinephile, knows the history of cinema, is trying to make something that fits within that lineage, while also just making an all-out entertaining movie.”

“Maddie’s Secret” was shot in the same workaday, creative-class neighborhoods where LAFM unspools. (Maddie’s house in the movie is Early’s own home.) The actor and filmmaker describes it as a “very Echo Park, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock, Frogtown, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Los Feliz movie.”

The story is also rooted in Early’s own complicated feelings about the L.A. food scene.

“It’s completely born out of my time in L.A. and my initial shock when I was confronted with a burgeoning restaurant scene,” says Early, who grew up in Nashville and moved to L.A. from New York in 2016.

“Not to always be talking about millennials, but it seemed very much of my generation,” he says, “specifically these kinds of restaurants where the food is really expensive but you’re sitting on a milk crate, eating lots of Middle Eastern food made by white people. There was just something very funny about all of it to me, even though I completely also sincerely loved it and still do.”

The film’s supporting cast is drawn largely from Early’s own circle of friends, including his most frequent collaborator, the comedian and writer Kate Berlant, along with Conner O’Malley, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill and Vanessa Bayer. The film’s production designer Gordon Landenberger is his ex-boyfriend and Early is excited that a number of other key collaborators, including costume designers Kimme Aaberg and Izzy Heller and cinematographer Max Lakner, are working on a feature for the first time, just as he is as writer-director.

“I think I wanted to force myself at gunpoint into a place of innocence and naivete,” says Early. “I think this movie is a strange mutation of the camp tradition.”

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Berlant plays Maddie’s best friend in the film. She and Early have worked together on shorts, live performances and their 2022 Peacock special “Would It Kill You to Laugh?” The two always share what they are developing and so Berlant first heard about “Maddie’s Secret” when it was just percolating as an idea.

“It was a very wild proposition,” she recalls with a laugh while driving down L.A.’s Beverly Boulevard. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to play a woman who’s struggling with bulimia.’ I was like, ‘Good luck.’ I was astonished that he totally pulled it off and he’s such a true filmmaker. It was kind of miraculous.”

Berlant describes their shared sensibility, the ability to simultaneously play comedy and pathos, as a kind of freedom. “Just the underlying absurdity or joke really gives you the ability to go to these really intense emotional places,” she says. “It gives you the permission to go to places that otherwise would be too unbearably saccharin.”

For Early it was also a chance to fulfill his longtime desire to play an old-school ingénue.

“I think I wanted to force myself at gunpoint into a place of innocence and naivete,” says Early. “I think this movie is a strange mutation of the camp tradition.”

“I was astonished that he totally pulled it off and he’s such a true filmmaker,” says Kate Berlant, Early’s longtime collaborator. “It was kind of miraculous.”

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

He references Susan Sontag’s famous essay “Notes on Camp” to say there are two kinds of camp humor, one that is unknowing and another that is knowing. It is near impossible now to genuinely create the first kind, but the process of making “Maddie’s Secret” was in a sense about being the second and striving for the first.

“In the age of the internet and in the kind of crumbling, depressing world we live in, it’s almost impossible to be the first kind of camp,” says Early, “to feel innocent and naive and to twirl. But obviously there is a part of me, there’s a part of all of us, that is very childlike and innocent and has hope. So I think this movie, it knows itself to be camp but it’s aching to be more like the first kind of camp. It’s aching to be pure and naive.”

Though it may be easy to place what Early is doing in the tradition of drag performers such as Divine’s work with filmmaker John Waters, to Early his performance in “Maddie’s Secret” sits outside of it.

“Drag is often obviously about a certain kind of extravagance and fabulousness and Maddie is very humble,” he says. “And so I don’t really see it as drag. It didn’t feel like drag doing it, whatever that means. It honestly just felt like acting to me.”

In dealing with the serious topic of bulimia, Early was careful never to make the eating disorder the joke. He points to a trio of TV movies — 1986’s “Kate’s Secret,” starring Meredith Baxter Birney; 1997’s “Perfect Body,” starring Amy Jo Johnson; and 1981’s “The Best Little Girl in the World,” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh — along with Lauren Greenfield’s 2006 documentary “Thin” as key influences on how he approached the film’s depiction of the illness. (Other non-bulimia influences include Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” Paul Verhoeven’s trashy “Showgirls” and Adrian Lyne’s “Flashdance.”)

“I don’t find bulimia itself funny,” says Early. “The genre of these movies — that’s what’s funny. It’s the emotional pitch of those movies and the way that they’re made and the acting style and the kind of moralistic quality while being totally pervy. All that was funny to me. And then also putting contemporary life — young, gentrified L.A. food-content influencer culture — putting all that through a melodrama-style filter, that was funny to me.”

While writing the screenplay, Early says he often found himself weeping, overtaken by the emotions of what he was creating. “I guess I’m not above the genre at all,” he admits.

But playing the part was another matter, having sold everyone involved in the production on a very specific tone and conception of what they would do together.

“I was like, ‘I am so stupid, I can’t believe I have put myself in this position,’” Early says, laughing at the memory. “I had set myself up to do the thing that I really had no proof that I could do, which is to play an almost Juliet kind of character who’s going through these extreme things. And I was the one that promised everyone that we would take it seriously. And then suddenly I was like ‘OK, well you have to do it. You actually have to do it.’”

Even if Early was uncertain in the moment, the result is undeniable: a dizzying, disarming blend of humor and emotion — and one of the year’s boldest performances.

PREGNANT influencer Chantelle Thompson has shared an emotional update on having her footballer husband’s child – a year after his death.

The social media star, 36, lost her beloved husband Joe Thompson last April, after he died at the age of 36 from cancer.

Chantelle, who is best known for being a skincare influencer, revealed her incredible news that she is set to welcome her late husband’s third child in February.

Now, in her latest Instagram post, the star gave fans an emotional update on her pregnancy journey so far, which this time she is doing “alone”.

Chantelle shared a video which showed her going through the various stages of IVF – which included injecting hormones and having hospital appointments.

It also showed her emotional roller-coaster, and at one point she is seen wiping away a tear in the car.

‘incredible news’

Wife of ex-Man Utd star pregnant with his child year after tragic death

‘BRAVE’

Who is Joe Thompson’s wife Chantelle Perry and how many children did they have?

Speaking over the video, Chantelle said: “I never imagined I’d be here alone making this decision to have Joe’s baby without him being here.

“But before he passed, he told me that I would have a baby boy and he even gave me his name.

“So it isn’t just a decision, it feels like a promise I’m keeping.

Chantelle, who married late husband Joe in 2016, also captioned the video with a touching message, which read: “Some events in life break you and rebuild you at the same time.

“Walking into an IVF clinic on my own was never part of the plan. But neither was losing Joe.

“After being told we couldn’t have children naturally again but then falling pregnant with Athena was a miracle.

“I didn’t think I would be returning to the IVF clinic to have more children, let alone doing it alone!”

Continuing, she said: “Before Joe passed, during one of his out of body experiences he told me that I’d have a baby boy… and he even gave me his name.

“I know Joe’s experiences were real and I trust everything he told me.

“So when my intuition told me to start IVF I did…. And here we are pregnant on the first attempt.

“This isn’t just about having a baby. This is about love continuing, even after loss.

“Knowing that Joe is with me every step of the way!”

Chantelle and her late husband Joe welcomed their first child, a daughter named Thailula-Lily, in September 2014 and had a second daughter in 2022 named Athena Rae.

Sadly, Joe passed away a year ago, after battling cancer for the third time.

The footballer, who started his career at the Manchester United Football Academy, was found to have stage four lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, which had spread to his lungs.

When Chantelle shared her pregnancy news in February, she talked about how her life had gone from “darkness to light”.

One of L.A.’s most unique art galleries is closing up shop.

Gallery 1988, which opened in 2004 and proclaimed itself “the first pop culture-focused art gallery in the world,” will cease operations at the end of April. In a post on Instagram, gallery owner Katie Sutton said that while the gallery had been forced to close its physical space on Melrose a few years back, she had “really tried to keep things going [online], especially for our amazing artists.” Unfortunately, she wrote, “the [art] market is the worst I’ve seen it in over two decades,” and the decision to close became inevitable.

A launching pad for artists whose work paid tribute to television, film, video games and more, Gallery 1988 was renowned for shows like the annual “Crazy 4 Cult,” which showcased pieces celebrating underground classics from across the entertainment space. It also specialized in single-focus shows like “Weird Al,” which celebrated the career of the oddball recording artist “Weird Al” Yankovic, and “You’re the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was,” which paid tribute to the world of Pokémon.

Exhibitions at Gallery 1988, which is closing after 20 years, often featured lines around the block, with fans who camped out for a chance to score a prized piece.

(Courtesy of Gallery 1988)

Perhaps most famously, the gallery collaborated with studios to create art-focused campaigns around properties such as “The Avengers” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” while also launching solo shows from artists like Scott C, Luke Chueh and Tom Whalen.

Gallery 1988 was renowned for selling work that ranged in price from $10 into the thousands, enabling customers from around the world to buy pieces that spoke to them, whether a postcard-sized digital print or a large oil-on-canvas painting.

A number of other galleries have closed in recent months across Los Angeles, including Blum, Nino Mier Gallery, Clearing, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and L.A. Louver. Sutton says that she’s heard through the gallery grapevine that “even galleries that haven’t closed are struggling,” adding that “it’s a hard time for everybody.”

Though there’s never one reason a business closes, some industry observers and art fans have cited the rise in AI-generated content potentially devaluing original art overall. It’s especially true in the pop culture space, with consumer activity down not just at places like Gallery 1988 but also at events such as WonderCon in Anaheim, where artists could often expect to make a good chunk of change.

Jensen Karp, who co-founded Gallery 1988 with Sutton but stepped back after a health scare nearly two years ago, says that while he certainly sees a “malaise in culture because of AI” that’s indicative of the population “losing the understanding of what true art is,” he wouldn’t attribute the collapse of Gallery 1988 solely to that one thing.

Kristin Tercek “Rejoice” 2015 for the “Force Awakens” show with Disney, LucasFilm and Unicef at Gallery 1988.

(© Kristin Tercek / courtesy of Gallery 1988)

“Our customer base was the people who looked up release dates and who went to the Arclight, and that sense of community is just not there anymore post-pandemic,” Karp says. With the entertainment industry struggling in L.A. as well, that means less disposable income floating around for things like art — especially from the kinds of people who might be inclined to buy a portrait of, say, Steve Martin in the movie “The Jerk.”

Greg Simkins, a California based artist who often sold through Gallery 1988 under the name “CRAOLA,” says he’s felt the impact of the entertainment industry’s contraction firsthand. “People like directors, producers and actors were some of our biggest clients,” Simkins says. “All of the sudden they’re leaving, going to places like Atlanta and Canada. AI is screwing up the movie industry too, and those are the kinds of people who had expendable money to buy original art so it trickles down.”

It doesn’t help that there’s more pop culture-centered art floating around now, and not just on sites like Instagram and Etsy. Though Gallery 1988 was a frontrunner in celebrating popular culture through art when it opened, even hosting a “Rick and Morty”-themed show before the Adult Swim series had a lick of merchandise, it also became a proof of concept for companies including Disney and Netflix, which have started selling their own artist-created material inspired by their properties.

And with Hollywood releasing fewer movies into theaters, the base of what Gallery 1988 artists could pay tribute to also began to contract. Frequent gallery contributor Whalen says that when Gallery 1988 opened, it was filling a niche and “creating fresh content for movies that spoke to” people in their 20s and 30s. Over time, though, art that celebrated properties like “Ghostbusters,” “Back to the Future” and “The Goonies” started to overwhelm the market, causing “a lot of the 1970s and ‘80s movies to become stale,” Whalen says.

Scott C’s “Breaking Bad Upon the Mount,” 2012, for the “Breaking Bad Art Project: With Sony and Vince Gilligan” at Gallery 1988.

(© Scott C. / courtesy of Gallery 1988)

While Sutton and Karp both say they’re beyond grateful that they got to open Gallery 1988 in the first place, let alone keep it open for more than 20 years, they’re worried about what closing the gallery will mean to some of their contributing artists.

“There are so many incredible artists out there and there are so many more places for them to show their work now and that’s amazing,” Sutton says. “But with that bombardment of media from everywhere, it’s hard to really see stuff because it’s coming at you from all directions. So many artists are out there trying to make a living and support their families and that’s just becoming harder and harder.”

“So many of the artists we showed never expected to have an art gallery email them,” Karp says. “I’m so proud of all the artists we worked with and what we were able to do, but I also know that [Gallery 1988 shutting down] closes up an avenue for all of them too and that sucks.”

Country singer Ray Stevens is recovering after breaking his neck.

On Sunday, Stevens, 87, fell and broke his neck, according to a press release shared with The Times. The two-time Grammy winner was “briefly hospitalized in the Nashville area and is now recovering at home,” and was advised by doctors to wear a neck brace for the next four weeks.

“Despite the injury, he remains fully mobile and in good spirits as he continues his recovery,” the statement read.

Stevens still plans to release his upcoming album, “Favorites Old & New,” this Friday. The album features recordings of classic songs like “It Had to Be You” and “Come Rain or Come Shine,” as well as originals.

“I had a lot of fun creating this album, ‘Favorites Old & New,’” explained Stevens in the press release. “It really does contain a few of my favorite old songs as well as favorite new ones penned by some talented writers. I just hope Ray Stevens fans enjoy it as much as Ray Stevens!”

In July, Stevens suffered a heart attack that required a heart catheterization and subsequent surgery. Shortly after the procedure, Stevens’ Instagram account shared that he was “working towards recovering from this surgery.”

“Ray is very grateful for all of the cards and get-well messages,” the post read. “Everything is Still Beautiful!!!!”

Stevens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. Upon his induction, he quipped to The Times that his retirement was not on the horizon.

“I feel fine; I’ll probably keel over after I hang up the phone. [He laughs.] But I’m gonna do what I want to do because I can,” Stevens said.

When the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” premiered during the early months of the first Trump presidency, it was seen by many as a timely prophecy — the crimson cloaks and white bonnets of the story’s eponymous sex slaves became a symbol of protest against a president who, though not a religious man himself, embraced many policies supported by the far-right Christian minority, especially those regarding the reproductive and civil rights of women.

This was not the plan, of course, or at least not as regards the Trump factor. The book was written in 1985, the show greenlit long before Trump became president, which only proves the grim resilience of Atwood’s themes. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the sequel series, “The Testaments,” also has name-specific cultural resonance. Plum-cloaked in a YA-leaning, high school drama that owes as much to “Pretty Little Liars” or “Gossip Girl” as it does to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Testaments” gives us an apocryphal version of the Epstein files.

Based on Atwood’s 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel, “The Testaments” takes place some years after the final events of “The Handmaid’s Tale” series and revolves around Ardua Hall where Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), having regained her Gileadean status, oversees the instruction of young women as they prepare to take up their lives as obedient wives and, Under His Eye, fruitful mothers.

Agnes (Chase Infiniti) is our initial central character and narrator. Though we know from her backward-looking tone that change is coming, her initial main worries are her mean stepmother and when (or if) she will finally begin to menstruate. She and her friends — Becka (Mattea Conforti), Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) and Hulda (Isolde Ardies) — have all graduated from the “Pinks” (little girls) to the “Plums” (young women) but only Becka has achieved the “blessing” of menarche, which means she can now be chosen by an unmarried (or widowed) Commander or other man of lesser rank.

This particular form of reaping occurs midway through the season at a dance where all the eligible girls meet with all manner of young bachelors, only to discover that the oldest and most powerful members of the elite get first choice. Watching as the men joke among themselves before staking their claims, it is difficult not to think of Jeffrey Epstein parceling out young women to his powerful male friends (albeit not for marriage).

Though touched on throughout “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the horrifying connection between status and the systematic procurement of women is the sinister force that drives “The Testaments.” A global infertility crisis may have been the catalyzing force for Gilead’s rise but this “privilege” of power is not about repopulation; Agnes and the Plums are simply victims of sexual grooming taken to its pathological conclusion.

Becka is the only one who is less than thrilled by her “prospects” — everyone else, including Agnes, can hardly wait to be married off and, with any luck, quickly become pregnant (not that they know anything about sex, forced by the state or otherwise).

Having been raised in a beautiful home with no material wants, Agnes knows little about the outside world. Like most women in Gilead, she is not allowed to read or write, and she and her friends coolly accept public executions, torture and other means of corporal punishment as the inevitable consequence of breaking any of the many rules drilled into them. They accept that their bodies are instruments of the devil designed to compel men to commit lustful acts and that they are responsible for ensuring that this does not happen.

Ann Dowd reprises her role as Aunt Lydia in “The Testaments.”

(Russ Martin / Disney)

But girls will be girls and even under the stern eye of Aunt Vidala (Mabel Li) and the more kindly countenance of Aunt Estee (Eva Foote), they tease each other and romp together, compare hairstyles and trade snarky comments about the Aunts as they dream of a happy ending.

In its own way, that’s even more chilling and resonant than the horrors of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Enslavement will always require some level of violence, but violence tends to spark rebellion — indoctrination is always more effective. Training people to believe they are fated, or even happy, to live without freedom, rights or real choice is the only way a totalitarian society can survive.

Showing this is far less exciting than the images of grown women being killed or stripped of their rights as presented in “The Handmaid’s Tale” (though “The Testaments” does offer a few very chilling flashbacks). But as social commentary, it’s difficult to beat the sight of young women, recognizable in so many ways as modern teens, complying with their own enslavement, out of ignorance and, as events proceed, the gut-wrenching fear of what the truth might mean.

Gilead’s future hangs on whether the Plums remain ignorant and compliant, as does the story of “The Testaments.” Agnes may not share Becka’s unhappiness with forced marriage, but she is soon given other things to worry about, including a growing attraction to one of the Eyes who guards her and a request to mentor one of the school’s new “Pearl Girls.” These young female missionaries, dressed in white, have been sent into Canada to draw girls to Gilead’s cause. Among the recruits is Daisy (Lucy Halliday), who Aunt Lydia puts under Agnes’ care.

Shunammite, the sharpest-tongued of Agnes’ friends, is convinced Daisy is a spy. Daisy, whose backstory includes, in the first episode, a brief glimpse of Elisabeth Moss’ June, certainly upsets things, most often by reacting to Gilead’s penchant for public atrocities the way a non-sociopath outsider would.

Over the course of the season (upon which many, many plot-point embargoes have been placed), Agnes and Daisy form a bond that threatens Agnes’ worldview, as well as her friend group. The novel “The Testaments” is a much larger and more complex book than “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Each are presented as historical records of a government long gone, but where Bruce Miller, who adapted both, had to first spin a series out of “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” relatively short and fairly elliptical story, he has much more to work with here.

He does so carefully, and perhaps a tad too slowly. Much of the first season is spent getting to know the girls, especially Agnes (whose pre-Gilead identity is obvious to anyone who read or watched “The Handmaid’s Tale.”) Coming off her Oscar-nominated performance in “One Battle After Another,” Infiniti masterfully conjures the rigorous placidity of a young woman so accustomed to holding herself in check she has a hard time recognizing the difference between her mask and her real self.

Her friends share the same disability, though to greater and lesser degrees. As their characters, Conforti, Blanchard and Ardies, deftly carve out discrete personalities beneath their plum-colored homogeneity, each playing a role that is, in turn, playing a role while also remaining desperately human.

Halliday as Daisy is the rawest nerve among them, but all the main characters, including the Aunts, are people trapped inside uniforms and all allow their intelligence to shine through state-imposed ignorance, embodying both the tense acceptance of indoctrination and the disorientation that strikes when it begins to crack.

Dowd, of course, is next level. Compressing and occasionally revealing all that she has been through in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and before, what she manages to make Aunt Lydia is both Dorian Gray and his portrait. What exactly Aunt Lydia is doing by handing Daisy into Agnes’ care is not made clear but she is obviously doing something.

Both “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Testaments” were written as historic documents gathered from a fallen regime; it doesn’t break any embargo to say that at some point Gilead will fall. Whether that fall begins, or occurs within, the action of “The Testaments” remains to be seen.

But we all know what happened to Epstein in the end.

I’m A Celebrity South Africa viewers think they already know the final three for the 2026 spin-off weeks before it airs after scenes during Tuesday’s episode of the ITV series

Viewers tuning into I’m A Celebrity South Africa think they already know which three campmates will be this year’s finalists.

Proceedings kicked off on Monday night on ITV1, as hosts Ant and Dec greeted the brand new cast of the spin-off series. On Tuesday, the second episode saw three campmates in particular proving popular.

As Seann Walsh, Adam Thomas and Beverley Callard got on with things in the basic camp, they were in hysterics over more than one discussion. The hilarious scenes left fans amused, loving the trio “they didn’t know they needed”.

Fans quickly predicted the three stars would go all the way to the final together, and one of them will win the whole series. Despite both Gemma Collins and Scarlett Moffatt being predicted winners, many fans now think Seann, Adam and Bev will be the final three.

READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity star ‘to quit’ days into new series as fans ‘rumble’ early exitREAD MORE: I’m A Celeb’s Gemma Collins’ powerful statement as she enters camp for second time

One fan said: “Adam and Beverley running the game and it’s only the first day! Oh I need them in the final two!” Another fan said: “Beverley Callard, Adam Thomas & Seann Walsh – the trio I never knew I needed in my life.”

A third fan said: “Bev, Adam and Seann are TV gold. I don’t care about anyone else on this series as long I have these three.” A fourth said: “Just show us Sean, Bev and Adam for 3 weeks because they are GOLD.”

It comes as viewers predicted that one campmate will quit very soon. Gemma Collins made a brief debut on Monday before officially taking part on Tuesday, but the last time she did the series, she left after just 72 hours.

Now, fans are predicting yet another early exit very soon on the series as it continues. Gemma is tipped “not to last” by viewers, while many are excited to see her take part.

A fan said: “Let’s take bets on how long Gemma Collins will last!! I’ll be surprised if she makes it till the end of tomorrow nights episode.” Another agreed: “First boot hopefully, maybe 3 days again.”

A third viewer said: “I do think she may quit again, but maybe after a few days this time.” Others were just thrilled to see a glimpse of her appearance after having to wait the entire first episode, which she did not feature in much at all.

One fan said: “We watched an hour and a half to see 3 seconds of Gemma,” as another wrote: “I’m only here for Gemma and Scarlett.” A further post said: “Gemma Collins is going to save this series!”

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! South Africa airs every night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that reality TV star Taylor Frankie Paul can have supervised visits with the 2-year-old son she shares with Dakota Mortensen until another hearing for a protective order later this month.

Paul appeared remotely for the hearing Tuesday with on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend Mortensen — the father of Paul’s third child, Ever — regarding his request for a restraining order. Paul had temporarily lost custody of their son when a temporary protective order was awarded to Mortensen last month. Paul and Mortensen are known for their roles on the Hulu reality TV series “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

Third district court commissioner Russell Minas decided on supervised visitation after Paul’s legal team voiced concern over Mortensen’s alleged lack of credibility and his attorneys raised worry over her “volatility,” citing separate incidents from May 2025 and February. Paul was granted up to eight hours a week of visitation.

“I have concerns going both ways, quite frankly,” Minas said, noting Mortensen’s alleged “pushing of buttons to get reaction” and Paul’s “troubling” reactions to the aggravation.

The embattled exes are also ordered to appear remotely at a court hearing April 30 to go over the “merits and entry” of Mortensen’s protective order against Paul. Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Paul filed her own protective order against Mortensen.

Mortensen filed for his protective order following two incidents in February that involved “grabbing, scratching, shoving, and striking” that allegedly left Mortensen with marks on his neck, according to police documents.

Around the same time, the cast of “Mormon Wives” paused filming for Season 5 and, subsequently, the release of a video of a separate dispute in 2023 led to the shelving of Season 22 of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” which featured Paul as its heroine. In the video, recorded by Mortensen on his cellphone, Paul can be seen screaming and throwing metal chairs, one of which struck one of her children who witnessed the altercation, according to the criminal indictment. Police body camera footage from that incident was documented in the first season of “Mormon Wives.”

That 2023 incident resulted in Paul being arrested; she eventually pleaded guilty in abeyance to aggravated assault, reducing her sentence, so long as she follows the terms of her probation. A final review hearing scheduled for early August could mark the end of that probation, but it’s unclear if the new allegations — police are also investigating a third domestic violence claim from Mortensen against Paul that took place in 2024 — will affect that.

How the outcomes of these various court decisions will affect “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and the unaired season of “The Bachelorette” is yet to be seen. It has not been announced whether the dating series will eventually air, or if and when “Mormon Wives” will resume filming — and whether Paul will continue on as a cast member. (Both Hulu and ABC are owned by Disney.)

The judge’s order this week is the latest development in the fallout from the domestic violence investigation involving Paul and Mortensen.

Last week brought more collateral damage to Disney’s reality TV universe with the news that Mortensen’s storyline would be edited out of the new season of “Vanderpump Villa,” which follows former Bravo star Lisa Vanderpump and her staff at various luxury European estates. The third season of “Mormon Wives” featured the fallout from an explosive crossover with “Vanderpump Villa” that resulted in “Mormon Wives” stars Demi Engemann and Jessi Ngatikaura getting embroiled in drama with staff member Marciano Brunette, who alleges he had intimate connections with both women. The fourth season of “Mormon Wives” revisits the crossover, with some of the women’s spouses and exes, who call themselves #DadTok, partaking in their own “Villa” getaway that fuels more drama, including between Mortensen and Paul.

Season 3 of “Vanderpump Villa,” which starts streaming April 16, is expected to capture that stay, except now without Mortensen’s storyline. But he isn’t totally off screens. Mortensen is set to appear in “Unwell Winter Games,” a YouTube reality competition series produced by Alex Cooper, that premiered Monday.

Aubrey Plaza is pregnant!

Plaza and “Girls” star Christopher Abbott are expecting their first child together. Representatives for Plaza confirmed to People that the pair are set to become parents in the fall. The couple, who have kept their romance under wraps, were spotted together at the Khaite Fall/Winter 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week in February.

Plaza, who’s become Hollywood’s favorite weirdo since splashing onto the scene as April Ludgate in the mockumentary sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” met Abbott when they worked together in 2020. The two starred in the psychological thriller “Black Bear,” and then joined forces once more in 2023 for the off-Broadway revival of “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” Abbott may be best known for stealing the hearts of “Girls” fans when he portrayed Charlie Dattolo on the HBO megahit.

In “Danny,” the pair portrayed volatile lovers, and they raved about working with each other while chatting with the New York Times ahead of the production’s premiere. “He cares but he also doesn’t care; it’s the best recipe for me for a scene partner,” Plaza said.

“It’s fun and it’s also good and it’s also safe. I like to just throw things out the window also and laugh and mess around and not take it so seriously. It’s a hard combo to come by.”

“We’re both unafraid to be ugly and weird and strange,” Abbott added. The two also agreed that although they aim to entertain the audience, they both hoped to entertain each other.

Plaza — who is known for her deadpan delivery not only on screen but also while giving interviews on red carpets and the late-night circuit — has become known for dropping lines tailor-made for internet culture. In 2011, she notoriously told Jay Leno that she was too awkward for dating. “I’m kind of like all or nothing,” she said. “Either put a baby inside of me or leave me alone.”

The big baby news arrives for the “White Lotus” star a year after the death of husband Jeff Baena, an independent filmmaker who directed Plaza in “The Little Hours.” Baena, who died at 47 in January 2025, had been separated from Plaza for a few months before his death.

Lil Tjay’s attorney is denying that the rapper was involved with Offset’s shooting.

Dawn M. Florio, the rapper’s apparent attorney, posted a statement on Instagram on Tuesday slamming “false rumors” that Lil Tjay was involved at the incident that occurred Monday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

“Lil Tjay has not been shot, nor has Lil Tjay been charged with any shooting,” the statement says. “Any reporting to the contrary is false. We encourage people to consult trusted news sources, and to verify the accuracy of any reporting, before reflexively sharing or repeating baseless rumors.”

The Seminole Police Department previously told The Times that one of the two individuals arrested Monday in connection to the incident related to Offset’s shooting was Tione Jayden Merritt. The 24-year-old is known professionally as Lil Tjay. Merritt was booked into a Broward County jail on charges of disorderly conduct and operating a vehicle without a valid license.

As of Tuesday morning, charges had not been filed against the second detainee.

According to police, the incident began as a fight near the hotel valet. After Offset was shot, he was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and was listed as in stable condition.

Born Kiari Cephus, Offset gained prominence as a member of rap trio Migos along with fellow Georgia rappers Quavo and Takeoff. The group was founded in 2008 and together until Takeoff was fatally shot in 2022. Offset shares three children with estranged wife Cardi B.

Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.

Sony Pictures Entertainment plans to lay off a few hundred employees globally in a move to restructure its business.

The cuts, announced Tuesday afternoon, are set to affect employees who work across Sony’s film, TV and corporate divisions the company said, declining to specify how many would lose their jobs.

Sony said the cuts reflect a shift in business strategy under its new chief executive, Ravi Ahuja.

“As we lean into those priorities, we need to operate with greater focus, speed, and alignment to strengthen our differentiated capabilities,” said Ahuja in a statement. “To support our growth, we are aligning our organization with where the business is going — not where it has been. That requires changes to how we are structured and where we invest.”

Ahuja, who was promoted just over a year ago, added that the company is ”reducing roles in certain areas while increasing focus and investment in others that are most critical to our future.”

Sony plans to focus on franchise strategy and brand extension with game shows, as well as develop more anime, experiences and invest in content that will connect with a younger audience. This includes more game adaptations and growing its YouTube capabilities.

One of the studio’s biggest franchises is the “Spider-Man” universe, which includes both live-action films starring actors like Tom Holland and the Oscar-winning animated “Spider-Verse” movies. The studio is set to release the latest live-action installment, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” this summer. The previous movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a major win for Sony as it generated $1.9B globally.

Sony Pictures operates under its Japanese parent company Sony Group Corp, alongside other subsidiaries like Sony Music Group and Sony Electronics. The film studio was established in 1987 and maintains a strong presence in Culver City.

Recently, the studio acquired the “Peanuts” comic in a $457-million deal, reupped the “Reading Rainbow” for a YouTube audience and is working on PlayStation adaptations for video games like “Helldivers” and “God of War.”

The company has also combined its game-show group with its nonfiction TV department and is slowing down areas of its business that have low growth, like the VFX and virtual production studio, Pixomondo.

The layoffs are the latest to hit Hollywood, which has been hard hit by the exodus of film and TV jobs to other states and countries, a cutback in the number of films being released and media consolidation. Last year, Paramount cut 10% of its workforce after it was acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance Media.

Gemma Collins and Craig Charles entered the I’m A Celeb All Stars show in dramatic fashion with one of the worst trials ever seen on ITV

Camp late entries Craig Charles and Gemma Collins took part in an epic eating trial called Gut Instincts that pushed them both to the limit. At one stage Craig was sick and during another course Gemma claimed she had to quit that course as she was “going to be hospitalised” if she finished the food.

Before the I’m A Celeb games began, 45-year-old Gemma pleaded with the group: “Just give me a chance guys, please. I’ve got a different mindset this time, don’t write me off.”

Hosts Ant and Dec told Craig and Gemma that their first task will be an eating trial, after which they will split to join separate camps. The main Camp selected Craig to join them, assigning Gemma to Savannah Scrub.

During the trial, Craig and Gemma had to privately decide how many servings of dishes to eat. The player who commits to the highest number of servings then had to eat them to win points, but if they failed their rival could try to eat their food to steal the points.

Dishes included Fish Eye Pie, Terror-rine with blended chicken intestine and Brain Freeze – which was made of Springbok brains. This final one caused Gemma a lot of problems.

Shocked by the sight of one of the dishes, Craig said: “Have you ramped this up because it doesn’t look that bad on the telly?” Dec replied: “This is the Legends.”

The pair made their way through the lengthy menu, and after six of the seven courses, Craig has 12 points and Gemma 10.

The trial will finish tonight(Wednesday) in a dramatic climax that left the campmates in disbelief, as both contestants vowed to consume 30 shots each of Bloody Moory Shots – blended bull’s heart and bull’s blood.

Gemma said: “I’m gonna bang the whole tray. I’m doing my best.”

Once they both decided to go for the maximum, Ant and Dec said it would be race to see who finishes them first and wins meals for their camp. But if either is sick they will forfeit the round.

Scarlett Moffat said: “This is amazing, this is unbelievable.”

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Key dates for next year’s awards season — and the one after that — are already on the calendar.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the dates for the 2027 and 2028 Oscars ceremonies, on March 14, 2027, and March 5, 2028, respectively. The awards show’s 99th and 100th iterations will be its last hurrahs with longtime distributor ABC before a move to YouTube.

In another nod to streaming, the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards) also set the dates for their next two shows, which like this year’s ceremony will stream live on Netflix. Presented by SAG-AFTRA, the 33rd Actor Awards are slated for Feb. 28, 2027, and its successor for Feb. 20, 2028.

The Producers Guild of America also announced its 2027 ceremony will take place on Feb. 27, 2027, and its 2028 iteration, on Feb. 19, 2028.

The 2027 and 2028 Oscars will also be the last two ceremonies held at the Dolby Theatre after more than a quarter century at the Hollywood mainstay. Beginning in 2029, the Academy Awards will move to L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater, which is expected to be renamed before the Oscars arrive. The new agreement runs through 2039.

Anchoring the ceremony at the sprawling L.A. Live campus rather than in the heart of Hollywood is expected to allow the academy greater control over crowd flow and event programming, and provide better means for hosting visitors. Similarly, the Oscars’ move to YouTube is aimed at expanding the show’s reach in a streaming-dominant era.

This year’s ABC telecast averaged 17.9 million viewers, a 9% drop from last year’s 19.7 million viewers on ABC and Hulu. The dip ended a four-year streak of ratings bumps.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” led this year’s Oscars with six wins including best picture, director and adapted screenplay. “Sinners,” which earned a record 16 nominations, followed behind with four awards.

“Sinners” also won big at the Actor Awards, with television categories dominated by “The Studio” and “The Pitt.”

Times staff writers Josh Rottenberg and Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

Angel Reese has a message for Atlanta Dream fans: ATL Barbie is here to stay.

The two-time WNBA All-Star told People on Tuesday that she was excited when she learned she had been traded to the organization after spending her first two seasons with the Chicago Sky.

“The team has welcomed me so much, the atmosphere, the culture. … I’m so excited to be in A-Town,” Reese told the outlet. The two teams announced the trade Monday, the first day of free agency following the ratification of a new, historic collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and its players union in March.

The excitement appears to be mutual. Shortly after the trade was announced, the Dream online store had made Reese’s new jersey available for purchase. They sold out so quickly that Reese’s mother posted on social media that even she was unable to snag one in time. (Don’t worry, the Dream’s social media team has her covered).

Reese is a bonafide star on and off the court. A known fashion icon, the Dream forward was in New York on Tuesday to help launch Victoria Secret’s new “The Season of Strapless” campaign. It’s the first time the lingerie and loungewear brand has tapped a WNBA player to star in one of its campaigns.

The collaboration follows Reese’s runway debut at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in October, where she was the first professional athlete ever to walk the show. She’s also set to appear in the second season of “The Hunting Wives.”

At the Tuesday event, Reese had a message for Dream fans.

“Atlanta, what up? ATL barbie is in town and I am here to stay,” she told People.

Reese was selected seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Sky after a standout college career that included winning the NCAA championship title with Louisiana State in 2023. She has led the WNBA in rebounding in both of her seasons so far and has averaged 14.1 points and 12.9 rebounds overall.

Reese also shared a message to Chicago fans on Instagram on Monday after her trade was announced.

“To the city of Chicago, you showed me real love from day one,” Reese says over a video montage of highlights of her time as a Sky player. “Thank you Chicago. Always, Chi-Town Barbie.”

The Sky went 23-61 after drafting Reese, including 10-34 last season (1-13 in games without Reese) and missing the playoffs for a second straight year.