show biz

The cast of “Scrubs” knows that the show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, has a habit of building communities with his series, which include “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” But the “Scrubs” crew knows they are the closest.

“Since I work on all those shows, I can say that we’re the tightest-knit group,” says Zach Braff on a video call with his fellow fake doctors Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison. “We vacation together.”

Lawrence, just a day later, has to concede that Braff has a point. “It’s annoying because I have to admit that they are right,” he says. “We’ve stayed the tightest because we all still spend way too much time together.”

And now the gang is back together for a new, nine-episode season of the beloved series premiering Feb. 25 on ABC, and the next day on Hulu. When “Scrubs” debuted in 2001, narrator J.D. (Braff), his best friend Turk (Faison) and on-again, off-again love interest Elliot (Chalke) were interns at Sacred Heart Hospital. Now, J.D. is a concierge doctor, while Turk and Elliot have advanced to leadership positions at Sacred Heart. There’s a new batch of interns, a new cheery hospital representative (Vanessa Bayer) whose job involves making sure no one gets offended, and a new doctor (Joel Kim Booster) who is not too fond of J.D. But there are also other familiar faces including John C. McGinley as J.D.’s begrudging mentor Dr. Cox and Judy Reyes as nurse Carla, who also happens to be Turk’s wife.

“Scrubs” then and now: Sarah Chalke, Zach Braff and Donald Faison in the original series, left, and in the ABC revival. (Chris Haston/NBC) (Brian Bowen Smith/Disney)

In the Season 8 finale — before the show reset with a medical school setting — J.D., always prone to elaborate fantasy sequences, sees a vision of how his life is going to turn out. His reality doesn’t exactly resemble that.

“We say midlife crisis or whatever, but it’s a time of questioning, a time where you take stock of your life,” says showrunner Aseem Batra. “That’s really a cool time to catch up with our characters because when we saw them last, they were in their quarter life.”

Batra herself has followed a similar path to the characters. After working as an assistant at ABC, her first writing gig was on “Scrubs.” Now she’s in a position of authority. “Truly, it was the best job I had and it was my first job and I’m doing it again out of pure love,” she says. (Longtime “Scrubs” writer Tim Hobert was originally announced as co-showrunner but departed the project.)

Lawrence, who serves as executive producer on the new incarnation, can also see a parallel between his path and that of his fictional creations. “I’m only good at writing about stuff that’s at least tangentially part of my life and the idea that of those young goofballs who are the students now being the teachers, it’s very much part of my life right now,” he says.

“Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence has handed the reins to Aseem Batra, who is the showrunner of the revival. “Truly, it was the best job I had and it was my first job and I’m doing it again out of pure love,” she says.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Still, Lawrence says the reason the revival of the show was able to work is because of the closeness of the original cast. Faison and Braff are still constantly collaborating whether that’s on a podcast or commercials, and even though she’s decamped from Los Angeles to Canada, Chalke makes a point to keep in touch. On a boisterous Zoom call, we spoke about returning to their beloved characters.

What were your reactions coming back to this world?

Donald Faison: Please. Please. Revive it. Do me that solid and revive it.

Sarah Chalke: I manifested it. A couple years ago, I was like, “Oh, I miss ‘Scrubs.’ I want to do a comedy like ‘Scrubs’ that shoots in Vancouver, and then it all happened.”

Zach Braff: To be honest, I was very surprised when it actually started happening that ABC was going to put it in prime time. I thought it might be something on Hulu. That felt like a giant audience with Hulu the next day and a really big scale and really a belief in the project. That was really exciting.

Why do you think the show’s legacy is so strong that there is that belief?

Braff: I think that it’s Bill’s unique mix of comedy and pathos and emotion and fantasy. It’s such a unique recipe. But in execution, as he did with the first pilot, it was undeniable. It was so groundbreaking at the time. No one had done that in the network space. It was also at a time when there was no streaming. So, the show was on at 9:30 and Bill was trying to push what you could still do on network [television]. That’s why it was a more risqué version of what we’re doing now. I think now the goal was — well, there’s streaming for that. What’s a show that we can have on at 8 that pairs with “Abbott Elementary” that parents can watch with their kids? Maybe some jokes will fly over the kids’ heads, but it’s not trying to compete with what people are doing on streaming.

What do you remember about getting cast? You were all in your 20s.

Faison: I was the oldest one. Still the oldest one. I remember how big of a deal it was. This was the pilot of the season. I remember everybody and their mama was talking about how great the script was and how they wanted to be on the show. I remember my agent telling me, “This is a big one. The creator of the show really likes you. Let’s see what you can do.”

Chalke: I didn’t know this until two days ago. Our casting director came up to set to visit, and she said I was the first person to audition on the first morning of casting. In the character description, it said she moves and talks at a faster pace than normal humans. And in every single job, I’ve been told, “Slow down.” It felt like the luckiest thing; I’ll never forget when Bill called me and said that I got it and I truly couldn’t believe it. And the experience far exceeded any expectation I could have had about what it was going to be.

When I think back on it, what I remember is what that felt like to be at work every day, genuinely laughing so hard to the point where it would get late at night and there was one sound that Zach and Donald could make that would make me laugh.

Sarah Chalke on being cast in “Scrubs”: “I’ll never forget when Bill called me and said that I got it and I truly couldn’t believe it. And the experience far exceeded any expectation I could have had about what it was going to be.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

What was the sound?

Faison: It’s almost like a fart.

Braff: No, it’s not a fart.

Faison: I’m not trying to make a fart joke. But do you know how when you fart, it always sounds like a question mark. So, that’s the sound.

Braff: Esther, do not use this, please. It’s a high-pitched noise like this [does noise]. We would do it quietly enough that no one would hear we were doing it. And then she would break down laughing and ruin the take and we’d be like, “Sarah, what are you doing? It’s late. We want to go home.”

Zach, what were your initial thoughts about the project?

Braff: I was waiting tables at a French-Vietnamese restaurant called Le Colonial at Beverly and Robertson [in L.A.]. And I had to wear a tunic, which I put into “Garden State.” I’d been auditioning for so many things and not really getting much traction in the sitcom space, but I read this and I thought it was so funny. I was like, “Oh, I think I could really sell this because I find it so funny.”

How did you know the chemistry between the three of you was going to work?

Braff: When we were shooting the pilot, I was just like, “Wow. I really love these people.” I was obsessed with Sarah. I thought Donald was the funniest person I’d ever met. And then Bill was legitimately the funniest person I’ve ever met. I just felt in really good hands.

Chalke: We were all so excited to be there and we’d just hang out and watch the other scenes that we weren’t in. And I remember just being by the monitor, watching everybody else work and just being so blown away.

Braff: We would hang out after we were wrapped, which Sarah still does occasionally. This time Donald came early because there’s this really weird coffee robot in the production office that Donald seems to think is amazing coffee. So, I caught him a few times coming in early for the coffee robot.

Faison: That’s not why I came in early. I was notoriously late and unprepared the first go of “Scrubs.” I heard Tom Hanks talking about how he was a young actor and a very established actor kept forgetting their lines. And the director finally goes, “Ah, come on, come on guys. Three things. Show up early, know the text, have an idea. Let’s take 10,” and walks away. And Tom Hanks goes, “Oh, if that’s what it takes, I can do that s—.” So, I took that to heart and this is the second opportunity.

Braff: I thought it was the coffee robot.

Zach Braff on his co-stars: “When we were shooting the pilot, I was just like, ‘Wow. I really love these people.’ I was obsessed with Sarah. I thought Donald was the funniest person I’d ever met.” (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

But Sarah would hang out after you wrapped?

Chalke: We are all executive producers on this. Zach is producing and directing and editing and writing and doing all of the things, and that’s been really neat to watch. I legitimately do want to learn. Obviously, there’s a balance of that with also going back into work full-time and having two kids.

Braff: Sarah gave me this whole speech at the top of the show. She’s like, “Hey, I really do want to learn this stuff. I want to sit by your director’s chair. I want to ask you questions. I want to learn to genuinely [executive produce], genuinely direct.” And I was like, “Great.” The first week I was like, “All right. Sarah, we’re going on a big tech scout. It’s probably going to be about…”

Chalke: “In a van for seven hours.”

Braff: I go, “You’re going to learn more on the tech scout than you could in film school.” And she’s like, “No, I won’t be able to do that.” And then by the end of the nine episodes, Sarah was like, “I think my EP thing is morale.”

Faison: I want to piggyback on something Sarah said though. Zach has done a lot, these nine episodes. For this revival, he’s done so much and has worked so hard on this. And that’s made us all feel very safe and secure also because we know we have the No. 1 guy on the call sheet who cares about the show completely putting in 100% to make sure that we’re coming out the gate with something very, very, very, very strong and undeniable for the fans.

What were your conversations about where your characters would be after all these years?

Braff: One of the big conversations we had was we wanted to reground the show because the show got really broad over the years and we wanted to dial it back and go back to where we started, where it exists in a real place. We have the luxury of the fantasies where we can be super silly. And obviously, we dip our toe over the line sometimes and stuff is a little broad. But for the most part, the new show is back to Season 1 and grounded again.

As we all know, especially when you reach 50 years old, a lot of things in life don’t turn out the way you hope they would. And that’s why we opened the show with J.D. living this fantasy that he is this heroic trauma ER guy when in fact he’s fixing toes in the suburbs. Also, I think with regard to me and Donald, [Lawrence] said, “I want them to be silly as those two guys are in real life, but … when they drop in and they’re teachers, they’re really good teachers.”

Donald Faison on returning for the revival: “When we did the table read, I laughed so hard when the first voice-over kicked in, when Zach read the voice-over.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Was it easy to fall back into your rhythms?

Faison: When we did the table read, I laughed so hard when the first voice-over kicked in, when Zach read the voice-over.

Braff: The whole room did. It was really funny because no one had heard me do that voice in 20 years.

Chalke: One of the coolest things that helped with the show was Bill would just write to everybody’s strengths or write to their quirks or write to their personalities and weave it in. That happened this season, but it happened all through the first eight years. And so, to a certain extent, the lines blurred sometimes between ourselves and our characters. So, stepping back into them, there’s a reason why it felt so comfortable.

Braff: Sarah is a fast-talking klutz.

Chalke: I am. We met all the interns and Zach said, “So, guys, Chalke’s going to come in every day and something’s going to be broken. Every day there’s going to be a story.” And then I proceeded the very next day, which was the day before filming, to fall and break my finger. So, I did have to come in on the first day and say, “So, I broke my finger.”

How did you break your finger?

Braff: Walking.

Chalke: It’s part of who I am, but it’s also part of who Elliot is.

Braff: I think if we put in the show how really klutzy you are, people would think it’s too much.

Was there anything you were nostalgic for that wasn’t in the new incarnation?

Chalke: Sam Lloyd.

Braff: Sam Lloyd who played the lawyer was such a big part of the show and not only a fan favorite, but our favorite. He was just the funniest, nicest man. And Bill calls people like Sam Lloyd “comedy assassins.” They come in and they have one line and you’re laughing. And he was one of the greats.

Faison: It’s not the same “Scrubs.” And I kind of miss a little bit of that. There are so many new stories to tell. And you get nostalgic when you see the stuff that we’re doing in it, but I do sometimes miss some of the stories that we told in the past. It’s like capturing lightning in the bottle again, and I feel like we did it. I really do hope we have that opportunity again. I really do hope that this isn’t just nine. But it’s important for the audience to know that we’re definitely older. That’s just real talk. I’m not a 26-year-old man anymore. I’m 50.

KELLY Osbourne has penned an emotional message about grief seven months after her father Ozzy’s passing.

The Black Sabbath singer died aged 76 at home with wife Sharon, 73, and his kids by his side, back in July.

Ozzy passed away weeks after he took to the stage one final time with his bandmates at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Kelly, 41, has been candid in opening up on the difficulties of processing her tragic loss.

She previously told how she slept in her late father’s bed along with her mum Sharon as they dealt with their grief.

The mum and daughter duo also broke down in tears this month at a Grammys tribute to Ozzy.

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Now Reality TV star Kelly has taken to her Instagram post for a lengthy message pouring out her feelings.

She wrote in white text on a black background: “Some grief doesn’t end. It changes shape.

“It becomes the quiet weight you learn to carry, the ache woven into your days.

“Making it through doesn’t mean leaving it behind.

“It means finding the strength to live and love and keep going even with forever resting in your heart.

“When grief feels endless and disastrous, like it’s unmaking you from the inside out, surviving isn’t about conquering it.

“It’s about enduring it.

“It’s about standing in the wreckage of our own heart and whispering, ‘I am still here,’ even when every part of you feels shattered and like you don’t want to be here!”

Ozzy died at home in his stunning mansion in Welders, Buckinghamshire “surrounded by love”.

Sharon, his wife of 43 years and mum to their children Aimee, Jack and Kelly, was by his side.

A statement from his family said at the time: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning.

“He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.

“Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.”

Ozzy became known as the “Prince of Darkness” in his six-decade career thanks to his on-stage antics that attracted a legion of heavy rock fans.

He last graced the stage this July when he reunited with his bandmates Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward and played a five-song set in a farewell to music.

The gig was touted as “the greatest heavy metal show ever,” with Ozzy grinning to chanting fans as he thanked them for all they had done for him.

Over the weekend, we told how removal boxes have been seen outside Sharon’s £13million LA mansion as she downsizes following her spouse’s passing.

Former Death in Paradise star Ardal O’Hanlon has opened up about his time on the BBC crime drama

Ardal O’Hanlon has revealed how much he misses former co-star Don Warrington since his departure from Death in Paradise.

The comedian and actor, who portrayed DI Jack Mooney in the popular BBC crime drama, exited the show in 2020 after a three-year stint, reports the Express.

During an appearance on ITV’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on Sunday (February 22), he reflected on his time on the series after Alan asked whether it had been “emotional” to leave the island and long-time co-star Don, who portrays Commissioner Selwyn Patterson.

“He’s just brilliant, he’s brilliant,” Ardal enthused. “I miss him more than anything, actually. I loved Don and we’re still very good friends, but yeah that was kind of a bromance actually.”

He continued: “It always starts off the new detective and you know very, very wary around the inspector but eventually the inspector softens by the end.”

Although the programme is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, most of the filming takes place in Guadeloupe.

The star said he did “love it” but also acknowledged it was “a commitment”, as it involved being away for months of the year for filming.

“I’m kind of in one way glad I don’t have to do it now because it’s like, it’s gruelling, but I look back at it very fondly,” he shared. “It was just a great adventure apart from anything else, as well as being like a, you know, a challenging acting job.”

He also shared how he enjoyed having a variety of different actors join the cast every few weeks.

“All these great great people… these people I adored,” he said. “And then you’d also get the hot shots, the up-and-coming people who have gone on to Hollywood now. We got them raw.”

Ardal, who is also known for his portrayal of Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted, went on: “Because you take great pride in the island, because I’ve been there for a few years and you get to love it and you can’t wait to show it off to them.

“So on the rare days off you’d bring them to some waterfall that only you know about or some boiling hot part of the sea like, right where the volcano heats the water, you know, that side of it I really, really loved.”

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Death in Paradise broadcasts on the BBC and Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh is on ITV.

Aston Merrygold of JLS fame has opened up about the devastating toll of his recent ankle injury during an appearance on Sunday Brunch

JLS star Aston Merrygold has gotten candid about his recent leg injury, admitting the emotional toll is “killing me”.

The Peterborough-born boyband icon, 38, underwent surgery late last year after suffering a painful injury on his ankle during rehearsals.

However, Aston has continued to perform with the band, which also includes Marvin Humes, Oritsé Williams, and JB Gill, either seated or using crutches.

During an interview with Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy on today’s (22nd February) edition of Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Aston shared some more insight into his injury and recovery.

“I broke everything in my ankle, apart from the bone,” he shared. “So, I’m still here.

“Basically, jumping off a platform to end the show, I vanished through the stage and landed on some crash mats. Obviously, I got excited and probably jumped a bit too high, trapped my leg between the crash mats and my body kept going.

“So I had to have full ankle reconstruction surgery.” Tim quipped: “Got a team of lawyers on that?”, prompting laughter from Aston.

After revealing he had continued with the tour on crutches, Aston was asked about his history playing football and how his injury has affected his exercise regime.

“You used to be a good footballer years ago, didn’t you?” Tim asked. “So this must be killing you.”

Aston agreed: “It’s killing me. But everything, even in the week, going away with the kids for a few days is lovely.”

Tim interjected, “Can you do anything?” and Aston revealed: “I can’t run yet. So that’s kind of the extent of it. Stairs are good now, for the ankle progression.”

The presenter then mused: “You know what they say, and this is so true, a well man has 10,000 wishes and an ill man has one.”

“100 percent,” Aston agreed. “And the worst, worst part of the whole thing was that I had to be bed-bound at one point.

“Then, when I could stand up, it had to be no weight. So no picking up the kids, no kind of running around.

“Obviously I didn’t listen,” he then confessed. “You can’t have those special moments just taken away fully, so I was a bit like, ‘No, there are some things…’”

Simon then asked when Aston will be fully recovered, with the JLS star explaining: “The operation was in December. December 5th. And he said over six months.”

Sunday Brunch airs Sundays from 10am on Channel 4.

KATE Hudson led the fashion pack in a glam corset dress at the Bafta Film Awards Nominees’ Party.

Anticipation is building for the prestigious awards ceremony – honouring the best British and foreign films of 2026 – which will air on the BBC tonight.

Previously, the Bafta 2026 nominations were revealed with Leonardo DiCaprio flick One Battle After Another leading the nominations in 14 categories.

Hollywood veteran Leo, 51, now shares an all-time Bafta record with the likes of movie legends Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis and Laurence Olivier for seven Best Actor nominations.

However he has won the award just the once, for The Revenant in 2016. 

Yet while the stars get set for tonight’s proceedings, a swanky shindig at the National Portrait Gallery ramped up the anticipation last night.

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Song Sung Blue actress Kate oozed elegance in her trendy frock, which paired a black corset top with a flowing white skirt.

She left her blonde hair flowing over her shoulders and kept her make-up fresh, accessorising with statement silver earrings.

The beauty was seen posing with fellow actress Chase Infiniti, who she is pitted against in the Best Leading Actress category.

One Battle After Another screen star Chase opted for a delicate pink lace bodycon with long sleeve.

Ruffle detail around the waist and wrists added extra glam, and she finished off her look with silver high heels.

Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley and Bugonia’s Emma Stone are among others in the pair’s hotly contested category.

Meanwhile, Star Wars actor Warwick Davies flashed a huge smile as he stepped on the Red Carpet.

Wimbledon actress Kirsten Dunst cut a glam look in a longline black coat with matching handbag while her Fargo star husband Jesse Plemons wore a stylish grey blazer and matching trousers.

He is nominated for the Best Actor role for flick Bugonia.

Big Brother anchor AJ Odudu stood out for all the right reasons in a purple halterneck dress with a side split.

Marty Supreme actress Odessa A’zion, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress, went for an all-black attire with striking yet sophisticated silver detail cuffs.

GRAMMY-nominated salsa legend Willie Colón has died aged 75.

Heartbreaking tributes have poured in for the musical pioneer – with Bad Bunny calling the star “one of the legends who contributed to this beautiful and legendary genre”.

The iconic artist passed away on Saturday surrounded by loved ones, his manager confirmed.

Colón was a trombonist, composer, arranger, singer and social activist.

Over his decades-long career, he produced more than 40 albums that sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

His manager Pietro Carlos said: “Today, we’ve lost an architect of the New York sound, a trombonist who made metal his banner and wrote eternal chapters in our musical history.

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“Willie didn’t just change salsa; he expanded it, politicized it, clothed it in urban chronicles, and took it to stages where it hadn’t been heard before.

“His trombone was the voice of the people, an echo of the Caribbean in New York, a bridge between cultures.”

He added: “Today we say goodbye to a master, but his legacy lives on.”

Meanwhile, Grammy-winner Bad Bunny said on Instagram: “Today, one of the legends who contributed to this beautiful and legendary genre passed away.”

The star continued: “So, on behalf of myself and Los Sobrinos, we wish Willie Colón peace.

“Much strength to his family.

“The inspiration of so many of these great musicians who left their mark on this earth will never die as long as there are talented young people like those here, keeping the music, salsa and all Caribbean rhythms alive.”

Colón’s cause of death has not been confirmed, but Saturday’s tragic news follows reports from last week claiming that the star had been hospitalised for respiratory problems, according to TMZ.

A pivotal architect of urban salsa music, Colón collaborated with a long list of fellow icons, including the Fania All Stars, David Byrne and Celia Cruz.

His critically acclaimed collaboration with Rubén Blades, Siembra, which touched on social issues in salsa, became one of the bestselling albums in the genre of all time.

The musician, born to Puerto Rican parents, was nominated for 10 Grammys and one Latin Grammy.

Colón was born in the Bronx, New York, before being raised by his grandmother and aunt, who from a young age nurtured him with traditional Puerto Rican music.

When he was 11 years old he ventured into the world of music, first playing the flute, then bugle, trumpet and finally trombone.

His interest in trombone was sparked after experiencing Barry Rogers playing it on Dolores, Mon Rivera’s song with Joe Cotto.

He recalled in 2011: “It sounded like an elephant, a lion … an animal.

“Something so different that, as soon as I heard it, I said to myself: ‘I want to play that instrument.’”

Colón’s main musical traits included the fusion of rhythms.

The genius harmonized jazz, rock, funk, soul and R&B with the old Latin school of Cuban son, cha-cha-cha, mambo and guaracha.

His style also encompassed traditional Puerto Rican sound including jíbara, bomba and plena music.

A passionate advocate for civil rights, he fought mostly in the US for the Latino community among others.

In 1991 he was awarded the Chubb fellowship from Yale University, a public service recognition also awarded to John F. Kennedy, Moshe Dayan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ronald Reagan.

And he even served in politics – working as a special assistant to David Dinkins, New York’s first Black mayor, and an adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Colón had his own stints running for public office too – but had little luck challenging the then-US Rep. Eliot Engel in the 1994 Democratic primary.

In 2001 he also came in third in the Democratic primary for New York’s public advocate.

The late star also appeared in films such – taking roles in Vigilante, The Last Fight, and It Could Happen to You.

On TV, he featured in Miami Vice and Demasiado Corazón.

The icon also appeared in Bad Bunny’s music video for NuevaYol.

Colón is survived by his wife and four sons.

Christopher Nolan gave him a noogie.

Denis Villeneuve wore his movie’s swag.

Elle Fanning looked into the future and saw him winning the Oscar.

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Timothée Chalamet? I mean, besides the old-timer Oscar voter who recently told me he doesn’t like the young man’s “shenanigans.”

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. Calico Mine Ride or Timber Mountain Log Ride? That’s a 1A / 1B ranking decision. It all depends if I’ve just eaten a slice of boysenberry pie.

Now … back to Timothée …

Did you catch any of the screenings during the American Cinematheque’s recent eight-film retrospective celebrating Chalamet’s career? Or perhaps you landed at the motion picture academy’s Samuel L. Goldwyn Theater on Monday when Chalamet was mobbed following a Q&A after a showing of “Marty Supreme” for guild voters.

If you witnessed a moment during this weeklong celebration — this Chalamania, if you will — you saw a young man whose talent as an actor is matched only by his genius at promotion.

You probably also came away knowing what has been a foregone conclusion since “Marty Supreme” opened in December: Chalamet is winning the Oscar for best actor.

And yet, there has been a lot of postulating that maybe one of the other nominated actors — Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”), Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”) — has a chance. You know … if things fall just the right way, there’s a path!

I get it. This year’s awards season has felt endless, and the Oscars are still more than three weeks away. Stories must be written, possibilities explored, no matter how remote.

But c’mon. Chalamet has this Oscar locked, just like “Hamnet” lead Jessie Buckley has owned the lead actress trophy since her movie premiered at Telluride in September. Admittedly, the lack of drama isn’t fun or exciting. Pine for an upset if you must, though it might be more fun to just surrender and celebrate Chalamet, a gifted actor and certified movie star who has stockpiled a remarkable body of work over the last decade.

This isn’t to say that you can’t make the case about who should win. DiCaprio continues to be one of our great comic actors and deserves attention just for the master class in phone acting he gives in “One Battle.” Moura carries “The Secret Agent” with an intense, brooding charisma that, one year shy of his 50th birthday, should push him to even greater recognition. Playing the desperate, despairing lyricist Lorenz Hart, Hawke empties his soul and his vocabulary, venting his way through the entirety of “Blue Moon.” And Jordan connects on the biggest swing of his career, playing twin brothers in “Sinners.”

So why is Chalamet winning in a walk? It’s a process of elimination. DiCaprio and Jordan are out as “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” are ensemble films. (Even with the dual roles, Jordan is only in half the movie.) Moura’s work in “The Secret Agent” is sublime, but the Oscars rarely reward subtle acting. (This is a category that has gone to Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Brendan Fraser in “The Whale” and Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker” in recent years.) And Hawke’s nomination is but one of two for “Blue Moon.” Not enough. Even the execrable “The Whale” managed three.

Chalamet already won the Golden Globe for performance by a male actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for “Marty Supreme.” Our columnist predicts an Oscar is next.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, Chalamet is Marty Supreme, the undeniably talented, relentless self-promoter careening toward his goals of fame and fortune with little regard to the damage he is inflicting on others. (That’s Marty, not Timothée.) Marty’s despicable, but also, as played by Chalamet, winningly charming.

No, you’re not supposed to like the guy, which, for voters who, say, blanched at supporting DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” might be a problem. But the academy has changed a lot since Scorsese’s wildly entertaining movie screened for academy members at the Goldwyn and an unnamed screenwriter, seeing Scorsese, DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and writer Terence Winter emerging from an elevator afterward, ran over to them and started screaming, “Shame on you!”

It’s true that not everyone embraces the anxiety-inducing cinema that is the brand of “Marty Supreme” co-writer and director Josh Safdie. Not everyone embraces Safdie himself, after a noisy tabloid story resurfaced allegations of a toxic work environment on the set of the 2017 film “Good Time,” which Safdie directed with his brother, Benny.

But that has nothing to do with Chalamet, who did not work on the movie, or his ferocious, frenetic work in “Marty Supreme.” The biggest knocks against Chalamet seem to be the unorthodox ways he goes about promoting his movie (and himself) and his age (he just turned 30). Historically, the lead actor Oscar goes to men with a few more miles on the odometer. Adrien Brody is the youngest winner, taking the trophy in 2003 for “The Pianist” when he was 29.

But, as noted earlier, things have changed since the film academy began greatly expanding its membership over the past decade. This new academy gave its best picture and three acting prizes to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a bonkers movie that embraced chaos, fingers made of hot dogs and sex toys used as weapons. The new academy just crowned indie auteur Sean Baker king of the world for “Anora,” a Cinderella story about a stripper and a Prince Charming who knows where to score the best ketamine in Vegas.

You think these voters are going to care that Chalamet hasn’t “paid his dues,” an idea that’s patently silly on its surface anyway as this is his third Oscar nomination? He’s the youngest actor to earn three Oscar nominations since Marlon Brando did it, at age 30, in 1954.

By the way, Brando won the Oscar that year for “On the Waterfront.”

Chalamet has got this.

Paul Fischer showed “Jaws” to his daughter when she was 10. She wasn’t scared. In fact, she loved it so much that she dressed as Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper for Halloween. To Fischer, who watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at age 4 (“I remember the melting heads but I don’t think I was traumatized”), it shows the staying power of some of the ’70s blockbusters.

“It’s the flip side of how these franchises became so massive and had such a long tail,” he said in a recent video call with The Times, discussing how each generation still finds “Star Wars,” “Raiders,” “E.T.,” “Jaws” and “The Godfather.” “They’ve created films that endured and that overshadow others.”

That is part of the impetus behind his new book, “The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema.” The book, Fischer’s third about film history, starts before the trio were “big mythical names” and instead were just a bunch of guys setting out to fulfill their dreams.

The narrative then follows their journeys from the late ’60s through the early ’80s, filling in the “ecosystem” the trio came up in and how they wanted to change the system to gain creative autonomy. Spielberg worked within the system, Coppola spent lavishly and even ostentatiously to build his own studio and Lucas found his independence through a quieter, more conservative and technology-driven route.

(Martin Scorsese, who was friends with the three and “the most interesting human being of that generation of filmmakers,” gets plenty of ink but was not a titular character, Fischer said, because he remained an outsider who just wanted to make movies, not change the system.)

“I’m not going to pretend I can tell you what was going on in their heads but I tried to make people feel like they were there when it happened,” Fischer said.

While none of the three men would be interviewed, Fischer had decades of quotes and conducted his own interviews with hundreds of people in the filmmakers’ orbits to get a fuller and more honest story. (He added that their representatives were uniformly helpful with fact-checking and providing photos. “There was never a door closed on me,” he said in an accidental reference to the final scene of “The Godfather.”)

Coppola, “who changed quite a bit, was the hardest one for me to pin down,” Fischer said. “There are layers of complexity to him and his willingness to treat the creative life as if it’s an experiment.” Blending that with his self-indulgent philandering and spending of money, he added, “you can change your mind about that guy every five minutes.”

During that era at least, Fischer said Lucas and Coppola seemed ”completely devoid of any self-awareness.” He chronicles how Coppola pressured Lucas to accept changes to his first feature, “THX 1138,” so the studio would release it while Lucas viewed that as Coppola pushing him to sell out. Meanwhile, Lucas was pushing Coppola to do a studio film for hire to keep his fledgling Zoetrope Studio afloat, making Coppola feel pressured to sell out. (That movie was “The Godfather,” so it worked out OK for Coppola.)

“They keep giving each other advice about how to do things and then betray that same advice when it applies themselves,” he said, although he added that he doesn’t “whip them for 300 pages for having giant egos,” and said it’s part of the recipe to be a visionary filmmaker, especially in the Hollywood studio system.

Ultimately, the book depicts Lucas as more of a sellout, acting like the studio suits he once detested as he pressures “The Empire Strikes Back” director Irvin Kershner to make changes, often based on budget and then focusing more on profitability as he conjured up characters like the Ewoks for “Return of the Jedi.” Fischer doesn’t believe Lucas would recognize that version of himself in the book. “He’s someone who lost his BS detector and has drunk his own Kool-Aid.”

In Fischer’s telling, the creative and business sides are interwoven and inseparable from each other and from the personal relationships — their friendships and rivalries with each other but also their relationships with those who worked for them or loved them.

“They were all able to do what they did because of wives or partners or friends or college classmates, who did a lot of the work without being household names,” he said. To fully tell the story, he devotes plenty of narrative space to Coppola’s wife Eleanor, and his most prominent mistress, Melissa Mathison, who later wrote “E.T.,” producer Kathleen Kennedy, who co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg, and Lucas’ wife, Marcia, who edited the first “Star Wars” trilogy (and Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”).

“How did these guys break through? Well, they were middle-class white dudes and these women looked after some of this stuff they couldn’t,” Fischer said. “Those aren’t the only reasons these guys became who they did but without that, they probably [wouldn’t have].”

Fischer celebrates the three men’s vision and talents — he calls “The Godfather” “a perfect film” and says Spielberg “speaks the language of a camera better than anybody else”— but the book makes clear how often they got lucky or were saved from themselves.

If Coppola had spent his money more judiciously, he might not have done “The Godfather;” Lucas resisted hiring Harrison Ford to play Han Solo as well as Ford’s creative contributions; and if someone had bankrolled the first feature film Spielberg pitched before latching onto “Jaws” — “a sex comedy San Francisco Chinese laundry riff on Snow White” — it could have sunk his career.

Additionally, Lucas and Coppola’s friendship frayed when the latter snatched back the directing gig for a film he had long ago promised to his buddy. “But imagine George Lucas making some weird low-budget, ‘Battle of Algiers’ version of ‘Apocalypse Now’ in the back streets of Sacramento,” Fischer said. “That sounds pretty crappy. And we would have lost one of the great, novelistic experiential movies that we have.”

Lucas, meanwhile, dangled his idea for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before Spielberg’s eyes, then told him that Philip Kaufman had dibs. “He’s a fine director but we would have lost something there too,” Fischer said. “There are these crossroads there but still there has got to be something special about these three or they couldn’t have had repeated successes like they did.”

Writing about their failures, foibles and frustrations did not lessen the hold that these three men and their movie magic have on Fischer. He recounts a story of his own connection to one film with undisguised delight and enthusiasm. After graduating film school at USC, he was producing a documentary (“Radioman”) in New York when he learned that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was doing some filming in Connecticut. “Obsessed,” he finagled his way onto the set and into a job. “All I did was turn off the air conditioning,” he said. “‘Roll camera,’ I flip it off. ‘Cut,’ I turn it on. I did that for four days. But when Harrison Ford walked by wearing that jacket, I was 5-years-old again. That was cool.”

Miller is a freelance writer in Brooklyn who frequently writes about movies.

Teddy Riley took to social media late Thursday to walk back earlier comments he’d made about wanting to work with the disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.

In an interview with The Times published on Wednesday, the veteran producer and musician — widely known as the architect of the New Jack Swing sound that dominated Black pop in the late 1980s and early 1990s — said he’d “talked a few times” with Kelly, who’s serving a 30-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, and that he’s “bringing in investors” to help release some portion of the 25 albums Kelly has said he’s recorded in prison.

“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Riley told The Times. “Everyone deserves to repent, and everyone gets forgiven by God when you come to him. People miss [Kelly’s] music. I’m the messenger to bring R&B back.”

Yet Thursday he appeared to changed course.

“As a producer, I’ve always been excited about the possibilities of music and creative collaboration,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “That excitement has defined my career. But I also understand that words carry weight, and I never want my passion for music to overshadow the very real pain that many people have experienced.

“If my comments caused hurt, I sincerely apologize,” he added. “That was never my intention. I take seriously the impact that abuse and misconduct have had on survivors and their families. Their experiences matter, and they deserve to be acknowledged with care and respect.”

Riley, whose long career has included collaborations with Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat, described his plan to work with Kelly as “a creative idea discussed in passing. It is not something that will move forward. Loving music and recognizing its cultural impact does not mean condoning harmful behavior, and I want to be clear about that.

“I have spent my life building a legacy rooted in innovation, integrity, and love for the art form. That remains my focus. I appreciate the dialogue, and I remain committed to moving forward with intention and accountability,” said Riley, who this month published a book, “Remember the Times,” about his life and work.

“Thank you to everyone who continues to support me, my memoir, and the journey,” he wrote on Instagram.

ERIC Dane’s girlfriend Janell Shirtcliff has broken her silence after his death.

The Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor, 53, passed away after a courageous battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Janell, 42, took to her Instagram story to share a sweet tribute to the late actor, posting several of their fond memories together.

The first photo she posted was one of Eric sitting under the shade of a palm tree, smiling down at her.

The next was a selfie of the couple outside posing by a set of stairs. In the snap, Eric dropped a kiss on Janell’s head.

Others showed Eric generally happy and enjoying spending time with Janell as well as friends and family.

Then the final memory is a reel showing Eric with Janell’s daughter, whose name has not been publicly revealed.

She’s attempting to direct the actor while taking photos of him.

She says: “I want you to look over there at Mom,” to which he happily agreed.

When Eric noticed Janell pointing her phone at them both he said: “Are you taking videos?”

“It’s cute,” Janell replied back, and then they both laughed.

Eric revealed he had been diagnosed with ALS in April of last year.

It’s a rare condition that causes progressive muscle weakness over time, and it has no cure.

In the final months before his death he was confined to a wheelchair and he missed some media appearances.

When Eric passed, he was reportedly surrounded by loved ones including his daughters Billie and Georgia and his wife Rebecca Gayheart.

Eric and Rebecca were set to get divorced but Rebecca withdrew her divorce filing upon discovering Eric’s ALS diagnosis, and he continued dating Janell.

Eric and Rebecca tied the know in 2004 and stayed married until 2018 when Rebecca filed for divorce.

After years had passed the divorce proceedings hadn’t moved forward, and seven years later upon hearing Eric’s diagnosis Rebecca dismissed the paperwork.

Eric played the role of Cal Jacobs in the popular program Euphoria.

Cal is the father of Nate Jacobs, played by actor Jacob Elordi.

He played Dr. Mark Sloan during his time on Grey’s Anatomy.

Embattled Hollywood mogul Casey Wasserman, who is facing mounting pressure to resign from his position at the helm of the 2028 L.A. Olympics, also holds another important cultural appointment on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s board of trustees.

Wasserman, 51, joined LACMA’s board in 2004 when he was 30, two years after he founded his eponymous talent and marketing agency. Just last week, Wasserman announced he would sell his agency after racy emails between himself and convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, emerged at part of the Justice Department’s latest release of millions of documents related to the Epstein files.

Wasserman, the grandson of legendary studio exec Lew Wasserman, arrived at LACMA as part of a wave of relatively young additions to a notoriously older board. His addition also heralded the dawning of an era in which LACMA actively sought to strengthen its connections with the entertainment world. In 2011, LACMA launched its glitzy Art + Film Gala, an annual party co-chaired by Leonardo DiCaprio that serves as a melting pot for A-list celebrities and art world stars.

“There was an understanding — the message was there needed to be a change in the board,” museum director Michael Govan told The Times in a 2015 interview. “The board was in extreme need of refreshment.”

Now that Wasserman’s leadership in other roles is being questioned , will his relationship with LACMA follow? LACMA did not respond to a request for comment. Although the board generally meets a few times a year, it may not be an issue that has come to the fore as of yet.

Thus far, LA28 has stood by Wasserman, noting in a recent statement that his emails with Maxwell were sent years “before Mr. Wasserman or the public knew of Epstein and Maxwell’s deplorable crimes … This was his single interaction with Epstein.”

“The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,” LA28 wrote.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said in a recent CNN interview that she believed Wasserman should step down, and that it is “unfortunate” that Olympic organizers remained in support of him.

In a memo to staff at his talent agency, Wasserman wrote that he was “heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.”

I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt with this week’s arts and culture news.

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

The cast of “Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale.”

(South Coast Repertory)

Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale
The classic fairy tale moves to the basketball court in this hip-hop fueled musical adaptation for young audiences with a book and lyrics by Karen Zacarías and music by Deborah Wicks La Puma. Directed by Sara Guerrero.
Through March 8. South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa. scr.org

Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer
The exhibition from the German-born art dealer’s collection includes portraits and ephemera, featuring such artists as Maynard Dixon, Peter Krasnow, Beatrice Wood and Edward Weston, as well as gifts from the Blue Four artsist, whose work Scheyer championed: Alexei Jawlensky, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky.
Thursday-Monday, through July 20. Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. nortonsimon.org

The Industry LAB 2026
The innovative opera company partners with REDCAT for this series featuring new works: a shared program of Guillermo E. Brown’s “The Instrument, Romance, Bee Boy” and Carmina Escobar’s “Our Voice Is Not at the End of Anything” (8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday); and Matana Roberts’ “spiral resonance: a study in the abstract,” an immersive sound and moving image installation exhibition (noon-6 p.m., daily through March 1) with solo activation performances in the space by Patrick Shiroishi (8 p.m. Tuesday); Ryan Sawyer (8 p.m. Wednesday); Roberts (8 p.m. Feb. 27); Kyp Malone (8 p.m. Feb. 28); and Judith Berkson (3 p.m. March 1).
Through March 1, 2026 REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org

Wallace Berman/Bruce Conner
A pair of solo exhibitions highlighting extraordinary mark-making: “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” salutes the centennial of post-war counter-culture artist Berman with a rare showing of his large-scale photographic collages; “Inkblots and Felt Tip Drawings” focuses on an often overlooked aspect of multimedia artist Conner’s work. A selection of Conner’s experimental films are being exhibited at Marciano Art Foundation (see below).
Tuesday-Saturday, through April 25. Michael Kohn Gallery, 1227 North Highland Ave. kohngallery.com

Missa Solemnis
Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are joined by more than 100 voices from the Cor de Cambra of the Palau de la Música Catalana and Orfeó Català of Barcelona for this Beethoven mass that is rarely performed due to its ambitious scale.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Jon Serl: As One, As Many
Starting in vaudeville before moving to California and working as a Hollywood voice actor and gardener, Serl became a painter following World War II with a long, expressive career illustrated in this retrospective. Fittingly, the artist had his first museum exhibition in 1981 at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (now UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art).
Through June 7. UC Irvine Langson/Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art

Marco Perego
“The Being” is a solo exhibition featuring video, installations and drawings by Italian-born artist.
Through April. Jeffrey Deitch, 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. deitch.com

Christina Kirk and Norbert Leo Butz, seated, with the cast of “The Recipe.”

(Rich Soublet II/La Jolla Playhouse)

The Recipe
Christina Kirk and Norbert Leo Butz star as Julia and Paul Child in the world premiere of Claudia Shear’s play about the world-famous chef. Directed by Lisa Petersen.
Through March 22. La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Dr. lajollaplayhouse.org

Puppet Up! – Uncensored
Created by Brian Henson and directed by Patrick Bristow, this irreverent, ever-changing show features the Miskreant puppets plus classic Jim Henson sketches unseen by live audiences for decades.
7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday; 7 p.m. Feb. 27-28; 5 p.m. March 1. The Montalbán, 1615 Vine St., Hollywood. puppetup.com

SATURDAY
Kyreeana Breelin Alexander
The interdisciplinary artist performs “We Cool,” a solo autobiographical coming-of-age story fueled by rhythm and movement.
8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Judith F. Baca
With “The Great Wall Of Los Angeles: The 1970’s — A Decade Of Defiance And Dreams,” the artist’s organization SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) exhibits the latest complete segment in the monumental work’s expansion.
Opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; through April 4. Jeffrey Deitch, 925 N. Orange Dr. deitch.com

Bruce Conner, “Crossroads,” 1976. 35mm, black/white, sound, 37 min. Digitally Restored, 2013.

(The Conner Family Trust/Michael Kohn Gallery)

Bruce Conner
“Recording Angel” brings together seven of the artist’s experimental films, composed of found, scavenged and original footage, and re-cut using his influential rapid-fire editing techniques.
Through July 18. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. marcianoartfoundation.org

Patti LuPone
The Broadway star marks the 25th anniversary of her concert “Matters of the Heart,” which ran on Broadway and London’s West End and toured the globe.
7:30 p.m. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org

John Snow
The bassist and his band explore “The Poetry in Music” through works by John Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Langston Hughes, Hoagy Carmichael, Bob Dylan and others.
8 p.m. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com

Tap Fest: Listen to This!
Dancers Derick Grant, Sam Weber and Josette Wiggan join the Colburn’s tap faculty and students for a program exploring the concept of the Tap Artist as both a dancer and musician.
7 p.m. Colburn School, Thayer Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu

SUNDAY
Zhanna Kadyrova
A collaboration with Kyiv to LA, an ongoing project supporting Ukrainian artists through a Los Angeles-based residency, and the Thomas Mann House, the solo exhibition “Sliced Realities” explores the artist’s anti-war practice and coincides with the four-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Sunday-Feb. 28. Thomas Mann House (1550 N San Remo Drive, Pacific Palisades. vatmh.org

Museums Free-For-All
An Southland tradition in which Southern California arts and cultural institutions open their doors for free general admission. Participants include the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Autry Museum of the American West, The Broad, California African American Museum, the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, UCLA Hammer Museum, LACMA, MOCA, Skirball Cultural Center and many, many more. At some locations, tickets are limited and reservations may be required.
All-day Sunday. See complete list of participating institutions at socalmuseums.net/free

Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel
Colburn Conservatory of Music welcomes the Belgian conservatory and its master-in-residence, cellist Gary Hoffman, for a joint performance of Fauré’s “Piano Quintet No. 1” and Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.”
3 p.m. Colburn School, Thayer Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu

Sueño Perro
This film Installation by Alejandro G. Iñárritu both marks the 25th anniversary of his debut “Amores Perros” and serves as a “resurrection” using projections of never-before-seen fragments from that film’s production.
Through July 26. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, BCAM, Level 1, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

We Hold These Truths: A Celebration of Black History Month Over 100 Years
The contributions of Black Americans to the cause of democracy over the years are recognized in this collaboration of performers from across artistic mediums. Featured artists include actor Phil Morris, composer Tamar-kali, dancer Ishaun Jackson-Moaney, the West Angeles COGIC Victory Dance Company, opera baritone Derrick Lawrence and promising talent out of the USC Thornton School of Music, opera mezzo-soprano and producer Raehann Bryce-Davis, poet Alyesha Wise and arts scholar and activist Derrell Acon.
3 p.m. Nocturne Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale. eventbrite.com

TUESDAY
Flashback Fun
Six Disney classics return to the big screen: “Muppet Treasure Island” (Tuesday); “The Aristocats” (Wednesday); “Dumbo” (Thursday); “The Rescuers” (Feb. 27); “Bolt” (Feb. 28); and “Oliver and Company” (March 1).
The El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. elcapitantheatre.com

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.

(Kate Dockeray/For The Times)

It Was Just an Accident: Live Read
Film Independent presents writer-director Jafar Panahi’s “incisive drama,” winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2025 and nominated for international feature film and original screenplay at this year‘s Academy Awards, to the Wallis stage read by a new cast.
7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

Haegue Yang
“Star-Crossed Rendezvous” pairs two of the Korean-born, Berlin-based artist’s large-scale installations employing utilitarian objects. The first, “Sol LeWitt Upside Down — K123456, Expanded 1078 Times, Doubled and Mirrored” (2015) is a monochromatic installation inspired by the cube structures of the American conceptual artist. Across the gallery, “Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun” (2024) is an homage to composer and political dissident Isang Yun (1917–95). Synchronized to Yun’s “Double Concerto” (1977), an array of moving lights animate vibrant geometric structures to create an ever-changing, multisensory experience. The L.A. Philharmonic will perform Yun’s piece on March 10 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with a pre-concert viewing of the installation at MOCA Grand.
Through Aug 2. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org

WEDNESDAY
L.A. Art Week
It happens every February. Thousands of artists, collectors, curators and gallerists descend on the city, swelling an already vibrant local scene with a global reach into a week of discovery, creative adventure and fashion flamboyance. The Big Kahuna, of course, is Frieze Los Angeles (Thursday-March 1. frieze.com), a fair with a primarily contemporary focus, approximately 100 galleries, installations and pop-ups restaurants from around L.A.; Butter Fine Art Fair (Thursday-March 1. Hollywood Park, 1237 District Drive, Inglewood. butterartfair.com) features artists representing the African diaspora; Enzo (Wednesday-Saturday. 1634 W. Temple St. enzolosangeles.com) presents nine New York City galleries in an Echo Park warehouse; Felix Art Fair (Wednesday-March 1. Hollywood Roosevelt, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. felixfair.com) showcases exhibitors from around the world in a classic Hollywood setting; the cheekily-named The Other Art Fair Los Angeles (Thursday-March 1. 3Labs, 8461 Warner Dr., Culver City. theotherartfair.com) promises “the bizarre, unexpected, and never normal” with work from 160 independent artists; Post-Fair (Thursday-Feb. 28. 1248 5th St., Santa Monica. post-fair.com) is a dealer-led event in a historic Santa Monica Post Office building; and Start Up Art Fair (Friday-March 1. The Kinney Venice Beach, 737 Washington Blvd. startup-art.com) brings together 150 independent artists, collectors, curators and art professionals. It’s mostly next weekend but we wanted to give you a heads-up. Be sure to watch for Times reporter Malia Mendez’s upcoming preview. Happy art hunting and people watching.

THURSDAY
Beethoven and Ortiz with Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Phil are joined by Grupo Corpa and the L.A. Master Chorale for this charged program pairing Beethoven’s “Seventh Symphony” with Gabriela Ortiz’s ballet “Revolución diamantina (Glitter Revolution).”
8 p.m. Thursday and Feb. 27; 2 p.m. Feb. 28-March 1. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Norbert Leo Butz
The Broadway star and two-time Tony Award winner (currently performing in “The Recipe” at La Jolla Playhouse, above) will perform excerpts from his signature roles, original compositions from his four solo records and covers from Tom Waits, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen.
7 p.m. Thursday-Feb. 28. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Samueli Theater, 300 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Arts anywhere

Something to read, something to hear and something to watch wherever you are.

The Art Book: Mini Format

(Phaidon Press)

The Art Book
What’s it like to hold art history in the palm of your hand? Find out with the new Mini edition of this beloved text celebrated for bringing art appreciation to the masses. First introduced in 1994, the updated edition of this A-Z survey features more than 600 artists from medieval times to the present. It’s far from stuffy, including overlooked and contemporary figures including Berenice Abbott, Romare Bearden, Guerrilla Girls and more; plus Takashi Murakami and Wolfgang Tillmans, who The Times happened to interview recently and have L.A. shows (see below). Phaidon Press: 592 pp., $20. phaidon.com

Yunchan Lim

(IMG Artists)

Goldberg Variations Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, 2025
Recorded fewer than 30 blocks form where Glenn Gould laid down his own landmark recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterpiece, pianist Yunchan Lim’s new album has been topping the classical charts since its release earlier this month. If you missed his performance of the Variations at Disney Hall last October (or if even if you didn’t), this is a must listen. Decca Records: $8-38. Available on vinyl, CD and digital download. deccarecordsus.com

An image from Frederick Wiseman’s ‘Titicut Follies.’

(courtesy of Zipporah Films)

Frederick Wiseman
The filmmaker, who died Monday at 96, was a master storyteller and craftsman who mainly inhabited the nonfiction realm of the documentary. His perceptive explorations of public and cultural institutions was unparalleled and he was honored with an honorary Academy Award in 2016. If you would like to revisit Wiseman’s work or want an exhaustive introduction, check out the Frederick Wiseman Essential Films Collection at kanopy.com. Virtually every film he ever made is available and all you need is a public library card (an apt requirement!). His final film, “Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros” from 2023, can be viewed via the PBS Passport membership portal.

— Kevin Crust

Culture news and the SoCal scene

A detail of miniature “sportraits” during a preview of award-winning animator and visual-effects artist Lyndon J. Barrois’ exhibit, “Futbol Is Life” at LACMA.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is staging a new show in honor of the FIFA World Cup, coming to L.A. and other cities this summer. Created by artist Lyndon J. Barrois Sr., “Fútbol Is Life” “depicts some of the most iconic plays and political moments in the 95-year history” of the event with “‘humble’ gum wrappers,” writes The Times’ Jasmine Mendez.

Jefferson Mays in “Amadeus” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

A new take on Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” premiered at Pasadena Playhouse last week, and it may be the Tony Award-winning regional theater’s most lavish production to date. I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the theater’s amazing on-site scene shop to write about what it took to put the set, lighting and costumes together; and Times theater critic Charles McNulty attended opening night. Director Darko Tresnjak, writes McNulty in his review, “treats the play as though it were a tragedy wearing the mask of comedy. He doesn’t resist the melodrama that’s inherent in the material, but he refuses to overindulge it. This production hasn’t convinced me that ‘Amadeus’ is a world classic… But I doubt I’ll have the opportunity to see a better revival in my lifetime.”

McNulty also caught a performance of “Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia,” Beth Hyland‘s new play that recently had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, and explores the lives of married writers living in the Boston apartment once occupied by the poet Sylvia Plath and her husband Ted Hughes. “World premieres are risky, and the writing for this one hasn’t yet settled. The play’s split focus, moving between 1958 and the present, is a sign of conceptual ambition. But Hyland struggles to find the pacing and rhythm of her complicated vision,” McNulty writes.

Meanwhile, “Here Lies Love,” David Byrne’s disco musical about the Ferdinand Marcos regime arrived at the Mark Taper Forum in a show directed by Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Snehal Desai. The Times’ Malia Mendez sat down with members of the all-Filipino cast to discuss the ways the show’s exploration of the perils of authoritarianism dovetail with the modern political moment.

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami sits in front of his painting at Perrotin Gallery on Feb. 13, 2026 in Mid City in Los Angeles, Calif.

(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)

I had the opportunity for a one-on-one chat with artist Takashi Murakami about his solo show at Perrotin, Los Angeles, which features 24 new canvases that explore the connection between the ancient Japanese art of ukiyo-e and Impressionism. A trip to Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France, cemented Murakami’s idea for the paintings.

Contributor Steve Appleford wrote a thoughtful profile on German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, who is currently staging his ninth Los Angeles exhibition at Regen Projects. “In 2000 Tillmans became the first photographer and first non-British artist to win the prestigious Turner Award. Tate Britain staged his mid-career retrospective in 2003 and the Hammer Museum in Westwood mounted his first major U.S. retrospective that same year, which traveled to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.,” Appleford writes.

A sketch from architect Paul R. Williams’ archive at The Getty Center.

(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)

Paul Williams, the first Black architect licensed west of the Mississippi, is the focus of a series of upcoming shows to be staged from August through July 2027 at the Getty, LACMA and USC Fisher Museum of Art. Throughout the course of his six-decade career Williams designed more than 3,000 projects, including for clients such as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and the Beverly Hills Hotel. The exhibitions will feature architectural drawings, photographs, plans and memorabilia, some of which have never been on view to the public before.

Los Angeles Master Chorale announced Artistic Director Grant Gershon’s 25th anniversary season featuring work by Brahms, Bruckner, Arvo Pärt, Bach, Morten Lauridsen and Orlando di Lasso. Guest artists will include the National Chorus of Korea, composer Eric Whitacre, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Baroque ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée and theater director Peter Sellars. Subscriptions are available now, and single tickets will go on sale June 1.

The nonprofit arts organization, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), announced the four artists chosen to receive its 2026 Mohn LAND Grants. They are Shana Hoehn, Angela Anh Nguyen, Harrison Kinnane Smith and Adam Thompson. Winners receive a $5,000 award as well as $5,000 in production funds to use towards a new work commission.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Washington National Opera is moving on from the beleaguered Kennedy Center, and has announced new venues and dates for its upcoming production of “West Side Story.” The show will be performed at the Lyric Baltimore on May 8, 9, 10; and at the Music Center at Strathmore, May 14, 15.

Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left divided by the drone performance featuring King Charles’ voice that closed the first episode of the ITV series

Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left split over one particular act that brought the curtain down on the opening episode of the ITV programme.

This year, hundreds of hopefuls will be greeted by award-winning presenters Ant and Dec before showcasing their abilities to judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and newcomer KSI.

Performers from every corner of the UK and across the globe will be taking to the stage, hoping not only to impress the judging panel but also the voting public, in a bid to scoop the life-changing prize of £250,000 and a coveted spot at the legendary Royal Variety Performance.

Fans were quick to voice their opinions after Somerset act Celestial closed the show with a spectacular mega-drone display. As the judges and audience filed outside, Celestial put on a breathtaking show combining drones and lights.

Towards the finale of the performance, King Charles‘ voice was heard in a poignant tribute, leaving some viewers feeling it “couldn’t have come at a worse time”, reports Belfast Live.

The voice said: “Wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love.

“Our nation and the wider family of realms, of whose talents, traditions and achievements, I am so inexpressibly proud. Have prospered and flourished, which makes us great as a nation.”

Amanda Holden remarked, “I am going to start crying.”

Responding to the act, one viewer wrote: “An act with the King’s voiceover could not have come at a worse time!”

“This is kinda sick #BGT,” wrote one viewer, whilst another chimed in with, “Not good timing but wow this is cool.”

One sharp-eyed fan noted, “Celestial- very cool very different I love it but I can’t see the King going outside to watch it that’s the only thing #BGT.”

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.

Another raised a valid point, asking: “How is a drone act going to work on the stage at The Royal Variety Show?”

Heaping praise on the heartfelt performance, one devoted viewer declared, “Celestial, best act of the Night #BGT.”

“Well, wasn’t that brilliant? Brought a wee tear to my eye #BGT,” gushed yet another fan.

Britain’s Got Talent is available to watch on ITVX.

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EMILY Atack waved goodbye to London to live her dream life in the countryside – and she’s been looking amazing during the new chapter.

The Rivals star has been on a weight loss journey and isn’t afraid to flaunt her figure in stunning outfits.

But today Emily showcased her fit figure in a simple sports shirt and leggings while enjoying a game of rugby.

In a series of snaps to her Instagram story, the star wore a sports shirt that said “Atack 18” on the back.

She looked out across the stadium onto the field, arms held up in the air.

Emily’s legs looked incredibly slender and the long sleeve layer underneath her sports shirt clung to her slimmed down arms.

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Emily Atack gives fans a look inside countryside home as she quits London

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Other snaps show her cheering with friends and sharing hugs, all round having a good day out.

It comes just after Emily gave her fans a sneak peak into her new countryside home.

She teased her new abode with some subtle photos including one of a rustic bookshelf in the interior, old fashioned panelled walls and lovely wooden flooring.

Captioning the snaps, Emily wrote: “Welcome to our new home!

“Can’t wait to bore you all to death with my unhinged wallpaper decisions.”

Emily also shared a number of photos during the process of her moving house with her fiance Alistair Garner, including pics of moving boxes and a removals and storage van.

Emily posed with a huge grin and two thumbs up outside the van as it was being loaded.

Excited about the new chapter, she reflected on how far she had come.

“From single girl flats in Camden, to where I had my baby in North London. Now the big one.

“As me Al, Barney and Penny have moved out of London and to the countryside to our dream home.”

Emily and Alistair welcomed their baby boy Barney in 2024.

A year later Alistair got down on one knee with a huge diamond ring to pop the big question.

The latest episode of Ryan Murphy’s JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette show features a mysterious warning letter

*Warning – this article contains minor spoilers for Love Story.*

Ryan Murphy’s newest series has thrust the turbulent romance of John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette back into public consciousness.

The fourth instalment of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette arrived this Friday (February 20) and explored a troubling chapter in the pair’s relationship.

During a casual American football match, John (portrayed by Paul Anthony Kelly) discovers a letter in his gym bag containing damning claims about his new partner, Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon).

Whilst the programme takes creative freedom with particular aspects of the celebrated couple’s narrative, the letter reportedly existed and apparently caused JFK Jr. and Bessette to separate, reports the Daily Record.

Did JFK Jr receive a letter about Carolyn Bessette?

As viewers will be aware, Love Story draws inspiration from Elizabeth Beller’s biography entitled Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.

In the book, Beller alleges that JFK Jr. was given a scathing letter about Bessette in 1992, precisely when their romance was flourishing.

Whilst the programme depicts John challenging Carolyn about the accusations at his apartment, the biography suggests they actually engaged in a public row during an evening meal at iconic eatery El Teddy’s.

Based on Beller’s account, the couple separated for a year following the devastating letter, before reuniting in 1993.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new ** Everything Gossip ** website.

Who wrote the letter?

Beller doesn’t disclose the writer’s name. Nevertheless, she explains that they “came from a milieu of boarding schools, Ivy League universities, and ‘old money’ families of New York”.

She continued that it supposedly took Bessette several years to uncover who penned the note, but upon learning the identity, she proceeded to “freeze them out”.

Bessette and JFK Jr wed in an intimate ceremony in September 1996. The pair tragically perished together in an aircraft accident in July 1999.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette is streaming on Disney+

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