Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/23/2022 i Variety

It’s hard to believe that in all the decades that I’ve been an entertainment journalist and Sally Field has been an actor, the two of us have never had a proper conversation about her illustrious career. Until now, that is. In preparation for our cover interview, I read her searing 2018 memoir “In Pieces” and was saddened to learn about her tortured childhood, being sexually abused by her stepfather, and her struggles with depression, loneliness and self-doubt. Despite someone’s public persona, of course we never really know what’s going on inside. Along with all the triumphs Field achieved, it’s shocking to know that she endured so much pain in her personal and professional lives. It was bold of her to finally speak her truths in her autobiography, which took seven…

Ambitious in scope and storytelling, “Pachinko” seems tailor-made for today’s international streaming wars. It arrives March 25 on Apple TV Plus with a literary pedigree and “Minari” Oscar winner Yuhjung Youn in a starring role. But a greenlight was far from assured when producers shopped it around to TV networks four years ago. At the time, “Crazy Rich Asians” had yet to become a box office hit, and Korean entertainment was not nearly as popular on a global scale as it is now. And producers were determined to secure a premium budget akin to that of “The Crown” or “Succession” to tell the trilingual story, which interweaves timelines in Korea, Japan and the U.S. “In retrospect, I think we were insane,” says executive producer Michael Ellenberg, an HBO vet and…

AWARDS CIRCUIT It’s all come down to this. Ninety-four years of Oscar history have been digested and cross-examined to help yield the critical answer: Which films and performances will win Academy Awards on March 27? By the sheer scope of its nomination tally, Netflix is the closest it’s ever been to taking home the statuette for the Academy’s most prestigious prize. Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” has won the most critics’ awards for best picture, and the film has walked away with the top honor at the BAFTA and DGA ceremonies, which have Oscar-voter crossover. However, in what feels like an even divide, some Academy members told Variety they were ranking it at No. 1 on their preferential ballot, while others were putting it toward the bottom of…

1965-66 Gidget Field makes her TV debut as a spirited 15-year-old California teen who loves surfing and boys. 1967-70 The Flying Nun She plays a 90-pound nun who can fly when the wind catches her cornette. 1976 Sybil Field wins an Emmy for her title role as a young woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. 1979 Norma Rae She wins an Oscar for her titular turn as a textile mill worker who rallies her fellow laborers to organize a union. 1984 Places in the Heart She receives an Oscar for her role as a widow with two children who struggles to run a farm in rural 1939 Texas. 1989 Steel Magnolias Field stars with Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah as friends who deal with…

Oscar producer Will Packer is in good spirits about producing this year’s 94th telecast. Like everyone globally, he’s spent the past two years having existential thoughts regarding his legacy, influence and priorities. But, a Hollywood outsider, Packer could be the right man for the job. Packer and the Academy have received criticism following the announcement that eight categories, three shorts and five artisan, will be pre-recorded and edited into the live telecast for viewers at home. He says he has empathy and respect for the craftspeople. Still, he decided to treat the show as an entertainment property, saying: “I’m going to do the best I can to treat this show with the reverence and respect I think it deserves, but I’m also going to try to make an entertaining show.”…

With a return to the red carpet, the pressure is on to look polished, head-to-toe. Not an easy task after two years of lockdowns. Beauty pros share how awards show elite are getting their glow back for Oscar night. PUPPET LIFTING “The number one concern my patients have is skin firmness,” says celebrity dermatologist Dr. Harold Lancer, whose patients include Elle Fanning. “Using ultrasound, radio frequency and infrared laser, we’re able to improve firmness, bounce and elasticity to any area of the body, whether it’s the arm, breast area, face, neck or jaw.” To address uneven skin color, tone and texture, he has patients start using the Lancer Skincare Method, a three-step daily skincare regimen for the face and body, three months prior. Currently very popular with his clients, puppet…

With the Oscars just days away, the awards pundits and Hollywood whisperers are trying to read all the tea leaves and figure out what’s winning in all 23 categories. A longtime friend and former writing colleague, Mark Johnson at Awards Daily, recently broke down the art of predicting, putting them into four simple rationales: data analysis, cultural zeitgeist, conversations with AMPAS members and gut instinct. The data piece is what’s driven by Film Twitter, while the cultural zeitgeist you see through viral videos on TikTok (for example, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto,” isn’t nominated for Oscar but helps “Dos Oruguitas.”) This year’s crop of nominees represents interesting record breakers and trends in the Oscar canon. So let’s break it all down and how it could hint to potential…

On the eve of the 11th annual Sun Valley Film Festival, Vision Award honorees Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler are both experiencing a bit of déjà vu. For three-time Oscar nominee Harrelson, it’s because he has just learned that his role in the reboot of his 1992 big-screen breakthrough, “White Men Can’t Jump,” will be played by rapper Jack Harlow. “I don’t know him, but it’s fine with me,” Harrelson says. “I’ll look him up now. I don’t see [myself] being in it, but I feel great about them doing a remake. I just hope he’s a better ball player!” For Poehler, talking about the fest, which takes place March 20-April 3 in Sun Valley and Ketchum, Idaho, makes her feel a bit like history is repeating. The Emmy-winning “SNL”…

FILM REVIEW Directors: Adam Nee, Aaron Nee Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe You know studio movies are in a rut when, amid endless Spider-Bat sequels, you find yourself longing for the likes of such escapist 1980s offerings as “Romancing the Stone” and “King Solomon’s Mines,” where the leads throw sparks and the ladies’ makeup never smudges, no matter how close to the volcano they get. After a long stretch without such a big-screen Hollywood adventure movie (at least, not one without ties to a video game or a theme park ride), “The Lost City” makes for welcome counterprogramming. The story was producer Seth Gordon’s idea, but credit siblings Adam and Aaron Nee (“Band of Robbers”) for sprucing up the formula, while Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum supply the…

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a crisis of confidence in his leadership that is fueling an atypical level of turmoil at the top of the world’s largest entertainment company. Though Chapek’s current employment contract, expiring next February, is expected to be renewed soon, according to sources, his tenure as CEO has been marked by upheaval since he was named to the job in February 2020. Some of the disruption has been far out of his control, such as a global pandemic. But Chapek’s own missteps reflect his tendency to keep counsel with a small group of senior executives rather than solicit wider opinions on key decisions. “Chapek has had to deal with a series of catastrophes,” notes Peter Newman, the head of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ MBA/MFA…

Best screen kiss James Garner (“Murphy’s Romance”) Favorite Sally Field movie Ick, I wouldn’t be caught dead watching those. Favorite line delivered “Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch!” (“Norma Rae”) First movie ever watched The Disney cartoon of “Cinderella,” which is very, very disruptive to a little girl’s psychology TV shows recently watched “The Dropout,” “Pam & Tommy,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Best audition “Lincoln” Part that got away If there was a part that got away, I don’t want anybody to tell me because I don’t want to know. Some mentors Martin Ritt, Jane Fonda Last book read “Oh William!” by Elizabeth Strout Best Dash moment When I first got him and he was 6 weeks old and weighed 4 pounds, I just kept him in my shirt because it was cold…

Hollywood is back. Again. Like a screen siren with a second, third and now a 21st-century act, there’s an ongoing resurgence underway. Roam once-overlooked side streets between Hollywood and Sunset boulevards to see the result of a major infusion of investment nearing $1 billion in hotels, restaurants, rooftop buildouts and splashy event spaces. Mother Wolf, Grandmaster Recorders, and the Thompson and Tommie Hollywood Hotels, with their rooftop hot spots Bar Lis and Desert 5, respectively, Wes Avila’s Ka’Teen, Superba Food + Bread Hollywood and the 221-room Godfrey Hotel have boosted mid-Hollywood’s street life and attracted a glittery crowd to a neighborhood that’s clearly in transition. Although Hollywood exemplifies L.A.’s harsh urban realities and its dystopian undercurrents, the historic enclave pulsates with nightlife. Since 2015, Netflix has bolstered its fortunes via…

Danny Glover Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Glover is best-known to audiences as the star of “Angels in the Outfield” and the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, but he is also a film director and political activist. It is for his “decades-long advocacy for justice and human rights [which] reflects his dedication to recognizing our shared humanity on and off the screen” that the Academy is bestowing the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on him. His political activism started back when he was a student San Francisco State in the 1960s. As part of the Black Students Union, he participated in one of the longest strikes (five months long) that resulted in the creation of a Black studies department and the first School of Ethnic Studies in the country. Since then, he has shown…

The pandemic rocked downtown Los Angeles’ luxury residential real estate market. Because office towers were vacant and nightlife shut down, the allure of urban core living faded significantly. Throughout 2020 and into 2021, discounts and incentives were on offer for luxury rentals. Residential sales slowed. The highly visible project, and what was to be L.A.’s tallest residential tower at Oceanwide Plaza across from the Crypto.com Arena, completely stalled after halting construction in 2019. Condominium development did continue apace, and several of those projects are now on the market, such as the 450-unit Perla on Broadway and the Metropolis Tower, with more in the pipeline. Residential towers are reshaping the skyline as vertical living gains traction from South Park to the historic core and across the Arts District. The coming launch…

Pam Hupp, the real-life murderer played by Renée Zellweger in NBC’s “The Thing About Pam,” apparently had a habit of slurping her flavored soft drink from the local convenience store. It’s a recurring gag in the six-part series, and it even became part of the musical score, as Pam is rarely seen without her big plastic soda cup. Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli, the composing team whose music for “The Witcher” became a viral hit in early 2020, have spent the past five months coming up with unique sounds for “Pam,” which dramatizes a small-town Missouri killing in 2011 and the botched police investigation that followed. “This is a true-crime network show,” Ostinelli notes, “and there is a certain sound that goes with this. We needed to do something completely…

With just two months to go before networks unveil their fall TV offerings to Madison Avenue during their annual upfronts presentations, broadcast pilot orders have fallen to perhaps the lowest level in decades. Fox isn’t even producing a pilot at this point, having passed on the only one it had in contention. So far, the five broadcast networks have ordered 35 pilots — some of them holdovers from last season. High-profile projects involving Hilary Swank and several “This Is Us” stars are in the mix, but the tally is running more than 20% behind the 45 broadcast pilot orders last year and well below the 60 ordered in 2020. Even allowing for projects that have been ordered straight to series, that’s a notable drop. And the pandemic is only partly…

STRICTLY BUSINESS The fight for ownership of Tegna, the large TV station group that was once part of Gannett Co., has been one of the ugliest public battles in media in recent years. The Tegna board spent two years fending off unwelcome advances from dissident shareholder Soo Kim of investment firm Standard General. Kim waged consecutive losing proxy fights to replace Tegna board members. So what changed? On Feb. 22, Tegna trumpeted the news that Standard General will acquire Tegna in a $24-a-share deal valued at $8.6 billion. The pact has raised eyebrows and some ire in broadcaster circles, and not just because of the sparring between Kim and the Tegna board. The deal will test the FCC’s limits on station ownership. Moreover, the sale of Tegna reflects another private…

MARCH 23 South Asian Excellence in Film Party 5-8 p.m. Hosts Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani, Anjula Acharia, Bela Bajaria, Maneesh K. Goyal and Shruti Ganguly toast “Flee,” “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,” “Summer of Soul,” “The Long Goodbye,” “Three Songs for Benazir” and “Writing With Fire.” United Talent Agency 9336 Civic Center Dr., Beverly Hills MARCH 24 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards 11 a.m. Honorees include Nia Long, Aunjanue Ellis, Quinta Brunson and Chanté Adams. Damson Idris hosts. Beverly Wilshire Hotel 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills The Latinx House Pre-Oscars Lunch Noon Industry insiders and creatives, advocates and community members honor this year’s Latino nominees. Issima 623 N. La Peer Dr., Los Angeles Oscar Wilde Awards 6:30-11 p.m. U.S.-Ireland Alliance honors Dónall Ó Héalai, Kenneth…

Best Picture • Belfast • CODA • Don’t Look Up • Drive My Car • Dune • King Richard • Licorice Pizza • Nightmare Alley • The Power of the Dog • West Side Story Director • Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”) • Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) • Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) • Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”) Lead Actor • Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”) • Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”) • Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”) • Will Smith (“King Richard”) • Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) Lead Actress • Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) • Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”) • Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”) • Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) • Kristen…

Throwing a major awards luncheon with 700-800 attendees who are all used to hosting their own massive events may sound intimidating. However, for Tim Menke and Sheryl Main, chairs of the Local 600 Intl. Cinematographers Guild Publicist Awards, which takes place March 25 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it’s a gratifying experience with a history that originated 59 years ago. The guild bestows awards in categories including publicist of the year, career achievement in publicity, excellence in unit still photography, international and domestic press journalists, and television and motion picture campaigns of the year. This year, the guild is also honoring Francis Ford Coppola with a lifetime achievement award. 2022’s publicist nominees grappled with the added challenge of working while strapped into the COVID rollercoaster. Constantly shifting release dates and…

TV REVIEW Drama: Paramount Plus (9 episodes; 2 reviewed); March 24 With: Pablo Schreiber, Natascha Mc-Elhone, Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine It isn’t the fault of “Halo,” the TV series adaptation finally premiering after years stuck in development hell, that it comes on the heels of myriad options that look and feel similar enough to lessen its ability to shock and awe. From “The Mandalorian” (Disney Plus) to “Matrix: Resurrections” (HBO Max) to “Foundation” (Apple TV Plus), there are already plenty of big-budget science fiction epics on screen taking on the same themes. So in its quest to stand out in the vast galaxy of choices, the question for “Halo” then becomes whether this adaptation can reel in viewers who may not have much knowledge of the sprawling Halo universe —…