Which popstar is going to space, the new Shrek movie, a surprise pregnancy & the Oscar goes to...
Vol. 2 Issue 9 – 1st March 2025
In pursuit of greatness
The Academy Awards take place this coming Sunday. In revealing their secret picks, anonymous Academy voters have also dropped bombs like voting for Adrien Brody for Best Actor because they thought Ralph Fiennes has already won an Oscar before (he hasn’t) (in fact out of all Best Actor nominees, Brody is the only previous Oscar winner), not voting for Cynthia Erivo as she’s “too old” for Wicked, and not watching Dune 2 because who has the time to watch all these movies as a member of the Academy, right? Ugh!!
Anyway, not to flex on anyone, but I managed to watch 8 of the 10 Best Picture nominees, along with others nominated in different categories. Here are my picks for who can take the golden statue home this year.
Shoutout to Letterboxd for the template Last weekend, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards honoured the achievements in film and TV over the past year. Timothee Chalamet won the first major award of his career, taking home Best Actor for A Complete Unknown. He also became the youngest to win the award in history. His speech was especially memorable, as he earnestly expressed his desire to be “one of the greats.”
Some other special moments of the night were host Kristen Bell singing “Do you want to be an actor” to the tune of Frozen’s Do you want to build a snowman, with a montage of the nominees’ first roles as actors, Harrison Ford eating a chip on camera, another montage of actors’ cameos in Law & Order as their first big break in Hollywood, Jane Fonda’s Lifetime Achievement Award speech where she stated, “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke… And by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.” Preach.
Another person in the spotlight was Selena Gomez, dressed by Celine (they also dressed Kendrick Lamar for the Super Bowl, talk about having a moment!) in an off shoulder black gown, and short hair in a bob that many likened to Snow White. However, people were quick to highlight the reactions compared to last year, when Gomez was going through weight fluctuations due to lupus.
The 45th Golden Raspberry Awards, or the Razzies also took place this week, honouring the worst films and performances of 2024. Madame Web won big, winning Worst Picture and Dakota Johnson winning Worst Actress. Francis Ford Coppola also graciously accepted his wins for Megalopolis on his Instagram.
Watch out
Zendaya will be playing Shrek and Fiona’s daughter in Shrek 5! The teaser is out now, the movie will be released in December 2026.
Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett were spotted filming for the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book, Verity, in New York.
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are back with the sequel of A Simple Favor, Another Simple Favor’s trailer is here!
Who expected a Supernatural reunion in 2025? Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins join Jensen Ackles for the last season of The Boys.
Ayo Edebiri is set to write, and potentially star in a live-action Barney movie by A24, Mattel and Daniel Kaluuya. Curious to see what a live-action of an already live-action purple dinosaur looks like…
Shawn Levy’s Star Wars film starring Ryan Gosling is the next Star Wars film in production. It will be a standalone film, set 5-6 years after Episode 9, and may bring back some characters from the sequel trilogy!
Luca Guadagnino was spotted wearing a DC Studios shirt, with many speculating he will be directing a Sgt. Rock movie for the studio.
Sharon Stone joins Euphoria Season 3, as set photos show Zendaya’s character working in a smoke shop.
Nathan fielder is back with a second season of The Rehearsal. Watch the trailer here.
John Lithgow confirms he will be playing Dumbledore in the HBO Harry Potter series, set to release in 2026.
And if you’re interested a fictional sport-related series, Kate Hudson’s Running Point is now streaming on Netflix.
Celeb shenanigans
Katy Perry is going to space along with Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space exploration flight.
Congratulations are in order as Peppa Pig’s mother, Mummy Pig has announced that she is pregnant with her third child!
Karla Sofia Garcon is set to attend the Oscars after all. After her racist tweets emerged, Netflix had cut communication and refused to sponsor her travel and expenses but have now backtracked on this stance.
Lisa, Raye and Doja Cat are to perform at the Oscars, but it won’t be their latest collab, Born Again, as confirmed by the Academy on X. Plus, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Queen Latifah will also be performing.
Skype is shutting down in May: the end of an era.
Dr Ally Louks, of the viral olfactory thesis on X, came out as bi.
Monica Barbaro and Andrew Garfield are reportedly dating!
Millie Bobby Brown showed up to the premiere of her movie The Electric State in a blonde updo and a metallic embroidered gown. The internet obviously could not help themselves as they commented on her looking way older and mature than her 21 year old self.
Charli xcx will be awarded Songwriter of the Year at the Brits, she took to X and beat the trolls to the punch.
Alix Earle’s podcast Hot Mess has been dropped by Alex Cooper’s network Unwell amidst beef between the two ex-friends (and yes, these are two different women, I have been confused in the past too)
America is introducing a ‘Gold Card’ wherein one can pay $5 million to become a citizen of the US. Meanwhile, monitors at the Department of Housing & Urban Development were reportedly hacked to show an AI video of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk’s toes… Yikes.
In memoriam
Michelle Trachtenberg passed away at age 39. She was known for her roles in Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Hollywood legend Gene Hackman, and wife Betsy Arakawa, along with their pet dog, were found dead in their Santa Fe home. In a career spanning decades with multiple iconic movies, he had won two Academy Awards for The French Connection and Unforgiven, and been nominated three other times too.
Also - not to flex, but your girl worked on 6 of the biggest Academy contenders this year :p
Cinematography fosho Brutalist, Jeremy Strong was SO good in The Apprentice