Spring has sprung, but is it ever a bad time to see a movie in Los Angeles? Not really, especially when local programmers keep upping their game. This month brings the third edition of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, an event that’s growing in ambition. Meanwhile, we’re about as far away from Halloween as we can get, yet the thrillers keep coming: Martin Scorsese’s ominous remake of “Cape Fear,” David Fincher’s landmark “Zodiac” and (the sometimes scary!) “Pinocchio.” These screenings feature special guests, archival prints and other surprises. Consider our guide a handy catch-all of the best special screenings of the month, mostly reserved for older films playing in unique circumstances. Whatever your plans may be, change them for the following 8 events.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/list/best-movie-screenings-you-can-only-catch-in-los-angeles-this-month-april-2026
Category Archives: entertainment
2026 Oscars telecast scores 17.9 million viewers, down 9% from last year
ABC’s Sunday telecast of the 98th Oscars averaged 17.9 million viewers, ending a four-year streak of audience increases. The figure from Nielsen is down 9% from the 19.7 million viewers who watched the telecast on ABC and Hulu in 2025.
After ratings for the Oscars cratered to an all-time low of 10.5 million viewers in 2021, the event’s audience levels ticked back up in recent years. However, the show has not topped 20 million viewers since 2019. This decline is partly attributed to younger viewers preferring to watch highlights of the ceremony on social media rather than sit through the three-plus hour telecast on traditional TV.
The awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, honored *One Battle After Another* for Best Picture, Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor in *Sinners*, and Jessie Buckley for Best Actress in *Hamnet*. Conan O’Brien hosted the Oscars for the second straight year.
Critics noted that the ceremony was light on political statements about former President Trump, whose name was notably absent during the telecast. One of the show’s highlights was an extended “In Memoriam” segment that gave extra tribute to legendary actor and filmmaker Robert Redford, as well as the late actor, director, and producer Rob Reiner.
ABC experienced success selling out commercial spots for the Oscars, which remains one of the most-watched non-sports telecasts of the year. However, the network will only hold the broadcasting rights for two more years. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has accepted a more lucrative offer from YouTube for the rights to the telecast starting in 2029.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-03-17/2026-oscars-telecast-scores-17-9-million-viewers-conan-obrien-abc-hollywood-one-battle-sinners
Oscars 2026: Stylish red carpet fashion, beauty looks
Hollywood’s biggest stars walked the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre as Hollywood’s biggest night arrived. The 2026 Oscars took place on Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, bringing together stars from across film and entertainment.
Hosted by Conan O’Brien for the second consecutive year, the ceremony celebrated the year’s most significant achievements in film. Before the awards were handed out, all eyes turned to the red carpet, where nominees, presenters, and A-listers made their highly anticipated arrivals.
Each year, the Oscars red carpet delivers some of the most talked-about fashion moments of the entire awards season. From dramatic couture gowns and impeccably tailored tuxedos to bold silhouettes and statement jewels, stars use the night to debut unforgettable looks from the world’s top design houses.
Below, take a look at some of the standout fashion moments as stars arrived for the 98th Academy Awards.
*Sponsored Content by Taboola*
https://abcnews.com/GMA/Style/oscars-2026-red-carpet-arrivals-photos/story?id=130767233
Yes, Kathryn Hahn is Disney’s live-action Mother Gothel for its new ‘Tangled’ movie
**Mother Knows Best: Kathryn Hahn Cast as Mother Gothel in Disney’s Live-Action “Tangled”**
Kathryn Hahn announced on Tuesday via Instagram that she will be playing Mother Gothel in Disney’s upcoming live-action reimagining of *Tangled*.
The “Agatha All Along” star shared a playful video saying, “Hey, OOTD, I just found out what that stands for. So here’s my outfit of the day.” She then stepped back to reveal she was wearing an oversized shirt plastered with Mother Gothel’s face. “Simple jeans, glasses, T-shirt. This is easy. You know, just another day.” Hahn captioned the post simply, “OOTD, Mother Gothel.”
To make sure fans caught on, Walt Disney Studios also shared her video across its social media channels, captioning it: “You want her to be the bad guy? FINE. Kathryn Hahn is Mother Gothel in Disney’s live-action *Tangled*.”
Hahn’s announcement comes after months of fan casting, speculation, and excitement about her possible involvement in the film. In January, Deadline reported that Hahn was in talks for the role, and she had been responding to rumors at various red carpet and press events ever since. While often sidestepping direct confirmation, she expressed her love for the character and her fondness for playing “gnarly witches.”
Originally released in 2010, *Tangled* is Disney’s animated adaptation of the classic fairy tale *Rapunzel*. The story follows a young princess with long, magical blond hair who has been unknowingly kidnapped and hidden away in an isolated tower. Mother Gothel, voiced by Donna Murphy in the original film, is the old witch who poses as Rapunzel’s mother to exploit the magical powers of her hair.
Stay tuned as more details about the live-action *Tangled* continue to emerge!
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-03-10/kathryn-hahn-mother-gothel-tangled-live-action-disney
Savannah Guthrie makes offscreen visit to ‘Today’ show, first since her mother went missing
NEW YORK — Savannah Guthrie made an off-camera appearance Thursday at NBC’s “Today” show studios to thank colleagues for their support since her mother, Nancy, went missing from her Arizona home a month ago.
The “Today” show stated that Guthrie, a longtime co-host of the morning news program, plans to return to the air at some point but “remains focused right now supporting her family and working to help bring Nancy home.”
Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home outside Tucson on January 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped, abducted, or otherwise taken against her will.
The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother, but solid information in the case has been hard to come by.
Savannah Guthrie has been a co-anchor of the venerable NBC morning show since 2012. One of her former colleagues, Hoda Kotb, has returned to “Today” to fill in while Guthrie has concentrated on finding her mother.
Power, politics and a $2.8-billion exit: How Paramount topped Netflix to win Warner Bros.
The morning after Netflix clinched its deal to buy Warner Bros., Paramount Skydance Chairman David Ellison assembled a war room of trusted advisors, including his billionaire father, Larry Ellison. Furious at Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav for ending the auction, the Ellisons and their team began plotting their comeback on that crisp December day.
To rattle Warner Bros. Discovery and its investors, they launched a three-front campaign: a lawsuit, a hostile takeover bid, and direct lobbying of the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. “There was a master battle plan and it was extremely disciplined,” said one auction insider who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Netflix stunned the industry late Thursday by pulling out of the bidding, clearing the way for Paramount to claim the company that owns HBO, HBO Max, CNN, TBS, Food Network, and the Warner Bros. film and television studios in Burbank. The deal was valued at more than $111 billion.
The streaming giant’s reversal came just hours after co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos met with Attorney General Pam Bondi and a deputy at the White House. It was a cordial session, but the Trump officials told Sarandos that his deal was facing significant hurdles in Washington, according to a person close to the administration who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Even before that meeting, the tide had turned for Paramount in a swell of power, politics, and brinkmanship. “Netflix played their cards well; however, Paramount played their cards perfectly,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media Company. “They did exactly what they had to do and when they had to do it, which was at the very last moment.”
Key to victory was Larry Ellison, his vast $200-billion fortune, and his connections to Trump and congressional Republicans. Paramount also hired Trump’s former antitrust chief, attorney Makan Delrahim, to quarterback the firm’s legal and regulatory action.
Republicans during a Senate hearing this month piled onto Sarandos with complaints about potential monopolistic practices and “woke” programming. David Ellison skipped that hearing. This week, however, he attended Trump’s State of the Union address in the Capitol chambers, a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The two men posed, grinning and giving a thumbs-up, for a photo that was posted to Graham’s X account.
On Friday, Netflix said it had received a $2.8-billion payment — a termination fee Paramount agreed to pay to send Netflix on its way.
Long before David Ellison and his family acquired Paramount and CBS last summer, the 43-year-old tech scion and aircraft pilot already had his sights set on Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount’s assets, including MTV, Nickelodeon, and the Melrose Avenue movie studio, have been fading. Ellison recognized he needed the more robust company Warner Bros. Discovery to achieve his ambitions.
“From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company,” David Ellison said in a Friday statement. “We couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”
Warner’s chief, Zaslav, who had initially opposed the Paramount bid, added, “We look forward to working with Paramount to complete this historic transaction.”
Netflix, in a separate statement, said it was unwilling to go beyond its $82.7-billion proposal that Warner board members accepted Dec. 4.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs,” Sarandos and co-Chief Executive Greg Peters said in a statement.
“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the Netflix chiefs added.
Netflix may have miscalculated the Ellison family’s determination when it agreed on Feb. 16 to allow Paramount back into the bidding. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company already had prevailed in the auction and had an agreement in hand. Its next step was a shareholder vote.
“They didn’t need to let Paramount back in, but there was a lot of pressure on them to make sure the process wouldn’t be challenged,” Miller said.
In addition, Netflix’s stock had also been pummeled — the company had lost a quarter of its value since investors learned the company was making a Warner run. Upon news that Netflix had withdrawn, its shares soared Friday nearly 14% to $96.24.
Invited back into the auction room, Paramount unveiled a much stronger proposal than the one it submitted in December. The elder Ellison had pledged to personally guarantee the deal, including $45.7 billion in equity required to close the transaction. And if bankers became worried that Paramount was too leveraged, the tech mogul agreed to put in more money in order to secure the bank financing.
That promise assuaged Warner Bros. Discovery board members who had fretted for weeks that they weren’t sure Ellison would sign on the dotted line, according to two people close to the auction who were not authorized to comment.
Paramount’s pressure campaign had been relentless, first winning over theater owners, who expressed alarm over Netflix’s business model that encourages consumers to watch movies in their homes.
During the last two weeks, Sarandos got dragged into two ugly controversies. First, famed filmmaker James Cameron endorsed Paramount, saying a Netflix takeover would lead to massive job losses in the entertainment industry, which is already reeling from a production slowdown in Southern California that has disrupted the lives of thousands of film industry workers.
Then, a week ago, Trump took aim at Netflix board member Susan Rice, a former high-level Obama and Biden administration official. In a social media post, Trump called Rice a “no talent political hack,” and said that Netflix must fire her or “pay the consequences.” The threat underscored the dicey environment for Netflix.
Additionally, Paramount had sowed doubts about Netflix among lawmakers, regulators, Warner investors, and ultimately the Warner board. Paramount assured Warner board members that it had a clear path to win regulatory approval so the deal would quickly be finalized.
In a show of confidence, Delrahim filed to win the Justice Department’s blessing in December even though Paramount didn’t have a deal. This month, a deadline for the Justice Department to raise issues with Paramount’s proposed Warner takeover passed without comment from the Trump regulators.
“Analysts believe the deal is likely to close,” TD Cowen analysts said in a Friday report. “While Paramount-WBD does present material antitrust risks (higher pay TV prices, lower pay for TV/movie workers), analysts also see a key pro-competitive effect: improved competition in streaming, with Paramount+ and HBO Max representing a materially stronger counterweight to #1 Netflix.”
Throughout the battle, David Ellison relied on support from his father, attorney Delrahim, and three key board members: Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra A. Catz; RedBird Capital Partners founder Gerry Cardinale; and Justin Hamill, managing director of tech investment firm Silver Lake.
In the final days, David Ellison led an effort to flip Warner board members who had firmly supported Netflix. With Paramount’s improved offer, several began leaning toward the Paramount deal.
On Tuesday, Warner announced that Paramount’s deal was promising. On Thursday, Warner’s board determined Paramount’s deal had topped Netflix. That’s when Netflix surrendered.
“Paramount had a fulsome, 360-degree approach,” Miller said. “They approached it financially. They understood the regulatory environment here and abroad in the EU. And they had a game plan for every aspect.”
On Friday, Paramount shares rose 21% to $13.51.
It was a reversal of fortunes for David Ellison, who appeared on CNBC just three days after that war room meeting in December.
“We put the company in play,” David Ellison told the CNBC anchor that day. “We’re really here to finish what we started.”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-02-27/paramount-warner-bros-acquisition-how-why-what-to-know
Netflix walks away from Warner Bros deal, clearing the path for Paramount
NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix is declining to raise its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a stunning move that effectively puts Paramount in a position to take over its storied Hollywood rival.
On Thursday, after Warner’s board announced that Skydance-owned Paramount’s offer was superior to the agreement it had previously struck with Netflix, the streaming giant said the new price it would have to pay to acquire Warner would make the deal “no longer financially attractive.”
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands,” Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.” Sarandos and Peters also thanked Warner leadership.
Warner had repeatedly backed the deal it struck with Netflix since December and, even when announcing that Paramount’s latest offer was superior earlier Thursday, the company said its board stood by its previous recommendation in favor of Netflix.
Paramount and Warner did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Netflix’s choice to walk away.
Thursday’s news arrived after Paramount upped its rival bid for the entire company to $31 per share, in addition to other revisions.
A Warner Bros. Discovery buyout would reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape. Unlike Netflix, which only wanted to buy Warner’s studio and streaming business for $27.75 per share, Paramount wants the entire company.
That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like Harry Potter and even CNN could soon find themselves under a new roof. Paramount’s CBS has seen significant editorial shifts, notably with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss at CBS News, under new Skydance ownership. If Paramount’s acquisition of Warner is successful, critics warn of similar changes at CNN.
A Paramount-Warner combo would also combine two of Hollywood’s five legacy studios that remain today, in addition to their theatrical channels. Beyond Harry Potter, Warner movies like Superman, Barbie, and One Battle After Another, as well as hit TV series like The White Lotus and Succession, would join Paramount’s content library.
Today, Paramount’s lineup of titles includes Top Gun, Titanic, and The Godfather. Beyond CBS, it owns networks like MTV and Nickelodeon, as well as the Paramount+ streaming service.
Executives at Paramount have argued that merging will be good for consumers and the wider industry. But lawmakers and entertainment trade groups have sounded the alarm, warning that a Warner takeover would only further consolidate power in an industry already run by just a few major players.
Critics say that could result in job losses, less diversity in filmmaking, and potentially more headaches for consumers who are facing rising costs of streaming subscriptions as is. Combined, that raises tremendous antitrust concerns. The U.S. Department of Justice has already initiated reviews, and other countries are expected to do so, too.
Netflix, Warner, and Paramount have spent the last couple of months in a heated, public back and forth over whose deal has a better regulatory path and offers more value for Warner shareholders. Thursday’s announcement arrived shortly after Paramount upped the ante on its offer.
Beyond increasing its proposed purchase price for Warner, the company also agreed to a regulatory termination fee of $7 billion. Paramount also pledged to move up a previously promised “ticking fee.” The company initially said it would pay 25 cents per share for every quarter the deal drags on past the end of the year. Now, it’s agreed to pay that amount if the deal doesn’t go through by the end of September, Warner said.
But Paramount is taking on billions of dollars in debt to finance its offer. David Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is heavily backing the bid for his son’s company. Foreign sovereign wealth funds have also provided equity for the offer, drawing scrutiny.
The Ellisons also have a close relationship with President Donald Trump, bringing more politics into question. Trump previously made unprecedented suggestions about his involvement in seeing a deal through, before walking back those statements and maintaining that regulatory approval will be up to the Justice Department.
The push to acquire Warner also arrives just months after Skydance closed its own buyout of Paramount in a contentious merger approved just weeks after the company agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at CBS’ “60 Minutes” program. Still, Trump has continued to publicly lash out at Paramount and “60 Minutes” since.
Part comedy, part masochism: This stand-up show includes a public roast of each comic
Every Sunday in Austin, there’s a comedy show called Banana Phone. Comedians do one minute of stand up material, then the crowd heckles and roasts them until they run out of insults.
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/16/nx-s1-5696492/part-comedy-part-masochism-this-stand-up-show-includes-a-public-roast-of-each-comic
2/7: CBS Weekend News
Savannah Guthrie Makes Another Video Plea: “This Is Very Valuable to Us and We Will Pay”
In a heartfelt video message, Savannah Guthrie reached out once again to emphasize the importance of a particular matter to her team and audience. “This is very valuable to us and we will pay,” she stated, underscoring the commitment and dedication behind the cause.
Hilary Knight Shows the World Why She’s One of the Greatest at the 2026 Olympics
Meanwhile, at the 2026 Olympics, Hilary Knight demonstrated why she is regarded as one of the greatest athletes in her field. Her outstanding performance captivated fans and solidified her legacy on the global stage, inspiring many with her skill and determination.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/020726-cbs-weekend-news/
‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’ premiere red carpet: Naomi Watts, Martha Stewart and more
FX’s biographical romance anthology series, **“Love Story,”** premiered on February 3rd in New York City.
The first season explores the captivating relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, bringing their iconic love story to life on screen.
The premiere attracted a star-studded crowd, with notable attendees including Naomi Watts, Martha Stewart, Sarah Pidgeon, Grace Gummer, and many more gracing the red carpet.
Scroll through the gallery below to see all the best looks from the event!
https://pagesix.com/2026/02/03/photos/love-story-john-f-kennedy-jr-and-carolyn-bessette-premiere-red-carpet-naomi-watts-martha-stewart-and-more/