News

It’s that time again! Cinespia — the Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video-sponsored Los Angeles staple that showcases film favorites under the stars — has released their spooky October schedule, which includes a roster of classics that are sure to send shivers down patrons’ spines. Appropriately, Cinespia will be held, as always, at Hollywood Forever Cemetery — the starriest place in the city, where everyone from Judy Garland to David Lynch was laid to rest.

Halloween month kicks off, literally, on October 4 with a 50th anniversary screening of the midnight movie favorite “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — though you only have to wait until sundown to enjoy this screening. In addition to the cult hit, fans can dress up in their “Time Warp” best and snap a pic at the themed photo booth, partake of the food and libations, and enjoy the DJ’s spins on the dance floor — just like every weekend at the cemetery!

Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" has had an incredible life well beyond its original intent. First, there was a Broadway musical adaptation in 1902, and then in 1939, it was adapted into the film "The Wizard of Oz" starring Judy Garland. Since then, there have been numerous excellent and unique reinterpretations of Baum's story, ranging from 1978's "The Wiz" (a movie musical featuring an all-Black cast) to the wildly successful "Wicked" franchise based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which has since given rise to a major musical film version starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jeff Goldblum. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is wildly adaptable because of its rather simple plot structure and hugely recognizable elements, and since it's been in the public domain since 1956, people have had a lot of time to create their own visions of this classic fantasy adventure.

Indeed, there have...

The Wizard of Oz may be getting a new adaptation in the wake of the upcoming Wicked: For Good. L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been adapted to the screen multiple times, most notably in the Oscar-winning 1939 film starring Judy Garland.

The most notable recent film featuring Baum's characters is 2024's Wicked, which is based on the first act of the Broadway musical adapting the Gregory Maguire novel that tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West. The movie, which will be followed by the act two adaptation Wicked: For Good, was the fifth highest-grossing movie of 2024 worldwide.

In a Warner Bros. earnings call, David Zaslav revealed that a new project based on The Wizard of Oz is being eyed by the entertainment company. While discussing the impending Wizard of Oz presentation at the Las Vegas Sphere, he said that "we...

On a Monday night in late spring of 1992, Jeff Buckley arrived at the tiny Cafe Sin-é on New York’s St. Mark’s Place with a borrowed Fender Telecaster and a story to tell. He had scored a prestigious weekly gig at the East Village mainstay that had hosted both Irish rock royalty (Sinead O’Connor, Shane McGowan, the Waterboys), as well as up-and-coming talent, and the 25-year-old appeared ready to meet the moment.

He set up against the wall in a corner, waved a shy hello to the small crowd, opened his mouth to sing and that’s the moment when all hell broke loose. The raw power of his voice overwhelmed the space, alternating between a feminine falsetto and masculine growl—often within the same song. His guitar playing, too, had elements of punk and blues, but with Eastern flavoring woven throughout. In other words, he threw the kitchen sink at the unsuspecting audience.

The following article is an excerpt from the latest edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

Ben Mankiewicz is never someone who I expected to find on the wrong side of film history. The face of Turner Classic Movies since Robert Osborne’s death, in addition to being the grandson of “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the grand-nephew of “All About Eve” director Joseph L. Mankiewicz,” the Hollywood scion is nothing less than a living emblem of the sanctity and enduring value of 20th century cinema. Delivered in a nasal but welcoming voice that’s capable of making 100-year-old masterpieces sound like vital artifacts and spectacular entertainments all at once,...

Friday puzzles can go either way: sometimes they ease you into the weekend, other times they pile on the challenge before you clock out. August 1 decided to split the difference in the most interesting way possible.

Today’s New York Times Games threw me into full reptile mode with Strands serving up every snake you could think of, while Connections mixed Hollywood golden age stars with tricky wordplay that had me second-guessing obvious patterns.

Want to tackle these yourself first? Our complete guide to Nyt puzzle solving covers strategies that might help you crack them without spoilers. But if you’re ready for answers, here’s what Friday delivered.

Spoiler Alert !!!Hints, followed by complete solutions, ahead for both New York Times puzzle games! Nyt Strands Solution for August 1, 2025 (#516)

Today’s Strands theme, “Slithering away,” focuses on snakes and serpents, with Nyt’s own testers rating it easy difficulty. The...

Audacy Podcasts today announced that it has partnered with award-winning writer, director, actor, and producer Lena Dunham and writer, historian, and curator Alissa Bennett to handle sales and distribution for their critically acclaimed podcast The C-Word, bringing the previously paywalled podcast to all major podcast platforms for free for the first time.

The first three episodes of “The C-Word” will be re-released on all podcast platforms on Thursday, July 31, 2025, and one episode will be re-released every Thursday thereafter.

“The C-Word” is an in-depth exploration of culture's most discussed women—their lives, legacies, and why society is so hell-bent on labeling them "crazy.” Through deeply researched storytelling and candid conversations, Dunham and Bennett unpack how society’s obsession with labeling women has shaped pop culture, media narratives, and public perception. “The C-Word” explores a wide range of figures with empathy, wit, and cultural insight, including Lindsay Lohan, Judy Garland, Mariah Carey,...

And just like that… it’s August again — the last gasp of vacations, the first days of school, the long, treacherous hiatuses of our favorite talk shows, and a Turner Classic Movies tradition like no other. Starting August 1, TCM — which was recently seemingly saved by WB head David Zaslav — will once again highlight 31 stars across 31 days for Summer Under the Stars. The event has recurred annually since 2003, and this year, blended into usual mix of starry icons of legends past, are names like Mexican-American actor Pedro Armendáriz, iconic character journeyman James Gleason, and Italian sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida.

Perhaps the real coup this year, however, are weekly appearances of “And Just Like That…” star Mario Cantone, who will join for not one… not two… but four nights of programming — once weekly — for four of his absolute favorites. Cantone has become a reliable presence at TCM, headlining the October series Creepy...

You’d think that once someone “makes it” in Hollywood, the hard part is over. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, for some stars, that’s when things start to unravel. Success doesn’t cancel out addiction, mental health struggles, bad decisions, or toxic relationships. And in a world where everything is watched, posted, and picked apart, falling apart is a lot more public.

This is not about dragging names through the mud or digging up old tabloid drama; it is about showing the other side of fame. Some of the biggest names in film were winning awards and breaking box office records while quietly battling addiction, mental health issues, legal trouble, or the overwhelming weight of fame. It is wild how someone can be the face of a billion-dollar franchise while their personal life is falling apart behind the scenes.

Some of them have turned things around.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The first version of "A Star is Born," directed by William Wellman, was released in 1937, and starred Fredric March as Norman Maine, a slumping Hollywood star whose career has been nearly destroyed by alcoholism. Janet Gaynor starred as Esther Blodgett, stage name Vicki Lester, an up-and-coming singer who Norman takes under his wing. He may or may not be able to salvage his own career, but Norman still succeed vicariously through Vicki. He stops drinking. Naturally, the two begin a doomed romance, and audiences sense that it's only a matter of time before alcoholism rears its ugly head. Maine will not survive to the end.

Wellman's film was acclaimed enough to be nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the first color film to hold the distinction. It lost to "The Life of Emile Zola" that year, but its reputation remained strong.

The sled known as Rosebud — or at least one of the original red sleds created for the 1941 Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane — has just sold for $14.75 million at auction.

The pine hardwood prop, which bears its original paint but signs of production use, wear and removed rails likely sacrificed to wartime scrap drives, has belonged to director Joe Dante since 1984. While he was directing Explorers (1985), it was given to him by someone clearing out a portion of the Paramount lot that once served as the home of Rko Pictures.

“One of the crew who knew I was a fan of vintage films came to me with a wood prop and said, ‘They’re throwing out all of this stuff. You might want this,’” Dante recalled in a recent interview. “I’m not sure he knew what the sled was, but he must have had some inkling, or why else would he have asked me?...

John McCook, known for his iconic role as Eric Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, shared a heartfelt farewell to the legendary Television City studios in Hollywood as the show prepares to leave after decades of filming. In an emotional Instagram post, McCook reflected on his 50-year connection to the studio and the indelible memories that will always be tied to the place.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

McCook’s first experience at Television City wasn’t as an actor—his initial job was playing the piano. He recalled how music played a significant role in his life, making his first steps into the building a truly magical experience. For McCook, the history of the studio itself was captivating.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John McCook (@johntmccook)

Stage 33 was a legendary space, once home to The Carol Burnett Show. McCook was in awe of its rich legacy,...

The first-ever Birkin bag designed by Hermes for Jane Birkin sold at auction for a shocking price!

The bag went for €8.58 million ($12.8 million) at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday (July 10) in Paris on July 10, breaking previous price records for a handbag, per Straits Times.

The auction featured a telephone bidding war up to €7 million, with the final sale price set at €8.58 million with commission and fees, per Sotheby’s.

The seller, Catherine Benier, who has a boutique in the upmarket 6th district of Paris, told The New York Times before the sale that the bag was the “jewel in my collection.”

The previous record sale price for a handbag at auction was set by a diamond and white gold-encrusted crocodile skin Hermes Kelly 28, which went for $513,000 in 2021 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.

“After weeks of anticipation, the bidding opened at €1 million – prompting a gasp from the room,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

Heath Ledger’s Favorite Movie Wasn’t A Dark Drama ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

Before his tragic death in 2008, Heath Ledger made a lasting impression on the film industry. Ledger’s career was full of daring decisions and unadulterated emotional depth, including an Oscar-winning performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight and other prominent features in movies like Brokeback Mountain and 10 Things I Hate About You. However, not many would know that Ledger revealed his favorite movie before his passing, which is none other than The Wizard of Oz.

Heath Ledger on his favorite film, The Wizard of Oz

In an interview for Cindy Pearlman’s book You Gotta See This, as retrieved via Far Out, Ledger was asked to name the film that held a special place in his heart. Without hesitation, he said, The Wizard of Oz. “I have to say The Wizard of Oz. I saw...

Some characters are simply embedded in the cultural bedrock. Say the name “Dorothy,” and a very specific Kansas runaway in a gingham dress comes to mind, a figure who has been a fixed point in American storytelling for 125 years.

Director Jeffrey McHale’s documentary, It’s Dorothy!, takes on the formidable task of mapping the character’s sprawling journey. The film sets out not just to retell a familiar story, but to dissect how that story has been refracted through countless adaptations on screen and stage.

It approaches its subject with a clear affection, looking to understand how a simple fairytale character became an enduring and evolving piece of our collective mythology. The documentary frames itself as an energetic and sprawling exploration of a girl who is much more than her ruby slippers.

The Women Behind the Slippers

The documentary’s narrative engine is not the tornado or the trip to Oz,...

It couldn't have been easy to grow up as the only son of "Shane," but Alan Ladd Jr. somehow made it work. Ladd père became a movie legend as the gunfighter protagonist of George Stevens' 1953 Western classic, but his oldest son, who would come to be known quite affectionately as Laddie, did not want to follow in the old man's footsteps. He began his showbiz career as an agent for Creative Management Associates before moving into film production in the United Kingdom (where he helped Gary Sherman make the gruesome horror classic "Raw Meat").

Laddie's sharp creative/commercial sensibilities caught the eye of 20th Century Fox, which brought him on as its Vice President of Creative Affairs in 1973. This might've been the most consequential hire in the studio's history, as Laddie championed such pop cultural touchstones as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Young Frankenstein" and "Phantom of the Paradise." When...

Cynthia Ervio and Michael Bay are to collaborate on a movie adaptation of Saturation Point.The 38-year-old actress has teamed up with the Transformers director, 60, for a film version of author Adrian Tchaikovsky’s 2024 sci-fi novel of the same name for Universal Pictures.Erivo will be producing under her Edith’s Daughter banner alongside Solome Williams, while Bay and Brad Fuller will produce through Platinum Dunes.Saturation Point is a gripping climate thriller set in a future where parts of Earth have become so hot and humid that human survival is nearly impossible. When a mission goes into one of these extreme zones, Dr. Jasmine Marks is tasked with leading the high-stakes search and rescue effort. But the deeper she ventures, the more she realises the dangers are far greater than expected - and her corporate employers may be hiding the truth. To make matters worse, not all intelligent life in the zone is human.

We here at /Film love movie trivia. We've dedicated so much time and energy to uncovering important truths to our favorite films, such as tracking down the exact wrestling match you can see on a television screen in "Beetlejuice" (namely, a Long Beach bout between The Whip and The Spoiler Ron Starr). There's so much that goes into filmmaking than what you see on the screen, and it's fascinating to dive deep into the process to see what intriguing tidbits can get uncovered.

It goes without saying that the internet has caused a bit of a misinformation issue in the modern age. That means someone can say something online, and everyone else just runs with it. These mistruths can either come from misunderstandings or someone just outright lying and no one bothering to fact-check. This has caused many so-called bits of movie trivia to populate the public consciousness that are unequivocally false,...

“You’re in the tornado, man.”

That is Paul Freeman, the principal audio artist at Sphere Studios, talking, offering a plainspoken assurance to cinematic thrill-seekers about the enhanced version of 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” that is coming to Las Vegas beginning Aug. 28. The immersive elements are designed to tickle all the senses, but Sphere’s sound maestro is focused on his department and has some promises to make about how being off to see —and hear— the Wizard in 2025 will not be akin to just putting an upgraded speaker system in the old jalopy.

There are so many questions to address, when it comes to this severe a reinvention of a classic. Even limiting them just to the aural, for now: How much of the orchestral score was re-recorded? Will Dorothy still sound like Dorothy, amid all the updates, or will Judy Garland now be lip-synching to Addison Rae?...

It seems like it’d take an actual wizard to transform a soundtrack recorded in 1939 in mono and on primitive equipment into a score for one of the most immersive, cutting-edge audio systems on the planet. But that was Sphere Studios’ rainbow-sized wish when the company decided to convert The Wizard of Oz into an experience for their high-tech entertainment bubble in Las Vegas.

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere will debut on August 28. The extrapolation of the old film’s visuals to fill the Sphere’s enormous domed screen has drawn much of the attention, and it’s a wizardly feat in its own right. But Oz is, at its core, a movie musical — and making that work for the world’s most eye-popping venue proved to be just as fantastical a challenge as translating Dorothy’s Technicolor environment for 40,000 eyeballs.

“Obviously we’re not going to do a...

Death is inevitable, but few are happy to welcome it. The topic brings with it existential dread, if not terror, and thousands of years of philosophical and theological discussion, all to try and cope with that final frontier. While some learn to approach the end with acceptance, even peace, it's seldom easy. And so, death in media becomes another tool by which we can confront this universal experience by whistling past the cemetery, if nothing else.

Dying in a movie can be a moment of tragedy. Done well, it can also be a black, vivacious laugh. Sometimes it's bathos: anticlimactic, like that bit in James Cameron's "Titanic" where some poor dude thunks off the sinking ship's propeller. It's a horrible laugh, but darn if it doesn't ease the sorrow. In honor of that guy, we're going down the list of 15 of the best cinematic deaths ever. It should be...

Bradley Cooper is widely known for providing the voice of everyone’s favorite Raccoon in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequels, including the 2022 special. But he also rose to even greater fame for his role in one major Academy Award-winning pic, also starring the iconic Lady Gaga. Released seven years ago, A Star Is Born was one of the most successful movies that year, boasting many accolades and, of course, doing wonders at the box office. Now, fans will get to enjoy the movie once more as it will serenade its way to a new streaming home this summer.

Per What’s on Netflix, A Star Is Born lands on Netflix on Tuesday, July 8, joining a few other exciting additions, including the romantic drama Sullivan’s Crossing. Besides starring in the critically acclaimed movie, Cooper served as producer and co-writer with Eric Roth and Will Fetters. He also directed in his directorial debut,...

Upon hearing the name “Dorothy” I, like most, immediately think of The Wizard of Oz. I remember watching the film when I was a kid, sitting on the couch with my family. I remember my parents calling it “a classic.” Dorothy Gale has become synonymous with many things over the 125 years since she first appeared in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from Kansas to ruby red slippers, Judy Garland to a 1950s LGBTQ+ signifier.

Jeffrey McHale has made a documentary to look at the character of Dorothy Gale in her entirety. Over the last 125 years she has appeared through nearly every medium––more than 40 films, television shows, novels, and plays. It’s Dorothy! tracks Dorothy from Garland through every iteration, through each actor to portray the role, through her growing and changing cultural impact. More than anything, it’s a documentary about joy.

McHale focuses on...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

There’s no place like the Sphere in Las Vegas, and soon fans of The Wizard of Oz can follow the yellow brick road down to the new venue to see the Judy Garland film in a whole new way.

At a Glance: How to Buy The Wizard of Oz at Sphere Tickets

Best Sites: Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats, StubHub, SeatGeek Dates: Aug. 28 to Sept. 2025 Buy 'The Wizard of Oz...

Do movie stars still exist? Film journalists, cinephiles, and producers have been debating this point for over a decade, declaring the movie star extinct.

But throughout the 2010s, Hollywood leaned into intellectual properties and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while original films starring A-list talents like Jennifer Lawrence (“Passengers”), Johnny Depp (“The Lone Ranger”), and Will Smith (“Gemini Man”) flopped, and gradually everybody seemed to be lining up to pay their respects at the grave of the movie star.

They’ve blamed the death on Hollywood’s hunger for IP, the erasure of the mid-budget movie, and the rise of television. But many of these arguments miss the forest for the trees: We not only still have movie stars today, but stardom today is very similar to what it was in the Golden Age of Hollywood. The film industry is not post-movie stars, and big-name actors still influence audiences’ viewing habits and films’ financial success.

“What I was really good at,” says Liza Minelli early on in this documentary, “was picking the people to be around.”

If you’re born to stardom as she was, that’s an important talent. Bruce David Klein’s documentary opens its narrative with the death of her mother, Judy Garland, when Liza was just 23. The oldest of three children, she found herself with a great many immediate responsibilities, and also had to contend with a weight of expectation present since her birth but suddenly heavier. Who was she going to be? Under pressure to fill her mother’s shoes, she had to fight to carve out a public identity of her own. This film focuses on the key figures who helped her to do that.

It’s a glamorous story, of course, and that will no doubt help to draw in viewers. There is talk of her father, Vincente Minelli,...

Who wouldn’t want to live on the fifth floor of Los Angeles’ new Gower Court building, an architectural landmark with one of the best views in town? Looking over a vast swath of the city, with the Hollywood sign in the distance, it has the ideal vista for anyone who would like to be part of showbiz history. There’s just one thing — only the deceased can stake out a premium spot on the Sky Terrace of this mausoleum, where crypt prices start at a cool million.

This real estate, right next door to Paramount Studios, wasn’t always so desirable. Before Tyler Cassity and co-owner Yogu Kanthiah took over in 1998, Hollywood Forever Cemetery — the final resting place of legendary cinematic figures including Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland and John Huston — had fallen into disrepair.

The new five-story Gower Mausoleum was designed by Lehrer Architects with a nod to the...

A favorite nugget of Wizard of Oz lore for many of us is the sublimely funny TV guide blurb written for a 1998 TCM airing of the MGM classic: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” The inclusion of amusing oddities like that is what pulls It’s Dorothy! back whenever it threatens to go from exhaustive to exhausting, from dissection to dissertation.

Welcome humor comes also from new discoveries — at least to me — like the bizarrely kitsch spectacle of eliminated contestants on BBC talent search show Over the Rainbow removing their jeweled slippers and handing them to Andrew Lloyd Webber on a throne before being carried off the set on a cutout moon. Wtf? The winner — or survivor — of that Brit reality TV horror, Danielle Hope, went on to star in London as...

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more. Good eye, Dorothy, but you’re not over the rainbow – you’re in Sin City. As we’ve reported, The Wizard of Oz is coming to the Sphere in Las Vegas, with the venue recently promoting the limited run by turning the exterior of the building into Dorothy’s house, complete with the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East (and her ruby slippers) underneath. And while that’s a pretty stunning visual to see in downtown Las Vegas, some may not be as impressed by how they are achieving what’s on the inside of the Sphere.

If you thought The Wizard of Oz in IMAX 3D was a questionable way to present the 1939 classic as it was in 2013, consider how much AI is being used to showcase it in the Sphere. For starters, yes, the...

The Wiz, Spine #1264, is now available on 4K in the Criterion Collection.

My relationship to The Wizard of Oz, like most people, begins in the very early years of my childhood. I don’t remember the first time I saw the 1930s classic, but as far back as I can remember, it was an important part of my upbringing. My relationship to The Wiz is different. I was always aware of its existence, and I recall watching small moments of it on cable television at a young age, but I never sat down and watched it in its entirety until now.

The Wiz plot

Dorothy (Diana Ross) is a teacher in Harlem struggling to find her place and her purpose. When she’s magically transported to the fantastical land of Oz, she must embark on a journey unlike anything she’s ever experienced before. Along the way, she’ll meet...

Early Tuesday morning, the Sphere in Las Vegas was hit by a tornado, or at least a virtual tornado.

The building’s “Exosphere” swirled with storm clouds, and a digital house appeared when the smoke cleared, with a pair of legs and ruby slippers, 50 feet long and 22 feet high emerging from the Sphere. The stunt is meant to kick off the Sphere’s announcement that it would begin selling tickets to The Wizard of Oz, which will premiere in the venue Aug. 28.

“We thought it was appropriate to start with a stunt that really matches the size and scale of Sphere,” Sphere president and COO Jennifer Koester tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “I think the tornado showing up on the exosphere for our on sale moment is a good representation of what will happen inside the bowl when we think about an immersive experience of the Wizard of Oz.

Judy Garland’s indelible portrayal of Dorothy Gale, the teenage heroine of “The Wizard of Oz,” has been top of mind since the release of “Wicked” last fall. Online speculation has been rampant on how exactly Dorothy might feature in “Wicked: For Good,” with Garland centered squarely in that discussion. Because, after all, it was her voice that gave generations a wistful anthem (and potentially a Pride flag).

How do you honor such a legend?

West Hollywood, California, has clicked up one way. On June 10, 103 years after her birth, WeHo will mark Judy Garland Day, a new annual celebration hosted by the city’s Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held in conjunction with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Beaches Tropicana, a club located on Santa Monica Boulevard in the city’s popular Rainbow District.

“This ceremony reflects our commitment to honoring cultural icons who have influenced the creative identity...

If there’s one criticism to be lobbed at Jeffrey McHale’s energetic, engrossing, and often quite loving documentary “It’s Dorothy!,” it’s that the documentarian has selected perhaps too good of a subject. The mythology and meaning of Dorothy Gale, the great hero of “The Wizard of Oz,” could easily inspire an entire series of films. While McHale somehow manages to touch on a dozen hot topics in his documentary — what the on-screen role means to the women who have played her, how and why the LGBTQ+ community so love her, how we grapple with the misdeeds of our favorite artists, and that’s literally just a small sample — that can make the actual film on offer feel a bit unfinished.

Still, McHale manages to hold all these very big topics together in an otherwise slim 97-minute running time. Packed with major talking heads, zippy animation, and a bouncing...

There is now even more fuel to the fire surrounding who might be playing Dorothy in Wicked: For Good. The movie is the sequel to last year's wildly successful movie musical version of Wicked. The film makes a number of changes from the stage musical, among them adding two original songs that are not in the Broadway musical version of things. The Wicked: For Good trailer also features Dorothy. While the casting of this classic Wizard of Oz character has not been revealed, she is widely rumored to be played by Alisha Weir.

Now, a social media video from Weir's sister, Katie Rose Weir, has led to further speculation that the Abigail star would play the role.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katie Rose Weir...

Megan Hilty brought the laughter to the Tonys this year!

The 44-year-old actress performed her hilarious song “For the Gaze” from Death Becomes Her at the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday (June 8) at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Death Becomes Her is nominated for 10 awards tonight, including Best Musical. Megan and her co-star Jennifer Simard are both up for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

The song “For the Gaze” happens right at the beginning of Death Becomes Her and is Megan‘s character Madeline Ashton’s song from the show within the show. There are multiple costume changes throughout the song, including nods to Liza Minnelli‘s iconic red suit and Judy Garland‘s Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Watch a video above and get tickets to see Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

When the Wicked: For Good trailer dropped, fans were quick to notice that it arrived just in time for Pride Month. And now those same fans are being delighted by a new theory Nessarose actress Marissa Bode has put out.

It's no secret that the Wicked series has a lot of lesbian subtext between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande). But Bode thinks there's more to it than that, and she took to her TikTok to say so. Her theory is that every single major character in the story is queer.

“Me and my brain canonically: Glinda is a lesbian, Elphaba is bisexual, Nessarose is bisexual, Fiyero is bisexual, Boq is questioning but queer in some way, Doctor Dillamond? Gay,” she said, via Pink News. “Madame Morrible is a lesbian who was deeply in love once but something happened to her love which is now why she is the way that she is.

‘Wicked: For Good’ director Jon M. Chu has insisted the movie will be "delicate" with Dorothy Gale.The upcoming blockbuster - which will follow on from the events on 2024’s ‘Wicked’ - will introduce the young girl from Kansas as she embarks on her journey down the Yellow Brick Road, and while Chu, 45, has said Dorothy will have a more prominent arrival in the flick than she does in the stage play of which ‘Wicked: For Good’ is based on, the filmmaker emphasised they would "tread lightly" around the character.Speaking to Vanity Fair about Dorothy and her crew’s walk down the Yellow Brick Road, Chu said: "That intersection is the place that we were first introduced to Oz."We tread lightly, but try to make more sense of how it impacts our girls and our characters than maybe the show does."He added: "We’re delicate. We’re delicate.

Exclusive: Andrew Herwitz’s Film Sales Company has come on to represent worldwide sales on two documentaries and two narrative features that are about to receive their world premieres at Tribeca Festival (June 4-15).

Jeffrey McHale’s documentaryIt’s Dorothy!explores the cultural relevance of Dorothy Gale, the heroine of L. Frank Baum’s 125-year-old classicThe Wizard Of Oz. The Spotlight Documentary entry uses archival footage and interviews with the women who portrayed Dorothy from Judy Garland to Diana Ross to examine the character’s enduring appeal.

She Runs The World focuses on the story of American athlete Allyson Felix,...

Bradley Cooper surprised the world when he was announced as the director of the fourth remake of A Star is Born. The actor is known for his incredible performances in films like Silver Linings Playbook and headlined comedy flicks like The Hangover trilogy. However, no one expected him to have a creative vision for such a huge project.

Cooper was reportedly not supposed to take on the project, and the film was originally pitched to Clint Eastwood. The Gran Torino star reportedly even talked to Cooper about the project while filming American Sniper, and his version of the film had Beyoncé attached and Tom Cruise being eyed for the lead. However, it never came to be.

Bradley Cooper said he pitched A Star is Born to Clint Eastwood Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born.

Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut was the remake of an American classic,...

Hollywood star Renée Zellweger, best known for her role as Bridget Jones in the beloved romantic comedy film series, could be on the verge of making history with the same iconic character. The actress, who first portrayed Bridget in the 2001 adaptation of Helen Fielding’s novel, recently reprised the role in the fourth installment of the franchise.

And new reports suggest that the most recent addition to the franchise could earn her a unique and historic distinction, something no actor has reportedly achieved before.

Peacock submits Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy for Emmys

Released exclusively on Peacock earlier this year, Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy has officially made its Emmy submissions, including for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, as per Deadline.

Related: “I want that movie to not exist”: Jennifer Lawrence...

“Scream queen” Kathleen Hughes Rubin thrived for nearly a century in Hollywood. Despite her image as a sexy screen siren of the 1950s, she enjoyed an enduring marriage to producer Stanley Rubin, and was the beloved mother of four children and a joy to all who knew her.

The death of Kathleen Hughes May 19 at age 96 concluded a nostalgic chapter of cinematic history for the baby boomer generation who grew up with her films. For me, her passing was also the loss of a cherished friend. Kathy’s movie career began during the late 1940s as the studio system entered its Cretaceous Period by subsequently deploying CinemaScope, Vista Vision, Cinerama and similar innovations in an attempt to lure audiences away from their television sets and back into movie theaters. Science fiction and film noir became melded with the short-lived phenomenon of 3D, with Kathy becoming prominent by her appearances in...

Lainey Wilson gave the live debut of her new single “Somewhere Over Laredo” at the 2025 American Music Awards on Monday night.

Wilson took the stage alongside a pianist in a stunning white bell-bottomed suit with a flowy cape adorned by a silver belt buckle and matching mic stand. Dan + Shay introduced their “friend.”

“Caught me a red-eye flight out of Houston/Found me a window seat with a view/Headed out west for south California/One Tito’s in I’m thinking about you,” Wilson sang. “Knowing 20 minutes from now...

Lainey Wilson frames her new song about romance, small towns, and rodeos around a beloved classic: The Wizard of Oz’s centerpiece song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” performed by Judy Garland. “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Wilson’s latest, interpolates the melody of Garland’s hopeful ballad into its chorus, with nostalgic results.

“Caught me a red-eye flight out of Houston/Found me a window seat with a view/Headed out west for south California/One Tito’s in I’m thinking about you,” she sings. “Knowing 20 minutes from now/I’ll...

The most recent remake of "A Star is Born" was one of the defining films of 2018. The film was the directorial debut of Academy Award-nominee Bradley Cooper, who also co-wrote, co-produced, and starred alongside Lady Gaga. It was the fourth iteration of the title, beginning with the 1937 film directed by William A. Wellman, which featured Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, followed by a 1954 remake directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason, which was then followed by the 1976 remake directed by Frank Pierson that Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson headlined.

What some may forget regarding the fourth "A Star is Born" film is that before Bradley Cooper signed on to direct, a legendary filmmaker was going to be at the helm. That director was none other than Academy Award-winner Clint Eastwood, who previously directed Cooper in "American Sniper." Along with the involvement of Eastwood, one of the...

This essay is excerpted from Hollywood High: a Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies, by Bruce Handy, out May 20 from Avid Reader Press.

Leap Day, 1940. The city: Los Angeles. The place: the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub, where Hollywood’s biggest names were gathered for the 12th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Among the stars smiling for the cameras: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamar, and emcee Bob Hope.

Professional jealousy was not the evening’s theme, not officially. So surely no one resented the fact that by one important measure — the measure — the answer to the question: Who is the biggest star in the room? was . . . .

None of the above.

Just a month earlier, the nation’s theater owners had conducted their annual poll and named not Gable, not Davis, not Stewart, but the young,...

“Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will perform a handful of songs from the musical for a live NBC special airing this fall.

Erivo and Grande will be joined by “their cast mates and some wonderful surprise guests” for a live special filmed at the Peacock theater in Los Angeles, which will air on NBC in November, director Jon M. Chu announced Monday during NBCUniversal’s Upfront presentation. The special will air on NBC and stream the next day on Peacock, though no official release date was set.

“They will perform live many of the songs from the first movie and maybe, just maybe, a little bit from the second one as well, for a night of entertainment that we think will … as they say in Oz, thrillify,” Chu said.

Ahead of the debut of “Wicked: For Good,” which is slated to debut in theaters on Nov. 21, Chu also...

Broadway legend and longtime ally of the LGBTQ+ community, Liza Minnelli, has issued a powerful statement of solidarity following what she calls “a bigoted attack on the arts.” Her longtime friend and musical collaborator, Michael Feinstein, recently published an essay titled “Fear of Queer?”, detailing the abrupt cancellation of a major Pride-themed concert at The Kennedy Center and raising the alarm over what he describes as "21st century government-sanctioned censorship." Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, called the cancellation and other recent moves to defund public broadcasting and censor queer art “heart-shattering.” She underscored the foundational role LGBTQ+ artists have played in her own career, stating: “Without contributions from LGBTQ+ geniuses, I’d have been a singer with few songs, a dancer...

Cora Sue Collins, the charming child actress of the 1930s and ’40s who worked alongside such legends as Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Irene Dunne and Merle Oberon during her brief but sensational career, has died. She was 98.

Collins died Sunday at her home in Beverly Hills of complications from a stroke, her daughter, Susie Krieser, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Collins played younger versions of Colbert in Torch Singer (1933), Frances Dee in The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932) and Keep ‘Em Rolling (1934), Loretta Young in Caravan (1934), Oberon in The Dark Angel (1935) and Lynn Bari in Blood and Sand (1941).

“I must have the most common face in the world,” she said in a 2019 interview. “I played either the most famous actresses of the ’30s as a child or their child. They made me up to look like everybody.”

The MGM contract player also was William Powell and Myrna Loy’s...

Tonight on American Idol, the Top 12 recreate iconic moments from the singing competition's past as Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino mentors the contestants. Artist-in-residence Jelly Roll joins the audience as judges Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan provide feedback.

After the Top 12 perform, two will be eliminated when host Ryan Seacrest announces the Top 10.

Fantasia created her own iconic moment when she sang "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess while competing in Season 3. The classic performance took place on April 15, 2004, when the Top 8 took on songs from movie soundtracks. Long before standing ovations were the norm after each Idol performance, original judge Randy Jackson rose to his feet and declared it "the single best Idol performance of any season." Paula Abdul called it "Oscar-winning" and the hard-to-impress Simon Cowell said, "You prove the point, with that performance tonight, why we are critical of people who just sing well. There was something...

Renee Zellweger has now won twice at the Academy Awards. Her first victory was for Best Supporting Actress in "Cold Mountain" (2003) and then 16 years later as Best Actress victory for "Judy" (2019). Where does the Judy Garland biopic fall in with the rest of her filmography? Tour through our photo gallery of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

The Texas-born actress began her career in commercials and bit parts in films like “Dazed and Confused” and “Reality Bites” plus lead roles in less than acclaimed films such as one of the many Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. She managed to turn that career trajectory around and earned three consecutive Oscar nominations in 2001, 2002 and 2003 for “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “Chicago,” and “Cold Mountain” respectively. She would win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for that latter Civil War drama.

In retrospect and even before that, it was winning the lead in the film...