Hollywood Week: FireAid Raises $100M, Critics’ Choice, Grammys, Super Bowl LIX

Details

Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 08 February 2025 11:27

Written by Janet Walker

The LA Fire Aid Concert, a benefit for those affected by the devastating January fires that reduced Pacific Palisades and Altadena to charred ruins, has announced the event has raised $100million and expect distribution to begin in February.

Fire Aid Concert Raises 100M

As per the announcement on the FireAid website, "Due to overwhelming demand, the FireAid streaming partners have extended on-demand access to the January 30th benefit concert for an entire year. This allows continued fundraising efforts to support wildfire relief. Additionally, Connie and Steve Ballmer have extended their commitment of matching every streaming donation dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of contributions made toward wildfire recovery and prevention."

Hollywood Week: FireAid Concert, Oscar Wars, Grammy Awards, Marianne Faithfull

Critic's Choice Awards

The twice postponed Critic's Choice Awards was recently held in Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport, toasting the best in film and television for the last year. The 39th annual awards ceremony which usually follows the Golden Globes was originally scheduled for January 12 and was rescheduled for January 28, due to the catastrophic LA Wildfires, and finally moved to February 7, 2024.

The evening was filled with celebrities from film and television, and the atmosphere gave pause, a respite, from the unforgiving realities of post Wildfires, LA. As this is traditionally the second awards show of the season, and usually held pre-Academy Awards nomination announcements, the outcome usually firms up the awards season across the categories.

In achievement in film, the surprise of the night was Sean Baker's "Anora," which was named Best Picture, by the Critic's Association, after being shut out at the Golden Globes, which is the comprised of Hollywood's foreign press.

The four leading Oscar contenders, Best Actress nominee Demi Moore, Best Supporting Actor nominee Kieran Culkin, Best Supporting nominee Actress Zoe Saldana, and Best Actor nominee Adrian Brody followed up their Golden Globe wins with Critic's Choice awards.

Golden Globes Winners

Director Jon M. Chu, who is also nominated for an Academy Award for Wicked, received the Critic's Choice Award for Best Director. Best Foreign Language Film went to Emilia Perez, which is expected to win the same category at the upcoming Academy Awards. The screenplay winners went to Coraline Fargeat for The Substance, and Peter Straughan, who also won a Golden Globe, for Conclave. Both of whom are nominated for Academy Awards.

"Shogun," the remake of the 1980 mini-series of the same name, had a big night winning Best Drama Series, Best Actor, Drama Series, for Hiroyuki Sanada, Best Supporting Actor, Drama Series, Tadanobu Asano, Best Supporting Actress, Drama Series, Moeka Hoshi.

The big surprise of the night came when Kathy Bates was named Best Actress, Drama Series for her role in "Matlock." Her reaction which has been replayed across social media, shows the Oscar winning actress stunned and shocked.

Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti, each won Best Actor and Best Actress for their performances in "The Penguin." Farrell's transformation was astonishing and Milioti was given the opportunity to play evil and she embraced it with style and panache.

The comedy series "Hacks", starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, also had a big night winning Best Comedy Series, and Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.

Best Limited Series went to "Baby Reindeer," and Best Foreign Film series went to "Squid Games."

The complete list of nominees and winners can be found here -  https://www.criticschoice.com

And The Nominees Are . . . 97th Oscars® Nominees Announced

Grammy Awards

The biggest upset of the Grammy Awards came when Beyonce, the perennial nominee in the Album of the Year category, and most nominated artist in the history of the music awards, took home to coveted Album of the Year trophy in the Country Music category, for her "Cowboy Carter" album, a switch from her usual trophy winning categories of R&B and Rap.

Her reaction, which has been circulated on social media, revealed an artist who was genuinely surprised at the win. With the win she set another record, and shattered another glass ceiling, by becoming the first black artist to win the Grammy in the country category.

Beyonce ended the night with four trophies including Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Country Duo for "II Most Wanted" with Miley Cyrus. Kendrick Lamar won five trophies including song and record of the year. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Die With a Smile." Chappell Roan was named Best New Artist.

The complete list of all the Grammy winners can be found here courtesy of The New York Times.

Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement Announced

Super Bowl Sunday. Kick-Off, Commercials, Halftime

Super Bowl LIX, between the three-time reigning champions Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, will take place at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The game begins at 6:30 EST/3:30 PDT.

Grammy winning artists Kendrick Lamar is headlining the halftime show, and SZA is expected to join as a musical guest.

Also, a big part of the Super Bowl is its iconic commercials as advertisers are recruiting many well-known celebrities to pitch the products. Ad rates for a 30-second spot are as high as $8million.  This year is no different with the return of Oscar winners Ben Affleck and, his brother, Casey Affleck continuing their Dunkin Donuts personas, joined by Academy award nominee Jeremy Strong. Academy Award winner Matt Damon is featured in a Stella Artois ad joined by soccer star David Beckham. Madison Avenue is also banking on the traditional approach with its Budweiser commercial featuring the favorite Clydesdales. Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriquez, and Ludacris, from the Fast and Furious fame, are featured in Haagen-Dazs commercial.

Expect Monday's armchair quarterbacking to dissect the big plays, the big winners, and the big bombs.

Nominations Announced for the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.