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    Gérard Depardieu Appears in Court Over Sexual Assault Allegations

    The French actor faces charges in a case involving two women working on the set of a movie in which he starred.The French actor Gérard Depardieu on Monday appeared before a Paris court where he faces two charges of sexually assaulting two women working on the set of a film in which he was starring.The trial will be the first time Mr. Depardieu has been forced to answer in court to accusations of groping, sexual assault and harassment, and rape that have piled up against him for years, and which he has denied.The charges in this trial came after two women on the set of “Les Volets Verts,” a movie by the French director Jean Becker that was released in 2022, filed police complaints that he had groped their genitals, buttocks and breasts. If found guilty, Mr. Depardieu faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, or about $81,000.Mr. Depardieu has denied all accusations in the case being brought to trial Monday. His lawyer, Jérémie Assous, called them “totally false and unrealistic.”The trial was scheduled for last October, but was postponed after Mr. Depardieu did not appear for health reasons. Mr. Assous presented medical assessments that showed Mr. Depardieu suffered from long-term diabetes and heart problems after undergoing a quadruple bypass, and that anxiety from the trial had worsened his conditions.For many, the case represents a breakthrough for the #MeToo movement in France, which was stalled for years, particularly in the film industry.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Seeks More Sway in Picking Kennedy Center Honorees

    When President Trump was criticized by some of the artists who were recognized at the annual Kennedy Center Honors program during his first term, he responded by boycotting the show, breaking with decades of precedent.Now, as he leads a sweeping takeover of the Kennedy Center in his second term, Mr. Trump is seeking changes that will allow him greater sway in the selection of honorees, according to two people briefed on the matter who were granted anonymity to describe confidential discussions.Mr. Trump, who is now the chairman of the Kennedy Center, is scheduled to speak at a meeting of its board on Monday afternoon, when proposed changes to the honors advisory committee will be on the agenda, according to the individuals and a copy of the agenda that was obtained by The New York Times.Since 1978, the Kennedy Center has named honorees to be recognized each year at a star-studded televised gala without interference from the White House. The center has honored a broad spectrum of artists and performers, including Lucille Ball, Dolly Parton, Clint Eastwood, Fred Astaire and the Grateful Dead.But Mr. Trump is seeking a more direct role. He replaced all the Biden appointees on the center’s once-bipartisan board, was elected chairman and installed a loyalist, Richard Grenell, as its president. The board is scheduled to meet Monday to consider a resolution, which has not been previously reported, that would give Mr. Trump more control over the selection of honorees.The resolution states that members of the committee responsible for selecting honorees “shall be appointed by the chairman of the board, and shall serve at the pleasure of the chairman,” according to a copy obtained by The Times. That would give Mr. Trump broad power to hire and fire those who help decide who will receive the honor, which recognizes people and institutions for lifetime artistic achievement. The committee will recommend a slate of honorees to the Kennedy Center’s president for approval, the resolution says.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Adrien Brody’s Gum Toss Ahead of Best Actor Speech Gave Oscars a Memorable Moment

    Adrien Brody had one of the strangest moments of this year’s Oscars. And it wasn’t his five-minute speech.Adrien Brody was en route to the stage at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night to collect his Oscar for best actor when it appeared to dawn on him that he had forgotten to do something — something important.So, halfway up the staircase, Mr. Brody paused and removed a piece of chewing gum from his mouth. But what to do with it? He turned to locate his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, who stepped forward from her position in the front row as Mr. Brody readied himself to make a softball-style underhanded pitch to her.It was not a perfect toss. Ms. Chapman had to wheel to her right to catch what briefly became the most famous wad of chewed-up gum in the world. But she delighted in her feat, raising her arms in triumph as she returned to her seat just in time to see Mr. Brody accept his award from Cillian Murphy, last year’s winner in the category.Mr. Brody was not asked about the gum toss during his backstage interview after his win, so no further details were available about the type of gum it was, or how he decided against simply swallowing it.It was an unscripted moment for Mr. Brody and Ms. Chapman, whose relationship has drawn its share of tabloid attention. It also served as a bit of levity before Mr. Brody delivered a lengthy speech that focused, almost exclusively, on his hard path back to Hollywood pre-eminence thanks to his role in “The Brutalist,” for which he won the award.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    For Some Fans, Demi Moore’s Upset Loss for Best Actress Stung

    Moore had been considered a favorite for her strong performance in “The Substance,” but lost to Mikey Madison of “Anora.”Demi Moore snagged statuettes all through the awards season for her dynamic performance in “The Substance,” a film about the indignities women past 50 face in Hollywood. She was favored by many to win the Oscar for best actress.But when the envelope was opened on Sunday night Moore, 62, was passed over in favor of Mikey Madison, 25, who pulled an upset and won the best actress trophy for playing a sex worker in the film “Anora.”While Madison’s performance was widely praised, her unexpected victory left many admirers of Moore puzzled and angry as it kept her from a perfect ending to her career comeback.One disappointed fan on social media said that each of Moore’s acceptance speeches this awards season had been “amazing” and that she would have loved to hear another from her at the Oscars. “Her performance was truly one of a kind, and I’m so happy both she and the film made it this far,” the supporter said. “Just wish she could’ve won.”On a subreddit dedicated to Moore’s upset, some fans suggested that her loss underscored one of the central themes of the film: the challenges older actresses face in a Hollywood that is obsessed with young women.One commenter noted that the academy had been observed in the past to “like young women and old men.” Another lamented: “Literally pouring all that brilliance on screen only for the younger actress who benefited from sex appeal and social hype to take that prestigious of an award from her.” Others pointed out that since “The Substance” was a body horror film, Moore had faced an uphill climb to win a best actress Oscar.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Zoe Saldaña Wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in ‘Emilia Perez’

    Zoe Saldaña won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez.”She plays Rita, a downtrodden Mexico City lawyer who decides to accept an offer to help Emilia Pérez, a drug cartel boss played by Karla Sofía Gascón, set up a new life after receiving gender-affirming surgery.Saldaña anchors what many critics pointed to as the film’s standout song, “El Mal,” during which Rita confronts corrupt politicians during a gala. (“El Mal” won the Oscar for best original song.)“Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita,” Saldaña said.In her acceptance speech, Saldaña said her grandmother, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1961, would be proud of her win.“The fact that I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted,” Saldaña said.The film headed into the ceremony with 13 nominations, the most this year. Its awards buzz was quieted, though, when a journalist resurfaced a series of racist comments posted by Gascón on social media years ago. Gascón apologized but in the wake of the scandal, Netflix refocused its awards campaign on Saldaña’s performance.She won in a category that included Monica Barbaro for her performance as Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown”; Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good in “Wicked”; Felicity Jones in the period drama “The Brutalist”; and Isabella Rossellini in the papal election thriller “Conclave.” More

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    Halle Berry and Adrien Brody Recreate Famous Oscars Kiss on Red Carpet

    Plenty of kisses were shared on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday night — but none could have been as nostalgic as the moment Adrien Brody and Halle Berry locked lips.More than two decades after Brody planted a shocking kiss on Berry at the 2003 Oscars after winning the best actor statuette for his role in “The Pianist,” she returned the favor in grand fashion as onlookers cheered. The moment, captured by Access Hollywood, quickly spread across social media.“That was one hell of a night for him, and for me as well,” Berry told Variety after smooching Brody, who is nominated for best actor for his role in “The Brutalist.” “Tonight I had to pay him back.”A reunion 22 years in the making. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/MkaF2xb6SE— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 2, 2025

    Berry told the outlet that she had seen Brody around Hollywood at various parties, but Sunday night was the first time in decades that they had seen each other on a red carpet.“He’s nominated this year,” she said. “He deserved that.”Their kiss onstage in 2003 made headlines and has become one of the most talked about Oscar moments in history.After kissing Berry that night, Brody quipped, “I bet they didn’t tell you that was in the gift bag.”Over the years, both actors have discussed the moment at length. On “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” in 2017, Berry said that the kiss was not planned and that she was as shocked as everyone else.Berry said that she went along with it “because I was there the year before, and I know the feeling of being out of your body.” Berry made history in 2002 for her role in “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first Black woman to win an Oscar for best actress.Brody also revisited the kiss in a profile with Variety last month. “We live in a very conscious time, which is a wonderful thing,” he said. “And nothing that I ever do or have done or would’ve done is ever done with the intention of making anyone feel bad.” More

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    Kieran Culkin Wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for ‘A Real Pain’

    Kieran Culkin won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as the descendant of a Holocaust survivor who makes a family pilgrimage to Poland in the dramatic comedy of manners “A Real Pain.”This was the first Oscar nomination for Culkin, 42, who was a favorite to take home the honor. His performance as Benji Kaplan, a disinhibited and emotionally unstable charmer who embarks on the trip with his anxious cousin (Jesse Eisenberg), earned Culkin a shelf’s worth of statues this awards season, including from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.Culkin’s nomination is one of two for “A Real Pain,” which is also competing for best original screenplay. Eisenberg wrote the script and directed the film.The other candidates in the best supporting actor category were Yura Borisov, for the modern rags-to-riches fable “Anora”; Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown”; Guy Pearce, for his role as an architect’s predatory patron in “The Brutalist”; and Culkin’s “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong, who portrayed Donald J. Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.”In a charming, casual speech that was largely pointed toward his wife, Jazz Charton, Culkin told a short story about asking her for a fourth child if he won an Oscar. It was a memory they had not discussed in years, and he chose this moment to remind her. “Let’s get cracking on those kids,” he quipped.Culkin also thanked his manager, his team and his co-star Eisenberg.“Thank you for this, baby,” he said. “You’re a genius. I’d never say that to your face. Thank you for this movie.” More

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    Mystery of Gene Hackman’s Death Brings Grief and Bewilderment to Santa Fe

    Residents mourning Mr. Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, are consumed by the unusual circumstances surrounding their deaths and why they were not discovered sooner.Settling in for a drink the other night at Jinja, the restaurant in Santa Fe, N.M., that Gene Hackman and his wife dined at and had invested in, a group of patrons decided to honor the couple by ordering a round of “Gene’s Mai-Tais” off the menu.But in the days since Mr. Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead on the floor of their home, the toasts and tributes have been freighted with a sense of bewilderment over the circumstances of their deaths.Mr. Hackman was found dead near his cane in the mud room of their secluded home just outside the city, and Ms. Arakawa was found on the bathroom floor, next to a counter with pills scattered about. One dog was found dead in a nearby closet, while two others were roaming on the property, and data from Mr. Hackman’s pacemaker indicates he died nine days before the couple was discovered.Now, Santa Fe, a city of 89,000 people that has drawn artists and cultural figures for decades, is grappling with a macabre mystery: How did two of their most famous residents die, and how could no one have known for so long?“You can’t help feeling guilty that you didn’t call him,” said Stuart Ashman, a friend of Mr. Hackman’s who met him on a committee of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe in the late 1990s. “You sort of take for granted that your friends are where they are and everything is status quo.”Among both those who knew Mr. Hackman and those who had never once seen him around town, theories about what might have happened were piling up.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More