Less than two weeks before the inauguration, President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with a Russian oligarch to discuss strengthening relations between Washington and Moscow, The New York Times reports. Viktor Vekselberg, who has ties to the Kremlin, met with Cohen three separate times, including on the day of the inauguration.

Just days afterwards, the private equity firm of Andrew Intrater, who is Vekselberg's cousin and client, awarded Cohen a $1 million contract. Intrater spoke to the Times, saying he did nothing wrong and made the decision independently.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Cohen was separately paid at least $400,000 to arrange a talk between Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Cohen also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from businesses like AT&T and Novartis to provide access and insight into the Trump administration.

The Times writes that the Vekselberg meeting "sheds additional light on the intersection between Mr. Trump's inner-circle and Russians with ties to the Kremlin." Read more about the meetings at The New York Times. Jeva Lange

The 2019 Academy Award nominations have arrived.

In the top category of Best Picture, the nominees are BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born, and Vice.

Roma and The Favourite led the pack with 10 nominations each. It was a great morning for Roma in particular, scoring unexpected nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. The Netflix film is looking set to be the Best Picture frontrunner and could become the first foreign language film to ever win the top prize.

A Star Is Born earned eight nominations, but in one of the morning's biggest surprises, Bradley Cooper was not nominated for Best Director. He did, however, receive a Best Actor nod. Strangely, A Star Is Born and Roma were both left out of Best Film Editing, a category in which the Best Picture winner is almost always nominated.

The nominees for Best Actor are Christian Bale (Vice), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate), Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book), while Best Actress consists of Olivia Colman (The Favourite), Glenn Close (The Wife), Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Yalitza Aparicio (Roma).

In Best Supporting Actor, the nominees are Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman), Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born), Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Sam Rockwell (Vice), while the nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams (Vice), Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), Emma Stone (The Favourite), Marina De Tavira (Roma), and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite).

The Oscars, which are not expected to have a host, will take place on Feb. 24. Read the full list of nominees at The Hollywood Reporter. Brendan Morrow

Glass topped the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend box office, giving M. Night Shyamalan his best debut in years but still falling short of expectations.

The thriller, which is the last stop in a trilogy that began with Unbreakable in 2000, took in $47.1 million from Friday to Monday, with $40.6 million coming in its first three days, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That's certainly a solid result for the film, which Forbes notes only cost $20 million to make, and it's Shyamalan's best opening since 2004's The Village, unadjusted for inflation.

The total is, however, below expectations, as tracking last week suggested the movie could make as much as $70 million over its first four days, Variety reported. This may be the result of poor reviews, as Glass earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 37 percent compared to 76 percent for Split, which opened to $40 million. Universal told The Hollywood Reporter Glass's performance was within "reasonable expectations" but said the weather may have prevented more moviegoers from turning out.

Meanwhile, The Upside, starring Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, had a phenomenal second weekend, taking in $18.3 million over four days, per The Los Angeles Times. Its three-day total is a drop of only 23 percent from its already impressive debut, Box Office Mojo reports. There was a lot working against the film, including Hart's homophobic jokes controversy and a low Rotten Tomatoes score, but it has become an unexpected hit.

Aquaman also reached another milestone this weekend, passing the $300 million mark domestically. It is close to overtaking The Dark Knight Rises and becoming the highest grossing D.C. movie ever. Brendan Morrow

French officials said Tuesday that police in Paris have detained singer Chris Brown and two other people after a woman filed a rape complaint. Brown faces aggravated rape and drug-related charges, a French judicial official tells The Associated Press, and investigators have another two days to decide whether to charge him or let him go. One of Brown's bodyguards is among the people detained, AP reports. A rape conviction in France can carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years, Reuters notes.

The woman who filed the rape complaint says she met Brown and some of his friends at a club in Paris on Wednesday, and they all ended up at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel near the city's central Concorde Plaza, the official tells AP. In 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault of Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at the time. He's been in and out of legal trouble since. Peter Weber

In a New York Times report Sunday on President Trump's chaotic, sometimes Pyrrhic, remarkably consistent negotiating style, former Trump Organization vice president Barbara Res explained one reason she believes Trump is having such a hard time ending his government shutdown: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "There was never a woman with power that he ran up against, until Pelosi," Res said. "And he doesn't know what to do with it. He's totally in a corner."

Res elaborated Monday night on MSNBC's The 11th Hour. "There are certain basic tenets of negotiation that Trump does not believe in," like the "win-win" deal or give-and-take, she told guest host Nicole Wallace. Trump's "I demand, and this is what I'm going to get" strategy "has worked for him in certain circumstances where he had all the leverage" and power, but "now he doesn't have either."

"Trump has always felt that men are superior to women, and he even told me that," Res said. "So in his mind, any woman would be inferior to him, even the best of the best. And here's Nancy Pelosi, she probably is the best of the best. Problem is, she's his match, she's not inferior to him, she's — in my opinion, from a point of view of dealmaking — far superior." Trump "can't see" that he "100 percent" could end the shutdown anytime he chooses, she added, and when Wallace asked how this will all end, Res said she doesn't know. "I think, eventually, somebody's going to have to blink," she said, and if Trump rejects a compromise from Democrats, "I think he's going to be in very, very big trouble."

Tony Schwartz, who wrote Trump's The Art of the Deal, told the Times that Trump "was always a terrible negotiator," and his only "virtue" is his use of "a hammer, deceit, relentlessness, and an absence of conscience," and his apathy about any "collateral damage" he leaves behind.

Newly sworn-in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has never served in a Congress where the government was open, Stephen Colbert pointed out to her on Monday's Late Show. He gave her a pint of Ben & Jerry's and a spoon and asked what that's been like. For her and the other 100 or so House freshmen, she said, "the downside is that we're not able to get to work as much as we want to in the beginning, but the bright side is that it gives us a lot more free time to make trouble," like trying to track down Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Ocasio-Cortez explained that in her social media workshop for Democrats, "I gave them more of my general theory and approach to social media," where "Rule No. 1 is to be authentic, to be yourself, and don't try to be anyone that you're not. So don't try to talk like a young kid if you're not a young kid, don't post a meme if you don't know what a meme is," and "don't talk like the Founding Fathers on Twitter."

Ocasio-Cortez is so good at social media, "she's known for hosting Instagram live Q&A's while cooking dinner," Colbert explained before the interview. "That's impressive. My wife once asked me a question while I was making a grilled cheese sandwich, and I ended up in the emergency room."

Colbert asked Ocasio-Cortez about her plan to tax rich guys like himself at a 70 percent marginal rate. "This is something we often see, too, with Fox News, it's like, 'They want to take all your money!'" she said. But the 70 percent marginal tax rate would apply only to the dollars you make each year after you hit $10 million. Colbert pointed out that cries of "'She's a socialist, she wants 70 percent tax rates,' those are both accurate, right?" She laughed and said yes, but "democratic socialist," which is "very different." Peter Weber

"I am tickled red, white, and blue to welcome you to our very special show, Intermission Accomplished: A Halftime Tribute to Trump," Jimmy Kimmel said on Monday's very special Kimmel Live. "We are here tonight to celebrate the midway mark of Donald Trump's first term in office — because let's be honest, this is a man who is far too humble to celebrate himself." He listed some of Trump's many accomplishments: "More than 6,000 tweets in office, at least half of those with no misspellings at all. More than 100 days on the golf course, keeping tabs on the environment. And let's not forget the election itself: Donald Trump got 62 million votes, second-most of any presidential candidate in 2016."

Kimmel ran through Trump's hagiography, Ken Bone (Josh Gad) made a cameo, and a group of dancers ended the intro with a spirited pro-Trump medley.

"This president has delivered so many poignant words, the best words, since he took office," Kimmel said. "Donald Trump has tweeted more than every other president in history combined — more than Washington, more than Lincoln even. And tonight we remember his most memorable lines," as sung by Leon Bridges. They've honestly never sounded sweeter.

Alyssa Milano popped in to hawk "Great Moments in Trump History" commemorative plates.

Kimmel also starred in a dark faux sit-com about Eric Trump (Paul Scheer) and Don Jr. (Will Arnett) hunting down the last lion in Africa.

Finally, the ghost of Fred Trump (Fred Willard) appeared to take credit for all of his son's accomplishments, then changed his mind. Watch below. Peter Weber