The daily gossip: Andrea Riseborough's last-minute Oscar campaign actually worked, Jamie Lee Curtis among stars flipping out over their nominations, and more

1. Andrea Riseborough's last-minute Oscar campaign actually worked

It turns out waiting until the last minute can really pay off. The eleventh hour campaign to get Andrea Riseborough an Oscar nomination for the little-seen movie To Leslie, which involved celebrities posting identical tweets about her "small film with a giant heart," actually worked. Riseborough has received a shock Oscar nod for Best Actress, even though her movie had virtually no presence in the race until about two weeks ago. "I'm not entirely sure how the f--k this happened," she told Deadline with the same energy as a student who started a paper an hour before it was due and still got an A. Ana de Armas also earned a nod for the controversial, Razzie-nominated Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde. But this meant Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler were both shockingly snubbed. Meanwhile, we'd like to humbly suggest that some sort of award be given to this clip of Riz Ahmed announcing the animated short film nominee "My Year of Dicks."

Deadline The Week

2. Jamie Lee Curtis and more stars flip out after becoming first-time Oscar nominees

That's our final girl. There was arguably no single person this year who campaigned harder for an Oscar nomination than Jamie Lee Curtis, and she couldn't contain her excitement after making it into Best Supporting Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Curtis fired off not one, not two, but seven separate Instagram posts to celebrate, including one showing her stunned reaction watching the announcement. "THIS IS WHAT SURPRISE LOOKS LIKE!" she wrote, eventually ending her epic posting spree by promising, "Ok I'll stop and I'll head to work." Other first-time nominees included Everything Everywhere's Ke Huy Quan, who told The New York Times he can't believe that "from this day forward, I will always be 'Oscar-nominated actor Ke Huy Quan," and Brian Tyree Henry, who thanked the "random man in the elevator who saw me scream at the news." Expect to see similar humble reactions next year from first-time Best Actress nominee M3GAN.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Instagram The New York Times

3. Taylor Swift was snubbed for 2 Oscars in 1 year

She has this thing where she gets older but just never closer to an Oscar nomination. After making no secret of wanting to win an Academy Award, Taylor Swift has come up short twice in a single awards season. Her "All Too Well" video wasn't nominated for Best Live Action Short Film, though that wasn't a surprise considering it didn't even make the shortlist. But on top of that, Swift has now also failed to get nominated for Best Original Song for "Carolina," which she wrote for Where the Crawdads Sing; the original song nominees instead included Lady Gaga for Top Gun: Maverick and Rihanna for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Swift has released multiple original songs for movies that have consistently failed to get nominated at the Oscars, including for The Hunger Games, One Chance, and Cats. But it's not too late to try again in 2024 by slapping together a last-minute "Theme From Cocaine Bear."

People

4. The Madonna-directed Madonna biopic has reportedly been canceled

She no longer wants to take us there. A highly anticipated biopic about Madonna, which was set to be directed by Madonna herself, has been scrapped, Variety reports. The project was announced back in 2020, and Madonna told Variety last year she planned to direct it because "no one's going to tell my story, but me." Julia Garner reportedly landed the lead role after what The Hollywood Reporter described as a "grueling" months-long audition process that included "11-hour-a-day" choreography sessions and was essentially "Madonna Bootcamp." Florence Pugh and Alexa Demie were reportedly also considered. But that was apparently a complete waste of time. Variety now reports the film is no longer in development because Madonna is focused on her tour, though insiders told the outlet "she remains committed to making a film about her life one day." Clearly, she must have realized she could never hope to tell her own story more accurately than was captured in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

Variety

5. Drew Barrymore interviews Allison Williams in character as M3GAN

Wait, is it too late to pull one of this year's Best Actress nominees and replace her with Drew Barrymore for her role as M3GAN? The talk show host has conducted an utterly bizarre interview with M3GAN star Allison Williams while dressed as the titular killer doll, donning a blonde wig and everything. But just wearing the costume wasn't enough. No, Barrymore actually spoke to Williams in character as M3GAN, doing the voice and even crawling around on the floor. "How did you know that this movie would be such a hit?" Barrymore asks Williams, who keeps the bit up and acts like she's talking to the doll. "Well, M3GAN," Williams says, telling her the film was a hit because of "you" — leading Barrymore to stand up and start dancing around. The campaign to cast Barrymore in M3GAN 2.0 as another killer robot doll who just inexplicably looks like a fully grown adult woman begins now.

Twitter