CATE BLANCHETT

The "I Love Lucy" star ultimately wound up being played by Nicole Kidman, who faced criticism over her casting.

“We tailored the part for her, but she fit in those clothes on the first try,” says del Toro. There's "Nightmare Alley," currently in theaters, and Adam McKay's "Don't Look Up," which arrives Friday on Netflix. There may be something timeless about Blanchett in “Nightmare Alley,” but to her, both films are characterized by their timeliness. An avid collector, del Toro calls the portrait that hangs in Preminger's "Laura" "the one prop I would kill to own." “I’m not sure why.”Del Toro scripted “Nightmare Alley” with film critic Kim Morgan, whom he wed earlier this year.

With a touch of Barbara Stanwyck, a sumptuous Art Deco office and a deadly shade of crimson lipstick, Cate Blanchett plays a femme fatale in Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” with cunning embrace and subversion of the film noir archetype.

Never underestimate your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, even with a mutating virus afoot.

This week’s new entertainment releases include fresh music from U2 as part of the soundtrack for the animated “Sing 2,” a marathon of holiday films on TCM and the end-of-the-world comedy “Don’t Look Up.”.

During a tribute to her career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), Penelope Cruz recalled the Betamax videotape store that opened in her neighborhood, in a suburb of Madrid, when she was a child and that made her discover cinema.

Celebrities have joined Prince William in London for the inaugural awards ceremony of his Earthshot Prize.

Prince William has criticized some of the world’s richest men for using their wealth to fund a new space race and space tourism, and called on the world's great minds to fix the planet first.

Prince William has announced 15 inaugural finalists for the Earthshot Prize, his ambitious global environmental award that aims to find new ideas and technologies to tackle climate change, air pollution and the Earth’s most pressing challenges.

(AP Photo)LOS ANGELES – Yes, 2020 may seem like a complete fail with all the constant bad news and tragic moments. It’s been filled with gloom and doom(scrolling), but some celebrities and those inspired by them have tried to brighten a bleak year. He reassigned his 10 seamstresses in New York to produce thousands daily for health care workers on the frontlines. The singer and husband Emilio Estefan's restaurant Estefan Kitchen served up homemade meals for health care workers in Miami. The challenge coordinated offers by celebrities and athletes to raise funds to feed those in need during the pandemic.

Clooney was honored Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, by co-stars and colleagues at the annual film benefit for the Museum of Modern Art, held virtually. MoMA’s annual film benefit raises funds to bring great works of film to the museum’s collection. Also giving virtual tributes Monday evening were actors Felicity Jones, Tiffany Boone, Kyle Chandler and Demian Bichir, who appear in “A Midnight Sky,” which Clooney stars in and directs. The benefit featured clips from some of Clooney’s many films: “Michael Clayton,” “Syriana,” "The Descendants,” “Gravity,” and “Good Night, and Good Luck,” among others. In earlier comments to The Associated Press, Clooney said “Good Night, and Good Luck” was probably his proudest professional accomplishment.

Hollywoods awards season has gone virtual. For Awards Daily founder Sasha Stone, who has been covering the Oscars since 2000, it’s like nothing she’s ever seen — an awards season without glamour, without red carpets, without anything that feels real. And awards season, such as it is, has gone virtual. The Oscar race will Zoomed. Not everyone is sorry that awards season — an increasingly bloated, overlong, high-priced slog from September to February — has been turned upside down.

Model Maria Carla Boscono wears a creation as part of the Salvatore Ferragamo 2021 women's spring-summer ready-to-wear collection during the fashion week in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)MILAN – To show or not to show: Each Milan fashion house had to make a difficult decision how to reach the fashion public this season under the safety constraints imposed by the coronavirus. ____ARMANI EXPLORES PAST AND PRESENTGiorgio Armani was the first Milan designer to show his collection behind closed doors, taking the command decision last February after Italy’s first local transmitted case of coronavirus was detected while Milan Fashion Week was under way. “I don’t know when we will recover the formula’’ of live runway shows, Armani told journalists during a presentation. Men wore perforated leather jackets with loose trousers, suits with 1940s boxy jackets and bright trenches.

(Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)VENICE – The Venice Film Festival is wrapping up the first COVID-era international cinema showcase Saturday, with critics, filmmakers and actors alike cheering organizers for having dared to hold the festival amid a pandemic and demonstrating how to go to the movies again, safely. Once the virus spread, the Cannes Film Festival was canceled outright, and other big international festivals in Toronto and New York opted to go mostly online. “We were a little bit worried at the beginning, of course,” festival director Alberto Barbera said. Twenty-twenty is not the year for those kind of discussions.”Instead, she said, Venice was a film festival that focused on the integrity of the films. The diversity of countries represented is a development that festival director Barbera has greeted with particular satisfaction.

Director Ann Hui holds her Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)VENICE Hong Kong director Ann Hui paid tribute to her home city as she received a lifetime achievement award from the Venice International Film Festival. The acclaimed director said she wanted to revert this honor back to Hong Kong, the city where she grew up. Huis impact on the Hong Kong film industry and Asian cinema is second to none. Shes a five-time winner of Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

This year, three of the four major fall film festivals, including Venice, are going forward despite the pandemic. This year, three of the four major fall film festivals all but Telluride, which had to cancel are going forward despite the pandemic. For a season predicated on badge-wearing throngs and marquee movies, its meant rethinking what a film festival is. A situation like this forces you to assess what is fundamental, says Dennis Lim, director of programming for the New York Film Festival. Anyone in Canada will be able to buy tickets to TIFF screenings, and New York Film Festival films will be briefly available nationwide.

VENICE Australian actress Cate Blanchett said Wednesday she is baffled that other countries didnt learn from Italys pain to be better prepared to fight the coronavirus outbreak when it spread. Blanchett, who is heading the jury at the virus-restricted Venice Film Festival, arrived on the Lido wearing a surgical mask and skipped the typical water taxi photo op that stars have long used. At an opening-day press conference, Blanchett was asked whether she feared coming to Italy, the first country in the West to be slammed by COVID-19. Hospitals, cemeteries and morgues were overflowing in nearby Lombardy, which became the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. They will award the coveted Golden Lion and other awards to winners of the 18 in-competition films when the festival wraps up Sept. 12.

Actress Tilda Swinton holds a carnival mask as she poses for photographers upon arrival at the opening ceremony of the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. Welcome to the Venice Film Festival in the time of coronavirus. We know the festival of Venice will be a sort of test for everybody, said festival director Alberto Barbera. But for veteran Venice festival-goers, the new restrictions created unprecedented hurdles that threatened to shut them out. Carlo Lazzarini has worked at the Venice film festival for 22 years, this year as chief inspector for one of the smaller screening venues.

Festival attendees cycle in front of the main cinema ahead of the start of the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. The 77th edition of the worlds oldest film festival opening Wednesday looks nothing like its predecessors. Italys strict 10-week lockdown largely tamed the virus, but infections are now rebounding after summer vacations. Guests to the glamorous film festival are not exempt. Italian films are well represented, including the first Italian opening-night film in years, the out-of-competition family drama Lacci by Daniele Luchetti.

LOS ANGELES Dolly Parton, Cate Blanchett and Justin Bieber are part of the virtual edition of the Paley Centers annual festival celebrating TV programs and their makers. PaleyFest LA, responding to pandemic restrictions, taped socially distanced discussions with stars and producers that began streaming free this week on the Paley Centers YouTube channel. The showcased series includes Dolly Partons Heartstrings; Justin Bieber: Seasons; Late Night with Seth Meyers; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Mrs. Blanchett is part of the Mrs. America panel that includes Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba and Sarah Paulson,___Online:https://www.youtube.com/user/paleycenter

FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 file photo, actress Cate Blanchett poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'A Star Is Born' at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. The lineup for the Venice Film Festival will be announced on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, and will be the first major film event since the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Barbera noted that almost half of the competition film selections this year are directed by women. The decision to hold the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival is experienced like a sign of confidence in dnd concrete support of the world of film and the audiovisual industry, Barbera said. Cannes and Telluride were cancelled and others like Venice and the Toronto International Film Festival have had to get creative and scale back where possible in order to proceed.

(Netflix via AP)Heres a collection curated by The Associated Press entertainment journalists of whats arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. Its directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who also helmed Love & Basketball and the criminally underseen Beyond the Lights (currently available on Kanopy). Palm Springs: If a rom-com is more your speed, theres also Palm Springs, on Hulu Friday, starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as wedding guests who find themselves caught in a time-loop. AP Film Writer Lindsey BahrMUSICThe Dalai Lama: To commemorate his 85th birthday on Monday, the Dalai Lama is releasing his first-ever album. Viewers seeking to stir their hearts and minds should consider Netflixs Stateless, set in an immigration detention center in the Australian desert.

Preview: Cate Blanchett The versatile Australian actress is famous for morphing into her roles, but tells Lesley Stahl that each time she worries she won’t pull it off. Watch Lesley Stahl’s report on Sunday, June 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.