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One Hollywood celebrity who commands attention like no other is Marlon Brando. He wasn’t just an actor; he was a game changer who reshaped movies and acting with his powerful performances effortlessly. Brando’s acting style was rich and had a heavy influence from theatrics; his expressions were more prominent, and he would easily stand out when he came on screen.

His acting would add a whole new level of authenticity. From his rebellious role in The Wild One to his Oscar-winning performance as a dockworker in On the Waterfront, he didn’t just act in these roles—he became the characters he was playing. It was during the late ’60s and early ’70s when he was not getting a lot of roles due to poorly received films and his reputation for being difficult to work with—but the slump came to an end after he was given an...

The history of the Academy Awards is full of drama that doesn't just play out in the nominated films. In 1973, Sacheen Littlefeather claimed that a pissed-off John Wayne needed to be held back from attacking her after she delivered her speech on the mistreatment of Native Americans. There was the slap heard and seen around the world between Will Smith and Chris Rock in 2022. But one of the most vicious attacks that happened at the ceremony didn’t involve any physical altercation or threat of one.

For the first time since they introduced the In Memoriam segment, the Academy Awards is giving us a reason to tune in: the 2025 Oscars host is Conan O’Brien.

Yes, we have high hopes for the former late-night comedian who brings at least a small chance of talking about butthole gerbils before an audience of self-congratulating millionaires. Certainly, O’Brien doesn’t need our advice for mastering his first-ever time hosting the Academy Awards, but if he did want to take inspiration from anyone, he should look to the King of Late Night himself: Johnny Carson.

Carson hosted the Academy Awards five times — and nearly back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back — in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Many of his jokes have remained fairly relevant, too. Exhibit A: When he greeted his celebrity audience in 1979 with, “I see a lot of new faces — especially on the old faces.”

However, given the standard topicality of the Academy Awards,...

The Oscars have been Hollywood’s biggest night since 1929. What started as a small, private dinner with just 270 people has now metamorphosized into a spectacle, some controversy aside. From Marlon Brando rejecting his award in 1973 to Hattie McDaniel making history as the first Black Oscar winner in 1940, the Oscars have always been full of surprises, and not all of them have been scripted, rarely any for that matter.

While the night is all about celebrating achievements in film, it’s also notorious for the occasional mix-up. Let’s take a look at ten of the most cringeworthy Oscars moments – because the best part of live TV is when it doesn’t go as planned.

Sacheen Littlefeather refuses to accept the Best Actor Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando | Credits: Oscars, YouTube 10. Eminem is seventeen years too late (2020)

The Oscars are not without their fair share of surprises, but one moment...

The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, are one of the most prestigious honors in the film industry. While millions tune in each year to watch Hollywood’s biggest stars celebrate cinematic excellence, there are plenty of intriguing behind-the-scenes facts that even die-hard movie lovers might not know. Here are ten surprising pieces of Oscar facts that should blow your mind:

1. The Stolen Oscar Heist

In 2000, just days before the Academy Awards, a shipment of 55 Oscar statuettes was stolen from a loading dock in Los Angeles. The disappearance of the trophies sparked a major investigation involving local law enforcement and the FBI. After an extensive search, 52 of the stolen Oscars were found discarded in a dumpster behind a Koreatown grocery store by a man named Willie Fulgear, who later received a $50,000 reward for his discovery. However, three statuettes remain missing to this day, making them some of the most sought-after lost artifacts in Hollywood history.

Here are three Oscar winners who refused to accept the award (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

The Oscars are Hollywood’s ultimate prize, celebrating cinematic greatness since 1929. Over the years, we’ve seen magical moments, from unforgettable speeches to jaw-dropping wins. While everything seems glamorous regarding the Academy Awards, that’s not true. The ceremony has had its fair share of controversies, like when La La Land was mistakenly announced as Best Picture at the 89th Oscars, only for Moonlight to take home the trophy. And, of course, let’s not forget all those snubs where deserving actors and movies didn’t get their moment in the spotlight.

But the craziest fact is that in nearly 100 years of Oscars, only three winners have turned down the iconic statue. Yes, you heard it right. Some refuse to accept the highest honor in the industry.

Dudley Nichols

The first-ever Oscar rejection happened at...

John Wayne, who died of cancer in 1979, wasn't really known for his gentleness or commitment to open-minded, multicultural thinking. Every few years, the internet rediscovers Wayne's infamously racist, misogynist 1971 Playboy Magazine interview, and are offended afresh. He used the three-letter F-word to describe the characters in "Midnight Cowboy," calling it "perverted," before actually saying out loud  "I believe in white supremacy." He also ranted about how in the heyday of his career, there were more white people in movies. 

This interview didn't really expose anything the public didn't already know about Wayne, a man who used antisemitic slurs when talking to Richard Nixon, and who allegedly tried to storm the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to interrupt Sacheen Littlefeather's speech about how Westerns hurt the public's perception of Native Americans. One can only imagine what Wayne would have thought of Haysi Fantayzee's bawdy 1982 single "John Wayne is Big Leggy.

Billy Zane's transformation into Marlon Brando in Waltzing with Brando is remarkably uncanny. Zane's images from the biopic reveal the dedication of the production team and Zane's striking resemblance to the legendary Hollywood star. Zane acknowledges Brando's activism and foresight, highlighting the actor's significant contributions to civil rights, Indigenous rights, and the environment.

Titanic and Tombstone star Billy Zane stuns as Marlon Brando in new images from the upcoming biopic Waltzing with Brando. Taking to social media to share these new images, as well as an update on the project, Zanes likeness to the Hollywood icon and star of The Godfather is uncanny, and will no doubt have you looking twice. You can check the astounding image below...

Alongside the images, Zane shared the following caption; "2nd Batch of pics from [Waltzing with Brando] burning a hole in my archive. Had to share now the cats out of the bag.

Billy Zane recently shared photos of himself portraying The Godfather star Marlon Brando in an upcoming biopic, and the resemblance is uncanny.

Zane (Tombstone), uploaded the striking images via Instagram, with the caption, "2nd Batch of pics from [Waltzing with Brando] burning a hole in my archive. Had to share now the cats out of the bag. The production team were so on point. Thank you all team Wwb!" The shared pictures show a remarkable transformation, as Zane captures that era of Brando almost perfectly. Zane will be portraying the legendary actor in the upcoming film Waltzing with Brando, a biopic chronicling how the actor and architect Bernard Judge created an ecologically friendly retreat on an island in the South Pacific. The official synopsis for the film reads, "Movie star Marlon Brando recruits a Los Angeles architect to build the world's first ecologically perfect retreat on a small, uninhabitable island in Tahiti.

Marlon Brando – the man whom Time magazine crowned the greatest actor of the 20th century back in 1998 – would be celebrating his 100th birthday today had he not died 20 years ago. Born on April 3, 1924, Brando was a fascinating if divisive character, a perpetually enigmatic figure whose impact not only on the acting profession but on American popular culture itself can’t be overstated. He starred in numerous iconic roles, from Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” to Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront” to Julius Caesar in “Julius Caesar” to Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”

While he wound up nominated for eight Academy Awards and six Golden Globes and won two of each, it was the one honor Brando rejected, of course, that came to define his awards legacy: his Best Actor win for “The Godfather” in 1973 in which he sent actress and purported Native American representative Sacheen Littlefeather (a.

It’s that time of the year again when the coveted golden statuette will be handed out to the best films and performances in Hollywood. The Oscars 2024 will take place on March 10th and as always, a bunch of brilliant films and talented stars are vying for top honors. While the Academy Awards have given audiences many memorable moments over the years, they have been equally known for various controversial incidents.

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars 2022

The most recent event in memory happened in 2022 when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for his comments on Jada Pinkett Smith’s appearance. The actor’s first Oscar win for King Richard following this incident, was sadly overshadowed. Looking back, there have been many other occasions at the Oscars that have sparked controversy.

Here Are 5 Controversial Oscar Wins That Challenged Will Smith’s Slap 1. Marlon Brando Refused The Best Actor Award...

The Oscars, which are now in their 96th year, have a history full of surprises, snubs, and scandal. One of the most undisputed Oscar wins in history was Marlon Brando winning Best Actor for The Godfather, with his portrayal of Vito Corleone getting more than enough praise and analysis on why it's so brilliant. What's more interesting, however, is what happened after the performance. Namely, Marlon Brando refused the Oscar and recruited a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather to show up in his place, give a speech on the mistreatment of Native Americans by America, and leave everyone stunned.

Nearly a year and a half ago, the late Sacheen Littlefeather became the face of Native identity fraud when skepticism about her background was publicized shortly after her death in October 2022. Now, one of her friends and former associates has come forward with genealogical records that indicate the activist best known for refusing Marlon Brando’s 1973 Oscar on his behalf may have had Indigenous ancestry after all.

Gayle Anne Kelley, whom Littlefeather first approached to produce her 2018 documentary short Sacheen: Breaking the Silence, commissioned a private investigator to look into Littlefeather’s background after Native independent journalist Jacqueline Keeler (Diné/Dakota) published an explosive report in the San Francisco Chronicle alleging that she was not Apache and Yaqui on her father’s side, as she had claimed, but rather Mexican. (That her mother’s side is white has never been disputed.)

“My heart was broken, and I was very concerned...

A detailed investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has raised questions about the indigenous persona of singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Sainte-Marie has been feted as the first Indigenous person to win an Academy Award for cowriting the song Up Where We Belong for the film An Officer and a Gentleman.

Sainte-Marie, 82, has claimed that she was born on Tribal land and adopted by white parents. The CBC countered that in a report published Friday and in an accompanying episode of the documentary series The Fifth Estate. The media outlet obtained a birth certificate saying Sainte-Marie was born to parents of European ancestry in Massachusetts.

The CBC reported that the birth certificate from Stoneham, Mass. showed “Beverly Jean Santamaria” and her parents listed as white. The CBC said it had the document authenticated by Stoneham town clerk Maria Sagarino.

Sainte-Marie, alerted to the revelations that would be coming, issued a statement posted to social media Thursday.

CBC newsmagazine The Fifth Estate has aired its Buffy Sainte-Marie exposé.

The hourlong documentary episode, presented by senior investigative reporter Geoff Leo, alleges that the singer-songwriter — considered the first Indigenous winner of an Academy Award — has been fraudulently posing as Native throughout her 60-year career.

While the specifics about Sainte-Marie’s background varied as they appeared in articles and other materials over the years — The Fifth Estate found news clippings referring to her as Algonquin, Mi’kmaq and Cree — eventually her accepted (and authorized) biography was that she was born in 1941 on Cree land in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and removed from her birth family and adopted by a white American family, the Sainte-Maries, as part of a government policy known as the Sixties Scoop. Later, as a young adult, she reconnected with the Cree people and was adopted by descendants of Chief Piapot according to Cree ways.

But...

Buffy Sainte-Marie has released a statement defending her Indigenous heritage, a move that appears to be in response to upcoming documentary that is expected to raise questions about the subject.

The musician and activist — who became the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar for her musical contribution to the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman — appears to be the subject of an upcoming episode of the Canadian television series The Fifth Estate. Out October 27th, the episode description says “an icon’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members and an investigation that included genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts.”

The description does not mention Sainte-Marie by name, but the artist released a statement about the episode, claiming that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation contacted her “to question my identity and the sexual assault I experienced as a child.”

In her statement, Sainte-Marie explains that she was adopted,...

A year ago this week, accusations surfaced in the media that the late Sacheen Littlefeather, best known for representing Marlon Brando on the Oscars stage in protest of the treatment of Native Americans, had fabricated her Native heritage.

Now Buffy Sainte-Marie, considered to be the first Indigenous Oscar winner (for co-writing the pop standard “Up Where We Belong” from 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman), is facing similar allegations.

On Friday, the CBC newsmagazine The Fifth Estate is expected to air a documentary digging into the singer-songwriter’s roots. The episode description — the second of the 49th season of the Canadian public broadcaster’s long-running series — does not name the “icon” whose Indigenous ancestry is under investigation, but Sainte-Marie has preemptively come forward a day early to defend what she calls “[her] truth as [she] knows it.”

“It is with great sadness, and a heavy heart, that I am forced to respond...

You may have noticed that there’s been a lot of talk about Lily Gladstone and her Indigenous heritage and what that fact will mean for her chances in the Academy Award Best Actress race as her epic feature “Killers of the Flower Moon” from director Martin Scorsese preps for liftoff in wide theatrical release this Friday (October 20). Gladstone is running a solid second place behind Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) in the Gold Derby combined Oscar odds for her much-praised performance as Osage Nation member Mollie Burkhart in the tragic fact-based saga.

Gladstone herself is of Blackfeet and Nimiipuu heritage and raised on a Blackfeet Nation reservation in Montana. One would presume this fact won’t work against the actress in 2024 as it might have in, say, 1954 or even ’74. And in fact it was only earlier this year that Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win Best Actress...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are replacing “Gone with the Wind” actress Hattie McDaniel’s lost Oscar 80 years after her historic win for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1940, McDaniel took home a plaque in lieu of an Oscar statue, as was customary for supporting actors at the time. Statuettes became the standard for all winners’ categories for the ceremony in early 1944. While the whereabouts of McDaniel’s original award is currently unknown, the Academy is bestowing a new Oscar statuette in the late actress’ honor to the Howard University Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.

McDaniel originally bequeathed her Academy Award to Howard University upon her death in 1952. The award was displayed at the university’s drama department until the late 1960s when it disappeared.

McDaniel was the first Black person to be nominated for and win an Academy Award.

Lily Gladstone, the Native American actress who plays Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, has been receiving rave reviews for her portrayal of an Osage woman whose family is targeted by a ruthless conspiracy in 1920s Oklahoma. Based on the true story and the best-selling book by David Grann, the film explores the dark history of the Osage murders, also known as the Reign of Terror, when hundreds of Native Americans were killed for their oil wealth.

Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage, was cast by Scorsese after he saw her work in Kelly Reichardt’s indie drama Certain Women, where she played a lonely ranch hand who develops a crush on a lawyer (Kristen Stewart). Scorsese was impressed by her natural and nuanced performance, and invited her to a Zoom meeting to offer her the role of Mollie, who is married to...

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars for joking about Jada Pinkett Smith's hair will definitely go down as one of Hollywood's most shocking moments. It led to many celebrities and fans condemning the slap, including Zoë Kravitz, Amy Schumer and a disgusted Jim Carrey, while others felt Smith had to defend his wife from being the butt of jokes due to her alopecia.

Nonetheless, the Academy banned Smith from the Oscars for ten years after he copped the Best Actor award for King Richard, understanding if unchecked, it could be seen as condoning assault on a public stage. However, while folks are debating whether this was the Academy's most horrific incident, it wasn't. That actually occurred in the 1973 Oscars when Marlon Brando sent a proxy to make a statement after winning Best Actor for The Godfather. In that instance, rather than something emotional and reactive, what ensued...

So who didn’t make the cut? There was a bit of an uproar online on Sunday over the late stars who didn’t end up featured in the 2023 Oscars “In Memoriam” segment.

While this year’s tribute to those stars we’ve lost was moving and emotional — featuring a tearful introduction from John Travolta and a powerful performance of “Calling All Angels” by Lennt Kravitz — glaring omission of some big-name stars shook up some viewers at home.

Anne Heche — who died following a fiery car crash in August at the age of 53 — was not a part of the segment, despite her many film roles.

Also absent from the televised tribute was longtime film veteran Tom Sizemore — who died on Mar. 3, at age 61, two weeks after suffering a brain aneurysm that left him hospitalized.

One of the most surprising omissions was that of Charlbi Dean, who died on Aug. 22 at...

Every year the “In Memoriam” tribute at the Oscars leaves off a few fan favorites and 2023 was no exception: Among those who weren’t included in Sunday night’s video montage were Anne Heche, “Saving Private Ryan” star Tom Sizemore and Charlbi Dean, who appeared in this year’s Best Picture nominee “Triangle of Sadness.”

Fans also noted the absence of Cindy Williams: While she was best known for the ’70s TV sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” she notably appeared in two classic films of the era, George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation.”

And while the tribute included “Goodfellas” star Ray Liotta, who died unexpectedly on May 26, 2022, his costar Paul Sorvino, who died in July 2022, was left out.

Also Read:

Celebrity Deaths in 2023: Hollywood Stars We’ve Lost This Year (Photos)

Also missing from the tribute: two-time Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,...

John Travolta introduced the Oscars In Memoriam segment, tearing up while remembering his “Grease” co-star Olivia Newton-John.

“They’ve made us smile, and became dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to,” a visibly emotional Travolta said before the video montage began.

The Oscars recognized the actors and filmmakers we lost over the past year in the annual In Memoriam segment, which this year unfurled to the sound of Lenny Kravitz playing “Calling All Angels.” The emotional segment is a viewer favorite, but omissions of high-profile Hollywood figures spark annual debate.

This year, Twitter lit up with people they thought should have been included during the show, including Anne Heche, “Triangle of Sadness” star Charlbi Dean and Paul Sorvino. However, all three were memorialized on the Oscars website.

Among the other stars not mentioned on-screen were Leslie Jordan, Gilbert Gottfried, Tom Sizemore and Cindy Williams.

The show is...

It’s Oscar weekend in Hollywood, and the Real Time live audience was in the mood for some show business insight. Host Bill Maher didn’t disappoint.

This year’s Oscars has some changes, Maher said. “They’re asking, ‘Who are you slapping?’

He also noted that it’s hard to remember who won what from year to year. “You win and you disappear,” Maher noted. He waited a beat. “Like Kamala Harris.”

Maher admitted he’s rooting for one actor in particular – Tom Cruise. “I want to see a person get up and say, “I want to thank Xenu.”

All of that in the opening monologue was the warmup to Maher’s closing editorial in his “New Rules” section.

In a segment called “The Scold and the Beautiful,” Maher reflected on the origins of award winners telling us their views, or “how bad people have it by the people who have it the best.

The Oscars are right around the corner, with the prestigious ceremony taking place this weekend.

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday 12 March in Los Angeles.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is nominated for the most awards, with a total of 11, and German film All Quiet on the Western Front is close behind with 10.

You can find the full list of nominees here.

Rihanna - who is fresh off the back of her Super Bowl halftime show - will be performing her nominated track “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the ceremony.

The song, which the 35-year-old created with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, is up for Best Original Song, marking her first ever Oscar nomination.

Last year’s award ended up being very dramatic when Will Smith infamously walked onstage and slapped presenter Chris Rock.

This year, the 95th awards ceremony will be hosted by American presenter Jimmy Kimmel.

Michelle Yeoh shared, and then swiftly deleted, snippets from an article on Instagram, in which it was noted that her Academy Awards competitor Cate Blanchett “already has two Oscars”.

Yeoh has drawn criticism for the post, originally shared on 7 March, because she is competing with Blanchett for the Best Actress prize at the Academy Awards later this month.

The article that Yeoh shared was Vogue’s 6 March piece, titled “It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?”

Yeoh, who is nominated at the 2023 Academy Awards for her role as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once, shared a number of excerpts from the article on Instagram, in a post seen by The Independent.

In her caption, Yeoh wrote: “This is not just for me, this is for every little girl that looks like me... We want to be seen.

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will be a streaming event for the first time on the Netflix YouTube channel. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute.

Among that group will certainly be Oscar winners Louise Fletcher, William Hurt and Irene Cara, plus nominees Angela Lansbury (a SAG life achievement recipient) and Melinda Dillon. Emmy champs Mary Alice, Kirstie Alley, Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta, Stuart Margolin, Robert Morse and Barbara Walters.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2023: In Memoriam Gallery

Here is our expansive list of over 100 people who died since last year’s ceremony, several of whom will be honored on Sunday’s event:

Ralph Ahn

J. Grant Albrecht

Mary Alice

Rae Allen...

The Oscars have always been a battleground of sorts. In recent years, the ceremony has become a public event arbitrating issues of race, gender, and privilege in cinema and society. But throughout its 94-year history, the Academy Awards mediated some very different battles. There have been attempts to square petty power plays, wars with the Academy itself, and even attempts to take down a gay Oscars producer.

“The red carpet runs through contested turf,” Michael Schulman opens his new tome on the awards, Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold,...

Activist, model and actor who believed she had been blacklisted for refusing an Oscar on Marlon Brando’s behalf in 1973

The Academy Awards ceremony has always tried to avoid controversy, but on 27 March 1973, during the first Oscars show broadcast by satellite around the world, Sacheen Littlefeather came to the dais to receive the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando.

Littlefeather raised a hand to decline the Oscar statue being presented by Roger Moore. She held up an eight-page speech Brando had written for her, but she had been told by the show’s producer, Howard W Koch, that she would have only 60 seconds to speak, or else be arrested.

As this is written, the interested public is still waiting for something, anything, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or its movie museum by way of response to their latest crisis.

Said crisis was provoked over the weekend by a detailed column in the San Francisco Chronicle claiming that the late Sacheen Littlefeather, recently celebrated and apologized to by the Academy for her onstage Native American activism and the backlash thereto, was not a Native American at all.

Related Story Sacheen Littlefeather, Native American And Oscars Protest Icon, Was An ‘Ethnic Fraud’ – Report Related Story Student Academy Award Reveals 2022 Medalists Related Story As Scotus Tackles Affirmative Action, The Film Academy Should Keep A Wary Eye Out

Rather, said the column, citing documents and interviews with Littlefeather’s two surviving sisters, she was of European and Mexican-American extraction, with little or no Indian blood. What she did have,...

Having stood in for Marlon Brando to refuse his Oscar, the actor and activist championed Native American rights

Sacheen Littlefeather, the activist who famously stood in for Marlon Brando to refuse the best actor Oscar in 1973, faked Native American ancestry, her family have said.

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Littlefeather’s sisters Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi said that their sister’s claim to have Apache and Yaqui ancestry through her father was “a lie” and “a fantasy”.

On Saturday, a bombshell report from the opinion pages of the San Francisco Chronicle whipped up #NativeTwitter into a frenzy. The report, authored by Jacqueline Keeler (Diné/Yankton Dakota Sioux), claimed that venerated White Mountain Apache/Yaqui activist Sacheen Littlefeather had fudged her identity and, according to Littlefeather’s sisters, wasn’t actually Native.

This comes four months after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences sent Littlefeather an apology for her mistreatment at the 1973 Oscars, when she stepped in for Marlon Brando and declined the award because of Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans.

And it comes mere weeks after Littlefeather’s death.

For the controversial reporter Keeler, who’s been accused multiple times of conducting unethical and racially charged “witch hunts” to “out Pretendians,” the timing seemed awkward at best and arch at worst.

Not only that, but Keeler’s article has stirred up a lot of complicated emotions for Native people,...

Warner Bros./DC’s “Black Adam” has earned the biggest opening weekend the box office has seen since “Thor: Love and Thunder” more than three months ago, taking a 67 million launch from 4,401 theaters domestically in addition to 73 million overseas for a 140 million global opening.

That figure tops the 60 million opening that star Dwayne Johnson posted with the “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw” in August 2019 and is consistent with the 67 million opening that Jason Momoa’s “Aquaman” earned in December 2018. It is also closer to the 70 million projections that independent trackers initially posted before lowering them to 60 million shortly before release.

Though it is modest compared to 100 million-plus openings that superhero films like “Love and Thunder” and Warner/DC’s “The Batman” have earned, it is a positive result for Warner Bros. at a time when it is facing a slew of headlines over widespread layoffs and spending cuts...

Months after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologised to her for what happened to her in 1973 Oscars, late Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather’s legacy is being questioned by her family, reports ‘People’ magazine.

After Littlefeather died at age 75 earlier this month, her two sisters now claim that she lied about her indigenous ancestry and was previously known by the family as “Deb” in a bombshell interview with the ‘San Francisco Chronicle’.

“It’s a lie,” Trudy Orlandi said of her sister, quoted by ‘People’ magazine. “My father was who he was. His family came from Mexico. And my dad was born in Oxnard.”

Littlefeather’s other sister Rosalind Cruz added: “It is a fraud. It’s disgusting to the heritage of the tribal people. And it’s just… insulting to my parents.”

According to ‘People’, Littlefeather, who claimed to belong to the White Mountain...

Three weeks following the death of Sacheen Littlefeather, the activist who famously accepted Marlon Brando’s Oscar for “The Godfather” at the 1973 Academy Awards, a new column alleges that Littlefeather had been posing as a Native American through her life.

Published Saturday in the San Francisco Chronicle, the piece features quotes from Littlefeather’s sisters, Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi, who called the activist’s identity as a Native American a “lie.”

Notably, several Native American writers and activists have denounced the Chronicle column on social media, saying that its writer, Jacqueline Keeler, has long-exercised a vendetta against Littlefeather, among other figures she calls “Pretendians.” They also say Littlefeather’s sisters thought they were of Native American ancestry until Keeler informed them they weren’t.

“Her desire to weed out Pretendians has led to a violent vendetta against genuinely reconnecting Natives who don’t meet colonial standards,” wrote CarlyMButton on Twitter.

Click here to read the full article.

Three weeks after Sacheen Littlefeather’s death, a writer has come forward with claims that the celebrated activist and former actress spent her life fraudulently posing as a Native American. Littlefeather died Oct. 2 of metastasized breast cancer at age 75.

In a piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Open Forum opinion section Saturday, Jacqueline Keeler (Diné/Dakota) alleges that Littlefeather, who cemented her pop culture legacy when she took the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to decline the best actor Oscar on Marlon Brando’s behalf, was of Mexican and white descent. During her lifetime, Littlefeather, whose birth name was Marie Louise Cruz, identified as Apache and Yaqui on her father’s side. (That her mother was white has not been disputed.)

Keeler writes that according to her research of historical documents, the lineage of Littlefeather’s father traces to Mexico, not...

Sacheen Littlefeather – the Native American activist renowned for declining Marlon Brando’s Oscar for “The Godfather” and who died earlier this month – was not in fact Native American, her sisters have claimed, according to writer Jacqueline Keeler.

In an Oct. 22 Opinion column in the San Francisco Chronicle by Keeler – an Indigenous writer who has been investigating individuals she suspects of falsely claiming Native identity since 2021 – Littlefeather’s biological siblings Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi said that the actress and Native American civil rights icon falsified her Apache and Yaqui heritage.

“It is a fraud,” Cruz said. “It’s disgusting to the heritage of the tribal people. And it’s just … insulting to my parents.”

Also Read:

Film Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Backlash to 1973 Marlon Brando Acceptance Speech

Littlefeather was born Maria Louise Cruz in 1946 to a white mother and Mexican father. According to Orlandi, their father – who Littlefeather...

Less than a month after Sacheen Littlefeather died, her two biological sisters are claiming in on-the-record interviews that the late actress and Native American activist wasn’t Native American at all.

In an explosive report published Saturday in the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi accused their late sister of being an ethnic fraud. For decades, Littlefeather claimed her father, Manuel Ybarra Cruz, was a White Mountain Apache and Yaqui Indian, but the sisters say their father’s family actually came from Mexico and that he was born in Oxnard, California, about an hour north of Los Angeles. Their mother, Gertrude Barnitz, was white.

In one of her final interviews, Littlefeather said of her Oscars rejection speech in 1973 that she “spoke my heart, not for me, myself, as an Indian woman but for we and us, for all Indian people … I had to speak the truth.”

“It’s a lie,...

The San Francisco Chronicle published an investigative report Saturday that claims Oscars and Native American icon Sacheen Littlefeather – best known for her appearance on behalf of Marlon Brando to refuse his Best Actor Academy Award for The Godfather — was not who she claimed to be.

Her sisters said in the article that Littlefeather, who died earlier this month shortly after receiving an official apology from the Academy, was not of Apache heritage, but rather half-Mexican. They also said she did not grow up with an abusive father, or in terrible poverty.

Littlefeather’s sisters, Orlandi and Rosalind Cruz, approached Native American journalist and activist Jacqueline Keeler to tell their story. Keeler is known for co-creating the #NotYourMascot hashtag in 2013, which brought about a name change for the NFL’s Washington team. She also authors a “Pretendians” list, exposing people who make false claims of American Indian heritage.

The Chronicle article...

After she took the stage in Marlon Brando’s place at the 1973 Academy Awards, Sacheen Littlefeather became known as one of the entertainment industry’s most prominent activists for Native Americans and other Indigenous people. Rather than accept Brando’s best actor Oscar, which he had just won for his performance in “The Godfather,” Littlefeather, who died earlier this month, declined the awards and used her time on stage to criticize Hollywood’s on and offscreen treatment of Native Americans. The move prompted some outrage, leading the Academy to issue a belated apology to Littlefeather earlier this year.

When she took the stage, her first words were: “Hello. My name is Sacheen Littlefeather. I’m Apache.” But a new report alleges that might not have been true.

In a bombshell story by Native American journalist Jacqueline Keeler for the San Francisco Chronicle, Littlefeather’s sisters Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi...

Just weeks after the death of Sacheen Littlefeather — the actress and activist who declined Marlon Brando’s 1973 Oscar win for The Godfather on his behalf and was blacklisted in Hollywood — her biological sisters have revealed that she fabricated her Native American ancestry.

The two sisters of Littlefeather (born Marie Louise Cruz) told the San Francisco Chronicle that, despite Littlefeather’s claims of being White Mountain Apache, their father was actually Mexican with no tribal identity; genealogical records also traced the Cruz family history to Mexico City with no known ties to the tribal nations there.

With just three episodes left to go, House of the Dragon is hotting up.

The latest instalment of the Game of Thrones spin-off put the places in motion for a forthcoming showdown between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).

Following the episode’s surprising alteration from George Rr Martin’s source material, the HBO show will turn its head to a forthcoming deadly battle.

In the latest episode, Alicent’s violent streak manifested when she held Rhaenyra at knifepoint in full view of everybody. Feeling moritified by her actions after, she chided herself in front of her father, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) – who revealed he had been left quietly happy by the move. He told her it was the first time he was left convinced of her belief in the importance of the Iron Throne.

This episode revealed that Ser Otto was back in position as...

Sara Lee, the former wrestler and winner of season 6 of the “WWE Tough Enough” reality competition show, has died. She was 30.

Sara’s mother, Terri Lee, shared the tragic news to Facebook on Thursday, writing, “It is with heavy hearts we wanted to share that our Sara Weston has gone to be with Jesus. We are all in shock and arrangements are not complete. We ask that you respectfully let our family mourn. We all need prayers especially Cory and her children.”

Lee married fellow WWE wrestler Cory James Weston in 2017, and the couple share three children.

Read More: Judy Tenuta, Grammy-Nominated Comedian, Dead at 72

Lee gained fame when she was crowned the winner of “Tough Enough” in 2015, which earned her a one-year contract with WWE. She appeared and competed in eight matches as part of the organization’s Nxt development brand.

No cause of death has been released.

On Thursday,...

Grammy-winning country singer Jody Miller has died. She was 80. The celebrated songstress died at her house in Blanchard, Oklahoma, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Miller’s first big hit came in 1964 with her song, “He Walks Like a Man”, followed by her smash-hit single, “Queen of the House”, which earned Miller a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1966.

Miller is celebrated as a pioneer for crossover female vocalists, moving from the pop/folk genre into the country music sphere, which paved the way for many artists who came after, including Linda Ronstadt, Anne Murray and many others.

“Jody Miller’s talent cannot be overstated. She had this innate, God-given ability to interpret and communicate with the most beautiful tones and inflection,” Miller’s longtime rep, Jennifer McMullen, shared in a statement issued on Thursday. “She made it look and sound so easy that it sometimes...

Submissions for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category closed on Monday, Oct. 3, and at this point more than 80 countries have announced their submissions for this year’s Oscars.

The highest-profile entry comes from Mexico, which submitted “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” from “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Inarritu. The film received a mixed reaction after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, but Inarritu has trimmed more than 22 minutes from that version, and Netflix is releasing “Bardo” in U.S. theaters.

Other top contenders include another Netflix release, director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” as well as South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” from Park Chan-wook and Belgium’s “Close” from Lukas Dhont.

And in a year with relatively few clear favorites, other films with a good chance of making the 15-film shortlist include Austria’s “Corsage,...

With just three episodes left to go, House of the Dragon is hotting up.

The latest instalment of the Game of Thrones spin-off put the places in motion for a forthcoming showdown between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).

Following the episode’s surprising alteration from George Rr Martin’s source material, the HBO show will turn its head to a forthcoming deadly battle.

In the latest episode, Alicent’s violent streak manifested when she held Rhaenyra at knifepoint in full view of everybody. Feeling moritified by her actions after, she chided herself in front of her father, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) – who revealed he had been left quietly happy by the move. He told her it was the first time he was left convinced of her belief in the importance of the Iron Throne.

This episode revealed that Ser Otto was back in position as...

Sacheen Littlefeather has died at the age of 75. The Indigenous activist famously took the stage in Marlon Brando‘s place at the 1973 Academy Awards to decline his Oscar earned for The Godfather. Littlefeather died on Sunday, October 2, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Sunday. She had been living with breast cancer. Littlefeather was born Marie Louise Cruz on November 14, 1946 in Salinas, California. She changed her name in her 20s to align with her heritage as she became increasingly involved in Native American activism in the 1970s. She was part of the group that occupied Alcatraz Island in 1970. Littlefeather reportedly met Brando through Francis Ford Coppola, who like her, lived in San Francisco, after she joined the Screen Actors Guild. Brando became interested in Native American issues and had Littlefeather give his speech in his stead during the 1973 Oscars ceremony. “He very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award,...

The Native American actor and activist who declined Brando’s Oscar for The Godfather has died aged 75, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in a tweet on Sunday. Littlefeather had breast cancer.

The Hollywood Reporter cited a statement from her caretaker that said she died at noon on Sunday at home in the northern California city of Novato, surrounded by loved ones

Sacheen Littlefeather, actor and activist who declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar, dies aged 75...

Indigenous activist Sacheen Littlefeather died October 2 at age 75 from metastasized breast cancer.

Littlefeather famously made history in 1973 when she turned down the Academy Award for Best Actor on behalf of “The Godfather” winner Marlon Brando. Almost 50 years later, Littlefeather received a formal apology from the Academy for her mistreatment at the awards ceremony.

“As you stood on the Oscars stage in 1973 to not accept the Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, in recognition of the misrepresentation and mistreatment of Native American people by the film industry, you made a powerful statement that continues to remind us of the necessity of respect and the importance of human dignity,” a letter signed by former Academy President David Rubin stated, as addressed June 18.

The letter continued, “The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified. The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.