Top Entertainment Headlines

Sunday, March 15

Good afternoon Wypierdalaj,

Below are the latest entertainment news stories.

Hollywood will convene Sunday night for a nail-biter Academy Awards that’s steering toward a coronation for either Paul Thomas Anderson or Ryan Coogler. Most would call that a win-win.

Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is the favorite heading into the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. But Coogler’s “Sinners” comes in the lead nominee with a record 16 nominations. Both filmmakers are poised to leave with their first Oscar.

But little else is assured at an Academy Awards where Michael B. Jordan or Timothée Chalamet (despite the ballet diss heard ’round the world) could win their first Academy Award in a too-close-to-call best actor race.

A pair of professional jet ski riders put on a thrilling high-speed performance on the emerald waters of the freshly dyed Chicago River on Saturday morning.

Though the show was put on by Monster Energy, it wasn’t a river full of energy drink that the jet skiers rode on.

Since 1961, the Chicago Plumbers Local 130 union has dyed the Chicago River green to celebrate the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

Pi Day is an annual national celebration of the mathematical concept, which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and equals 3.14… 

March 14 is also reportedly the birthday of theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.

On Saturday, restaurants and businesses nationwide will be celebrating one of the “nerdiest” days of the year with deals on actual pie, pizza pie and other delights.

For more than two decades, Kate Hudson has been a Hollywood fixture. She broke through as the magnetic groupie Penny Lane in “Almost Famous,” a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination. From there she moved easily through romantic comedies like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and “Bride Wars.” Most recently, she appears in the musical drama “Song Sung Blue,” a role that has earned her another Oscar nomination. 

But Hudson’s life has unfolded well beyond movie sets. She is also the mother of three children, each from a different chapter of her life. Her eldest, Ryder, 22, was born during her marriage to Chris Robinson, the frontman of rock band The Black Crowes. Her second son, Bingham, 14, is with Matt Bellamy, the British musician and frontman of Muse. And her youngest child, daughter Rani, 7, is with her longtime partner, the musician Danny Fujikawa.

Hudson, whose mom is Oscar winner Goldie Hawn, joked about her children all having different dads while chatting with Sunday TODAY host Willie Geist in January 2021.

Over six decades of “Doctor Who,” the intergalactic adventurer’s adversaries have included evil robots, rampaging Yeti — and the BBC, which erased many early episodes of the now-iconic sci-fi TV series.

A film charity announced Friday that it has found two previously lost 1960s episodes in film cans wrapped in plastic bags among the possessions of a deceased collector. They have been restored by BBC archivists and will be available next month on the broadcaster’s streaming service.

The discovery leaves 95 episodes still missing from the adventures of a galaxy-hopping alien known as the Doctor that debuted in 1963.

Oscar winners and nominees won’t be the only stars shining at the big show this Sunday — the famous faces presenting the awards and live performers will also have their moments in the spotlight.

This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its final batch of celebrities tapped to present at the 98th annual Academy Awards. Here are the details.

This is the star-studded lineup of presenters who will be holding those envelopes: