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Ariana Grande Hosts 'SNL' for the First Time since the Last Female Presidential Nominee

Ariana Grande. (Reuters)
Ariana Grande. (Reuters)
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Ariana Grande Hosts 'SNL' for the First Time since the Last Female Presidential Nominee

Ariana Grande. (Reuters)
Ariana Grande. (Reuters)

Ariana Grande took the New York 30 Rock stage at “Saturday Night Live” for the third time as host and found herself in familiar circumstances.
“The last time I hosted was in 2016, and we were right on the verge of electing our first female president,” the 31-year-old singer and actor said in her monologue. “So, I guess, second time’s the charm?"
Grande, who first hosted in 2014, was doing it for the first time without also serving as musical guest — a role that fell to Stevie Nicks — and promised not to sing, before breaking into a song, The Associated Press said.
The theme continued as she vowed during the tune not to do her signature impressions of Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Gwen Stefani, before throwing out a bit of each. She would do a much longer version of Celine Dion in a sketch later in the show.
Grande hosted in promotion of her movie musical “Wicked,” the “Wizard of Oz” prequel set to be released next month.
She said playing the good witch Glinda as she does in the film is the dream of every theater kid like her, after “losing their virginity.”
Grande's episode comes amid a ratings spike for the sketch institution, likely brought on by its 50th season, and election season. Last month's season premiere brought in the most viewers since 2020.
Just as in the first two episodes of the new season, Maya Rudolph played Vice President Kamala Harris in the night's cold open, leading a group of former cast members returning as guest stars, including Andy Samberg as Harris' husband Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden.
They teamed up for an election edition of “The Family Feud," taking on team Trump.
Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history who began in 2003, reprised his long-running role as “Feud” host Steve Harvey and asked Rudolph-as-Harris about her recent media blitz.
“It’s been a hell of a week," she said. "I went on Howard Stern to reach the horny cab drivers, I went on ‘The View’ for the horny moms, and I also went on the podcast ‘Call Her Daddy’ because I have a message for young women: You need to go to the ballot box if you want the government out of your ballot box.”
Current cast member James Austin Johnson returned as Donald Trump, saying his opponent is "going to be horrible at this game. She’s a very low IQ person. The whole world is laughing at her because they don’t respect her.”
The 76-year-old Nicks was the “SNL” musical guest for the first time in more than 40 years. She opened with her brand new single, “The Lighthouse,” but the look of the performance was classic Stevie, with an abundance of rings and scarves and the singer draped in black. For her second song, she reached back with “Edge of Seventeen” from 1981.
Michael Keaton is set to host next week with musical guest Billie Eilish. John Mulaney and Chappell Roan are set for the following Saturday.
The onset of season 50 already has brought reflection and nostalgia in many forms, including “Saturday Night,” a movie comedy dramatizing the minutes before the first episode of the Lorne Michaels-helmed sketch institution on Oct. 11, 1975.
A three-hour primetime special on Feb. 16 is set to serve as the official 50th season celebration.

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Michael Madsen, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Star, Dies at 67

Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
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Michael Madsen, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Star, Dies at 67

Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)

Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including "Reservoir Dogs" and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2," has died.

Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67.

Madsen’s career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character.

His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut "Reservoir Dogs," in which Madsen's black-suited bank robber Vic "Mr. Blonde" Vega severs the man's ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s "Stuck in the Middle with You" was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor.

He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive.

Madsen also appeared in Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" and "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood." He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's "Pulp Fiction." The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Madsen's "Reservoir Dogs" robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe.

His sister, Oscar-nominated "Sideways" actor Virginia Madsen, was among those paying him tribute on Thursday.

"He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother—etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark," she said in a statement. "I’ll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I’ll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother."

His "Hateful Eight" co-star and fellow Tarantino favorite Walton Goggins celebrated him on Instagram.

"Michael Madsen... this man... this artist... this poet... this rascal..." Goggins wrote. "Aura like no one else. Ain’t enough words so I’ll just say this.... I love you buddy. A H8TER forever."

James Woods, Madsen's co-star in two films, wrote on X, "I was always touched by his sweet nature and generosity, the absolute opposite of the ‘tough guys’ he portrayed so brilliantly."

Madsen was born in Chicago to a family of three children.

He performed on stage with the city's Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside actors including John Malkovich.

During a handprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in November 2020, Madsen reflected on his first visit to Hollywood in the early 1980s.

"I got out and I walked around and I looked and I wondered if there were someday some way that that was going to be a part of me. And I didn’t know because I didn’t know what I was going to do at that point with myself," he said. "I could have been a bricklayer. I could have been an architect. I could have been a garbage man. I could have been nothing. But I got lucky. I got lucky as an actor."

His first film role of any significance was in the 1983 hacker thriller "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick. The following year he played pro baseball player Bump Bailey alongside Robert Redford in "The Natural."

He spent much of the rest of the 1980s doing one-off guest roles on television dramas including "Miami Vice" and "Quantum Leap."

1991 would bring a career boost with roles in "The Doors," where he played a buddy of Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison, and "Thelma and Louise" where he played the boyfriend of Susan Sarandon's Louise.

Then would come "Reservoir Dogs."

In 1995, he played a black ops mercenary in the sci-fi thriller "Species" and in 1997 he was third billed after Al Pacino and Johnny Depp as a member of a crew of gangsters in "Donnie Brasco."

He occasionally played against type. In the 1993 family orca adventure "Free Willy" he was the foster father to the orphan protagonist.

Madsen would return to smaller roles but worked constantly in the final two decades of his career.

Madsen had six children. He had struggled in recent years after the 2022 death of one of his sons, Hudson.

"Losing a child is the hardest and most painful experience that can happen in this world," Madsen said in an Instagram post last year.

He said the loss put a strain on his marriage to third wife, DeAnna Madsen. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery last year, but was not charged. He filed for divorce, but asked that the filing be dismissed just weeks later.

He had previously been arrested twice on suspicion of DUI, most recently in 2019, when he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor.

"In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films ‘Resurrection Road,’ ‘Concessions and ’Cookbook for Southern Housewives,' and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life," his managers Smith and Susan Ferris and publicist Liz Rodriguez said in a statement. "Michael was also preparing to release a new book called ‘Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems’ currently being edited."

They added that he "was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many."