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Whoopi Goldberg Plays the Baddie Onstage in ‘Annie’ This Holiday Season in New York

Whoopi Goldberg attends an event, July 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Whoopi Goldberg attends an event, July 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
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Whoopi Goldberg Plays the Baddie Onstage in ‘Annie’ This Holiday Season in New York

Whoopi Goldberg attends an event, July 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Whoopi Goldberg attends an event, July 20, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Whoopi Goldberg is about to break two ironclad rules of show business — never work with animals or children.

The actor and TV host is slipping into the terrifying role of Miss Hannigan when the latest touring production of "Annie" lands in New York City for the holidays.

"I’m having the time of my life," the EGOT-winning Goldberg says between rehearsals as she readies to tell the tale of a spunky young orphan with her dog Sandy set during the Depression.

"I thought, ‘Who can we cast in that iconic role that would be right artistically and right for a large venue and right for an audience?’ And it just felt like she was the right person," says Carolyn Rossi Copeland, who is producing the new tour.

Goldberg will help lead the show at The Theater at Madison Square Garden from Dec. 11-Jan. 5. The tour has a deep connection to the first version of the hit show: It is being directed by Jenn Thompson, who at the age of 10 stepped into the role of Pepper in the original Broadway production.

"It’s been a really beautiful journey. I have a lot of ghosts I got to exorcise and revisit and reclaim," says Thompson, who for the new show has chipped away at the layers of productions and charted a course back to the original production.

"It had changed a lot over the years. It had gone through many revisions and alterations and it wasn’t even a conscious mission when I started but that’s where we ended up — kind of back at the beginning."

Goldberg laughs when she says she signed on before realizing how much was going to be required of her. "I’m rusty. I’m old," says the "The View" co-host.

"I got in the middle of it and I thought, maybe this is more than I can handle. And then a little voice said, ‘Really? You know, if you said this is more than I can handle to anyone, they would laugh you off the stage because it’s not.’ It’s exactly what I can handle."

Hannigan is a gin-swilling orphanage head who calls her charges "brats," denies them hot mush and threatens "your days are numbered." She has two great songs — "Easy Street" and "Little Girls."

The musical contains musical gems like "Tomorrow" and "It’s the Hard Knock Life." Martin Charnin’s lyrics, which earned him and songwriter Charles Strouse a Tony for best score in 1977, are playful and moving: "You’re never fully dressed/without a smile" and "No one cares for you a smidge/when you’re in an orphanage."

"I love the dark side of it," says Thompson. "There’s a lot of joy and there’s a lot of rage and they are in conversation with each other. And it’s what makes it a great musical in my mind."

"Annie" has been adapted many times for the screen, including a 1982 film version, another in 1999 and one in 2014 starring Quvenzhané Wallis, and a live TV version in 2021 on NBC with Harry Connick Jr. and Taraji P. Henson.

The tour after the new year will head to Maryland, Alabama, Illinois, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and Wisconsin.

The musical was born in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration and the creators have said they were seeking to offer some hope. "I think it is a story about survival and choosing the light when you are in the dark," says Thompson.

The musical first premiered on Broadway in 1977 and was revived in 1997 and 2012. The 1977 original show won the Tony Award as best musical and ran for 2,300 performances, inspiring tours and revivals that never went out of style. It last played New York on Broadway in 2012-14.

"The original show was just endowed with so much hope and optimism and the comedy in it was honest," says Copeland. "It’s really back to its roots. There’s no gags and gimmicks."

Others who have played Hannigan include Carol Burnett, Kathy Bates, Dorothy Loudon, Nell Carter, Katie Finneran, Jane Lynch and Henson. Goldberg says she's stayed away from watching any versions "so I wouldn’t copy other people."

Goldberg has a long history with New York theater, producing such shows as "Sister Act,Xanadu" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie," as well as performing in "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

"I don’t sound like Cynthia Erivo," she says. "I don’t sound like Nicole Scherzinger. I don’t sound like anybody. I don’t sound like Audra McDonald. I just sound like me. And for ‘Annie,’ it’s the right sound."

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Entertainment

Inside the Fireproof Vault Housing US Movie History

Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
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Inside the Fireproof Vault Housing US Movie History

Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)

Once upon a time in the golden days of Hollywood, the movies were bigger, the stars brighter and the celluloid they were filmed on was, well, explosive.

Which is why the US Library of Congress maintains a special, fireproof vault in Virginia, near Washington, DC.

There, the highly combustible nitrate film used from the dawn of cinema in the 1890s until the early 1950s has a permanent home, rarely accessed by the public but toured by AFP.

Lost movies on the volatile but durable medium are still being discovered and preserved in the facility. And thanks to digitization, the lost treasures can also be safely viewed for the first time in decades.

Some 145,000 film reels are stored in strictly fireproof conditions in a vast, chilly vault at the library's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia.

It is crammed with cinematic treasures that rekindle warm memories of an era when movies ruled.

The vault's leader, George Willeman, reeled off the names of classics with negatives there: "Casablanca," Frank Capra-directed films like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and the grand-daddy of all action movies, "The Great Train Robbery" from 1903.

Down a spartan corridor so long it seemed to recede into the distance, he unlocked a series of cell-like steel doors.

Inside each of the 124 cells -- there's one dedicated just to the Disney archive -- were floor-to-ceiling cubby holes.

Each one held film canisters containing negatives and prints, all arranged meticulously: packed tight to prevent canisters from opening, but far enough apart to prevent any fire from spreading.

Since being set up in 2007 in a former US Federal Reserve building in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the vault has maintained a perfect no-fire record.

- Film nerds' delight -

Nitrate film is just part of the center's collection of more than six million items of moving images and recorded sound. They also have supporting scripts, posters and photos.

Willeman, who sports a button badge with the invocation to "Experience Nitrate," said the Library of Congress began preserving the medium when in the 1960s, "it was discovered that so much film was being lost" due to fires and defunct companies throwing negatives away.

With the American Film Institute, the library began collecting and copying nitrate film, including the holdings of big Hollywood studios - RKO, Warner Brothers, Universal, Columbia and Walt Disney.

They also tapped the personal collections of film icons like movie impresario and silent era star Mary Pickford and motion pictures inventor Thomas Edison, whose early studio produced hundreds of films.

"We're 50 some years in, and it (the collection) just keeps growing," Willeman said.

With the arrival of digital media, the mission has expanded beyond preservation for purists and cinema historians -- who say movies just look better on nitrate footage -- to putting old films online.

"Now we can make them available for everybody, which to me, being the film nerd I've been since, like, third grade, is just amazing."

Nitrate film made by early artisans often preserves better than the later safety film, said Courtney Holschuh, nitrate archive technician.

At a workstation with no light bulbs or exposed batteries -- either of which could ignite dust or gas from vintage film -- Holschuh recounted how last September she carefully peeled apart a cache of 10 vintage reels donated by a retired schoolteacher.

There were 42 different titles on the reels -- only 26 of which have been identified. They included a lost film, "Gugusse and the Automaton," by French cinema pioneer Georges Melies.

"So much of our early film history is still out there for us to see and to experience," Willeman said.

Entertainment

Oasis, Phil Collins and Luther Vandross Among Rock Hall Inductees

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
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Oasis, Phil Collins and Luther Vandross Among Rock Hall Inductees

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Dad rocker Phil Collins and reformed Britpop princes Oasis led the 2026 class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees who were announced on live US television on Monday.

Billy Idol, chanteuse Sade, metal legends Iron Maiden and Manchester outfits Joy Division and New Order were also honored, along with hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan and velvet-voiced crooner Luther Vandross.

The announcements of the honorees came in a live episode of the "American Idol" competition, helmed by rockers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

"Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is music's highest honor," said the organization's chairman John Sykes.

"We look forward to celebrating these remarkable artists at this year's ceremony -- it's going to be an unforgettable night."

The induction ceremony -- which doubles as a star-studded concert gala rife with tributes to the honorees -- will be held November 14 in Los Angeles.

Eligible nominees into the Rock Hall must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years prior to being nominated.

Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, and Wu-Tang Clan are first-time nominees. Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division, New Order, Oasis, and Sade have all been nominated in the past, but were not selected for induction.

The 2025 class of inductees included Outkast, the White Stripes and Cyndi Lauper.

Entertainment

Tom Holland Says New ‘Spider-Man’ Is the Most Emotional, Most Mature, Yet

Tom Holland. (AFP)
Tom Holland. (AFP)
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Tom Holland Says New ‘Spider-Man’ Is the Most Emotional, Most Mature, Yet

Tom Holland. (AFP)
Tom Holland. (AFP)

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is dealing with the reality of making his friends forget his identity in the upcoming “Spider-Man” movie.

Sony Pictures unveiled new footage from “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Monday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, in which Zendaya’s character MJ apparently has a boyfriend.

Five years after “Spider-Man: No Way Home” became a sensation in theaters, earning over $1.9 billion worldwide thanks in part to the appearance of past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the webslinger’s fourth standalone movie is one of the most hotly anticipated of the summer. Its trailer already broke records, with over 1 billion views in its first four days.

Tom Holland, in a video message, told the exhibitors in the audience that it’s the most emotional Spider-Man movie yet, and “the most grown-up.”

He introduced an early scene in the new film showing the aftermath of his decision at the end of “No Way Home.” In the sequence, he attends a housewarming party for MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned and introduces himself as “Maynard ... just a neighbor from across the hall.”

Destin Daniel Cretton, who made the Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” stepped in to direct this newest “Spider-Man,” which opens in theaters on July 31.

Sony Pictures has for years kicked off the annual conference and trade show for movie theater owners, where throughout the week Hollywood's major studios bring out stars and new footage hoping to wow the people putting their films on the big screen.

The studio announced the development of an R-rated adaptation of the video game “Bloodborne,” and the release date of “Godzilla Minus One” director Takashi Yamazaki’s English language debut, “Grand Gear,” which will begin filming soon. It’s scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 18, 2028.

They also debuted new footage from the “Spider-Verse” finale, revealed the title of the next “Jumanji” movie — “Open World” — previewed “Weapons” filmmaker Zach Cregger's “Resident Evil,” and gave the audience a first look at Jeremy Strong playing Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin's “The Social Reckoning,” a companion piece to “The Social Network.”

Oscar-winner Mikey Madison (“Anora”) plays Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White is then-Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz in the film, which comes out in October. Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal Facebook records to the Journal, yielding a 2021 investigation known as the “Facebook Files.” The series of stories alleged the social media giant was prioritizing profits over safety and hiding its own research from investors and the public.

“It was time to say more,” said Sorkin, who described this film as “a real David and Goliath story.”

In the footage, Strong's Zuckerberg quips that he's “a professional defendant” and pushes back on an adviser saying, “I’m not two years out of a dorm room anymore.”

Sony Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman said he believes “it’s going to be an Olympic level movie year overall” while also acknowledging the industry’s “serious challenges” including that admissions have been down since before the pandemic.

Studios, he said, need to deliver a variety of great films for all audiences. He also made some recommendations for theaters, imploring them to enforce longer theatrical windows “even if that means you cannot play every film,” to get rid of endless advertising before films and make going to the theater more affordable.

“I’m not heckling,” Rothman said. “I’m rooting for you.”