عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

Bad Bunny to Kick off ‘SNL’ 51st Season with a Group of New Cast Members

Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) attends the premiere of "Caught Stealing" at Regal Union Square on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) attends the premiere of "Caught Stealing" at Regal Union Square on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP)
TT
TT

Bad Bunny to Kick off ‘SNL’ 51st Season with a Group of New Cast Members

Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) attends the premiere of "Caught Stealing" at Regal Union Square on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) attends the premiere of "Caught Stealing" at Regal Union Square on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP)

Live from New York! It's a new “SNL” season, with faces both fresh and familiar.

After a fanfare-filled 50th season celebrating the past, “Saturday Night Live” looks to the future with a cast that includes five new featured players. As for the high-wattage early hosts, none other than Bad Bunny kicks things off on Saturday.

The music superstar is having what can only be described as an enormous week: in another kickoff moment, he's been announced as headliner for the Super Bowl halftime show.

Bad Bunny is also coming off a historic residency in Puerto Rico, which ends Saturday. In his second “SNL” hosting gig, he'll be joined by musical guest Doja Cat, making her debut in that role.

He'll be followed in subsequent weeks by Amy Poehler and Sabrina Carpenter. All three were highlights of the 50th season celebrations, with Bad Bunny performing at the “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert " and also serving as the final musical guest of the season.

SNL alumna Poehler, in her second solo hosting gig, will front the Oct. 11 episode alongside first-time musical guest Role Model. Her episode will air 50 years to the day of the very first episode of “Saturday Night Live,” on Oct. 11, 1975.

Carpenter, who was a major attraction of the anniversary celebrations, is pulling double duty as host and musical guest on Oct. 18.

The revamped cast comes on the heels of several high-profile departures, including Ego Nwodim and Devon Walker. Ben Marshall, already an “SNL” writer, becomes a featured player, along with newcomers Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.

Nwodim, Walker, Emil Wakim and Michael Longfellow all confirmed last month on their social media accounts that they are leaving the show. Multiple news outlets reported that cast mainstay Heidi Gardner was also departing the show, but neither Gardner nor NBC has publicly confirmed.

The show picked up 12 Emmys last month for its 50th season and anniversary programming, including an award for outstanding variety special.

“I won this award for the first time 50 years ago, in 1975,” Michaels said, accepting the Emmy, adding that he didn’t dream of doing the same show for the next 50 years.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Japanese ‘Ran’ Actor Tatsuya Nakadai Dies at 92 

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 and released by Jiji Press on November 11, 2025 shows Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai. (Jiji Press/AFP) 
This photo taken on May 20, 2025 and released by Jiji Press on November 11, 2025 shows Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai. (Jiji Press/AFP) 
TT
TT

Japanese ‘Ran’ Actor Tatsuya Nakadai Dies at 92 

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 and released by Jiji Press on November 11, 2025 shows Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai. (Jiji Press/AFP) 
This photo taken on May 20, 2025 and released by Jiji Press on November 11, 2025 shows Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai. (Jiji Press/AFP) 

Japanese stage and movie actor Tatsuya Nakadai, who starred in a string of Akira Kurosawa films, including the lead in "Ran", has died aged 92, his acting school said on Tuesday.

Nakadai first rose to fame in Japan and internationally under director Masaki Kobayashi, who cast him in his epic anti-war trilogy "The Human Condition" of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

His acting school, Mumeijuku, did not say when Nakadai died or give any other details.

Nakadai had a walk-on part in Kurosawa's 1954 classic "Seven Samurai" but later effectively replaced Toshiro Mifune as the famed director's go-to leading man after Mifune went his own way.

He was the main protagonist in Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" (1980), which won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival.

The actor also played the doomed warlord who divides his kingdom between his sons in "Ran", Kurosawa's 1985 film based on the Shakespeare play "King Lear".

Nakadai also starred in Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film "Yojimbo" -- with Mifune -- and worked with other directors, including Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kon Ichikawa.

He set up Mumeijuku, a private acting school and troupe, in 1975 together with his late wife, the actor Yasuko Miyazaki, educating younger actors.

One former pupil is Koji Yakusho, who won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 for his role in Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days".

Nakadai continued acting until recently, performing this year at a theater in the Noto region that was still reeling from a deadly earthquake on New Year's Day last year.

Entertainment

Pope Leo to Host Hollywood Stars Including Cate Blanchett, Pine at Vatican

Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 14, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Pope Leo to Host Hollywood Stars Including Cate Blanchett, Pine at Vatican

Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Lights, camera, action, pope?

About three dozen Hollywood stars will meet Pope Leo this weekend, including actors Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine and Adam Scott, the Vatican said on Monday.

Also joining a special audience at the Vatican with Leo, the first pope from the United States, will be Oscar-winning directors Spike Lee, George Miller and Gus Van Sant.

The pope "has expressed his desire to deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema... exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values," the Vatican said in a statement.

Papal events often feature high-ranking Catholic cardinals but rarely include Hollywood stars.

The late Pope Francis, however, hosted an event at the Vatican in June 2024 for comedians, including US late night hosts Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.

Among others set to take part in Saturday's event with Leo are actors Alison Brie, Dave Franco, and Viggo Mortensen and directors Joanna Hogg, Tony Kaye and Julie Taymor.

Ahead of the new event, the Vatican shared four of the pope's favorite films: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946); "The Sound of Music" (1965); "Ordinary People" (1980); and "Life Is Beautiful" (1997).

Saturday's event is being organized by the Vatican's culture office as part of the Church's ongoing Holy Year.

Entertainment

The 'Ordinary' Arnie? Glen Powell Reboots 'The Running Man'

US actor Glen Powell attends the New York premiere of Paramount's 'The Running Man'. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
US actor Glen Powell attends the New York premiere of Paramount's 'The Running Man'. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
TT
TT

The 'Ordinary' Arnie? Glen Powell Reboots 'The Running Man'

US actor Glen Powell attends the New York premiere of Paramount's 'The Running Man'. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
US actor Glen Powell attends the New York premiere of Paramount's 'The Running Man'. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP

It is often said Hollywood doesn't produce movie stars anymore.

So when someone with a square jaw and loads of charisma like Glen Powell is cast in Arnold Schwarzenegger's role for a reboot of "The Running Man," people get excited.

But Powell, an unfailingly courteous Texan, who quit the Los Angeles life and moved home to Austin as his fame grew, is having none of it.

"I don't find myself to be exceptional," the 37-year-old told AFP.

"That era of action stars and movie stars? You can't really compare apples to oranges," Powell said.

His role in the new "Running Man," out on Friday, is certainly a far cry from the indestructible bluster of Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson's 20th-century action heroes, who were usually soldiers, cops and trained fighters.

Powell's protagonist Ben Richards is an everyman, with no special skills beyond a rugged toughness and a very short fuse.

He reluctantly enters a deadly game show in which the entire world is trying to kill him: he needs to survive long enough to win prize money and buy life-saving medicine for his daughter.

"I've always identified myself as an underdog," Powell said.

"Some of my favorite movies are ordinary people against extraordinary odds. And you don't get more ordinary than Ben."

The movie sees Powell's hero get bashed and bruised, blown off a bridge, and has him abseiling down the side of a building in only a bath towel to escape from hoodlums.

The night before his AFP interview, Powell and director Edgar Wright screened the movie for Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger's response? "Oh, I feel so bad for you... It must have hurt!" Powell recalled.

"Arnold knows the pain that it takes to do an action movie properly. It was pretty badass to get his blessing."

'Carnage'

The film hews more closely to the original Stephen King novel than its 1987 big-screen predecessor.

Powell's hero is pursued from city to city by professional killers. The contest's producers are rigging each moment for maximum TV ratings.

Eerily, King set his novel in the United States of 2025, a then-futuristic vision of divisive autocrats, deepfake videos, and a health care crisis that drives everyday people to extremes.

Was it a stretch for Powell to imagine today's public enjoying mayhem and slaughter, some of it fake and AI-generated, on their screens?

"We do live in this TikTok universe," Powell said.

"We are seeing carnage... and yet we're sort of away from it. You don't engage with it as a human anymore."

Powell said he is regularly sent deepfake videos by people who have not questioned the veracity or source of the content.

"That's a really fun thing that we get to play with in this movie... 'Where do you get the news from, and who is controlling information?'" Powell said.

'Wild West'

Though he has been acting for years, Powell only shot to prominence as cocky fighter pilot Hangman in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick."

In a remarkable streak since, Powell appeared opposite Sydney Sweeney in rom-com "Anyone but You," chased deadly storms in "Twisters," and both co-wrote and starred in "Hit Man."

Up next, he will lead a new fantasy film from "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams. Powell's production company has a deal with Universal Pictures.

Those ventures into writing and producing are reminiscent of another classic action star, Stallone, who famously penned "Rocky" and insisted on being cast as the lead.

"I really didn't ever want to wait for the phone to ring. Because I realized it never will, at least not with the calls you want," Powell said.

"That's sort of how I've moved through this town, trying to do it with a sense of initiative.

"Hollywood, it's the Wild West right now," he added. "I can't really look backwards."