Oprah Winfrey to present at Oscars, Cynthia Erivo to host the Tonys, and more of today’s top stories
Gold Derby’s top news stories for Feb. 19, 2025.
Oscars announce third round of presenters
The third round of presenters has been announced for the 2025 Oscars, with 2012’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Oprah Winfrey among them. She’ll be joined by Joe Alwyn, Sterling K. Brown, Willem Dafoe, Ana de Armas, Lily-Rose Depp, Selena Gomez, Goldie Hawn, Connie Nielsen, and Ben Stiller. Executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan made the announcement early Wednesday morning.
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In addition, Nick Offerman has been tapped as the announcer for this year’s ceremony, which will air live on ABC and stream on Hulu on March 2, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Conan O’Brien will host.
Previously announced presenters for the 97th Academy Awards include last year’s four acting champions: Emma Stone (Poor Things), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), and Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer). They’ll be joined by Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Elle Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, John Lithgow, Amy Poehler, June Squibb, and Bowen Yang.
Gilbert Flores/Billboard
Cynthia Erivo to host the 2025 Tony Awards
“I am so proud and excited to take on this glorious honor,” said Cynthia Erivo after being named the host of the 78th Tonys. She’s currently nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for Wicked, and if she wins, she’ll become the latest EGOT recipient as she already has a Daytime Emmy (“Today Show,” 2017), a Grammy (“The Color Purple,” 2017), and a Tony (“The Color Purple,” 2016) on her mantel.
The 2025 Tony Awards ceremony, which honors the artistry of the 2024-2025 Broadway season, returns to Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It airs live on Sunday, June 8 beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+. Erivo added, “I am looking forward to ushering the theater community at large through a night that celebrates the wonderful performances we have witnessed throughout the year. I hope I can rise to the occasion.”
Netflix
The Lincoln Lawyer begins production on Season 4
Netflix has announced that the fourth season of The Lincoln Lawyer is now filming in Los Angeles. Season 3 ended with a shocking cliffhanger on Oct. 17, 2024, with Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) being arrested by a police officer who finds the dead body of Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton) inside his trunk. Despite all that, Netflix promises that “Mickey will ride once again” during Season 4. The release date is still under wraps.
The critically acclaimed drama series (Season 3 has a perfect 100 score on Rotten Tomatoes) is based on the novels by Michael Connelly about an L.A. defense attorney who rides around in his titular automobile. Season 4 is based on Connelly’s sixth book, The Law of Innocence. Emmy nominee Constance Zimmer (UnREAL) has been cast in a 10-episode guest arc as Dana Berg, an old colleague of Maggie’s (Neve Campbell, who’s back this year). Other returning cast members include Becki Newton as Lorna, Jazz Raycole as Izzy, and Angus Sampson as Cisco.
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
NAACP Image Awards reveals preshow winners
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced the first group of non-televised winners for the 56th NAACP Image Awards. This two-night virtual preshow takes place Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 and focuses on culture, comedy, and celebrating Black achievement and excellence. (The actual awards show will air live on Feb. 22 on BET and CBS.) The virtual winners were:
Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) for Best Breakthrough Creative for Television
Cree Summer (Rugrats) for Best Character Voice-Over Performance
Gracie’s Corner for Best Animated Series
Keke Palmer (Password) for Best Host in a Reality/Reality Competition, Game Show, or Variety (Series or Special)
Marlon Wayans (Bel-Air) for Best Guest Performance
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was for Best Variety (Series or Special)
Samuel L. Jackson (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist) for Best Actor in a Limited Television (Series, Special, Movie)
Taraji P. Henson (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist) for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Television (Series, Special, Movie)
Blackpink goes global with 10-city international tour
K-pop sensation Blackpink is reuniting and coming to a city near you. They just announced that their 10-city international tour will kick off in Seoul, South Korea with two shows on July 5 and 6. Fans in North America can see them at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium (July 12), Chicago’s Soldier Field Stadium (July 18), Toronto’s Rogers Stadium (July 22), and New York’s Citi Field (July 26). In late summer, the tour moves to Europe for four additional dates: Paris (Aug. 2), Milan (Aug. 6), Barcelona (Aug. 9), and London’s Wembley Stadium (Aug. 15). This exciting announcement comes after each Blackpink member recently embarked on a successful solo career.
Universal Pictures
Wicked flies to Peacock
Wicked, the 10-time Oscar nominee from Universal Pictures, will be available to stream for Peacock subscribers on March 21. This follows its successful theatrical run, where it made $472 million domestic and $727 worldwide. Peacock is releasing a plethora of bonus content, too, including the Wicked sing-along version that was seen in select theaters. There’s also a behind-the-scenes documentary called Making Wicked, NBC’s primetime special Defying Gravity: The Curtain Rises on Wicked, video featurettes, podcast episodes featuring director Jon M. Chu and director of photography Alice Brooks, and deleted/extended scenes.
Watch the Bring Her Back trailer
The directors of Talk to Me, brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, are back with a new horror film. Set to hit theaters on May 30, 2025, A24’s Bring Her Back stars Sally Hawkins and Billy Barratt. The spooky trailer (watch above) begins with a cat walking through a house, until something startles it. We then see creepy messages like “Let me out,” “Let me die,” “Let her die,” and finally “Bring her back” float across the screen. Additional cast members include Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, Sora Wong, and Liam Damons.
Uzo Aduba returns to TV in The Residence trailer
The “best detective in the world” has her work cut out for her in the quirky new series The Residence, debuting March 20 on Netflix. Uzo Aduba, the three-time Emmy winner for Orange Is the New Black (2014 and 2015) and Mrs. America (2020), plays Cordelia Cupp in this Shondaland whodunnit that involves a murder at the White House (watch the trailer above). Netflix teases, “132 rooms. 157 suspects. 1 dead body. 1 wildly eccentric detective. 1 disastrous State Dinner.” Joining Aduba in the cast are Giancarlo Esposito, Randall Park, and Susan Kelechi Watson.
The Last of Us Season 2 releases character posters
Scroll down to see the fresh character posters from Season 2 of HBO’s zombie drama The Last of Us. They depict the two beloved survivors from the first season, Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, plus Kaitlyn Dever as a new character named Abby.
After a two-year break, The Last of Us finally returns to television on April 13, 2025, for seven all-new episodes. Here is the HBO logline for Season 2: “Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.”
HBO
HBO
HBO
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