Ever since the historical musical “Hamilton” began its march to near-universal infatuation, one group has noticeably withheld its applause — historians. Many academics argue the portrait of Alexander Hamilton, the star of our $10 bills, is a counterfeit. Now they’re escalating their fight.

This year’s advertising Super Bowl had, again, lots of celebrities and lots of dogs.

Hollywood director Rob Reiner drew a crowd of reporters on his first visit to Japan in more than three decades to promote his Iraq War journalism film “Shock and Awe.”

Sub-zero temperatures. Blistering 40-mile-per-hour winds. Snow as far as the eye can see. These are only a few of the unsparing conditions actor Mads Mikkelsen had to overcome over the course of 19 days filming in Iceland for his new survival movie, "Arctic," about a pilot stranded in a snow-covered wilderness after his small plane crashes.

It was around this time seven years ago that Gina Rodriguez was deemed the "It" girl out of the Sundance Film Festival with her role as a struggling East L.A. rapper in the hip-hop drama "Filly Brown." Maybe it was naivete, but she had hoped the attention would bring the same sort of career boost it had brought other young ingenues, such as Carey Mulligan or Jennifer Lawrence.

Do the Middle Ages hold the key to saving the world? "The Kid Who Would Be King" suggests so. This contemporary, Arthurian-themed adventure encourages kids of today to look to the legends of the past -- and to the lessons of medieval chivalry -- in their search for a peaceful future.

Spike Lee watched the Oscar nominations Tuesday morning on television from his bed, with his wife, Tonya, his two grown children, Satchel and Jackson, and their dog, Ginger. Screaming ensued. Lee landed his first directing Academy Award nomination for “BlacKkKlansman,” his comic and furious send-up of white supremacism.

In "The Sixth Sense," just before uttering the now-famous "I see dead people" line, young Cole (Haley Joel Osment) interrupts a badly improvised story by Bruce Willis’ Dr. Crowe. "You haven’t told bedtime stories before," Cole says. "You have to add some twists and stuff." Right from the beginning of his meteoric-rise-to-crash-to-reborn career, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan was winking at his audience about what would become a defining penchant: the twist ending.

Not everyone loves going to work, so it’s only fair that actors will sometimes sour on the characters they portray. That’s the case right now for Penn Badgley, who has been on the receiving end of a flood of amorous messages from thirsty fans of his Lifetime show "You" imploring him to "kidnap me, pls."

Kevin Hart’s transition from brattily charming comic persona to serious dramatic cinematic presence isn’t going quite as planned. His extracurricular controversies notwithstanding, the comedian’s first turn in a more serious role in "The Upside" -- a remake of the award-winning French hit "The Intouchables," across from Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman -- should have been a slam dunk. And yet, "The Upside" is missing some critical elements, and it’s a struggle to find the bright side to this rather hackneyed film.

With the proliferation of dog movies in the past couple of years, it’s no surprise that the astonishing animal journey film would soon resurface. "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" and the "Homeward Bound" movies were wildly popular family movies in the 1980s and ’90s, and now joining the canon is "A Dog’s Way Home."

In "Bird Box," Sandra Bullock leads two children, all blindfolded because of a mysterious danger, on a journey to safety. The movie, which received mixed reviews, became an inexplicable well for memes over the holidays. Netflix announced that 45 million people had viewed it on the platform in the first seven days since its release. And then, just as Bullock became known as "the lady from 'Bird Box'" in a bunch of memes, doing things on camera while blindfolded for laughs has become the "Bird Box" challenge.

"Will (Ferrell) and I joke that we single-handedly ruined Paul Thomas Anderson's producing career before it started," Adam McKay says, casually splaying his 6-foot-5 frame across the couch, as though in a weekly therapy session.

David Le’aupepe was looking for salvation. Instead, he found rock stardom. With his tight black jeans, black button-down, wild mane of curly black hair, unkempt beard, armful of tattoos and silver nose ring, the 26-year-old looked every bit the rock star during a recent interview. But his is a strange origin story.

"I don’t think this lighting is going to work," Jennifer Lopez says. She has just turned up at a photo shoot, and she is dismayed. "Newspapers don’t do retouching," the actress points out, "and ugly don’t sell movies." Best friend Leah Remini stands by patiently. The two will be posing together in a photograph for a story about to their new film, "Second Act," but Remini seems less concerned about the images.

Peter Ramsey knows how closely the entertainment industry is following the movie he just co-directed. After all, that film, the animated "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse," is supposed to blow the doors off the end-of-year-box-office, save a major studio and also rocket mature animation and superhero film categories into a new future. You know, minor goals.

To director Thom Zimny, the key element in his filmed version of Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show was in the star’s eyes. The Netflix documentary makes its first appearance on the service early in the morning of Dec. 16, hours after the singer’s 236th and last performance of “Springsteen on Broadway” at the Walter Kerr Theater. A soundtrack is being released Dec. 14.

A journal entry penned when Shameik Moore was teenager laid out one of his dreams — to play Spider-Man on the big screen. That dream is now partially realized with Moore serving as the voice of the web-slinger in the new animated film, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

The spirit of inspiration runs stronger than usual through this year’s batch of holiday music collections, with fresh melodies and lyrics in some of the best. Veteran country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, Oklahoma recent arrival JD McPherson, the long-running Nashville-based genre-defying band the Mavericks and Texas’ barnstorming Old 97’s each have delivered Christmas albums built around inviting new songs that make them worthy additions to the favorites you might turn to year in and year out.

Recording Academy voters were most impressed this year with the sound of Wakanda, the fictional African country from the film "Black Panther." The music Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar assembled to accompany the Marvel Studios blockbuster received a field-leading eight nominations for its album and singles, including the hat trick of recognition in the top three categories of record, album and song of the year.

Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro Jr., survivor of a 2005 roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan, appeared on an episode of "Bumping Mics With Jeff Ross & Dave Attell."

CNBC executives have said “deal” to bringing back the television game show “Deal or No Deal.” Almost 10 years since the competition program hosted by Howie Mandel went off the air, new episodes will air on the cable channel.

In "The Favourite," Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone play Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill, three women sparring, seducing and strategizing their way through the corridors of power in 17th-century England. It's just the latest sprout in a bumper crop of movies depicting women, if not at their best, then at least in some form of sisterly solidarity: From the depraved sisterhood of "Suspiria" to Viola Davis coolly leading a team of henchwomen in "Widows," 2018 is shaping up to be a year singularly devoted to the vicarious pleasures of feminist troublemaking.

Pamela Ribon was so anxious about her idea, she had to pause to ask herself: If I write this, will it get me fired? It was with a taste for the satiric that Ribon began to muse: What if, at one point in the film, I surrounded Vanellope Von Schweetz, the "Ralph" franchise’s endearingly daring video-game racer (voiced by Sarah Silverman), with enough Disney princesses that it resembled a sorority reunion -- and then teasingly lampooned their tropes?

Roughly halfway through "Green Book," about one of the unlikeliest friendships of the pre-Civil Rights era, Jamaican piano prodigy Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), explains to his Italian American driver and companion, Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), that though he’s found success playing popular music, he was trained for the classical stage. "Trained?" says Vallelonga. "What are you, a seal? People love what you do. Anyone can sound like Beethoven or Joe Pan or them other guys you said. But your music, what you do, only you can do that." "Thank you, Tony," Shirley says patiently. "But not everyone can play Chopin, not like I can."

The producers of the Netflix series hope the eight stories will inspire new generations of Americans and that they’ll be able to continue telling stories of the more than 3,500 Americans who have received the country's highest military award.

Among the promises of Netflix’s streaming revolution is the notion that people who excel at creating one kind of TV (people such as Chuck Lorre, Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy) might truly flourish when freed from the challenges of prime time. No more worries about overnight and time-shifted Nielsen ratings. No more structuring episodes around precisely measured commercial breaks. No restrictions on adult themes and language. But those are mostly technical matters. What about artistry? Can a producer who succeeds within network boundaries rise to the challenge of creating something surprising and authentic, while still retaining that broad sense of appeal?

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was such an unlikely song that became an even more unlikely hit. The Queen biopic of the same name, now in theaters, depicts the original story of how the rock-operatic single came to be, with a cameo from none other than Mike Myers.

Justin Timberlake only needed a couple hours to write one of the biggest — and most personal — songs of his career. The pop star revealed he churned out “Cry Me a River,” the breakup ballad widely believed to be about Britney Spears, extremely quickly.

Kali Uchis is highly particular. She likes the design of D.C.’s Line hotel but wishes the TV in her room could swing out from its wall mount. She enjoys Los Angeles, but the lack of seasonal weather makes her feel as though she’s caught in a "Groundhog Day" loop. She’s selective about whom she works with, she says, because she’s averse to other people telling her how she should sound.

Q&A

Jonah Hill has always wanted to direct. He worships filmmakers and has treated what he describes as an “accidental” but “wonderful” 15-year acting career as a partial film school, learning from people like Bennett Miller, who directed him in “Moneyball” and Martin Scorsese on “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But Hill didn’t just want to make any film, he wanted to have something to say, and the confidence and “emotional maturity” required to lead people.

It has been a dozen years since Jennifer Garner starred in the spy-vs.-spy television series “Alias.” Since then, she’s been working almost exclusively in film, with productions such as “Catch and Release,” “Valentine’s Day,” “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Peppermint.”

Although he hit pay dirt with his successful series “Castle,” actor Nathan Fillion is starting all over again. In his new role on ABC’s “The Rookie,” he plays a rookie cop. And not just any novice. He’s the oldest recruit on the Los Angeles Police Department -- a 40-year-old who has decided to reinvent himself by taking on one of the toughest jobs in the city.

As a screenwriter and director, Drew Goddard has racked up a virtually unbroken string of success, whether working on scripts for box-office hits like "Cloverfield," "The Martian" and "World War Z" or directing the critically acclaimed 2012 horror-satire "The Cabin in the Woods."

If there’s one truism in this era of too much TV, it’s this: Old shows never die -- they simply get rebooted (or revived).

When Sony Pictures released the first trailer for “Venom” almost six months ago, there was almost too much in it to fully process: Investigative reporter Tom Hardy is a regular Bob Woodward, which apparently means he needs to threaten Jenny Slate while standing near boxes of penne rigate! She definitely mispronounces “symbiote” while referring to evil geniusRiz Ahmed’s villainous experiments! Oh, and Venom is super, super ugly!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s norm is there’s no doubt about who’s good and who’s bad. Think of Thanos, the Vulture or Dr. Doom. There’s plenty of conflict in director Ruben Fleischer’s (“Zombieland”) action-filled “Venom,” but there’s a lot more gray area when it comes to the characters.

Most of each episode of the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is scripted for host Alfonso Ribeiro. That includes the clever introductions to the video clips sent in by viewers in hopes of winning $10,000 and the commentary Ribeiro delivers during and after each funny on-screen moment. One thing not written ahead of time for the 47-year-old host is the final interview Ribeiro does with the family whose home video has been deemed funnier than the two other contenders by a vote of the studio audience.

When Kevin Hart came up with the idea for "Night School," he conceived of it as an adult version of John Hughes' classic "The Breakfast Club."

At first, Keira Knightley thought everything was going to be fine.

Eli Roth sat in an editing room on the Universal Pictures lot in September, eagerly preparing to show off a scene from his latest movie, "The House with a Clock in Its Walls." Given his filmography, which features such gory and gruesome low-budget horror movies as "Cabin Fever" and "Hostel," this would normally be the moment when you’d steel your stomach for an evisceration, a disemboweling or perhaps an impalement. But this is a different kind of Eli Roth movie altogether -- about an awkward, innocent young boy discovering the wonders of magic.

The last few years have been big ones for Josh Groban, Musical Theater Nut.

Matt Czuchry is talking as loudly as he can to be heard over the din of music and people talking at a party being thrown by Fox to promote the 2018-2019 fall TV season. He’s part of that lineup through his medical drama, “The Resident,” that has been given a second season order.

Movie review

The skeptics scoffed when they heard Bradley Cooper had decided to make his directorial debut with yet another remake of “A Star is Born.” What could this relative newcomer to the Hollywood hierarchy possibly bring to one of show business’s Ur-myths of ambition, self-destruction and the cruel vagaries of fame?

Two and a half years ago actor Jay Hernandez was about to quit. He’d been acting since he was 18 and while he could always wangle some sort of acting job, he wasn’t excited by the work.

Paul Feig's latest film, "A Simple Favor," is hard to categorize.

It was a nail-biter until the last award was won.

The ratings slide for the Emmy Awards that has come with the rise of streaming TV shows continued with Monday's telecast, according to preliminary data from Nielsen

It’s a little surreal to meet Emilio Estevez in a library. Movie fans of a certain age would be forgiven for expecting him to break out dancing atop the stacks, as he did 33 years ago in “The Breakfast Club.”

In an edit bay on the Sony Pictures lot, Ruben Fleischer looked outwardly calm but was clearly feeling some heat. At 43, the director was just weeks away from the release of the biggest film of his career: the dark comic-book movie “Venom,” which Sony is banking on to launch a series of interconnected films that will expand on the world of the studio’s marquee comic-book star, Spider-Man. “Every time, you’re nervous,” said Fleischer, who directed “Zombieland,” “30 Minutes or Less” and “Gangster Squad.” “But this is the most predominant film genre so you’re under a bigger magnifying glass. That’s a new experience for me.”

What is it about this 65-year-old man that he, as time marches on, has inspired so much good will and an almost overwhelming fan base? For those who don’t know, Goldblum is one of the rare celebrities whose fame seems to transcend anything he’s actually done - and inexplicably grows with age. That isn’t to say he doesn’t boast an impressive r?sum?, but for legions of young fans he’s become what The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi cleverly dubbed a "beloved living meme."

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This fall at the multiplex, Bradley Cooper becomes a director, Jamie Lee Curtis revisits her slasher-movie past, Queen's Freddie Mercury gets the biopic treatment, Tiffany Haddish schools Kevin Hart and Neil Armstrong goes back to the moon.

She walked downstairs and there he was, staring at her.

Eminem has a surprise for his fans. At midnight on Friday on the East Coast, the rapper announced on Twitter the release of a new album, "Kamikaze."

When the Academy Awards were held the first weekend of March, “Black Panther” was dominating both the box office and cultural conversation in its third week in theaters. The Marvel movie loomed large at the Oscars as well - cast members were greeted with cheers on the red carpet and host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned it twice during his opening monologue. (“Imagine a country with a black leader. Wouldn’t that be swell?”)

There was a very big reason John Cho initially balked at the offer to star in “Searching,” the story of a father forced to dive deep into the online world to search for clues to the disappearance of his teenage daughter. He liked the story and even the fact that that first-time director, Aneesh Chaganty, shared a deep connection to the Bay area. The character was interesting and really touched him on a personal level.