It wasn’t that Da’Vine Joy Randolph had never witnessed Alexander Payne’s cinematic works. She simply was oblivious to Alexander Payne’s identity. “Embarrassingly enough, this is the sequence of events,” the 37-year-old thespian recounts her tale about the initial encounter with the illustrious writer-director, celebrated for productions such as Election, Sideways and The Descendants, for his most recent piece, The Holdovers. …

Once Daisy Ridley was cast in the motion picture Young Woman and the Sea, recounting the narrative of Trudy Ederle, an American swimmer on a mission to be the inaugural female to cross the English Channel, she not only secured the lead role but also acquired an additional title afterward. “I did not begin as executive producer,” Ridley conveyed to …

The anticipated moment has arrived: On April 19, Taylor Swift unveiled her 11th studio collection, The Tortured Poets Department. The performer from the Eras Tour maintained her habit of issuing bonus tracks from Midnights when she surprised fans with an additional 16 songs just two hours post-release as part of the album’s “Anthology” edition. (Perceptive supporters, though, had already deciphered …