Entertainment News Roundup: Billie Eilish, Harry Styles among Coachella lineup as festival returns; This year's Oscars show will go on, with a host and more

While other awards shows have been postponed because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, Walt Disney Co's ABC said plans remain in place to hold the Oscars, the highest film honors, on March 27 in Los Angeles. Key nominations for the 2022 Screen Actors Guild awards Nominations for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced on Wednesday for the best performances in film and television in 2021.

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Billie Eilish, Harry Styles among Coachella lineup as festival returns

Singers Billie Eilish and Harry Styles as well as rapper Kanye West and group Swedish House Mafia are among the line-up for this year's Coachella, organisers said on Thursday, as the music festival returns after three years. One of the world's biggest music festivals, Coachella was last held in 2019 and scrapped in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organisers said in June the open-air festival, held in the California desert, would return over the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24 this year.

This year's Oscars show will go on, with a host

The Academy Awards will have a host for the first time since 2018 and return to their longtime home at the Dolby Theatre, broadcaster ABC said on Tuesday. While other awards shows have been postponed because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, Walt Disney Co's ABC said plans remain in place to hold the Oscars, the highest film honors, on March 27 in Los Angeles.

NBCUniversal partners with iSpot.tv for alternate ratings measurement

NBCUniversal is partnering with TV measurement firm iSpot.tv in a multi-year deal to measure its audience in new ways, the company said on Thursday, the latest move among media companies dissatisfied with how video content is measured. The deal comes as Nielsen, the leader in TV measurement, faces fierce criticism from its TV industry clients, many of which say it has insufficiently captured consumers' shift to streaming. Nielsen measures TV audiences through a sample set of panelists who use special devices in their homes.

Putting superstitions aside, Denzel Washington takes on 'Macbeth'

Denzel Washington portrays one of William Shakespeare's most famous characters in "The Tragedy of Macbeth", a new adaptation of the 400-year-old play the Oscar winning actor says he had never seen staged before. The Hollywood star plays the titular role in Joel Coen's black and white film version of the tragedy about a Scottish general who, spurred on by his wife, commits murder to access the throne.

'House of Gucci' and Lady Gaga land SAG award nominations

High fashion drama "House of Gucci" led the nominations on Wednesday for Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild Awards, scoring nods for the top prize of best cast and for the performances of stars Lady Gaga and Jared Leto. The awards, voted on by members of the SAG-AFTRA acting union, are closely watched as indicators of which movies will fare well at the Oscars ceremony in March. Actors form the largest group that will vote for the Academy Awards.

Microsoft has stopped making Xbox One consoles - The Verge

Microsoft Corp has stopped manufacturing all Xbox One consoles to focus on producing its next-generation consoles, the Verge reported on Thursday, citing a senior executive of the gaming division. According to The Verge, Microsoft originally discontinued its Xbox One X and digital Xbox One S ahead of the Xbox Series X launch in 2020.

Shorter Berlin Film Festival to go ahead with masks, COVID testing

The Berlin Film Festival will go ahead in person next month but will use only half the available seating capacity and require attendees to adhere to strict COVID-19 protocols, organisers said on Wednesday. With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading fast in Germany, the organisers of the Berlinale, as it is widely known, have been at pains to make the festival happen in a safe environment after it went online last year.

Oscar-shortlisted 'Ascension' captures chase of the 'Chinese Dream'

Filmmaker Jessica Kingdon travelled to 51 locations across China on a quest to document everyday scenes showing the country's economic progress and the growing class divide. The result is "Ascension", her debut feature which has been shortlisted for the Oscars and which Kingdon hopes will get audiences reflecting on the universal aspects of consumerism.

Ronnie Spector, girl group icon who sang 'Be My Baby,' dies at 78

Ronnie Spector, the pioneering lead singer of the 1960s American "girl group" the Ronettes, whose vocals graced such hits as "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You," has died at the age of 78, relatives said on Wednesday. Spector, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 as a member of the Spanish Harlem-based female trio, died surrounded by loved ones and in the arms of her husband, Jonathan Greenfield, after a brief battle with cancer, the family said in a statement.

Key nominations for the 2022 Screen Actors Guild awards

Nominations for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced on Wednesday for the best performances in film and television in 2021. The winners will be announced at a televised ceremony on Feb. 27. BEST MOVIE CAST

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