Grammys 2022

►No one rushed the stage. Jon Batiste’s We Are was named album of the year at the 2022 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Of the three other 'Big Four' categories, Olivia Rodrigo won best new artist (and also took home the award for best pop vocal album for Sour). Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” was named song of the year and record of the year. The full winners list.

—Snubs, shutouts and surprises. Going into the Grammys, Olivia Rodrigo was a strong contender to win a few of the 'Big Four' general field prizes. In the end, in a surprise of sorts, Rodrigo had to settle for best new artist. Billie Eilish was completely shutout, as was Justin Bieber. But it was a night of surprises, including an eyebrow raising "sweep" for Silk Sonic, a monocle popping album of the year win for Jon Batiste, and a collective Simpsons awkward collar tug for Louis C.K.'s win. The story. 

—Proof that "canceling" is a myth. Louis C.K.’s 2020 comedy special in which he joked about the sexual misconduct revelations against him has won the award for best comedy album at the Grammys. The disgraced comedian won for Sincerely Louis CK, his first special since 2017, when multiple sexual misconduct allegations were made against him. The story. 

—Hard not to mention it. During his monologue, Grammys host Trevor Noah made sure to slip in a joke about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. "We're gonna be listening to some music, we're gonna be dancing, we're gonna be singing, we're gonna be keeping people's names out of our mouths and we're gonna be giving out awards all throughout the night," Noah quipped. The monologue.

—“Fill the silence with your music!” Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a pre-taped speech during the Grammys amid his country’s war with Russia. The video introduced John Legend’s performance of “Free” as part of a special tribute to Ukraine. The story.

—"A tedious, pedestrian affair." On the heels of last week’s memorable Academy Awards ceremony, THR critic Lovia Gyarkye was decidedly underwhelmed with the telecast of the 64th Grammy Awards, writing that, electrifying performances notwithstanding, the Recording Academy’s highly anticipated show felt more focused on trying to reestablish relevancy than on highlighting artistry. The review.

—Fitting tribute. The Grammys paid special tribute to Taylor Hawkins, the longtime Foo Fighters drummer who passed away last month at the age of 50. The band — who won three prizes on Sunday — had been scheduled to perform until the tragic news. Instead, the producers played footage, sound-bites and photos of Hawkins with the band, during which the song “My Hero” could be heard. During her performance of “Happier Than Ever," Billie Eilish also paid tribute wearing a Hawkins t-shirt. The story. 

More from the Grammys... 

—Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Platt, Rachel Zegler perform Stephen Sondheim medley

—What you didn’t see on TV

—Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow heat up the stage with “Industry Baby”

—Olivia Rodrigo delivers powerful performance of hit single “Drivers License”

—Jon Batiste’s Grammys performance: 40-plus custom Dolce & Gabbana looks including 15-foot cape

—Grammys: See the star-studded red carpet arrivals

—Kanye West misses Grammys, still takes home two awards for Donda

Denzel Washington Prayed With Will Smith During Oscars After Slap

►"I couldn’t have sat in my seat." Denzel Washington has spoken publicly for the first time about the 2022 Oscars and his response during the ceremony after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage. On Saturday, Washington appeared at the International Leadership Summit in a discussion centered on the actor's career and faith and was asked about the incident, giving his reasons for getting involved. The story. 

—Not looking good. THR's editor-at-large Kim Masters has the big scoop on Netflix backing away from Will Smith movie project Fast and Loose after the Oscars incident. Kim reports that the action thriller had already lost its director David Leitch before the slap, and now the streaming service has quietly moved the film to the back burner. The story. 

—"Six days. This happened a week ago. Doesn’t this feel like it happened years ago?" Comedian Jerrod Carmichael addressed the slap in his Saturday Night Live monologue, saying that he wasn’t planning to address the moment, until SNL honcho Lorne Michaels specifically asked him to discuss it because “the nation needs to heal.” The recap. 

—"No one wants to hear from you on this." John Oliver excoriated O.J. Simpson on Last Week Tonight for sharing his opinion about Oscars slap incident. Simpson tweeted that Smith was wrong but he understood why he did, to which Oliver replied, "nope, not you O.J., not you." The story. 

—"We’ll see what happens in the future." Mayer dodges Smith questions. Candle Media co-CEO was in Cannes to give the MIPTV keynote, giving everyone in attendance a brief glimpse under the hood of the fledgling, and very acquisitive, media company. The company took a pre-slap minority stake in Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Inc., but Mayer dodged whether anything had changed following the Oscars. The story. 

Box Office: 'Morbius' Opens to $39M Domestically, $84M Globally 

►Not DOA. Sony's Morbius bit off $39.1 million from 4,268 theaters in its domestic box office debut, in line with expectations after withering reviews. Globally, it took in $84 million. The film, which cost a reported $75 million to make before marketing, holds just a 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. Audiences are also mixed, giving it a C+ CinemaScore, while exit scores on PostTrak are likewise mediocre. The audience score on RT is 67 percent, however. 

Paramount’s The Lost City came in No. 2 domestically in its sophomore outing with $14.8 million for a North American tally of $54.6 million. It has only rolled out in 17 markets so far overseas for an early foreign total of $7 million and $61.6 million worldwide.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the big player for Paramount overseas was Sonic 2, opening to $25.5 million in select markets ahead of its April 8 domestic launch. 

And The Batman sailed past the $700 million mark globally, earning another $10.8 million domestically to place third and $13.4 million overseas for a worldwide total of $710.5 million. The box office report. 

Elon Musk Buys 9.2 Percent Stake in Twitter  

►🚀 To the moon 🚀  Twitter’s stock soared in pre-market trading on Monday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed a more than 9 percent stake in the social media company. In recent weeks, the billionaire has questioned Twitter’s commitment to free speech, suggesting he could even start another social media firm of his own to create a rival. The story.

—Major players. During the AnimeJapan convention in Tokyo, which wrapped up last week, Netflix revealed that it would launch 40 new anime titles, spanning a growing range of genres, in 2022 alone. THR's Patrick Brzeski spoke to the streamer's head of anime Kohei Obara about the company's aggressive push into a category that half of Netflix's global subscribers have watched in the past year. The interview. 

—Part one. GLAAD hosted the first of two ceremonies for this year’s GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday, announcing winners for 16 of its 30 categories in Los Angeles. The night’s big winners included Eternals, Saved By The Bell, Hacks, Parallel Mothers and It’s A Sin. The the remaining 14 categories will be announced at GLAAD’s New York ceremony on May 6. The winners list. 

—Pulling out. Taron Egerton is withdrawing from the West End limited run of COCK. In a statement from producers, the Rocketman star is departing for personal reasons. Egerton’s exit follows the announcement that he would miss a week of performances after testing positive for COVID-19. During the show’s first week of performances, Egerton also collapsed suddenly towards the end of show. The story.

—Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Performances of Macbeth on Broadway have been canceled through April 7 after a limited number of positive COVID-19 results, including star Daniel Craig, were detected among the company on Saturday. The story. 

In other news...

—Star Trek: Strange New Worlds drops action-filled trailer with dashes of nostalgia

—The battle for talent goes global as MIPTV kicks off

—MIPTV: NBCU takes The Ark in Europe, extends deals for Leverage: Redemption and Almost Paradise

—MIPTV: Hotel Portofino gets season 2 order, Professor T sells wide

—Apple to rerelease CODA in U.K. cinemas

—June Brown, British soap icon who played Dot Cotton on EastEnders, dies at 95

—Barrie Youngfellow, actress on It’s a Living, dies at 75

—Patrick Demarchelier, fashion photographer, dies at 78

What else we're reading...

—Donald Trump's Truth Social media app is looking like a total disaster [BBC]

—After the failure of Deep Water, Chris Lee writes that Hollywood has no idea what to do with the erotic thriller [Vulture]

—As Mark Rylance returns to play Rooster in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, six writers consider whether it's still the play of the century [Guardian]

—How the epic, dystopian novel took over bookshelves [WSJ]

—Explainer on what Chinese media is saying about Russia’s Ukraine war [Vox]

Today...  

Today's birthdays: Robert Downey Jr. (57), Natasha Lyonne (43), Hugo Weaving (62), Eric André (39), David Cross (58), Carolina Gaitan (38), Craig T. Nelson (78), Barry Pepper (52), Jamie Lynn Spears (31), Collette Wolfe (42), David E. Kelley (66), Nancy McKeon (56), Graham Norton (59), Jill Scott (50), Aki Kaurismäki (65)