Intro for January 5, 2026

Dear Gossips,

Happy New Year! This is our first official gossip post of 2026 but you may have noticed… we did what celebrities do during the break: we tweaked our face. And some other backend body parts. The swelling has mostly gone down, we think, but there may be some kinks over the next few days as we approach full optimisation. If you haven’t already, please review this explainer that was posted over the weekend.

Now let’s to business…

Coverage of last night’s Critics Choice Awards is coming this morning. It is, no doubt, an important campaign stop as Oscar nomination voting begins a week today, right after the Golden Globes next Sunday. But the critics membership doesn’t overlap with the Academy and the Academy is who votes on the Oscars. So there was what might be an even more important campaign stop this weekend: Palm Springs. Several hundred Oscar voters live in Palm Springs, and they attend the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala year after year. This is why so many contenders show up in Palm Springs on the last weekend of the holiday season. And this is where Adam Sandler was honoured with the Chairman’s Award on Saturday night, presented by Laura Dern, with whom he co-stars in Jay Kelly.

Adam is campaigning for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in that film. And he had the opportunity in Palm Springs to make his case to Oscar voters and test-run an acceptance speech. So he decided to mention his penis, LOL. The speech is hilarious and unconventional, but very on-brand for the Sandman. Some might say this is too much, too unserious, for the crotchety olds in the audience but at least he came to entertain, and this, after all, is the job.

Back to the Critics Choice Awards – Kpop Demon Hunters came away with two of them: Best Song and Best Animated Feature. Maggie Kang, EJAE, and the rest of the team will also be a factor next weekend at the Globes. And they will continue to campaign afterwards during the nomination period as it was announced that Arden Cho, who voices Rumi when she’s not singing, and Ahn Hyo-seop, who is Jinu when he’s not singing, will be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on the first day of Oscar nominations voting.

@fallontonight

Arden Cho & Ahn Hyo-seop from KPop Demon Hunters make their Tonight Show debuts on January 12th! #KPopDemonHuntersOnFallon #FallonTonight #ArdenCho #AhnHyoseop #KPopDemonHunters

♬ original sound - FallonTonight

This will be Ahn Hyo-seop’s first American late night talk show appearance, and if you’re not familiar… well… get ready to meet your new boyfriend. He’s 6 ft 2 with perfect skin and can sing and dance and act. And he spent part of his youth in Toronto so chances are he’ll do the interview in English, although I love that he’s being introduced by his Korean name and not “Paul” which is his English name which he does NOT use professionally, not even when he’s part of an Oscar campaign. There may have been a time, years ago, when this was necessary. And now? Obviously not necessary.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey