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John Galliano has bowed out of the Met Gala where he was set to be honored, after a backlash over past remarks by the veteran designer, including an antisemitic rant.  

“After much reflection and discussion with all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time,” Galliano said Monday in an Instagram post. The exhibit that has been set to kick off May 3 with the Met Gala was to be overseen by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director who also serves as a Met trustee. But a backlash over plans to honor Galliano, who is credited with growing luxury-fashion brand Dior into a global giant, left Met Gala organizers in damage control.

“I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute. I also recognize and respect that the exhibition honoring my work would be painful for some,” Galliano added in his statement.

Galliano was fired by Christian Dior in 2011 after video footage surfaced showing the designer, who was inebriated, making antisemitic remarks in a Paris bar, La Perle. French laws at the time made it a crime to incite racial hatred. The chief Dior designer was arrested for allegedly assaulting two people with antisemitic and racist outbursts that included comments like “I love Hitler,” “people like you would be dead” and “your mothers, your forefather” would all be “gassed.” His racist remarks were also said to include “fucking ugly Jewish bitch” and “fucking Asian bastard”.

After the incident, Galliano retreated from public life for two years and was found guilty by a Paris court of a hate crime for public insults based on religion, race and ethnicity for two incidents in Feb. 2011 and another in Oct. 2010 when a woman claimed he made similar racist outbursts in the same bar near to where he lived. Galliano received a suspended fine of $8400 and was forced to pay damages and court fees. Galliano met with Jewish leaders and rabbis following the scandal and received blessings from groups like the Anti-Defamation League.

In July, the Metropolitan Museum of Art first announced that Galliano’s work would be spotlighted in the Met’s Costume Institute. This exhibition serves as the centerpiece for the annual Met Gala, an event attended by the most elite of the A-list, with one of the most coveted invites.

Galliano’s withdrawal from the planned Met Gala spotlight was preceded on Sunday by a New York Times story that pointed to critics, including donors, politicians and Jewish leaders having taken aim at the Metropolitan Museum for championing a fashion industry giant after he had been convicted for a hate crime in 2011.

The tribute to Galliano would have made him the third living designer to receive a solo exhibition at the Met, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.

The statement from John Galliano follows in full:

I am profoundly grateful to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and particularly to Max Hollein, Andrew Bolton and Anna Wintour, for the extraordinary honor of proposing an exhibition devoted to my work. To have my creative journey considered by an institution that I have admired throughout my life moved me more deeply that I can express. I will remain forever grateful for the confidence, care and scholarship that Max, Andrew, Anna and the entire Met team brought to this project.

After much reflection and discussion with all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.

I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute. I also recognize and respect that the exhibition honoring my work would be painful for some. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have guided, supported and accompanied me throughout those fifteen years of sobriety and recovery from alcoholism and addiction. Your wisdom, patience and humanity have helped me more than I can ever adequately express. I remain profoundly indebted to you for giving me, as you promised, a life better than I could ever have dreamt of.

My gratitude to the Met, Max, Andrew and Anna remains profound and enduring. Their generosity, humanity and belief in the importance of fashion as art, culture and history – as well as their understanding of human fragility and the possibility of growth – will remain with me always.

John Galliano

There are hot takes, bad takes… and then there is this.

On the heels of Tom Cruise announcing a Days of Thunder sequel — which will return Cruise as NASCAR driver Cole Trickle — Cruise’s former co-star Randy Quaid crudely blasted the action movie icon for picking Oscar winner Anne Hathaway as his co-lead.

In the 1990 original, Quaid played a race team owner who recruits Cole into NASCAR, while Nicole Kidman played a neurosurgeon who becomes Cole’s love interest. In the upcoming Paramount movie, Hathaway will play a team owner and engineer.

“We need Nicole back,” wrote Quaid on X. “Don’t be a pussy, @TomCruise. You need the original girl. It’s not personal; it’s filmmaking. Anne isn’t sexy, because and if you haven’t noticed, she’s pregnant.”

The actor — who has 1.2 million followers and whose feed is full of MAGA-related content — continued: “If I were in control of production, a real sequel worth watching for DAYS OF THUNDER would be seeing Tom and Nicole together on screen again. We don’t need a new girl; we need a new race car! … Anne Hathaway is a leftist, woke, horrible choice for DAYS OF THUNDER NASCAR audience who are MAGA. The sexy older chick for Tom in this film needs to be Nicole. That’s the casting that would sell the idea. It’s interesting because when we made the first one there was also a rush to get it out; editors slept in the cutting room on shifts. This is a weird thing, like they want it to come out and tank.”

Several of Quaid’s followers defended Hathaway, while another noted, “I find it more than a bit performative that you simultaneously argue conservatives in Hollywood should not lose out on work because of their politics but those on the Left should.”

Hathaway is fresh off two blockbusters with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey. She next stars in the title role in Verity, based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel.

Quaid’s comments came after the actor posting a video suggesting that he would be a part of the sequel. In the video, he’s driving a car and declared, “Tom Cruise just called me! We’re making Days of Thunder 2!”

Paramount had no immediate comment.

Jonathan Levine will direct the new Thunder, with Will Staples writing the screenplay. Cruise, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tommy Harper are producing. The sequel will be filmed for Imax and released June 2, 2028.

Below are Cruise and Hathaway announcing the film and Quaid’s video.

Love Is the Monster (Amor es el Monstruo). Costa Rican writer-director Neto Villalobos Brenes (All About the Feathers, Helmet Heads) has picked a title for his latest film that will make you sit up straight, deal with questions swirling through your head, or both. The chilling dystopian thriller, starring Paulina García (Gloria) and teeming with fear and inequality, will world premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centerpiece strand on Sept. 15. 

Filmed in Costa Rica’s South Pacific region, Love Is a Monster features Chilean star García as a grandmother determined to make the most of the time she has left with her six-year-old granddaughter. After her daughter cuts off all contact, she has to earn her trust back, only for tragedy to strike: the girl gets kidnapped for ransom. What is the grandmother willing to do to protect the ones she loves?

“She is forced to make choices she never imagined, pushing love, loyalty and survival into increasingly tense territory,” notes a synopsis of the movie that explores family, love, age and class inequality.

Love Is the Monster sees Villalobos Brenes return to Toronto, where his two previous features also debuted.

“A few years ago, I lost the person I loved most, my mother,” says Villalobos Brenes in explaining his sharp turn from two comedies to a dark, genre-infused cinematic ride. “As everyday life became more difficult for her, she found in her granddaughter the strength to keep fighting. That experience sparked the question at the heart of this film: how far would you go to protect the person you love most?”

Love Is the Monster also stars Natalia Regidor, Gloriana Vargas and Ericka Reikendorf. Written by Villalobos Brenes and Diego van der Laat, the film features cinematography by Nicolás Wong Díaz and editing by Yibrán Asuad and Villalobos Brenes. Bendita Film Sales is handling world sales.

García, who won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in Gloria, shares: “I don’t think love really has limits. You only discover that when you’re put to the test and find yourself doing things you never imagined you were capable of. When a child is involved, that feeling becomes even stronger. You’re willing to do absolutely anything to protect them.”

THR can now exclusively premiere the poster for the film right here.

Now, if you finally want to see a video teaser, we got you covered, too. Here is the exclusive premiere of the trailer for Love Is the Monster. Whenever you are ready, buckle up and take a deep breath!

As the lone Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, Anna Gomez has been in the unique position of speaking out on some of the agency’s biggest decisions and even publicly urging Disney to fight back against the FCC. 

She’s been unabashed about condemning agency decisions she sees as violations of First Amendment rights and what she views as the FCC’s directed targeting of critics of the Trump administration. And while she doesn’t exactly relish having to speak out against her own agency, Gomez says she’d like to keep going in the role. 

“I’d love to be reconfirmed, and I have supporters in the Senate, which I’m very grateful for, and appreciate very much,” Gomez tells The Hollywood Reporter.

“​​I think it’s important that we maintain somebody that pushes back against this administration’s overreaches,” she adds.

As it stands, Gomez’s term ended at the end of June, and the commissioner is currently in a carryover period that could last until the end of 2027, unless another commissioner is nominated and confirmed by the Senate before then. The commission has operated as a bipartisan agency, with the law stating that the maximum number of FCC commissioners from the same political party is three, but it remains unclear what the future makeup could look like.

A former telecommunications lawyer, with a career that includes several government posts including positions at the FCC, Gomez was appointed as FCC commissioner under President Biden in 2023. She has remained in place as President Trump appointed his pick, Republican Brendan Carr, to head up the agency, with Republican Olivia Trusty named as another commissioner in 2025. The commission is typically made up of five members, though can operate with a quorum of three. Gomez notes that she would like to return to having a full slate. 

Earlier this month, Trump nominated FCC chairman Carr’s senior counsel, Danielle Thumann, a Republican, to serve a five-year term as an agency commissioner. However, she has yet to be confirmed, and the President has yet to weigh in on whether he would appoint another commissioner to reach five members, whether they would be a Democrat or whether he would support a renomination of Gomez. 

Throughout her term, Gomez has pushed back on topics like the FCC decision to approve the Paramount-Skydance merger (which was approved 2-1 over her dissension), which included having the company eliminate its DEI programs and put controls on newsroom decisions at CBS. 

Last spring, Gomez launched a nationwide First Amendment tour, in which she traveled the country to raise awareness about “the FCC’s actions in support of this administration,” which she saw as threatening newsroom and broadcasters rights.

And recently, she’s been particularly outspoken about the FCC’s decision to call Disney’s broadcast licenses for early renewal. The agency said the action was related to Disney’s DEI policies, but it came after the administration had called for the FCC to take action against late night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made on his program.

“The FCC is once again targeting an administration critic by mob rule. Let’s not pretend this FCC hasn’t already made up its mind. All they want is for their pro-censorship partisan allies to nod in agreement. My message to Disney: Don’t flinch. Fight,” Gomez wrote in a particularly fiery social media post in May, after the FCC also began challenging The View, owned by Disney. 

As for what kind of workplace environment this creates, Gomez says the commissioners, perhaps surprisingly, largely get along. 

“One thing that I don’t think people realize is that I actually work very well, and I work hard at maintaining a relationship with my colleagues, and because of that relationship, I am able to bring a lot of good outcomes for consumers. And in most of what we do, the majority of actions that have come before the commission, I have actually supported,” Gomez said, listing the crackdowns on robocalls and scams as one example. 

The big exception, of course, is when it comes to what she sees as agency overreach in violation of the First Amendment rights, a topic that she continues to passionately speak out about, to the degree that she recently praised Disney for suing the FCC.

“I’ve been talking for almost two years about the need to push back and to protect the free press and free expression, and I’m hoping that I played no small part in ensuring that Disney did stand up and sue the FCC about this retaliation from this administration and this pressure campaign,” Gomez said.

It was particularly critical for Disney to stand up to the agency, she said, because if it did not do so it would put pressure on others, and particularly smaller broadcasters, to capitulate. 

As for how her position on Disney and the FCC goes over with her colleagues, Gomez is more circumspect. 

“I don’t talk about my private conversations with my colleagues, but I will say, when I talk about this, I talk about the importance of upholding the First Amendment, which is really a bipartisan belief, and I try to keep it out of the personal realm,” Gomez said. 

A spokesperson for the FCC did not respond to a request for comment. Carr previously said in a hearing that even if a broadcaster is critical of Trump, “any broadcaster that complies with the public interest standard is not in any risk at all.” However, when pressed on whether he would commit to not retaliating against those broadcasters, he said “there is no First Amendment right to an FCC license.”  In the hearing, Carr also said the FCC was “not formally an independent agency” and would not directly answer whether or not President Trump was his boss.

Unlike many of the administration’s outspoken critics, Gomez says she has been relatively spared from backlash so far and has also received a degree of bipartisan support, including from conservative think tanks, as well as from former chairs of the FCC and Republican senators including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who spoke out against the FCC’s decision to launch its early review of Disney‘s broadcast TV licenses after Jimmy Kimmel made his “expectant widow” joke.

“It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police,” Cruz told Punchbowl News in April. 

And, as she noted, Senate Democrats are making a particular push for her reconfirmation, as well as a return to a five-person commission with a bipartisan makeup.

“The FCC’s job is to protect consumers and promote innovation in the communications sector. It can’t do this job unless it’s fully staffed, including by members of the minority party. Anna Gomez has fought for consumers and against censorship and should be renominated to the FCC,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) said in a statement sent to THR, a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the FCC.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) similarly expressed support for Gomez’s renomination, calling her “a strong voice pushing back against political interference.”

Gomez initial nomination was also seen as pivotal as she was named to the position after the FCC had been in a 2-2 partisan deadlock for the majority of Biden’s presidency, which made it difficult to take on administration priorities like net neutrality. Biden’s prior nominee, Gigi Sohn, withdrew herself after a years-long fight for confirmation, but Gomez, who held prior positions including deputy assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and senior advisor at the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, was confirmed 55-43 about six months after her nomination.

As it stands with this FCC commission, Gomez says she is beginning to see the broader effects of the agency’s decision-making, as she has been hearing from broadcasters who admit to being afraid to report on certain topic areas, for fear of running afoul of the administration and possibly facing consequences.

“I get asked all the time, “Is it safe for me to report on X? And my response to them is always the fact that you’re asking me that question is the problem because it is not for the FCC to make your editorial decisions,” she said. 

In calling for early license renewals of Disney and others, Gomez also warns that this action “devalues the licenses themselves,” which causes greater uncertainty for broadcasters around licenses and could lead to a broader economic issue. 

Outside of her role speaking out against what she sees as First Amendment violations, Gomez said she finds the job of commissioner enjoyable. 

“It really is a very satisfying job because when your lodestar is to ensure consumers are the beneficiaries of everything we do, it brings you a lot of satisfaction when you’re able to do things and achieve outcomes that are in fact pro-consumer, pro-competition,” Gomez said. 

And while she says she’s not someone who “enjoys dissenting for the sake of dissenting,” she said she’s committed to continuing to do so in the remainder of her term, and if nominated again.

“I just think it’s so important to our democracy. This is a moment in time where I feel I have to do this, whether I enjoy it or not,” she said.