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Saturday Night Live kicked off its 52nd season with NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson as its first host, and he had his starting lineup there to support him.

Brunson began his monologue by joking that his time winning the 2026 NBA championship this year with the New York Knicks may mirror his hosting stint.

“Tonight I’m gonna approach hosting in the same way I approach the Knicks finals game; so the first three quarters of the show are gonna be god awful. The last sketch is gonna be amazing,” he said. “This summer, I helped the Knicks win the NBA championship. By now, you’ve all heard me talk about it, but you haven’t heard me sing about it… And obviously I’m not going to.”

He also joked about being back in Madison Square Garden for the NBA season that’s about to start, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married this summer.

“The new season is just a couple of weeks away, and I gotta say, it’s gonna be pretty cool to be back at Madison Square Garden. Looking around like, wow, just a few months ago, this was the exact spot where Taylor and Travis got married,” he said. Brunson

The New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June, marking their first win since 1973. Brunson was awarded with the title of NBA Finals MVP after the dynamic season. To support his debut as an SNL host, the Knicks starting five, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, were all in attendance.

Brunson said he was going to take questions from the audience, to which the camera panned over to make way for his teammates. Towns kicked off a round of questions, asking, “Can you foul out of SNL?” Brunson responded, “No, I don’t think so.”

“I could be here, like, the whole show?” Towns added. Hart candidly asked the SNL host, “Is it true that you took a $113 million pay cut just to resign with the Knicks?”

Brunson said, “Yeah, that’s pretty true.” Hart asked an additional follow-up question: “Wow. So is that money, like, still up for grabs?”

The first cold open of the new season poked fun at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump’s bromance. Ramy Youssef portrayed Mamdani, while James Austin Johnson returned to dish out his impersonation of Trump.

Mamdani was told he had a guest, to which he responded, “What reckless lunatic would travel to see me in this kind of weather?”

“Your best friend!” Johnson’s Trump said. “I missed my day one. For some reason that no one can figure out, I really, really like you.” Youssef pointed out the El Niño impacting New York City, telling the faux president, “That’s very kind, but wouldn’t you rather be in D.C.? We’re in the middle of El Niño.”

“Oh, El Niño, we don’t like big stores, especially when they’re in Spanish,” Trump said. He went on to talk about his “crazy week”: “I kicked out the press and hung out with the president of China, Xi. And yeah, I went brunette. It’s fall!”

“There was this crazy AI stuff, too,” he continued. “I just had dinner with Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and it made me think, wow, RFK Jr.’s probably right about those vaccines.” Ashley Padilla also popped up briefly in the cold open as Natalie Harp, executive assistant to President Trump.

Towards the end of the cold open, Youssef’s Mamdani kept on insisting that he needed to get back to work. “Please let me stay here with you,” Johnson’s Trump said. “OK, only if you give us $21 billion for a housing project in Queens,” Mamdani said.

“Are you out of your mind?” Trump said, to which Mamdani offered, “What if I follow you back on Instagram?”

“It’s a done deal,” Johnson’s Trump concluded.

Jeremy Culhane reprised his Tucker Carlson impersonation during the Weekend Update segment, where he gave his opinions on this summer’s box office hits. Of Obsession, he joked, “The left’s idea of a horror movie; that a woman is forced to love a man. ‘Oh, no, help! I’m being chased by a heterosexual relationship!’”

As for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Culhane’s Carlson said, “Everybody loves Spider-Man: Brand New Gender.” Colin Jost said, “That’s not what it’s called,” as Culhane’s Carlson continued, “Spider-They, Spider-Them, uses whatever bathroom it feels like.”

He also brought up Minions & Monsters, asserting that he was “not talking about the children’s film, I’m talking about the Trump cabinet. That’s right, I’ve turned on Trump, I’m so brave.”

The New York Knicks star and Katseye were the first host and musical guest pair of the new season, also notably making their SNL debuts. Next week, Dakota Johnson will host with Turnstile as the musical act.

Shane Gillis will host on Oct. 10 with musical guest Rosalia, while Obsession star Inde Navarrette makes her SNL hosting debut on the Halloween episode. She’ll be joined by Gracie Abrams.

If you need any proof of the potential for literary works from the Spanish-speaking world to be adapted for the screen, you need to look no further than YA bestseller author Mercedes Ron’s success with Prime Video and Banijay’s Pokeepsie Films production banner with the likes of the Fault trilogy and the recently launched Drawn Together.

Literary Works Pitch for Audiovisual Adaptation, a new initiative developed by Iberseries & Platino Industria in collaboration with the Federation of Publishers Guilds of Spain (FGEE) and featured at this year’s sixth edition in Madrid running Sept. 29-Oct. 2, looks to connect publishers and literary agencies with production companies, streamers, studios and TV networks to feed their search for new intellectual properties.

Following a call for submissions, organizers selected 14 works from Spain and Mexico and one each from Germany and Argentina. The stories come from different genres, times and settings.

Here is a look at the projects being pitched at Madrid:

Alguien como tú by Xavier Bosch
Agencia Literaria Antonia Kerrigan, Spain
The Catalan author’s novel centers on an intense, cross-border affair between a married woman from Barcelona and an art gallery owner from Paris, with the woman’s daughter later trying to piece together details of the clandestine romance.

Alka I. La mujer del infinito by Yaiza Nicolás
Yaiza Nicolás, Spain
The thriller-like adventure spanning three generations of women journeying through time revolves around a substance that prolongs youth and extends the boundaries of life.

Así en la tierra como debajo de la tierra by Ana Paula Maia
Scenic Rights, Spain
A penal colony in a remote spot in Brazil is in its waning days, and its warden unleashes a horror scenario: every full moon, a selection of inmates is released, only to be hunted down with weapons.

Cuando te atrevas a sentir by Tamara Molina
Agencia Literaria Antonia Kerrigan, Spain
Naila feels like a failure and has no clear goal in life. Bruno always succeeds and has a well-paying job that does not make him happy, but fears that quitting would make him a loser. But these two very different people may find comfort in each other.

Cuando vi a la muerte prestar su sombrero by Rodrigo Unda
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Mexico
This fantasy novel follows The Fates, living in the shadows with one job: guiding human souls to the afterlife. But one day, one of them suffers an injury, and she begins to experience human feelings.

El sueño de las Mariposas by Cristina Atienza
Cristina Atienza, Spain
Mystery, history and memory collide by the sea in this novel about sisterhood. A woman’s interest in astrophysics and her defiance land her in confinement, with forced prayers and punishments.

Las esposas del régimen by Miguel Ángel San Juan
Alt Autores, Spain
A modern mystery intersects with a historical look at women resisting General Franco’s patriarchal dictatorship in this novel, which pays tribute to silenced generations and warns against the return of oppressive ideologies.

Masacre en el comedor by Ceferino Reato
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Mexico
The journalist and political scientist investigates the deadliest guerrilla attack in 1970s Argentina, a Montoneros guerrilla group bombing at a Federal Police building during the country’s military dictatorship.

Mentira by Care Santos
Scenic Rights, Spain
Xenia has had a reputation for getting the best grades and dreams of studying medicine. But then her academic performance suffers when she falls in love online. But who is the mysterious person she falls for, and are they real?

Mi vida con él by Hilda Gadea
Silvina Estévez, Argentina
A film based on the memoirs of Hilda Gadea, the economist, intellectual, and activist who was Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s first wife, is already in the works.

Nocturnos by Laura Pérez
Alt Autores, Spain
The writer and artist’s graphic novel uses a series of dreamlike vignettes to explore the mysterious and magical world of the night. You may not be aware yet, but you may well know Pérez’s work – she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on the opening title design for Only Murders in the Building.

Too Match by Inma Benedito
Agencia Literaria Dos Passos, Spain
If you are looking for a contemporary story that has been described as a Madrid-style queer Sex and the City with less glamour, this one may be for you! This diary of failed dates is an ode to heartbreak.

Una belleza terrible by José Ovejero
Galaxia Gutenberg, Spain
This biographical novel dives into the life and times of Leon Trotsky confidant Raymond Molinier (1904–1994), a chameleon-like figure who dedicated his life to revolutionary ideals and the workers’ struggle.

Una casa llena de gente by Mariana Sández
MertinWitt Literary Agency, Germany
The debut novel explores family grief and trauma, generational friction, and memory through a narrative puzzle emerging from diaries and testimonies.

Una Madre by Alejandro Palomas
Scenic Rights, Spain
Set on New Year’s Eve in a Barcelona apartment, the story sees Amalia, 65, fulfill her dream of gathering her whole family for a holiday dinner. It is a night of family and laughter, but also, through flashbacks, old secrets and hidden tensions.

Vida y muerte del cartel de Medellín by Carlos Lehder
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Mexico
If you loved Narcos, you may want to take a look at this one! After all, it is the memoir of a co-founder of the Medellín drug cartel in Colombia, detailing the criminal empire’s rise and fall.

Hot on the heels of his Golden Eye award ceremony on Saturday night, John Turturro entertained another crowd at a Zurich Film Festival masterclass on Sunday.

The Emmy-winning U.S. star has been recognized for his performance in Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a project that is already garnering awards buzz. In the film, Turturro plays Harry, a seasoned pickpocket whose carefully controlled life is thrown into turmoil when a job goes wrong, setting off a tense chain of events that unfolds over the course of 36 hours.

In a career-spanning conversation with Deadline‘s Melanie Goodfellow — the actor’s shining Golden Eye trophy neatly nestled between them — Turturro discussed growing up in an immigrant household, his decades-long friendship with Spike Lee, and the transition from acting to filmmaking.

Turturro, who has steadily become one of the industry’s most formidable actors yet to put “Oscar nominee” on his resume, was asked about joining the best actor race this year with the Sundance success The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. “I never really have gone the whole hog with it,” he responded about the upcoming awards campaign. “But now I’m the lead in the film, so I’m going to support the film because I love the film.”

He explained that being pulled into awards conversations is “helpful to help you do the next thing.” Turturro continued: “Is it nice to be acknowledged? Great, but that’s not why you do it. […] Just because a film is really popular doesn’t mean it will have staying power, but it’s nice to be in the conversation. I don’t look upon myself as being a competitive person. I’m competitive with myself,” he added. “I want to get the most out of what I can do, but it’s not sports!”

However, he admitted to feeling surprised by the positive critic reaction out of Sundance. “Finally,” he thought, “I’m in something that people will see… My job is I like to try to improve, and I feel like being an actor is one of the few things you can improve in. You may not be able to run as fast as you did when you were younger, but I have a lot of life experience, and as you get older, you accumulate that, and you can distill things in a way that you couldn’t do when you were young, because you didn’t really experience all those things. And now I’ve experienced life, death, loss, being a parent, being married — what it is to really love someone versus falling in love. That’s a huge difference,” he giggled.

Turturro regaled attendees with stories about his impressive stage career. He naturally came on to two major TV performances of his in the last decade: HBO’s The Night Of and Apple’s Severance.

He coyly confirmed a return for his character, Irving Bailiff, in season three of the Emmy-winning Severance with Adam Scott. “Yeah,” he (eventually) told the room. “As long as they give me interesting things to do, then I’m interested.” He swiftly took the opportunity to gush over friend and colleague Christopher Walken, whose character, Burt Goodman, began a romance with Turturro’s Irving in season one. “‘Who’s going to be my love interest?’” Turturro asked before joining the show. “And they were like, ‘All these younger guys.’ I said, ‘Well no, I’ve worked with Chris Walken,’ and I said, ‘I want Chris, because I love Chris.’ And I don’t have to act that I love him because I love him.”

Though Walken “didn’t understand a lot of the show,” Turturro was able to guide him through their authentic, real-life friendship. “I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You just look at me.’ We have so much fun because I directed him like three times, and we’ve acted, and we’ve worked together a lot. And he’s a wonderful theater actor, and people obviously think he plays only strange [characters] but he can do a lot of different things. He’s also very sensitive, but he has a childlike joy in his work, and when that happens, anything is possible.”

Turturro received a round of applause when discussing the HBO crime drama The Night Of, which ran for one season in 2016 and co-starred Riz Ahmed. It would later win five Emmys, and Turturro was nominated for his role as the eczema-stricken defense lawyer John Stone. “The Night Of is something I’m very proud of,” said Turturro on Sunday. “It was originally a BBC thing, which I actually never watched because I didn’t want to be influenced.”

He even confirmed that he actually wanted to do another season of it. “But they couldn’t agree on what the story would be,” revealed the actor. “But I loved doing it. It was one of those great experiences in my life.”

Turturro’s career spans four decades, having worked with acclaimed directors such as Spike Lee, the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Nanni Moretti and Pedro Almodóvar.

He first gained international recognition through his collaborations with Lee, appearing in Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. With Joel and Ethan Coen, he acted in Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowksi, in which Turturro created the iconic Jesus Quintana. For his lead performance in Barton Fink, he won best actor at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, an experience that Turturro reflected on at his Zurich masterclass. He even confessed to feeling like he lands “more normal” roles in Europe than across the Atlantic, and said he has turned down scripts “again and again” that involve his character being violent towards women.

At his Zurich Golden Eye ceremony Saturday night, Turturro collected the award and quoted Italian novelist Cesare Pavese. “[He] once said that the only great thing in life is to begin. I still consider myself a beginner in many ways,” said the star. “I’m very fortunate. I wanted to make a living doing something that interested me and to do interesting work — to share that with an audience, [and that] wouldn’t diminish their intelligence at the same time,” he laughed. “I consider this an encouragement to continue.”

Turturro joins 2026 Zurich honorees Julianne Moore and Tom Hiddleston. The 22nd edition runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.