Daily Beast

Alexander Nemenov/Getty ImagesRussian oligarchs and state-owned companies are increasingly running private military companies and recruiting and training their own battalions for Russia’s war in Ukraine.Russian billionaire Viktor Shendrik, the head of the security department of Russian Railways, has reportedly been backing a detachment of Russian fighters made up of a group of football fans called “Espanyola,” according to iStories (an independent outlet also known as Important Stories or Vazhnie Istorii).Shendrik is close with the Rotenberg brothers, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg—two other Russian billionaires who are longtime friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and who were reportedly interested in having their own private military company (PMC).Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alexander Nemenov/Getty ImagesRussian oligarchs and state-owned companies are increasingly running private military companies and recruiting and training their own battalions for Russia’s war in Ukraine.Russian billionaire Viktor Shendrik, the head of the security department of Russian Railways, has reportedly been backing a detachment of Russian fighters made up of a group of football fans called “Espanyola,” according to iStories (an independent outlet also known as Important Stories or Vazhnie Istorii).Shendrik is close with the Rotenberg brothers, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg—two other Russian billionaires who are longtime friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and who were reportedly interested in having their own private military company (PMC).Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/ElectroLeague/Courtesy Jalil Moghaddan/Miyu Productions/Mast Films/From death row and incest to war and more war, this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Shorts are perhaps the bleakest—and worst—in recent memory. Although Pixar, which goes unrecognized this year, has no shortage of wins and nominations in this area, this group is really missing that studio’s brighter, happier stories. It could use an ounce of levity!This year’s lineup brings, if nothing else, a fascinating blend of animation techniques to the Oscars. From doodle-esque black scrawl to stories hand-painted onto literal clothing that moves to create action, there’s a great array of creative styles. That said, the short most likely to take home the win feels like standard, Pixar-like animation without as much heart—which makes sense, considering it was written and directed by a former Pixar employee.The shorts may have appearances from Tim Blake Nelson, John Lennon, and a sweet young French girl, but that doesn’t make them any more entertaining. Nevertheless, we watched them so you don’t have to—and we have a good idea of what will win, to keep your Oscar ballot looking strong.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/ElectroLeague/Courtesy Jalil Moghaddan/Miyu Productions/Mast Films/From death row and incest to war and more war, this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Shorts are perhaps the bleakest—and worst—in recent memory. Although Pixar, which goes unrecognized this year, has no shortage of wins and nominations in this area, this group is really missing that studio’s brighter, happier stories. It could use an ounce of levity!This year’s lineup brings, if nothing else, a fascinating blend of animation techniques to the Oscars. From doodle-esque black scrawl to stories hand-painted onto literal clothing that moves to create action, there’s a great array of creative styles. That said, the short most likely to take home the win feels like standard, Pixar-like animation without as much heart—which makes sense, considering it was written and directed by a former Pixar employee.The shorts may have appearances from Tim Blake Nelson, John Lennon, and a sweet young French girl, but that doesn’t make them any more entertaining. Nevertheless, we watched them so you don’t have to—and we have a good idea of what will win, to keep your Oscar ballot looking strong.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/UniversalThis weekFill Out Your ScorecardsThis is a rare year for the Oscars. Not only are the nominees—this never happens—actually good, but every detail we’ve heard about the show makes me excited. (Former winners as presenters! Ryan Gosling performing!) We’re so conditioned to complain about the Academy Awards telecast. This year, it might actually be fun!Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/UniversalThis weekFill Out Your ScorecardsThis is a rare year for the Oscars. Not only are the nominees—this never happens—actually good, but every detail we’ve heard about the show makes me excited. (Former winners as presenters! Ryan Gosling performing!) We’re so conditioned to complain about the Academy Awards telecast. This year, it might actually be fun!Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Getty As far as “nepo babies” go, it’s hard to think of anyone who seems more pure of heart than Robert and Bindi Irwin, the progeny of the late “Crocodile Hunter,” Steve Irwin. Both siblings have carried on the Aussie TV star’s conservationist legacy, working as zookeepers and promoting animal welfare on their social channels and in TV appearances. This week, however, Robert embraced his multitudes, ditching the family khakis and trying on a new role—fashion model.Robert made his runway debut at the Melbourne Fashion Festival in Australia, where Us Weekly reports that he strutted along the catwalk in three looks. There was a double-breasted teal corduroy suit with a white turtleneck and sneakers, a navy ensemble with a speckled bomber jacket, and a black-and-white ensemble with thick-framed glasses that recalled a young Elton John. That last ’fit was clearly the best of the bunch, but the teal suit was a close second. (If it had been a single-breasted jacket, it might’ve won the coveted Laura’s Choice Award, but apparently the local fashion designer Godwin was not concerned about winning that prestigious prize!)Of course, it’s impossible to tell from just a few photos and clips how Robert’s runway strut really compares to the greats. I will say, that big smile he gave at the end of the runway certainly violates Charlize Theron’s rule for walking like a queen—“think: murder.” Still, overall, it looks like he did a solid job and didn’t trip. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Warner Bros./Orion Pictures/Universal PicturesIf the tea leaves read true, Sunday is going to be a very big night for Oppenheimer. After a string of significant victories on the awards trail, Christopher Nolan’s towering biographical blockbuster is the one to beat at the Oscars, the even-odds favorite for Best Picture. Any other film picking up the top prize at the end of the ceremony would, at this point, qualify as an upset of Shakespeare in Love proportions.That’s probably as it should be. Setting aside whether Oppenheimer really is 2023’s finest (though, actually, it is), it’s certainly the most logical recipient of movie-of-the-year honors. How often, after all, does a film achieve such a total confluence of commercial and critical approval, of popularity and prestige? The anomaly of Nolan’s achievement is that he made a lavish drama for adults that performed like a franchise event, and in the process seemed to renew public interest in the movie-theater experience. Oppenheimer confirmed that Hollywood can still find that elusive intersection of art and commerce. What else is Best Picture for than to celebrate that kind of rare success?Yet if there’s only one true choice for the win this year, all of the films competing for the Oscar make sense as nominees. This is the first time in recent memory that every single one of the Best Picture contenders feels like it belongs. That’s not a quality judgment. (For this writer’s wholly subjective money, there are countless movies worthier of recognition than, say, Maestro.) Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that the Academy has offered an uncommonly eclectic lineup and provided a wide view of the year in cinema. For once, the whole slate is made up pretty much entirely of movies that mattered.Read more at The Daily Beast.

PeacockDonald Trump is so peerlessly corrupt that he’s become a one-man cottage industry for the non-fiction genre, with myriad documentaries made—and undoubtedly still to come—about his various offenses. To that list can now be added Stormy, a two-hour undertaking focused on one of Trump's sleaziest scandals: the $130,000 hush money payment made to adult actress Stormy Daniels via Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen in order to keep their 2006 affair quiet on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s possible criminal liability for that infraction (which prosecutors allege violated campaign-finance laws) will be determined later this month. Thus, Sarah Gibson’s film is fortuitously timed, providing an insider’s view of this most tabloid-y of political tales and the woman at the center of it all, whose candidness is summed up by her closing statement here that “I’m out of fucks.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

CNNJake Tapper on Friday criticized conservatives like Sean Hannity after the Fox News host, who has long attacked President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” said the president was too energetic during his State of the Union address.On The Lead, the CNN anchor noted that prior to Thursday’s address, Republicans had been saying that Biden was “old, weak, gaffe-prone, senile, a pushover.” Tapper then played a clip of Hannity pivoting away from his usual description of Biden, and instead calling him “Jacked-up Joe” who “sounded like a hyper-caffeinated, angry old man.”“Can Republicans have it both ways?” he asked GOP strategist Alice Stewart. “I mean, this also reminds me of the fact that they accuse him of being a dumb puppet fool and also this criminal mastermind. It just seems like you’ve got to pick a lane here, right?”Read more at The Daily Beast.