Author: business

Sheinelle Jones’ “Today” show colleagues think about her every single day.

In an update with “Entertainment Tonight” published April 30, Jones’ co-hosts from the NBC morning show’s third hour addressed her absence once again.

“I don’t know anything about when or timeline (for the return), but we always think about her,” Carson Daly told Entertainment Tonight, adding that they “talk about (Jones) probably every day.”

“The Voice” host added that “we’re wishing her well and she’s spending much-needed time with her family and that’ll just take its course. And there’s so much love going out to her.”

‘Today’ co-hosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin offer update amid Sheinelle Jones absence

The beloved co-anchor and mom of three of the NBC morning show’s third hour paused hosting duties in December to “deal with a family health matter,” but it does not appear that she is stepping back permanently from her role. She first raised eyebrows when she was absent during the high-profile exit of former “Today” main co-anchor Hoda Kotb in January.

Shortly after, Jones took to Instagram to confirm her hiatus, writing in a post: “I sincerely appreciate all of you who have reached out while l’ve been absent from the show. I want to share with you that I’m taking time to deal with a family health matter.”

The celebrations, dubbed “Hoda-bration,” featured messages from “Today” personalities sans Jones. During the interview with ET, NBC meteorologist Dylan Dreyer chimed in about her close friend’s distance from “Today,” saying the whole team is “very close.”

“We chat with her often. A week doesn’t go by where we’re not checking in, seeing how she’s doing,” Dreyer said. “We pray for her all the time, we can’t wait for her to come back, so we’re just waiting for that day to come.”

Jones’ “Today” colleague Jenna Bush Hager, who now hosts “Jenna & Friends” after Kotb’s departure, told ET’s Rachel Smith that “the ‘Today’ show is a family, and we take care of each other, we love each other and that’s the truth.”

“Today” fan favorite Al Roker chimed in, saying that “the fact of the matter is, we’re so grateful to all the fans and viewers who’ve been praying for her and praying for her family and just taking it one day at a time.

“The good news is this is a family, and we’ve got each other’s back,” Roker continued.

Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer previously addressed Sheinelle Jones’ absence

Amid Jones’ ongoing absence, her “Today” family members sent love and prayers in April.

During an Access Hollywood segment, fellow “Today” anchors Roker, Melvin and Dreyer offered an update on their colleague.

“Just talked to her a couple of days ago,” Melvin said. “She’s taking some time to be with her family, and we talk to her all the time. And we love our girl. It’s been nice to see how much everyone else loves her too.”

Jones shares three children with her husband, Uche Ojeh: oldest son Kayin and fraternal twins Clara and Uche Jr.

“We’re just praying for her,” Roker said in the “Access Hollywood” clip, while Dreyer added that “She misses being here. She wishes she was here with us but she’s doing what she needs to do, and she’ll be back.”

Contributing: Anna Kaufman

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner are taking their love courtside.

The Oscar-nominated actor, 29, and the Kylie Cosmetics founder, 27, were spotted attending a playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in Los Angeles on April 30. They didn’t shy away from some PDA, as they were spotted holding hands and sharing a kiss.

This was the latest date night for the A-list couple, who made waves in March when they were seen embracing in the audience of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The pair kissed and held hands at the match, which Jenner’s sister, Kendall Jenner, also attended.

Chalamet and Jenner were also spotted attending the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April, according to videos and photos shared on social media.

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner spotted kissing, holding hands at tennis match

The pair have been romantically linked in 2023. The “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” star was by Chalamet’s side for some events during awards season in 2025 while he received acclaim for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”

In January, she accompanied the “Dune” star to the Golden Globe Awards, where he was nominated for best actor. She was seen on the telecast laughing and smiling along as host Nikki Glaser playfully roasted the actor, quipping that he has the “most gorgeous eyelashes on your upper lip.”

Kylie Jenner cuddles up with Timothée Chalemet inside 2025 Oscars: See photos

Jenner was also in attendance at the Academy Awards, where Chalamet was nominated for best actor, in March, though she skipped the red carpet.

What is “Fox and Friends” without Steve Doocy?

Luckily, viewers won’t have to find out anytime soon. Despite a slight, and seemingly intentional, scare for audiences, Doocy announced during an May 1 broadcast that he would pare back his time as host rather than retire from the show outright.

Joking about the agony of the 3 a.m. wakeup call he has to abide by to make it to air by 6 a.m., Doocy said he would instead be helming the morning political commentary show three days a week, and broadcast from a new home in Florida rather than New York.

All the TV news anchors exiting their roles, including Lester Holt and Joy Reid

“It is a great job, but the hours suck,” he joked, describing driving into the city in the dark and missing breakfast every morning with his children.

“I’m not retiring, I’m not leaving the show. I’m still a host, but it’s time for a change,” said Doocy, who has been delivering hot takes from the “Fox and Friends” couch for 30 years.

“I will be based in Florida,” he continued, “which means you may never see me in a necktie again.

“Call me the coast-to-coast host,” he joked, revealing his new home base would allow him to cover middle America, the Carolinas and Florida, an especially important state given President Donald Trump’s frequent visits to Mar-A-Lago.

Norah O’Donnell signs off, Hoda Kotb’s out: ‘God-like days’ are over for big name anchors

“I will continue to join the couch crew for commentary,” he said. “You’ve trusted me for all these years, and don’t worry, you will still hear my voice and my opinions loud and clear, despite whatever seasonal pollen is killing me.”

Doocy got choked up as he bid an emotional farewell to the New York-based “Fox and Friends” crew, after revealing how excited he was to spend more time with his grandchildren.

“Any transition, I don’t know what to expect,” he told co-hosts, but affirmed how excited he was to have a scaled-back schedule and to report live from Florida.

His soft exit adds to a growing shake-up in the cable news space, which has seen the exodus of several high-profile hosts from MSNBC to CNN to the “Today” show.

Morning and night, as viewers turn in for their lifestyle news, political commentary or local happenings, they’ll be met with a fresh set of faces across the networks.

There’s a new player in Emily Nelson and Stephanie Smothers’ game of catwalk couture and mouse: Michele Morrone.

“Another Simple Favor” director Paul Feig recruited the Italian actor, who broke through as a kidnapper hoping to seduce his captive in the erotic thriller “365 Days,” for the “A Simple Favor” sequel (streaming now on Prime Video).

Morrone, 34, plays Emily’s (Blake Lively) wealthy, Mafioso fiancé Dante Versano, who is instrumental in helping free his bride-to-be from prison. In the original 2018 movie, Emily was arrested after Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) secretly livestreamed Emily copping to faking her own death, which she tried to pin on her flailing husband Sean (Henry Golding). In the new installment, Emily taps Stephanie to be her maid of honor at a dreamy destination wedding in Capri.

“I read the script, it was incredible,” Morrone says.

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He admits with a laugh that “365,” is “not the best film ever,” but he reprised the role for two sequels. Morrone has also portrayed a husband who regretfully begins an affair with a robot in “Subservience,” and recently wrapped “The Housemaid” (also directed by Feig). He’s filming “Maserati: The Brothers” with Anthony Hopkins, Andy Garcia and Jessica Alba, as well as another project, which he has to keep under wraps. What Morrone can say is, “It’s going to be so fun.”

He can speak more freely about his role of Dante, which is “nothing like it seems,” Morrone says. “He wants to feel powerful, but he’s not. He doesn’t really care about being a Mafia boss.”

Morrone reveals the important lesson Lively taught him on the set of “Another Simple Favor” and the importance of being original.

(This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)

‘Another Simple Favor’: Why director Paul Feig ‘tried to kill’ the sequel

Question: What made the experience of “Another Simple Favor” so enjoyable?

Michele Morrone: People were kind and fine and funny and super-inspiring, even (more than) the acting. I’ve learned so much. Blake is in the industry 20 years, and I’m just new. So I had the chance to learn the American acting method.

How does the American method of acting differ from Italian acting?

In Italy, it seems like you just need to be in front of a camera to be an actor. I believe that actors in America take the job much more serious than Italians. The movie industry in America is one of the first industries. So they take it very, very serious, and I like that. We’re working, and we need to make a good project.

The American people on set, they’re so, so polite, even positive. When you work on an Italian set, they make you feel like you don’t know (anything). You just have to do the job. Americans are very open to listening to you. I was so surprised that Paul Feig was there to listen to my ideas. We had an exchange of ideas, and we gave life to the character together.

Is there a specific piece of advice you received about American acting on set?

I was trying so, so hard to speak in the American slang, but then Blake was like, “Why are you doing that?” I was like, “Because I want to at least try to speak like you.” She was like, “No, you’re cool because you have an Italian accent. If you were an American actor, you would be just like everybody else.” It was so refreshing for me. And I really want to thank Blake for that because that was actually right. What matters is the acting, the work, the passion you have for this job, how serious you take a film and a script.

Is there someone whose career you would like to emulate?

No, everybody should find their own way to become original. Because if you try to emulate someone, you’re just bringing a weird copy of someone else and people won’t be so interested in you because it exists already.

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs officially turned down a potential plea deal in front of a judge in court at the final hearing before his highly anticipated federal sex-crimes trial.

Over the last month, Combs has appeared in court a handful of times as federal prosecutors and the disgraced hip-hop mogul’s attorneys have ironed out the kinks of what is already shaping up to be one of the most closely followed celebrity trials in recent memory. With most of the legal housekeeping out of the way, both parties met with Judge Arun Subramanian on May 1 at a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan for one last pretrial conference, days before Combs’ trial kicks off May 5.

The rapper was arrested in September and subsequently charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.

Here’s everything that happened in court:

Diddy on Trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom with USA TODAY as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sex crimes and trafficking charges. Subscribe to the newsletter. 

In court, the music magnate was in good spirits.  

Combs grinned and hugged his team, waving to the gallery at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse when he walked in. He spoke animatedly with his hands, and donned wide-rimmed black glasses while he was reading documents at the defense table.  

At one point, he bowed his head and scrawled on a flashcard propped on his lap, his large crown tattoo visible on his neck above his tan prison garb. –Patrick Ryan 

Judge says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs can wear court-approved clothes during sex-crimes trial

Questions arose at an earlier pretrial hearing about whether Diddy rejected a plea deal proposed by federal prosecutors. A week later, Subramanian received answers.

During questioning by the judge, Combs had the option to sit down after he stood up, to which he replied, “I’m good.” The judge asked whether he had drugs or alcohol in the last 24 hours, to which Combs responded: “No, your honor.”

Subramanian asked if Combs’ mind was “clear today” and Combs responded, “Yes, your honor.” The judge also asked whether Combs had discussed the plea offer with his team and Combs confirmed he did, before the judge clarified whether he rejected this plea deal, to which Combs said, “Yes, I do, your honor, thank you.” –Patrick Ryan 

One of Combs’ attorneys raised an issue with lawyer Lisa Bloom, the women’s rights attorney and daughter of Gloria Allred, regarding her comments in a BBC documentary.

Combs’ legal team called Bloom’s behavior “deeply disturbing” multiple times, arguing that she is using the doc to “bolster her client’s credibility.” Combs’ team added that they have “done everything we can” to speak to Bloom respectfully.

When Subramanian questioned Combs’ lawyer about whether Bloom had violated any rules of professional conduct, Combs’ attorney said she wouldn’t go as far as to say that. The judge then reminded both legal camps about the rules surrounding professional conduct, including that the court won’t tolerate violations, and reminded everyone of Combs’ right to a fair trial. –Patrick Ryan 

Federal prosecutors and Combs’ lawyers reached an agreement where potential jurors will be brought into the courtroom one by one, and they’ll be questioned one at a time. Members of the press are allowed to be present for that, but both sides agreed that if any particularly sensitive questions arise and the prospective juror is uncomfortable, the jury candidate can participate in a sidebar in a separate room.

Although Subramanian worried that the jury selection process would take a significant amount of time, since lawyers hope to question as many as 150 potential jurors and each questionnaire would take 20-30 minutes, federal prosecutors believe they can make it work. Prosecutors say they won’t need to see all 150 potential jurors if they are able to narrow it down to 45 qualified jurors quickly. –Patrick Ryan 

The May 1 hearing primarily discussed jury selection, which begins Monday, May 5.

Prosecutors and Combs’ defense team plan to go through 50 jurors a day and narrow it down until they get to 45 qualified jurors. Combs’ attorneys ensured that he would be present for the sequestered jury proceedings to uphold his right to participate in his own trial.

Jury selection in the Combs case is set to begin at 8 a.m. and the goal is to get to 45 jurors in three days so that both the prosecution and defense have May 8 and 9 to further prepare for opening statements on May 12. –Patrick Ryan

When does the Diddy trial start?

Combs’ trial begins May 5 with jury selection, and opening statements are set to start May 12.

How can I watch Diddy’s trial?

The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings. USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom.

What charges does Diddy face?

Diddy is charged with two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering.

Racketeering is the participation in an illegal scheme under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, as a way for the U.S. government to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity. Using RICO law, which is typically aimed at targeting multi-person criminal organizations, prosecutors allege that Combs coerced victims, some of whom they say were sex workers, through intimidation and narcotics to participate in “freak offs” — sometimes dayslong sex performances that federal prosecutors claim they have video of.

Combs’ charges echo some of the allegations in the more than 70 civil lawsuits filed against the Bad Boy Records founder. The claims of sexual abuse, drugging and physical assault span three decades, and include a lawsuit filed (and quickly settled) by his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie, in November 2023, through to the most recent suit in April 2025.

What was Diddy’s plea deal?

During an April 25 pretrial conference, a prosecutor said Combs rejected a plea deal. The attorney did not share the terms of the plea offer, but indicated she wants Subramanian to confirm with Combs directly that his lawyers told him about the offer and that he made the decision to turn it down.

Subramanian indicated he will directly question Combs about the deal at the May 1 hearing.

Is Diddy in jail right now?

Despite repeated attempts at bail, Combs was ordered to remain in custody at the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of trial — a ruling his legal team has challenged in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been in custody since his arrest on Sept. 16, 2024.

The center is the same facility that holds alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione and disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Contributing: Jay Stahl, KiMi Robinson

Bucky Barnes’ life hasn’t been a barrel of laughs.

In nearly 15 years of Marvel movies, Sebastian Stan’s character has been through the wringer: Bucky “died” in World War II, was turned into the infamous international assassin Winter Soldier, tried to kill his best friend, caused an Avengers civil war, and was blipped out of existence.

The new movie “Thunderbolts*” (in theaters May 2) shows a different side to Bucky. Once he was brainwashed, now he’s washing his mechanical arm next to the knives and forks. He’s also seen spilling a messy sandwich all over himself.

“It’s fun and hilarious for me,” says Stan, who is at this point an elder statesman in the cinematic universe. “I was able to finally kind of tap into maybe what his sense of humor is, which I never would’ve thought when we did (2014’s) ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’ ”

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The latest Marvel adventure puts a spotlight on Bucky and other supporting players from Marvel projects. Russian assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and her boisterous dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), the foster family of Black Widow, are front and center. Also along for the ride: John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a disgraced former Captain America and now U.S. Agent, and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose invisibility has done a number on her psyche. All have done bad things but have to look at the darkness inside for the sake of redemption.

“Thunderbolts*” discusses “themes of feeling like an outsider, uncomfortable in your own skin. Feeling isolated, even depressed, ashamed, those are not happy feelings,” says Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays antagonistic CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The movie is about “peeling back the layers on that and to understand where you’ve been in order to figure out where you’re going.”

‘Thunderbolts*’ story got a boost from ‘The Bear,’ ‘Beef’ creators

The scrappy antiheroes team up to take on Valentina, their former employer, who tries to trick them into murdering each other. From the start, Eric Pearson’s original “Thunderbolts*” script was meant to be a flip on the “Suicide Squad” mold, about characters who need to learn to work together.

But the introduction of Bob (Lewis Pullman), a guy with amnesia who becomes the extremely powerful Sentry, unlocked an emotional narrative for director Jake Schreier. He enlisted the help of writers Joanna Calo (“The Bear”) and Lee Sung Jin (“Beef”) to tackle a mental health angle as each character faces their past in The Void, an otherworldly surrealist space caused by Bob’s appearance.

The Bob storyline was personal for Schreier:  “I tracked it to a friend of mine who’s gone through a lot of this stuff. These heights that you could reach, and the hubris that it takes to get there, but then this self-destructive depression and isolation that almost seems linked (and) you needed to learn to find some balance or middle ground.”

Bob is “a very difficult character to wrap your head around,” Pullman adds. “Whether it’s Marvel or not, the continuity and the complexities of this man is very nebulous at times.”

‘Thunderbolts*’: Marvel castoffs get their own movie adventure

Ace assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) teams with her dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), and other unlikely heroes in Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*.”

Wyatt Russell’s John Walker faces a father’s ‘horrible’ shame

The returning Marvel characters also have to take on a lot psychologically. Walker’s rise and fall were one of the main storylines in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and in “Thunderbolts*” he needs a win desperately: His wife has left him and taken their baby daughter.

Walker grows as a person during the movie – he “now can take a hint and understands how to be part of a team a little more,” Russell says. But Walker also faces a “shame room” in The Void that originally was written as an argument between Walker and his wife. Because Russell thought a child should be involved, it turned into a scene where Walker neglects his kid while reading an exposé about himself on his phone.

“Seeing your lack of empathy to your own child and to your own experience, through your own eyes, is really sad. That’s a horrible moment for him that he doesn’t want anybody to know,” Russell says. “As a father myself, there’s nothing more special than your children. And there’s nothing more difficult than knowing that you’re not being the best father that you can be. He knows he can’t go back to that moment and actually get that time back and that crushes me.”

‘Thunderbolts*’ stars are already at work on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

But alongside the deep themes at play, “Thunderbolts*” offers goofy interactions between its main characters and a heartwarming bond that forms among the team. Which is nice since most of the Thunderbolts will be returning for Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” (out May 1, 2026). That started filming this week and revealed its cast in March via livestreamed empty director’s chairs.

“My brain always just goes to, I hope the movie’s good,” Russell says. “But you look at your name on the back of that chair and you’re like, ‘This is so cool. What a crazy experience.’ ” While Louis-Dreyfus didn’t get a “Doomsday” chair, “I stand at the ready. Also, at this point, I’m not really allowed to say too much, let’s just put it that way,” she teases.

Stan appeared in the last two “Avengers” movies, “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and those “felt so out of this world in terms of achievement and being able to get all those people together and everything. So how do you build from there to this?” the actor says. Stan is looking forward to working with the legacy “X-Men” actors such as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, plus seeing Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.

Russell views the Marvel universe as a big summer camp. He felt a little awkward at first doing the “Winter Soldier” TV show with Stan and Anthony Mackie, “and then (with ‘Thunderbolts*’) I was like, ‘I’m not the new kid! All right!’ That was a fun feeling.”

He grins, joking with Stan: “And you started the summer camp.”

Sammy Hagar isn’t holding back.

The rock star, 77, aired some grievances about former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in a blunt conversation with Rolling Stone published April 29. Hagar said he “wanted to break the guy’s” neck sometimes during their 2002 tour together.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Roth for comment.

“Dave always wants too much,” Hagar said. “He always tries to upstage. He tried to pull stuff on the Sam and Dave tour (of 2002). The nights when he was opening, when we flip-flopped … which I would never do again. I would never bother. But look, I’m not an opening act for anybody.

“On those nights, he would call in and say that the bus broke down, 10 minutes before he was supposed to go on. And because I care about my fans, I would go on. And I did that about four times.”

Roth, 70, served as lead vocalist for Van Halen until leaving the band in 1985 and being replaced by Hagar. In 2002, the duo launched a co-headlining tour together. During a press conference at the time, Roth, who noted there was a “rivalry between us,” announced that he and Hagar would “flip a coin and the winner will headline opening night and then we’ll flip-flop,” according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

Sold! What did Sammy Hagar’s custom Ferrari LaFerrari sell for at Arizona auction?

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Hagar declared that Roth “did the worst when he headlined.”

When the magazine asked the rocker whether he would ever share the bill with Roth on tour again, he said the “circumstances would have to be right.” But when Rolling Stone mentioned that Roth is coming out of retirement this summer to play some shows, the outlet reports that Hagar fell “off his chair, roaring with laughter, out of the frame of the camera.”

“Let’s see if he makes the shows,” Hagar said.

In a 2002 interview with Guitar World magazine, Hagar declared that his tour with Roth “could have been a heck of a lot better” because Roth is “an unreasonable guy” and “not a fun guy.” He added, “Boy, I hate to ever say I’m sorry I did something, so I can’t say I’m sorry I did it. But I certainly wouldn’t do it again, let’s put it like that.”

Sammy Hagar ‘keeping alive’ music of Van Halen in summer Best of All Worlds tour

Hagar also told AXS TV that he “never really had a lot of respect for” Roth, adding, “To me, I wasn’t buying it. There was something that was fake about him. The old Van Halen fans, if I’d have said that in the beginning, would have crucified me. But he was the enemy.”

In 2023, Hagar extended an invitation for Roth to join him on tour in an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show.” But Hagar later said on the “Eddie Trunk Podcast” that Roth “went AWOL” and “went to sleep” on the offer.

Broadway’s biggest night is nigh, but a number of Hollywood heavyweights weren’t invited to the party.

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal were passed over for Tony Awards recognition for “Othello,” their high-priced William Shakespeare revival that was completely shut out of Thursday’s nominations.

Other big names including Robert Downey Jr. (“McNeal”), Julianna Margulies (“Left on Tenth”), Jim Parsons (“Our Town”), Kieran Culkin (“Glengarry Glen Ross”), Bill Burr (“Glengarry Glen Ross”), Bernadette Peters (“Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends”), and Idina Menzel (“Redwood”) were similarly missing from this year’s Tony nods, which honor some of the very best plays and musicals in New York.

It was an ultra-competitive and unusually star-studded theater season, which routinely made headlines for its astronomical ticket prices and outspoken political firebrands.

Other notable omissions included Nick Jonas, who made a much-publicized Broadway return in “The Last Five Years” that was roundly dismissed by critics. More surprisingly, David Hyde Pierce and Jinkx Monsoon were both overlooked for their hilarious turns in “Pirates! The Penzance Musical,” as was Helen J. Shen for playing an outdated robot in the tear-jerking “Maybe Happy Ending.”

“Maybe Happy Ending,” “Death Becomes Her” and “Buena Vista Social Club” led the nominations with 10 nods a piece, including best musical. The strange-but-true “Dead Outlaw” and World War II spy satire “Operation Mincemeat” rounded out the best musical category.

As expected, Cole Escola’s madcap “Oh, Mary!” was a major force with five nods, including best play, best actor (Escola) and best featured actor (Conrad Ricamora). The unlikely hit comedy, which tells a deranged alternative history of Mary Todd Lincoln, has attracted high-profile celebrity audience members including Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg.

The other nominees for best play were “The Hills of California,” “English,” “Purpose,” and “John Proctor is the Villain.” Notably missing from the category was “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” Netflix’s high-budget yet critically divisive prequel to the sci-fi streaming sensation. Although, the theatrical spectacle still made off with five nominations, including best actor for newcomer Louis McCartney.

“Succession” star Sarah Snook earned her first Tony nomination for her one-woman tour de force in “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” as did former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger for her bewitching performance as fading film star Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” an audacious revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.

A-listers George Clooney (“Good Night, and Good Luck”), Sadie Sink (“John Proctor is the Villain”), Mia Farrow (“The Roommate”), and Bob Odenkirk (“Glengarry Glen Ross”) all garnered their first Tony nods as well.

In addition, Audra McDonald looks to extend her record as the most Tony-winning performer in history. The Broadway legend, who has won six Tony Awards, is vying for her seventh trophy with a best actress nomination for the classic showbiz musical “Gypsy.”

How to watch Tony Awards

The 78th annual Tony Awards will air live on Sunday, June 8, from New York’s Radio City Music Hall (8 ET/5 PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+). The ceremony will be hosted for the first time by Cynthia Erivo, the three-time Oscar-nominated star of “Wicked,” who takes over emcee duties from Ariana DeBose.

If the ground floor of Deyan Sudjic’s north London house looks a little bare – all white walls, stripped floors, high ceilings and a slick, steel-counter-topped kitchen – it serves all the better to display the furniture. This is, in its way, exactly the house you might expect the former director of London’s Design Museum to have: a perfect backdrop for a collection, in this case, of remarkable chairs, in a neighbourhood with gentility and grime within easy reach.  

These exhibits, though, are not on pedestals but in everyday use: a set of Hans Wegner dining chairs, a Gerrit Rietveld Red and Blue armchair that still looks ridiculously modern despite its design being more than a century old, and a pair of vintage Alvar Aalto plywood stools placed side by side beneath the tall kitchen window. 

If anything jars in the elegant early-Victorian house it is not the modernist furniture but rather an elaborate stone fireplace, clearly an import from France and looking a little arrogant in this very British interior. “Before we bought it,” says Sudjic, 72, sitting across an enormous dining table that is as big as a bedroom, “this house belonged to Jasper Conran and John Galliano. They had their studio on the top floor. It was remodelled by [British architect] Nigel Coates, but unfortunately the people they sold it to had it completely remodelled. The fireplace is one of the few things that survives from that earlier period.” 

Its latest incarnation was designed “with a bit of advice from John Pawson”, Sudjic says. It shows. Particularly in the floor, the boards of which seem unusually wide. “Some of them go all the way, back to front,” he says. “We had to get a crane to get them in.” We head upstairs. “There’s too much furniture,” Sudjic admits, a little sheepishly. It’s not exactly rammed, but the airy (white) drawing room does look a little like a designer beauty parade. There’s an Eames lounger and ottoman right where you’d expect it. There’s an unusual Harry Bertoia chair clad in purple velvet, a Jasper Morrison sofa, a Le Corbusier chair, a Marcel Breuer coffee table and Dieter Rams’s unavoidable and possibly unimprovable shelves for Vitsoe, neatly stuffed with books. 

It’s a relief almost to find a lovely-looking old wooden sunbed and a pair of dining chairs that came from the home of Sudjic’s father-in-law, the architect John Miller. Sudjic’s wife, Sarah Miller, the founding editor of the UK’s Condé Nast Traveller magazine who now runs a brand consultancy (she is away on an exotic photoshoot when I visit), is from an architectural dynasty: her stepmother was Su Rogers, one-time wife of Richard Rogers who once had a practice with him. “Sarah is trying to implement a policy of one book in, one book out,” Sudjic says. “It’s not working that well.” 

I’m always a little wary of the word ‘design’ as if it’s a thing

Sudjic himself (his parents emigrated to the UK from the former Yugoslavia) began by training as an architect, though quickly gravitated towards media. He was a co-founder of Blueprint magazine in 1983, a big-format, lush and self-consciously cool mag that brought the disparate tentacles of London’s then-buzzing design scene together to suggest more coherence than there probably ever was. When I ask him where he now thinks design is going, four decades after he founded Blueprint, he says, not necessarily helpfully, “I’m always a little wary of the word ‘design’, as if it were a thing. It isn’t, it’s a method.”

Maybe. But the home of the co-founder of the UK’s former leading design magazine and former director of the Design Museum certainly does seem to have a lot of design in it. I ask whether he thinks there might be too many chairs in the world? He adopts a slightly pained expression. “As Jasper Morrison said, we don’t need to design a new chair just to refine an existing one.” 

Sudjic is finishing a book on the furniture manufacturer Vitra. The company has the licences to make some of the best-known and best-loved modernist designs, from Charles and Ray Eames to Jean Prouvé and Hella Jongerius, and an impressive museum in Germany. Now, under the leadership of CEO Nora Fehlbaum, it is making a radical shift towards sustainability. “Its former CEO, [Nora’s uncle] Rolf Fehlbaum, is a very unusual businessman. He has a PhD in utopian industrial settlements and what he’s built in Weil am Rhein, with buildings by Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Álvaro Siza and others is like a contemporary version of something by Tomáš Baťa or Robert Owen. He made a kind of architectural collage that maybe no one else could have done.”

Vitra is a remarkable company. But it is joined in the design ecosystem by hundreds of other outfits churning out fast-fashion furniture, infinite chairs, sofas and unpleasant coffee tables. Is there not too much production in design now? Even Vitra itself admits its Eames loungers are CO2 intensive. “What makes [Vitra] different,” Sudjic insists, “is that it’s designed to last 50 years. If you were to have, today, a 1950s fridge, or a car, they’d both look quite eccentric. By comparison with all the other objects designed in 1956, I think this chair [he nods towards the lounger] has lasted pretty well. ”

As we look around, more and more chairs begin to trigger anecdotes, from a fantastically lightweight Cassina Superleggera by Gio Ponti (which he was given as a former editor of the Italian Domus magazine) to a chunky Ron Arad design made from an old Rover car seat that looks rare. Is he a collector? “Oh no, I’m far too disorganised to be a real collector,” he says. “Perhaps more of an accumulator.”  

All those chairs might have fitted more easily into one of his former homes. “When we started Blueprint, I lived in a Wapping loft big enough to cycle around. It was a bit like living on the set of The Long Good Friday. The river had such a presence then but it was very quiet.” He continues: “In those days I believed an architecture editor should put his money where his mouth is, so I commissioned John McAslan to design a living pod in the middle of the loft.” His first flat was designed by the Czech émigré architect Jan Kaplický. “It was an indoor spaceship.” Anyone who has seen Kaplický’s media stand at London’s Lord’s cricket ground will know exactly what he means.  

Towards the top of the house, lurking in a hallway is yet another remarkable-looking chair, a bit of a miniature throne with its upholstery replaced by gleaming slats of brass. “That one was designed by Rei Kawakubo,” he says. “She gave it to me when I wrote a book about her.” Paul Smith introduced him to the Comme des Garçons designer on a trip to Japan. “I went to visit textile mills with her, and went to the Paris showing of her collections, where John Malkovich and Julian Sands were models. At the same time I was looking at an Issey Miyake store designed by Shiro Kuramata, and the dividing line between design, fashion and architecture began to dissolve.” He still gets his suits from Paul Smith’s bespoke operation (“it’s a very fine thing, a bespoke suit”).  

No longer leading the Design Museum, for which he commissioned John Pawson to reimagine the wonderful midcentury Commonwealth Institute as its new Kensington home, you might think Sudjic was slowing down. But he is writing books, has his Vitra volume coming soon, edits an annual design magazine, Anima, and is a professor of architecture and design at Lancaster University. And he regularly dips his toes into newspaper journalism, which he still clearly loves. “Really, it’s a licence for curiosity, isn’t it?” I agree, as I nose around his bookshelves one last time.